Route de les Sapins (route of the fir trees)

Tuesday 27th May

Time to head south - and hopefully find a little warmth. The past 3 days in Pontarlier have been pretty cool - 13 deg or so. We've even had the heater running overnight and both slept quite well with the cooler nights. Our hotel room had 2 doors - like an airlock where the space between the doors is cold, but inside is warm. And they had instructions on the wall on how to keep the room warm.

Dinner last night was at Buffalo Grill. We didn't go until 8 and this time there were a lot of customers there - and they were still rolling in at 9.30 when we left.

Today we have travelled 230k basically south to a place called Le Pont de Beauvoisin. Not long out of Pontarlier we came across 2 castles perched on cliffs on either side of a valley. They were almost close enough to throw rocks at each other. The drive was along good roads that followed valleys in and out of the mountains. Most of the country we passed through was forested and timber seemd to be the industry of the area. We met a couple of timber jinkers along the way, but they were coming towards us and on nice wide roads. When the forests gave way to open farmland it was cattle we were seeing. Dora found us a couple of shortcuts cutting down through the forests - one road called the Route de les Sapins (I looked it up - fir trees). Beautiful drive and mostly great roads. 

We didn't pick up any info on these 2 castles, but seriously,
they were so close they could poke faces at each other across the gorge.

As we got closer to our destination we finally caught sight of snow on the mountains to the east of us. I caught sight of one peak standing above the rest which I was assuming was Mont Blanc. Over the next few days I think we will get a few photos. 

We are now in a lovely apartment where we will be for a week as we explore the area.