Tour de France Pictures

Tour de France - nearly there

As the real Tour de France starts, mine is drawing to a close. If you want to see some of the places I've visited, watch the Tour next weekend as the riders slog up the Col de Peyrol. I rather think that some of them may make it up there a bit quicker than Archie and I.






I've been enjoying the delights of the Internet all day in Archie as the weather is a bit iffy. I picked a good day as there was a whole panoply of sport to choose from, Formula 1, tennis and cycling. My current home is St Honore Les Bains in Burgundy. The pitch is palatial but I'm stuck in a corner as one of my electric cables has broken. I had an anxious few days in the middle of the trip trying to work out what the problem was.


Since my last post I've been living the high life, 3 weeks at altitudes over 1500 ft. I've been to the Tarn Gorge, the Grande Causses, the Aubrac plateau, the Cantal Mountains and the Puy du Dancy. The campsite at Nasbinals in the Aubrac was at 3800ft which is higher than Snowden. I've conquerered a few peaks Mt Lozere , Plomb du Cantal, Puy Mary and Puy du Sancy.





Mt Lozere (pictured) is 5,573 ft but the gradients weren't too steep and is was a very pleasant day. As I was enjoying the sunshine I was joined by 3 people and a donkey who were following the Robert L. Stevenson way. Cleo the donkey enjoyed a quick snack while her owners had a rest. I wish I read Travels in the Cevennes with a Donkey.




By far the most challenging walk was up the Puy Mary which climbs about 600ft in less than half a mile. It was stepped all the way up, but the cambre meant you were thrown backwards going up and forwards going down! The view was amazing! Nothing seemed quite as steep afterwards. I was very grateful for the cloud cover on the way up.



The highlight of the trip has been the Tarn Gorge, not least because the weather improved enormously. It's easy to see why they are so popular.


















The road runs along the valley floor close to the river and then winds up the cliff faces in a series of spectacular (and very tight) hairpins bends that Archie couldn't always get around first go. I got a lot of practice of hill starts in reverse. Most of the roads climb over 1000ft to the plateaux of the Grande Causses. From the top you are almost eye level with the vultures that live in these parts. From La Malene you can take a boat through the narrowest part of the Gorge, and there are footpaths that cling to the very edge of the cliffs.

Possibly the most exciting part of the trip happened in La Malene when I got locked out of the van. The sliding door managed to lock itself with the keys inside and the remaining doors locked. While I conducted an incredibly expensive phone call to AA European relay, a fellow camper was able to undo the window with a handy coat hanger!

Last week I was at Lac Chambon and I spent most of it reading Harry Potter. I don't know what you think but I think I was sharing the pitch with the Whomping Willow. I'm pretty sure that Moaning Myrtle was living next door.

The highlight for Archie was meeting a friend in St Enimie.

One more week to go.......

Tour de France - Part 1

I'm nearly half way through the trip, currently staying at Camping de L'Arre in Le Vigan. It is a very nice site ideally situated for touring the southern part of the Cevennes. Among its many attractions is a wi-fi network so I've been enjoying the delights of the Internet this week as well.

Rather than give you a day-by-diary of my travels, I thought I'd describe some of the highlights and lowlights so far.

The Weather

Definitely a lowlight. I know that into each life some rain must fall but this is very noisy and inconvenient when you live in a tin can. Rather spookily, it has rained at exactly 8.00pm every Sunday when I'm due to ring home. Last weekend on the Mediterranean it was more like Whitley Bay than St Tropez.

Camping



So far I've stayed at fourteen different campsite, some for just a night, others a bit longer (I've been a week here in Le Vigan). They have varied quite a lot in their facilities from a five star luxury site at Vallon Pont D'Arc which even had a shower for the dog to one site that had birds nesting in the toilets (which made visits rather interesting). The lowest point of the whole trip came on a site near Barjac. I arrived about 5pm in the pouring rain and had to conduct a telephone call with the owner in French. I obviously misheard her as I pitched opposite the washroom instead of next to it. I soon realised that Archie was mired in mud and we would not be able to get out unaided. I had an anxious wait expecting an irate owner. When she did turn up, she towed me out with practised ease and plenty of sang-froid using a makeshift tow bar out of hammer, watched by all the other occupants of the site (an elderly couple next door who acted as translators).

My favorite so far is Camping Le Pont du Mercier at Thueyts in the Ardeche mountains. Its facilities were quite basic but its setting was beautiful in an old orchard on the banks of the Ardeche river, with a little string gushing through the site. However the most attractive thing about it was the fact that I was the sole occupant.

Les Grande Sites de France

Several of the places I particularly wanted to visit are labelled Grande Site de France. This are areas of either outstanding natural beauty or historical interest and so far I've visited six of the 32. I think the Pont du Gard stands out for me. It is a magnificent Roman acquaduct build nearly 2000 years ago. It is very well preserved and very attractive, spanning the river Gardon.

St Guilhelm Le Desert

Cirque de Navacelles

Aven de Orgnac

Gardon Gorge

Pont du Gard

Puy du Dome

The Scenery

Having driven across France there has been a significant change of scenery. Firstly the rooves of the houses change from slate to red tiles somewhere in the middle of France, indicating that you have left Northern Europe behind. In quite a small area I've seen volcanic plug (puys), deep gorges, meanders, abandoned meanders, sink holes, underground rivers, caves full of stalagtites, stalagmites and drapery, vast plateaus, medium sized mountains, the source of the Loire (France's longest river), the garrigue scrub lands of Provence and the flat plains and lakes of the Carmargue. Everywhere seems to have a wide variety of wild flowers, much more than you see at home. Quite a geography field trip.

One of the lowlights is that so far every trip to a mountain top has been accompanied by total cloud cover. This was particularly disappointing at Le Puy du Dome as apparently you can see about an eighth of France. Mount Aigoual (the highest point of Gard at 5,200ft) was not only cloudy, but extremely windy and incredibly cold. I'm hoping for better luck next week on Mount Lozere.

Driving


I've had some brilliant drives up in the mountains along crest roads running along the tops of the valleys or gorges, or up some long snaking pass roads with lots of hairpins. I drove down one road which descended very steeply through the hillside which was covered in broom, (brilliant yellow flower with a rather unpleasant scent). It was actually had a road sign which said it was "etroite and difficile" which translates as narrow, bendy and difficult. Irresistable!

I set off down one track which led to a car park and mountain arboretum. It was fine at the start but got narrower and narrower and closer to the edge of the mountain. As there was no room to turn round, there was no option but to continue to the "car park". It was a relief not to meet anyone coming the other way, but I doubt whether anyone else would be as stupid. From the picture it looks as Archie is on the edge of the mountain. (White blob in middle of picture)

Walking

The best walk I've had so far was at Theuyts where I was able to stroll from the campsite to the beautiful Pont du Diable and pick up a walk described in one of my books. The French marked out their walks with splashes of colour painted onto trees or rocks so it's a bit like a treasure hunt. This walk was marked as "easy" in the book. It involved climbing about a 1,000ft/ 300m up to the top of the gorge, back down to the river, up 230 steps of the Queen's staircase and down the King's staircase, which was like walking down a ladder cut into the basalt rocks of the gorge, extremely narrow, steep and a bit slippery. Well, I wouldn't want to try a hard walk! I grown to become very wary of signs that say "panorama 5 mins walk".

There have been times both walking and driving when I seem to have France all to myself.

I've also taken the bike out a few times after having the punctures repaired by a very nice young gentleman in a sports shop. On my last trip out in the mountains, on a ride described as "negligable height gain". True the gradients weren't very steep but I still spent a lot of time pushing it. At one point the leg of my shorts got caught on the saddle as I tried to get my leg over, which left me with my stomach on the saddle and my head over the handlebars, heading downhill and picking up speed. This could only end one way but I was fortunate to make a very soft landing on my bum in some mud. Not very dignified but disaster avoided.

The Best Bits

Monet's garden lived up to my expectations. Despite being a major tourist attraction it was incredibly cheap to enter (€5.50). Although crowded you could still find areas in the garden for a bit of solitude.

I don't think the Roman Amphitheatre of Nimes is as spectacular as the one at Verona but the tour was certainly interesting. Armed with an audio guide you could visit most of it without restriction. There were some alarming open spaces in the gallery and you could climb right to the top of the original seating which also didn't have any guard rails. The French have an alarmingly laissez-faire attitude to public safety.

There have been many interesting villages and towns along the way, including several completely preserved medieval ones with street plans, walls and houses all intact. The one I've like most was Thines up in the Ardeche mountains. It was consisted of one street perched on a rock, about 10 houses and church. From above it looks as if it suspended in mid air.

Where to next

The itinerary will take me to the Northern part of the Cevennes mountains, then onto the Tarn and Jointe Gorges, the Grand Causses, the Cantal Mountains, the Mont Dores, the Puy du Dome (again) and then home on Bastille Day.

Au revoir

The last post

For now…

Archie and I are setting off to France for a couple of months sans Noddy. I think Noddy is a bit too old for foreign travel, especially as pet passports mean numerous trips to the vet (Noddy’s least favourite person) it seems wiser to leave him behind.

Unlike other foreign trips, which were organised like a military exercise, (start points, objectives etc) I have not made any detailed plans. My broad plan is to travel west to visit Monet’s garden at Giverny and then head south east towards Clermont Ferrand in the centre of France. Planning hasn’t been forgotten though as I’ve packed about 30 maps and 20 assorted guide and walking books plus GPS.

I plan to tour the Auvergne region of extinct volcanoes and then onto the Cevennes mountains and the Mediterranean. Top of my list of things to see are the Puy de Dôme, the Puy du Sancy, Le Puy-en-Velay and the Pont du Gard. I also intend to see many of the wonderful gorges in the region, the Tarn and Jointe, the Truyère and the Ardèche to name a few.

This part of France is quite mountainous so it should provide some good départmental topping; Puy du Sancy (Puy de Dôme) 6,187ft, La Plomb du Cantal (Cantal) 6,096ft, Mt Lozère (Lozère) 5,500ft and Mt Aigoual (Gard) 5,141ft are some of the highest tops. Perhaps I should have warmed up somewhere a little more challenging than Norfolk.

I’ll try wherever possible to update this blog, otherwise I’ll speak to the nation again on my return on Bastille Day.