The D908 is an easy hitch (if you don't want to wait for the bus) through spectacular scenery, with the peaks of the Monts de L'Espinouse rising up to 1000m on your right. The spa town of LAMALOU-LES-BAINS, 8km on, is notably livelier than neighbouring settlements, boasting the attraction of recuperative springs where the likes of André Gide, Dumas fils and crowned heads of Spain and Morocco soothed their aches and pains. At the west end of the town by the main road, the cemetery is an untypically grand necropolis crowned with ornate mausoleums, while the ancient church on the north side of town contains carvings left by Mozarab refugees from Spain.At the village of Colombières, 5km to the west, a path leaves the road to take you up into the Gorges de Madale. Here it joins the GR7, which crosses the southern part of the park to Labastide-Rouairoux beyond St-Pons. Seven or eight kilometres further along the D908 is MONS, which features a gîte d'étape (tel 04.67.97.80.43) next to the church, and the small Auberge des Gorges d'Héric (tel 04.67.97.72.98; under €30; menus from €10.50) by the suspension bridge at Tarassac, 2km away on the D14, near the municipal campsite (tel 04.67.97.72.64). From Mons a road climbs 5km up the dramatic Gorges d'Héric to the hamlet of Héric, with the Gorges de l'Orb winding their way southwards back to Béziers along the D14.
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