58 France

Remember, black writing is Karen's, Blue is Rays.

Thursday 12^th

Started the journey northwards today.  Our destination is Chamonix, but we will be going by the scenic roads and not the motorway, well until we get fed up with it that is.  It is quite arduous dragging Lizzie and Wallace around u turns and country roads that are narrow and go up into the mountains and back down again.  We did though, pass through some of the most wonderful scenery we have seen and it has completely changed our view on France as a whole. The roads we were on would have been a treat on a fast bike or car.

Lac De Saint Croix

Georges du Verdon

We travelled up through the Gorges du Verdon, which was spectacular and after a couple of stops in the hills to have lunch and change drivers, we finally made it to just outside Chamonix at about 9.30pm, (having left at ten that morning), shattered. We had also come through some awful storms, that seemed like mini tornados, and blew Lizzie about no end.

A spot of lunch at a beauty spot.

There’s a storm a brewin...

It was a spectacular if not scary storm when it came.

We rough camped beside some other travellers, (motor home owners – not pikeys) in a local car park. 

Friday 13^th  (Glad I didn’t realise that at the time!)

Today we were up early and went into the town of Chamonix for breakfast and a look around.  During winter this is a very popular skiing resort and during summer, mountain biking and walking are the main activities.

This was brilliant. 

A more oblique view.

Our wild camping spot in Chamonix

One of the glaciers terminating just outside the town.

The town is very pretty and also very expensive, but we loved it and with the sun shining down, reluctantly left to head on towards Germany again and the Black Forest. 

I put this next picture in to show the general attitude of the French to their citizens. This is the barrier at the start of a mountain bend. Note the extra plastic barriers at ground level. This is the place that bikes end up when they fall over. I like the French more and more all the time. They look after each other and absolutely love bikers. I wish us Brits did not treat bikers as lepers.

Bike safe French crash barrier.

Again it was a long day of driving and we reached to outside Freiburg about 10pm and stayed in a service station.  We have decided to have a couple of days at Titisee, which is on a lake and has some wonderful scenery and views around it, so we will make our way there tomorrow.

Saturday 14^th

I have been up most of the night with Leon.  He has been really sick and is now lying about all listlessly.  We booked into our new campsite, Camping Bankenhof Hinterzarten am Titisee.  The first thing was to get a local vet, and Ray tried three, none of which could assist as they weren’t open. Leon is not being sick anymore, but he is very tired and wants to be on his own. We will keep an eye on him and get him to an emergency vet even if I have to drag him out myself.

Again we are in a beautiful setting, hills around us and obviously the lake.  We haven’t ventured very far today because of Leon. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.  After a glorious start to the day weather wise, it has rained like it was going out of fashion today.

Sunday 15^th

Leon slept better through the night, and is looking a bit brighter, I can only surmise that he caught a wee bug.  I’ll see how he gets on for the rest of the day.  It is a worry with him being the age he is.

Ray is outside while I write this, changing the tyres around on Lizzie. No mean feat.  Again the day has started off brightly enough, but we do have some ominous dark clouds hovering.  Not sure what the plans are for the rest of the day.

Wheels all swapped around, time to chill out.

And then it pissed down..........