Friday was our last day in the Alps, and we went for a walk
to take some more pictures to aid my burgeoning career as “Nature Photographer”. Nick’s new job title by the way is “Activities
Liaison Officer”, a role that he is not entirely living up to, as once on
our walk he failed to “liaise” with the map correctly.
We ended our walk in Villeneuve and went to
the lake for a dip (Nick’s dip was much longer than mine as the water was freezing).
Nick wants me to mention that while he
was swimming in the lake a flock of ‘Alpine Starlings’ (Nicks name for the
birds) dived down and skimmed along the surface of the lake just centimetres
away from his head.
Back home for our last dinner at Eugenie’s house and a
couple of drinks with her and her friend.
Had a conversation about European politics which proved difficult with
the language barrier but we just about managed it using a mixture of French,
English and exaggerated facial expressions.
The next morning Eugenie dropped us off at Briançon station at
7.30am to catch the train down to Gap at the edge of the Alps, where we arrived
an hour later and met up with our “Covoiturage” people.
I don’t think we’ve mentioned the Covoiturage
deal before, so basically it is a carshare website that allows people to post
an upcoming journey, number of free spaces in the car and a price per
space. You can read feedback about the
driver from previous journeys etc to give you a bit of peace of mind. So for a 4 hour journey that would have cost
us about 100 euros on the train, we got there instead for 26 euros. Unfortunately the driver has some temperament
issues and after an argument with a caravan driver at a motorway service
station halfway through the journey, he did not speak for the rest of the trip.
At Lyon we had a 3 hour wait for the train so we got some
food and sweltered in the heat for a bit.
At 6.10pm we were finally on the last leg of our journey and arrived at
Digoin station at 8.30pm. Matteo and
Roberta, two Italian workawayers who were staying at the same place as us
picked us up and drove us home.
When we
arrived we found a feast laid out for us on the decking – Bread and dips, Pasta,
and Peaches and Ice Cream for dessert, with lots of wine to go with it. The welcome was really unexpected and we
stayed up late listening to music and getting to know Jen one of the hosts
(Malc her husband was away playing a gig for the night), and Matteo, Roberta and
Ian (another workawayer).
We are staying in a caravan until Matt and Roberta leave on
Tuesday so after a quick spider inspection we crashed out for the night.
Sunday – IT’S 39 DEGREES.
France is experiencing a heatwave with temperatures climbing to record
highs. As Malc and Jen give their workawayers
weekends off , the Activities Liaison Officer decided that we should go on a
walk to explore the area.
We estimated
we’d be gone a couple of hours and set off at 11.30. It is really strange how flat the countryside
here is after being surrounded by mountains all of last week. There was not a great deal to explore as this
is honestly the most rural countryside I’ve ever known – fields upon fields of
white cows and the occasional herd of goats.
So anyway, as you can probably predict we ended up going the
wrong way and the two hour explore of the area turned into a hellish four hour trudge
along roads with no name, and no shade from probably the hottest temperature I’ve
ever been in.
Below is a map of our intended (Blue) and actual (Red) routes.
Eventually we did find our way
home and as we were walking up the long drive to the house, Jen and Malc were
driving down to find us as they had become concerned!
Had a delicious dinner of Pork Chops, Mashed Potato and
green beans (picked from the garden by Nick’s fair hands), and Clafoutis and Crème
Fraiche for dessert :-) 
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