Traversing France

Meryl has some friends near Grenoble. Actually Meryl has some friends near just about everywhere, but that's another story of a lifetime of social connection. She had contacted David and Elaine, who own a place at St Jean en Royans, which was pretty much on our (long) route from Belves to Menaggio, and they had very kindly offered us a bed for the night. They also had their own visitor, Di, from Australia, so William and Viv who we were transporting to Grenoble, had booked accommodation in a hotel nearby. Strangely, the hotel was invisible on Google street view, and there had been only one confirmatory email months ago, so we weren't 100% sure this would work.

Google (the oracle of all things it seems) had told us that the trip would take 5 hours and 5 minutes, but we knew the distance and our experience of driving in France was that only locals could achieve the times predicted. We allowed 7 hours, so we thought we would arrive at 5pm, making allowance for a 9am start and a break along the route. Somewhat opportunistically we changed our route to take in Carcassonne, which meant a slightly longer trip, but Rani, Viv and William hadn't seen this city, and were keen.

So we set off. 

We drove… and we drove…. and we drove.

We watched our ETA on the Navigator extend gradually with every coffee and Aire stop. By the time we reached Carcassonne we realised we wouldn't be arriving until after 6, once we had taken in the sites of the walled city.

Carcassonne is incredibly touristy, but we savoured it nevertheless.

They propped right next to us.. we had to leave our shady lunch spot.

Scary

Scarier

Scariest

Ah.. nougat!

It's not well known, but Pinocchio briefly lived at Carcassonne

As did that guy from Futurama

So rich in culture!

Thanks Aussies for...

Headless train driver

We wandered, we absorbed as much as we could. We visited the ramparts, we sweated in the heat, and we eventually left, having purchased some wonderful nougat to give the D and E. We looked at the ETA.. 7pm. We'd be fine

There were a few delays marked on the GPS, with roadworks and a "standstill" area of traffic. We detoured the roadworks with very clever planning. This dumped us into peak hour traffic around Montpellier which was nearly standstill. Enviously we crawled parallel to the Autoroute we had left, watching the traffic on the Autoroute fly by. Bad decision. We lost 10 minutes at least.

Next we approached the standstill. Google maps told us it went for kilometres. We approached the tail end of the traffic jam and left the Autoroute. Spending 15km at least on minor roads we sailed along. By the looks of what we had seen, we gained at least 10 minutes here. Bonus points!

But we were still delayed. We eventually approached the mountains and made our way into the foothills.

I love these avenues in France

Approaching St Jean en Royans.. over those massifs... Italy!

St Jean en Royans is at the foot of the alps, over which you must travel to reach Italy. David had chosen this location for a holiday house because as a cyclist, he loves the climbs.

Viv and William's hotel was more like a B and B at the end of a long driveway leading from the end of a road, hence it's invisibility from the omnipresent Google giant.

At Viv and William's B and B

The owner was a delightful talkative 72 year old lady with a 13 year old wheezy dog and many a tale of the history of her village, going right back to her birth in the house beside the church. She was keen to talk, but we had to get to our night lodgings where our hosts were patiently waiting to have dinner. It was after 8 when we arrived, and we were really apologetic.

The dinner was lovely. Elaine apologised that the fish was overdone, but it didn't seem so to me, and the meal included one of my favourite french experiences, melon wrapped in prosciutto- Yum.

Their house is an old imprintery with a long and wonderful garden. The internal stairs are hewn from the original stone of the hillside. Solid and shiny smooth from centuries of traffic. The floorboards are probably ancient oak. Creaky and worn from the same traffic. We slept well, but having been primed by D and E, we resolved to leave early the next day.