A Hike with a View | Roches de Ham - Exploring France

What a view point!  We have heard from friends this is the place to go in the area and it defiantly didn't disappoint.

This week was a little different for us, we just wanted a day out, with no buildings or distractions.  A lovely country walk!  This is Les Roches de Ham.  

What makes Les Roches de Ham so special I hear you asking.  Well, this place started with a beautiful viewpoint looking over the river Vire.  Yes, back along the Vire again and it won't be the last time.  This place has a lot of walking a hiking trails and even somewhere for cyclists and joggers.  We decided to go for a walk that was a tad under 5 kilometres.  We weren't looking for anything too strenuous.  There was a sign just nearby that described Les Roches de Ham and what it meant.  Roches translates in French as rocks and Ham is actually Gaelic and translates to curve.  As you can see from the pictures, this place is on a curve of the river up high on rocks.  Hence the name.  

This walk went through some beautiful forests towards the river.  We decided to try our hand at geocaching, I'm not sure why we bothered, after searching in the bushes for 10 minutes not knowing what we were looking for, we were unsuccessful!  We tried again later in the walk but again to no avail. Im not sure if we will be geocaching again, other people on the site seem so dedicated and seem to spend hours looking for a tiny little box.  

Nevertheless, we continued our walk through the forest sometimes having to stop of cyclists speeding past us as they came bounding down the slopes.  It was quite a tough walk with unsteady terrain, not one for the faint hearted anyway.  The walk along the river was beautiful, and we crossed the river going over a quaint little one way bridge and through the village of Le Grand Val de Vire, its just a small residential village but pretty non the less.  Our route took us back over the small aforementioned bridge to a perfect spot for us to stop for lunch before hiking back up the hill.

Through the forest, although it is inaccessible there is a cave that was used as a refuge during the 18th century for a local priest. There is little information about this online. I suspect this was during the French Revolution so the priest could escape the trials and tribulations of the religious war.

On our way back up the hill, we saw a sign for Pont de Roque, this was a beautiful sight that reminded us of our time in the Alpes.  A very wide stretch of the river Vire with forests to the right of towering green pine trees and a quaint little house on the river banks, it was a perfect picture. 

We then decided to continue our walk up the hill and back to the viewpoint and the car.  It was a pretty hard slog up the hill.  It was a total ascent of 70 metres in about 1 km so in reality it wasn't that bad but it most defiantly felt it.  At the top, back near the carpark we passed a creperie on top o the hill, as usual, it was shut. You've read it many times now but due to the time of year, it was shut.  I have been told they sell delicious food, drink and sometimes even a delicious rhubarb jam!  We will add it to the list of places to come back to in the summer.  

If you want to see more of Les Roches de Ham check out our YouTube channel - https://youtu.be/ekuRPrdYEgc

W3W Parking – ///dawned.darning.branded

Social Media & Website

Buy us a coffee/beer - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/seastheday1

YouTube - youtube.com/channel/UCafklL7k4CrfWgiA9H3RawQ/featured

Website (tours of France & Sailing) - seasthedaysailing.wixsite.com/home

Instagram - @seasthedayzelande 

Facebook - @seasthedayalbatros 

Photography website - shamrockphotography0.wixsite.com/home

Photography Instagram - @shamrock___photography

Photography Facebook - @ShamrockPhotographyFR

Air bnb - airbnb.com/h/seasthedaysailing 

Patreon - patreon.com/seastheday

Support us - gofund.me/addc179f