I visit my parents for Christmas each year. They live near Bordeaux, which means from Grenoble I have to cross France from East to West. It's about 7h of driving on motorways, which amounts to around 170 € just in highway tolls... France is probably the country with the most expensive highway network. So a while back I said *&%$#! it. I'm French, I have plenty of leave days, so instead of paying tolls, I'll take a longer leave, drive on the country roads and stay in hotels or using AirBnB. It's not that hard finding a very nice hotel or studio for 50/60 € per night in France, especially in winter. I know that a lot of Aussies dream about going to France for the medieval towns and villages (while us French dream about Australia and its wildness), so even though it's not really bushwalking, I decided to share some photos.
The first region I visited was Auvergne, also called Massif Central. It's basically a hilly region, 1400 m at its highest, mostly ancient volcanoes. In the South of this region, the major town is Le Puy En Velay. Red roofs, volcanic rock paved streets, narrow streets, secret passages, it's a very nice town, a bit too big though. You can climb to the Notre-Dame de France statue, a massive 23 m cast iron representation of the virgin Mary. I'm not religious, but it looks slightly better than the giant red lobster in Kingston, SA.
Nearby I also visited the medieval village of Lavaudieu, away from everything.