2011/3 Cobble/Wobble to Spain

From Lyon, with its historic European leadership for the silk market, we headed SW through the Auvergne - towns with traditional industries now almost forgotten, lace in Le Puy, umbrellas in Aurillac and tanning in Le Flour and Figeac.

In Le Puy we climbed the great upstart volcanic outcrops with churches or statues on them, while camped by the river. We bought some of the Le Puy green lentils (now officially protected with an ‘Appellation Controlle’. Stan gives us some concerns with the gas (not the lentils) for the the fridge OK on 12V and 240V but not on gas, the heater has worked well in the Alps, but it’s time has past this year - we hope.

At last we unloaded our bicycles from the rack at the back of Stan. David fell off on to his stiff hip, now stiff and sore, not getting used to the advantages of a barless lady’s bike.  With hard tyres, Joanna quickly suffered from the ride over the cobbles – ‘cobble/wobbles’! And talking of wobbles, Stan’s front tyres were wearing out at an alarming rate on one side.  So at Figeac we found - as often in France, some small workshop that put themselves out to solve the problem with competitively priced tyres from a ‘contact’, alignment from a ’mate’ (they had to help to repair the machine first) and all done straight away, none of this ‘not before Thursday’ response all too often elsewhere. The fridge the same thing, hours before the Easter break a mechanic gave us a blast of compressed air - in the right spot and hey presto the fridge works.

On our way west from Le Puy we took a look at the Viaduct de Garabit,  a very elegant steel (to an engineer) construction by Gustave Eiffel in 1884 before he designed the Eiffel Tower. It is still used by trains (see photo).

The rolling countryside in these parts is fresh and green (Spring) and with fine houses not unlike England. A beautiful drive. In the towns we saw lots of real estate agents with ‘English spoken’, so perhaps it is a little ‘home from home’  for them (and a whole lot warmer). For us camper vanners it must be one of the regions with the greatest density of ‘aires’ for vans, and in Aurillac and Figeac right in town. Figeac was a surprise find as a lovely old town, a very lively cafe culture and even a museum to he (Champollion) who deciphered the Rosetta stone.

On from Figeac to Cordes old hilltop town and then to Albi. Parked below the cathedral. What a cathedral! Huge and  magnificent in classic Gothic - all in brick, all painted interior. Next door a museum dedicated to Toulouse Lautrec who came from Albi. We enjoy these smaller Art museums that follow through the life and career of one artist. Feel like you come out having learnt something instead of bemused and muddled.

Next stop Carcassonne where Joanna had set her heart (was it really her heart) on  a cassoulet  and we did indeed enjoy a huge and rich meal in a little courtyard as the wind was too strong to enjoy the square as two years ago.   The place was crowded with Easter visitors – families of all sorts, lots of little boys running around with swords threatening disinterested sisters.

As often at Easter after a perfect period of fine weather  it all came to pieces over the holiday break wild wind gusts and rain squalls.  So we settled beside the Canal du Midi at Homps  (what a great name), and watched the hired boats learn to manoeuvre their craft, plus a cycle ride along the towpath to the nearby locks.

Another problem which we are doing our best to resolve is the fact that Joanna has fond out that Morocco only allows one bottle of alcohol on entry. So we are obliged to drink all the collected bottles of special whisky from the tax free ferry, the  liqueurs from the regions of France, Calvados, Williams pears from the north then Cognac, Armagnac and of course the Genepi from the Alps etc etc – it’s a tough job but we can do it!

South again towards Andorra, all very green very pleasant countryside heading into the mountains. Now is the season for poppies in the fields and asparagus, very nice but not as memorable as the NZ variety – if you know what I mean! We stopped at Ax les Thermes for a two hour session in the thermal pools including indoor/outdoor, counter current, Hammans etc etc – all very relaxing.

Andorra a disappointment. Still some skiing when we crossed the border so they must have enjoyed a good season. However the buildings are bleak and we stayed overnight for a walk through the capital of this Principality but again forgettable except for the manic French and Spanish shoppers who come for the duty free stuff.

Down to Barcelona, leaving the cold mountain air for the warm Med, and a revisit to the  Sagrada Familia.   Three years ago it was a building site when we were there; this time in spite of 80 minute queue, with the main interior part completed, it is mind blowing, the size, the height with columns in differing stone, the light, the sculptures. Barcelona has now realised the tourist potential set about completing the Gaudi masterpiece started in the 1880s with about 5 tower cranes on the site.  Very pleasant walk in the town and tapas and wine in several of the bars near the Picasso museum.  So although the truck park we stay in has increased in price and gone down heaps in quality, we enjoyed the town so much better than the last time. We did our best not to look like tourists. No backpacks – so this time no pickpocket attempts on us – although we witnessed some incidents.

David is struggling to get to grips with the Spanish language, all a mater of the ‘pronunthiathen’ – they always answer in English, even the nearly blind clarinettist in the metro said ‘Thank you,’ on dropping a few coins in his hat. Oh and David bought a Basque beret, while Joanna had a hair cut.

Now at Peniscola (Yeah we know) down the coast. A real package deal tourist resort with 7km of high-rise blocks along the beach, but brilliant for bikes and tapas. Watched the Royal wedding in a bar today – celebrated with a bottle of rose, a platter of fish and other assorted items for the princely sum of 12 euro. The weather is crap and not likely to get better for a few days so we are heading off inland towards Madrid.

2011/2 Finie La Neige

Well the fact that we arrived in France a little later than originally planned has worked out to our advantage – we have found the snow, French school holidays are over, we don’t have to worry about water freezing and we haven’t had to use our chains yet. What’s more with daylight saving, we are now able to sit out in the sunshine for aperitifs or even dinner. It isn’t dark until 8.30. 

We continue to ski in the Le Val d’Oisan to the SE of Grenoble, a favourite climbing and ski mountaineering  area for David in days long gone, when he distained those who were dragged uphill time and time again – times change, as Lamartine’s famous saying warned, never say – “Fountain never will I drink your water.”

Ski lifts in this part of the world run very high – up to 3560m altitude (over 11,000 ft) in Les Deux Alps.  The snow dry and squeaky. We are learning to be crafty, following the sun around the skifield to get the snow at its best.

We are gradually changing our ways from the rush of NZ skiing to the French style

with a start not before 10am, coffee just before the lunch crowd arrives at 12 sharp (see photo – it must be 12.15pm),  lunch when the chairs become available at 2pm (next photo), and on the way home a beer and/or wine(photo again).

We have quickly adopted the French methods of queuing in lift lines. We are pretty good at it - have learnt a lot over the years skiing with teenagers in NZ. Anyway, most of the time the queues are non-existent, so we have nothing to complain about.

We are now in a position to rate camper van stops with electricity, access to ski lifts, view, boulangerie close by, hard tarmac underneath, wifi nearby, and a bonus here at Deux Alps – ‘crazy hour’ cheap drinks as we ski homeward on a little groomed ‘piste’ through the town.

Moved on from Les Deux Alpes, down the Val d’Oisan, with a day’s skiing at Serre Chevalier, a day off at Briancon for rest, restocking at the supermarket, serious washing time, internet time at McDonalds. A quick visit to the old fortified town – a frontier town for centuries – thank goodness for the European Union.  On to Montgenevre, on the Italian border. Brilliant skiing, through the trees, little gullies, tres ambient. So much snow here – marshmallow stuff.

  The second day here we skied the Via Lattea or Milky Way – an incredibly long event, which involves many kms of skiing, 22 ski lifts and lots of up and down, BUT fantastic. A sort of Haute Route for softies. We skied from France, past the 2006 Winter  Olympic resort of Sestriere, well into Italy.  We can never get over the instant change of language – suddenly you have to speak Italian to the lifties. Thank goodness for David’s multi-lingual thing.  And the restaurants – the menus change immediately to polenta, pizza and pasta.  Love it. We turned back 30kms down the road from Montgenevre. David is getting back into his local beer research (as his stocks of English Spitfire run low) and was very happy to tuck into a Biera Moreti at  the summit of our tour.

Arrived back, skied out,tired, sore and really happy.

Have moved on through Puy St Vincent – a small resort in the heart of the Ecrins National Park. All very scenic and lots of great skiing through the trees, which we are quite partial to- just because it’s different for us really. We also love the old villages with charming little restaurants scattered around some of the skifields.

Then even further south at Orcieres,but still on the edge of the Ecrins National Park. So a summer and winter resort. The snow is a bit thin there –no off-piste skiing. The softer snow means we had to use our muscles a bit differently, hence a few new stiff bits. However the highlight of the place for us is the Aire de Camping(or campervan site) which is on top of a multi storey carpark, hanging out over the valley.  The whole town is perched precariously on the side of a steep valley. We use 3 escalators to get up the steep hill from carpark to skilift.  The view is magnificent – 5 Star hotel stuff.  Dinner on the terrace (carpark roof) of pintade (guinea fowl) sauteed in white wine and some Vin de Savoie. What  more could you wish for? Happy campers.(and skiers.)

Back to Les Deux Alpes for a few more days of high altitude skiing (and free for David). No more Crazy Hour – the piste had melted, however we found other means of apres ski. I have to say that our version of apres ski really is apres ski,definitely not after dinner. It’s early to bed for us these days.

Back to Grenoble for further reunions of David’s climbing friends. Wonderful French hospitality with long lunches, starting with Pastis, wine, Genepi (from the cellar) oh and did I forget - some excellent food. A great lunch in a rural environment with old friends –a few less brain cells but what the hell.

We noticed the arrival of Spring suddenly (in the space of about an hour really) as we moved down from the mountains into the valleys. The trees were all green, the daffodils almost over but all the gardens a riot of colour. The difference between our start at Flaine with zero degrees in the van when we got up, to spring now is amazing.

Drove on to Lyon with Brian Daynes – the end of the  mountains. Spent time with more of David’s friends –  Brian and Margaret Page, staying in their lovely house above the city and exploring old and new Lyon with them, making good use of the public transport system. Time to wash all the ski gear and pack it away, take out the bag of summer clothes and head south.