9630 kilometres later……..and it’s nearly September! Part One!

I decided to divide this blog into three parts as it covers such a long period of time. It was becoming unwieldy as we have taken many hundreds of photos between us. The first three parts contain just my phone photos, I decided it would be too complicated to add Nigel’s into the mix at this stage. His will follow in a supplementary edition and we will try in that part to cover different aspects from the ones I have included here. I know that many of these have already featured in my facebook timeline while we were travelling but not everyone who reads this is a facebook user. Parts two, three and four will follow in due course. So, here we go……………..

We are just back from a mega trip around Europe which has lasted 15 weeks! When we moved to Spain, almost 4 years ago, we always intended to slope off to cooler climes during the hot summer months. Bureaucracy and the pandemic got in the way our first summer, the second year we managed to get away to Sweden in late June, (during a heatwave, would you believe?) and then up to Galicia for a few weeks in August and September, blissfully cool compared to Murcia! Last summer we were hampered by ongoing medical issues and appointments. This year we were determined and it happened a little earlier than expected.

We left home in early May after a motorhome trip in April to Castilla La Mancha, including Segovia, that I didn’t have time to blog about, now consigned to memory and history. We then had two sets of visitors in late April over a couple of weeks.

First Philippa arrived for her third visit

After Sue had left, we set off on May 7th for a quick dash up to the Alps in France to meet up with our elder son and his partner who were going to be on holiday in Samoëns in late May earlier than usual for them but a bonus for us and an incentive to get going!

We made certain to leave time to visit our boating friends, David and Pamela in Castelnaudary en route before exploring some other areas of France, some new to us, some nostalgic favourites from family holidays with the boys.

Evening on the quayside on Pamela and David’s Lea Crest.

On to pastures new….the first of these areas was the Cevennes which we had not visited before.

St, Jean de Gard Steam train in the Cevennes region

Nigel very happy that Iles flottantes were on the dessert menu!

We parked on the river bank but were advised to move the second night by the police as it was raining hard and the river was liable to flood

A walk around the local “Bambouserie” proved very interesting. We bought a pot of bamboo to bring home, you can play spot the bamboo in upcoming photos because it came out of the garage for some sunlight and occasional watering every time we stopped for the night! If interested you can read about it here. https://bambouseraie.fr/en_GB

Next we decided to visit the Ardeche Gorge and here we had our first slow puncture.

But it’s a long boring story so suffice to say we got sorted and were soon on our way along the Ardeche gorge, another new to us area.

Leaving the Ardeche region we decided we had time to ascend Mont Ventoux before our next destination….we hadn’t really planned this but it was relatively nearby so we thought why not? The Tour de France often includes this mountain in its route, not this year as it happens but nevertheless there were hundreds of cyclists going up (and down!)

Memorial to Tom Simpson coming up on the right, who died at this spot on the tour in 1967 aged 30

Overnight spot, camper circled in red, @ 6700′, 1900m asl

Our next port of call was in the Vercors region, the Drôme valley where we spent many happy summer holidays with a French exchange family with whom we kept in touch. Their summer home hamlet is called La Blache and is overlooked by this rocky outcrop topped by a huge iron cross. We camped a couple of nights on the access road to La Croix and walked up for old times sake.

Plan de Baix, you can see the cross on the top

Not too level but we managed, no room to turn round in the hamlet

Looking down on the hamlet from La Croix

Monique and the late Claude’s mediaeval farmhouse

Their front door is here in the rounded gap.

We knew there would be no-one at home in May, they were still in their main home in Le Mans but we e-mailed and sent photos.

On towards the Alps we travelled, first the Gorges de La Bourne the Chartreuse area and then around Annecy and over the col de Columbiere .

We overnighted here before the final leg of the journey to Samöens

Morning visitors, ibex…..there were several!

At last we arrived in Samoëns and met up with our elder son and his lovely partner and spent a few days with them, sleeping in the motorhome but spending time with them during the day and evenings. At one point we had a ride in their car up over the Col de Joux Plaine where we had a picnic and then onto Morzine and Les Gets where we used to spend family holidays, Nigel and the boys mountain biking and me going up mountains in cable cars with Dash to walk and read and enjoy the scenery. Sometimes I would drop them and their bikes off at the top of a col to ride down or up and over into a different valley. All very nostalgic. Below are some of the photos I took in and around Samoëns.