Lockdown Lifted, 27 July

Once again, we are not where we expected to be tonight, having originally planned to stop somewhere outside Reims that wasn't Chaméry. However, we were going to need services somewhere en route, and the Swan Whisperer picked on this place, by the Lac d'Orient,

and when we got here it was so nice we decided to stay. It will mean a long and boring motorway drive tomorrow, but that can't be helped.

It was a pleasant cross-country drive today, lots of pretty towns and villages and countryside with newly-harvested fields of corn and still-ripening fields of sunflowers and maize. Big sky country here - the French prairies.

After lunch and a rest we went for a short walk

but it is horribly hot so we came back and flaked out in the shade of the van. Now the SW is having a Church council meeting outside (one downside of Zoom meetings is you can't use being on holiday as an excuse not to go!) and I'm flaked out on the bed. 

Lockdown Lifted, 26 July

The aire where we stayed last night gave free electricity, and there were services not far away, also free, but they asked you to use local businesses.  So the Swan Whisperer went to buy bread only to be turned away because he was wearing a thick, home-made mask rather than a flimsy disposable one!  So we thought if they didn't want our business, they needn't have it, and decided to do without.  We had half a baguette left over from yesterday, which we toasted, and then at lunch tried (not very successfully) to make toasties with ordinary bread. 

Anyway, back to breakfast, which was nearly a disaster as my poached egg slipped out of its plastic cup on to the baguette, then slipped off that and made a beeline for the floor.  Do not catch a freshly-poached egg in your bare hand - it hurts!  But at least I saved it and was able to eat it. 

We were driving as far as Dijon today, and decided to go non-motorway, which was pleasant.  Is this an archetypal or a stereotypical French tree-lined road, do you suppose? 

Sunflowers are very much a crop here - just losing the radiance of their petals now.  We don't know whether they are mostly for animal fodder or for cooking oil (or, indeed, for the delicious seed, either for human or avian consumption). 

We stopped for lunch in Louhan, by a river,

and arrived here, at Marsonnay-la-Cote (infamous for being the place where my mother spilt tonic waer on the cushions in her hotel room in 2003) just in time for the last Zoom church service of the summer.  Live worship restarts next Sunday, with limits, and I am to take the service the Sunday after, which I am delighted about!

Lockdown Lifted, 25 July

Today I finally found the cows whose bells we have enjoyed hearing over the past two days - sadly they were brought in at night se we didn't have them to enjoy at night.  

Breakfast was horribly late as the Swan Whisperer insisted on going and buying croissants and the bakery was a long 20 minutes' walk, even at his speed, from the aire.  However, we had it at last, although we deprived ourselves of eggs, for once, and had a piece of cheese instead, as quicker. 

We then, sadly, had to say goodbye to the mountains, and come back down those ten hairpin bends - and more, later, down to the Grenoble bypass, stopping to do an enormous shop at an E Leclerc  - I haven't done much shopping over the last few days, somehow, and we were running low on stuff.  

When we got to the aire, on the outskirts of Lyon, we were surprised to find that it was not where we thought it was, and although there were services, which we didn't need, having used them in Les 2 Alpes this morning, overnight stays were apparently forbidden.  All very strange - and then Park4Night pointed out the aire I thought we were going to some 5 miles away.  So I entered the lat and long into the satnav and asked it to find the nearest aire (which it mostly knows), and, lo and behold, it pointed to the place where we were!  So that is how that muddle arose!

We drove on to the aire we had intended to go to, and found most of the space occupied by a wedding party, but they soon cleared off, and as there is what appears to be free electricity, we have been playing with the television, but there is nothing really worth watching, so have turned it off.  

It is so hot  down here - we were really too cold first thing this morning, I had to close the bedroom skylight when I woke up.  But down here it is much hotter.  I wish we had another week in the Alps.... Oh well. 

Lockdown Lifted, 24 July

Today we decided to stay her in Les 2 Alpes, and to explore the village. There is a shuttle bus that takes you around the place in the mornings, at lunch time and in the evenings. We got the last bus of the morning into the village and then took the cable-car gown to Venosc, a village some 500 metres lower. There are paths, but no other mechanical way of reaching the village from above - it would be a very long way round by car!

Not that there was much to see when we got there, so we came back and did a bit of exploring around the village which is so utterly dependent on tourism that it must have suffered badly in recent months.

We bought bread and a cold drink in a bakery and sat watching some friendly sparrows while we drank it.

Then back on the bus to the motor home for lunch and in the afternoon the SW went for a hike and I had a nap and then worked on my crochet shawl, which is nearly finished.

We leave the mountains tomorrow - I could do with another week, I must say! 

Lockdown Lifted, 23 July

We have had another glorious drive today, partly retracing our steps towards Briançon, along the most beautiful lake (more photos on Facebook) 

and then up over Lauteret again. At Briançon, I saw a huge hospital overlooking the town, and wondered whether it was once a Sanatorium for TB patients. Now, I expect it deals mainly with ski casualties (and probably, this year, with Covid-19 cases). 

In this direction, there was a spectacular glacier: 

We bought a sandwich and an ice on the top of Lauteret, and ate them in the motor home and then drove on, past another spectacular lake,

to our overnight place at Les Deux Alpes (up 10 hairpin bends!). We had not been going to get here until tomorrow night, but we think we might spend another day here - there is a free shuttle bus that takes you all over, so I shan't have to walk much (I can't on these slopes, anyway) and can get bread. I think we have enough food, but I will have to do a huge shop on Saturday! It is Thursday today, isn't it? 

Lockdown Lifted, 22 July

Best laid plans, and all that.... Last night, the gas ran out, which was not unexpected, given that we had we realised, been using it 24/7 for the fridge.  We have plenty, so that is not an issue, and as it was the French cylinder that is empty, we can get more.  But, unfortunately, the fridge simply wouldn't start up again, no matter what we did to encourage it.  You could hear the self-starter clicking away, but nothing happened.  

This has happened before, in our old van, and was fixed up very quickly with a new filter of some kind - forget the exact thing - which took him all of 3 minutes to fix.  He said at the time that they don't last forever and ought to be replaced every couple of years. 

So we both slept badly and were cross and fratchety this morning.  As it is half way through our holiday, I changed things like kitchen towels and table napkins, and washed through the various masks - I just had enough to last, but wouldn't have had a fresh one to shop on Thursday of next week when we get home.

Masks drying in the bathroom.

Our route today was always going to be an exciting one, over Galibier and Lauteret. This is the monument at Galibier, and I'll put other photos, and photos I took of the wild flowers, on Facebook

Tour de France monument on Galibier

It was much colder up there, of course! We came down via Briançon, stopping somewhere for a lunch neither of us much wanted, and at a passing services that were badly needed, and then on to Gap to a motorhome repair place which refused to do anything to help us as they were booked solid for weeks. In vain did we please that it would only take 5 minutes (and at that, we could do it ourselves if we knew how to open the panel, which we will find out!). So we came away, and the Swan Whisperer said, despairingly, that he would give it one more go - and it came on!  It is definitely staying on until we turn the gas off for the Shuttle crossing and we will, of course, get a new part when we get home.  

So that has thrown our plans into disarray, rather.  We are not sure whether to find the places to stay we first thought of, or to change our plans again.  We did some shopping an bought diesel after visiting the unhelpful place, and then came on to this random aire that Park4Night recommended, and, indeed, it is very nice.  It rained and stormed, though, when we got here, which is actually nice as it was very hot and muggy (and we are still 960 metres above sea level, as at Abondance).  We don't really need to start home until Sunday.  Watch this space..... 

Lockdown Lifted, 21 July.

It was just beginning to get light when the Swan Whisperer woke me by clambering out of bed to close the skylights as it was raining! Only a very localised shower, and by the time we came properly awake an hour or so later, the sun was out. So the SW went for a 2-hour walk before breakfast! I had half thought of going to explore the village and find a bakery while he was out, but by the time I got up, it was a bit late for that! So I got breakfast once he returned.

I was very annoyed as the supermarket we decided to go to had no parking for motor homes, so I ended up going to Lidl, which didn't have any mushrooms, thus effectively foiling my plans for mushroom risotto for dinner. I got some trout instead.

The drive was not nearly as bad as yesterday's, despite millions of hairpin bends, but it was a 2-lane road so it didn't matter meeting lorries on their way down. Mind you, endless cyclists, but then there always are on French mountain roads!

We arrived here at Valloire in nice time for lunch and then we both flaked out for a bit. First I, and then the SW, went out for an explore, and to visit the giant straw sculpture competition that we can see outside our window (photos on Facebook). This is very much a ski resort, and is the highest place we've ever slept - 1,565 metres (although I've been to Boulder, Colorado, which I think is higher). Certainly the highest in the Alps, though.  Here are today's mountain views! 

And tomorrow we leave Savoie via the Col du Galibier and the Col de Lauteret to enter the Dauphiné.