Let's Travel Europe: Winding mountain roads

Wednesday 18^th June

A travelling day today as we moved northwards towards Paris. We travelled north west through the mountains in the south east of France. Generally the roads were very good and there wasn’t too much traffic so we were able to travel at our own pace with no pressure. We took two stops on the way. The first was at a little town called Castellane. As we approached this town we could see a church sitting high up on a hill. No idea if it is in use – and no idea how one would get up to it. It was market day in the town and we tasted some of the local nougat – 55 euro a kilo – didn’t buy any. Other than that it was cheese and fresh fruit and vegies. We enjoyed a cup of coffee in the main street. At that stage it was still relatively warm.

Notre Dame du Roc in Castellane.
This church (or its predecessors) dates back to 832.
There is quite an interesting history around the roc and the church.

An old bridge at Castellane.

Castellane main square.

From there we moved on to the town of Digne les Bains. This is the end stop of the train that we had planned to take yesterday (though we had only planned to go half way). We were forced to take a long detour that took us by this beautiful lake high in the mountains. The colour of the water was a beautiful green-blue and the water was very clear. We stopped for lunch in Digne and sat on a bench in the main street eating our baguette and pastries. It was still relatively warm.

Lac de Castillon. The photo doesn't really show
the true colour of the water,

The main street in Digne les Bains.
We did the whole loop of the roundabout on foot
looking for the public toliets!
See the skies clouding over.

From Digne we then headed to Gap which took us further through the mountains up to a height of 1100 metres. The road was mostly good except for one piece that was actually a really spectacular drive through gorges, travelling along a road carved out of the side of the cliff. At times the road was so narrow that we had to pull over to allow on oncoming car past. At the far end of the road we read the sign about the road being dangerous and unstable (loose translation). Rob kept thinking it would be a great rally road, though you wouldn’t want to come off anywhere. The colours in the rocks in the gorges were really striking – greys, purples and browns. The latter part of the drive to Gap took us along a fruit and wine trail. There were lots of fruit trees (stone fruit I think) and they were all covered in netting – we don’t think it was bird netting but was a finer netting or mesh and may have been protection from rain and hail?

Just some of the scenery on the drive through the mountains.

We are staying tonight at a town called St Bonnet en Champsaur. It is a small town just off the main road to Grenoble. When we got out of the car here and checked in to our hotel, the first thing we did was get the jeans and jackets out of the suitcase. It is cold here - a taste of home. We have had dinner at the hotel because it seems that the only day the other restaurants in town are closed is Wednesday!