Friday 29 September 2017

Our Very Own Tour de France - Day 36 - 39

Barcelonnette to La Palud

Tuesday 26th September 2017

Well, I think I've got a very clever Husband because it's quite likely he's sussed out what's caused our power problem and we might be able to fix it without any assistance!  If you've read our last blog you'll know we've been having major issues with T4rdis2's lithium ion battery - and last night at about 9pm it failed altogether!  There we sat in a small Aire at La Breole in the pitch dark with neither water or heating available to us (to draw water the water pump needs power), and we thought that because the battery had drained completely it would be knackered altogether!

As a bit of background info, about 3 months ago we changed from 2 lead acid batteries to 1 lithium ion one (and it wasn't cheap), because by only having one unit we could save about 50 kg in weight, and also the lithium one would increase the power available to us and make it possible to charge our bike batteries while we were off grid.

Anyway, with little else to do last night we pottered off to bed - but rather that sleeping John lay pondering about our circumstances, and by morning he was fairly sure he knew what had caused the problem - therefore, I told him sleep was over-rated and it had been time well spent!

Now, I'm a bit thick when it comes to understanding things like volts, amps and watts - so to make it easier for me John likened our battery to a water storage tank with a hose attached.  He explained that the water would keep flowing out until the resevoir was empty, and then even if only a little was put back it would flow again.


And he's fairly sure that's what happened to the battery.  We monitor it's power level on a gauge with traffic light indicators and as the power falls,  the green, then the yellow and finally the red lights go out.  However, this system is set up for a lead acid battery that senses voltage drop, but our lithium one works slightly differently, it only drops it's voltage as it nears complete discharge - so for example, we have 130 amp hours but the lights probably don't start going out until it reaches less than half of that! Therefore, quite naively, we've been looking at the monitor and thinking what an excellent solar panel we've got cos it was recharging the battery back to full so quickly - but in actual fact, because we'd been off grid for over a week the power level had been steadily decreasing even though it looked ok. Then the straw that broke the 🐫's back was our attempt to charge our bike batteries twice in two day thus using up all of the batteries reserve. (dohh)

Happily to cut a long story short,  when we got up this morning the power was back on and our indicator had 2 red lights, and by the time we'd driven the 75 miles of today's journey all the lights were back on.  However, now we understand how the battery works we knew it would still be far from fully recharged.  Therefore, our plan was to go on a campsite and keep the van plugged into the mains, and to ensure we only used the battery for essentials over the next 3 days, and then hopefully it will be fully recharged and the problem will be fixed 🀞.


So with that in mind we changed our planned itinerary completley and instead of staying in the mountains we set a course for the Gorges of Verdon which lie in a UNESCO Geo Park in the Alps-de-Haute-Provence region of France.  On our way we passed over the 'little' Col d'Orme and  through huge swathes of countryside covered in lavender plants - it must smell and look spectacular when there all in flower - and nearly every other shop sells Lavender Miel 🐝🐝🐝!  While we're here we plan to walk as far into the lower gorge as possible, and if all we've read about it is true I think we'll be in for a rare treat - but I'll tell you about that in tomorrow's story!


Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th September 2017

Wednesday morning dawned warm and bright so as planned we set off to walk into the Lower Verdon Gorge where a path follows the route of both the river and the old Verdon Canal .  The river is a striking turquoise colour which is apparently the consequence of it's glacial sources and minerals that are suspended in the water!  The canal is more or less derelict now but it was originally a man made hydraulic structure that was 80 km long and was built in the 19th century to carry water from the Verdon River to supply towns and villages along it's way, and it wasn't decommissioned until 1969!

You can just about see one of the little bridges we had to cross!

To start with our walk was either on a precipitous rough path cut into the craggy rock sides with bridges and staircases to assist us on our way, or it was on what used to be the canal's guard path - and it was from here that we could see into the canal tunnels  which are now home to quite a few different species of rare bats!

After just over an hour the trail led us into a long dark creepy tunnel where we were forced to use our phones as torches  ...

We're there somewhereπŸ˜‰!
....  and this chucked us out onto a forested scenic path in the vale of Sainte Maxime which was overhung by arches of hundred year old box trees, and which wound it's way back up the valley slopes.



The path eventually led us to the Sainte Maxime chapel which is isolated high up on the cliff top and it's a place where the inhabitants of Quinson (the town near where we're staying) come on an annual pilgrimage.  However, today it was the domain of some very cute goats!  We ate our picnic there and we were lucky enough to scoff our sarnies before they spotted us, but other hikers were forced to share when the little buggers reared up and almost took food out of their mouths - it was quite funny but I daren't take a pic of them actually doing it!

They had NO FEAR!
Then once we got going again the path continued across the plateau de Male-Sauque and then steeply downhill back towards the river and the start of the walk - we reckon it was about a stunningly lovely 9 miles in all - but with the hot sunshine and rough terrain we wouldn't really have wanted it to be any further!

There were alternatives to walking!
Thursday turned out to be another lovely day, but after our previous day's exertions we decided to just stay at 'home' and potter!  John gave T4rdis2 a good scrub outside and I did our washing and some baking - scones and lemon drizzle cake - so guess what we had for high tea? yum yum!
A Charging Fest While We Were Hooked up to Leccy πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

Friday 29th September 2017

First off I feel the need to comment on the weather - today was another scorcher, and really we've been very lucky on this tour so far!  Since the rainy weather that kept us for a day or two nearly 3 weeks ago, we've mostly enjoyed sunshine for most or part of every day.

So what did we do today?  Well we nearly made a big mistake!  When we hiked through the Lower Verdon Gorge on Wednesday we thought we'd seen the best of it - but that assumption was very wrong cos that happened today!  Originally our plan was to drive back North for about 50 miles so that we could ride up the Col de la Cayolle, but while John was perusing his maps last night he spotted The Route des Cretes which he thought looked very interesting and which runs along one side of the main part of the Verdon Gorge.  However, it didn't really look like a road that would be suitable for T4rdis2 because in places it becomes very narrow and there is also a section that is one way only.  Therefore, we decided to drive to the town of La Palud-sur-Verdon and leave the van in a campsite there and cycle the route!

So with our itinerary in place we packed up and left our campsite at Quinson and headed along the D952 for about 35 miles - and this  proved to be another nail biting journey along more narrow windy precipitous roads!  John takes it all in his stride and stays as cool as a cucumber, but me - well I'm almost hopping about, gasping as we round blind bends and things come a little close for comfort, and I've even been known to swear at the odd pesky tourist who stops in inappropriate places to take pics!

However, even I have to admit that the Lac de Ste-Croix was such a stunning site a picture just had to be taken!





We arrived at the campsite at La Palud at about 11.45 and found that it was very aptly named - Camping Municipal le Grand Canyon - it's a very pretty place with lots of weeping willows so T4rdis2 didn't feel in the least put out at being left all alone there!






And once we'd had our elevenses (at 12) it didn't take us long before we were off out on our bikes to explore The Route des Cretes.  One of our first sights that stopped us in our tracks was this young chap and his mate soaring on the thermals over the gorge!  And then, as we looked down we could see the dark green River Verdon flowing through the deeply cut valley where twisted rocks and cone shaped peaks reared up, and we later learnt that  in places the Gorge reaches depths of a dizzy 2,297 feet







The pictures could never do reality justice, but it was just stunning - and having visited this Gorges American counterpart, we both agreed this one won hands down for sheer grandeur!

We completed our afternoon ride of 15 miles (with lots of stops) at about 4pm, but as we'd put lots of effort into the uphill bits we rewarded ourselves by finishing off yesterdays scones - with cream and jam of course!

Tomorrow we're heading back to Guillaumes and the Col de la Cayolle, but on the way we'll hopefully be taking in more Gorge-ous scenery as we pass through the Daluis Gorge, but for now that's all from us for this episode!

Take Care 😚

Click here to see our French camping spots


Monday 25 September 2017

Our Very Own Tour de France - Day 32 - 35

Vars les Claux to Barcelonnette

Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd September 2017

On Friday morning John decided he was going to swap all our tyres around - the two at the front were still legal but only just and we'd got 2 brand new ones - one on the back, and one in the garage as a spare.  So with Jack (his 2.5 ton lifting mate) he got busy and hopefully now T4rdis2 will have a bit more traction for going up and down the steep hills we keep finding in this area!  And once that job was done it didn't take us long to get packed up and put his handiwork to the test as we started our 15 mile descent from our lofty perch at Vars les Claux!

Our first task on the way down was to look for the 'Demoiselles Coiffees'.  If you read my last blog you might remember that I told you how these tall columns had been formed due to erosion - we found them but I think you would need a lot of imagination to make them into tall ladies with updo hairdos!

Demoiselles Coiffees
The road that descended from the Col de Vars (D900)  dropped us down into another area of The Valley Ubaye - the valley had traversed around the mountain we'd just been over the top of!  So once we reached the valley floor we once again had the company of the River Ubaye, and although it was very pretty, at this time of year it was really only a trickling stream with occasional stretches of white water, but it was easy to see by the rock formations how it would become a raging torrent when the snows melt!

We'd only planned a short drive today (about 30 miles) to the town of Jausiers where we were going to spend the night in their Aire prior to climbing The Col de la Bonette on Saturday.  This Col reaches the 2nd highest altitude in Europe and is  another of the top 10 drives according to Ultimate Drives! However, our plan was foiled because the Aire was just a bit of rough slopping gravel at the side of the road, but never mind - on this occasion we'd actually got a plan B. Unfortunately,  by employing it we had to go another 5 miles up the road to Barcelonnette and it was impossible for us to tackle the Bonette from there - but we weren't too bothered because we'd also got a plan C🀣 but hopefully the tale about that will come later!

After a bit of a round-about drive through the town and a squeeze across a little bridge that was only nearly wide enough for T4rdis2's girth we landed in a charming Aire that is surrounded by Autumnal trees and has more mountain views.  It's supposed to cost 6 euros a night but so far nobody's collected our rent s🀞it might be free!  And the added bonus is it's right at the foot of Col d'Allos so that was Saturday's entertainment sorted!



So on Saturday morning with Mrs 🌞😎 for company we donned our cycling gear and set off on a 13 mile uphill trek.  The pass connects the valleys Ubaye and Verdon and climbs up the very beautiful Bachelard Gorge, and really it was another of those rides that was 'between a rock and a hard place' - the rock being the cliff wall to our right and the hard place was several hundred feet down on the valley floor with not much to separate the precipitous drop from the edge of the road!  Our climb started on the 7 and 8% lower slopes and continued for just over 2 hours as we progressed towards the summit, but once again we enjoyed some fantastic vistas as we went.

We eventually reached our goal and found a perfect place to gobble our lunch overlooking the opposite side of the col - but we wont be taking T4rdis2 up there! As I said the road is narrow and precipitous and is restricted to 3.5 ton vehicles that are less than 7 metres! However we saw at least 3 big motorhomes taking there chance - we couldn't decide if they were brave or just very stupid!



Looking down into the Bachelard Gorge - but it was impossible to do it justice
And as usual, what goes up must come down - but that part of the journey didn't take us 2 hours!  Then once we were back safe and sound in T4rdis2 we could see black clouds rolling in over the mountains and hear rumbles of thunder in the distance ⛈- I'm just very glad we didn't meet that at the top of the Col!


Sunday 24th September 2017

A Flower Pot Cyclist!
Today it was time to put Plan C into action and try to get up the Bonette - the highest road that The Tour de France has ever climbed!  But even before we set off we knew it was unlikely we'd get right to the top - especially as our legs were still recovering from yesterday's climb!  The Col de La Bonette is 2802 metres high and the road up is 15 miles long, and we know from previous experience that our e-bikes can only cope with about 10 miles when the going is steep!  However, we decided we'd have a go anyway, and just enjoy the torture  adventure that we knew this ride would bring!  So, what was Plan C?  It was to drive  back to Jausiers and park in a car park right at the bottom of the hill, and then once we'd finished we'd return to our present Aire for another night.


And all went according to plan, but to start with I did wonder if we were going to be disappointed in what the Col de la Bonette had to offer after the fantastic vistas we'd been treated to yesterday on the Col d'Allos.

On the lower slopes we found ourselves following a small river valley through which the River Arbries tumbled through, but once we got above the tree line (which we did quite quickly) we found ourselves in a remote deserted unspoiled barren landscape that was strewn with cascading streams and rocky scrubby grass lands that are home to sheep and dozens of marmots who were not in the least bit disturbed by us riding by!


In the end we had to call it a day at about 2400 metres up (about 10 miles), but at that stage a very convenient and beautiful picnic site presented itself, so it was absolutely no hardship to settle with our chicken and avocado baguettes and drink in all the majesticness around us!





Then, as we'd been sat in lovely warm sunshine while we ate our lunch, we debated the need to put our coats and gloves on for the ride back down - we did and it was a good job because the Alpine air becomes quite chilly at 30 mph and above!





Then it was back to the Aire at Barcelonnette, and soon after we got there we realised we'd got a BIG problem that may curtail this tour!  Usually we can recharge both bike batteries from the T4rdis's lithium ion leisure battery  on our inverter without dropping it's power level by very much, but today we were only half way through the first bike battery  when we noticed our leisure battery was depleted by half! Obviously we stopped the charging process and John checked all the wiring etc but couldn't find any cause, and as it was late afternoon on Sunday there was nothing more we could do about it at that time.


Monday 25th September 2017

Well, the problem seemed to get worse overnight - this morning the leisure battery was almost completely flat - therefore, we'd got no power for heating and no warm water for washing etc. and we knew that if the battery became completely flat our water pump and lights would also fail! However, after a couple of hours our solar panel had recharged it to more than 50% and by the time we'd completed a short drive it seemed to be up to about 80%.  But there was obviously a problem because once we started using it again the power level dropped like a stone.  It clearly wasn't going to sort itself out, so for now we've located a motorhome dealership in the town of Gap (about 50 miles away) but they're closed today.  Therefore we've moved back closer to Gap and we're keeping our fingers crossed that with their help our problem might be resolved either tomorrow or on Wednesday.

We'll let you know how we go on in the next post!

Click here to see our French camping spots

Thursday 21 September 2017

Our Very Own Tour de France - Day 28 - 31

Bourg d'Oisans to Vars les Claux

Monday 18th September 2017

This morning T4rdis2 left the Cascades campsite that lies at the foot of Alpe d'Huez and headed off up one of the 6 valleys that are found in the Oisans region.  We'd chosen valley Eau d'Olle,  and to get to it we took the D1091 and then the D526 towards the town of Allemont.  We'd picked this valley specifically because it climbed up the opposite side of the Col du Glandon to the one we'd previously tried to ride up last week, and it also could've potentially given us access to the Col de la Croix de Fer - but it wasn't to be - and I'll tell you why in a mo!


Our journey initially took the Varney's (us)  past Lac du Verney - another hydro-electric man made lake with a big dam - and from there we begun to ascend up through the valley, initially gently on a nice forested road, but as we went further the Col became steeper!


However, there were still lots of cyclists going for it, but some were definitely weaving about and looking quite exhausted, and as the signs indicated that sections of the 'hill' were 13% I was just very glad our work was being done by 4 wheels and not just 2!!!  And then the hairpins started and our journey once again became one of the white knuckle kind - only room on the road for one and a half and a hard cliff face on one side to prevent us from moving over!  To add to the mix there was also a fair bit of debris on the road - and at one stage we passed by a boulder in our path that had fallen from the shear cliff above and it must have been about 2 foot in diameter!





T4rdis2 REALLY wanted to stay here!















However, having said all that, it was another amazing drive, and eventually we reached what we thought would be another wild camp spot where we could spend the night.  There were waterfalls to our rear, the lovely Lake de Grand Maison (Big House) in front of us, and all around high snow capped glaciers on the massifs of Belledonne and The Grandes Rousses.

These characters almost came and knocked on the door to ask if they could
join us for lunch! But instead they entertained us with
a jousting matchπŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
The only problem was our altitude was once again very high - probably approaching 2000 metres, and the rain that started to fall  in the form of ice pellets was forecast to become heavy overnight.  Also our only way down was back the way we'd come - therefore we needed to decide if we should stay put in our magnificent spot and risk having to drive down maybe in snow tomorrow, or should we just admire what we'd got for a short while and make our way down to a lower level and find somewhere else to spend the night!  We were reluctantly sensible, and after a short work out to admire our surroundings we about turned and trundled back down - but even that required a few sharp intakes of breath when we met other vehicles hogging the white line coming the other way on blind bends.


Our new target was a simple Aire in the town of Vaujany, but this required another climb - to a height of 1250 metres!  However, the road was fairly good - so good in fact that a monster truck/crane led our way up the hill - so everything coming the other way either had to tuck in or back up!

Eventually we settled in the towns small tarmaced free Aire which overlooks a high forested hillside were a waterfall falls in several torrents from a great height - beautiful!





Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th September 2017

2 days that turned out to be mostly driving days about 120 and 100 miles respectively - but Wednesday's in particular turned out to be quite breathtaking! More rain had been forecast for most of the day on Tuesday, but to be honest we didn't see much of it! As we left the Aire at Vaujany the sun was trying to shine, but as we descended down towards Lac Verney the rain started to fall, and that lasted for maybe an hour but after that the sun kept us company for most of the rest of the day!

A Route Marker Along Our Way
Sadly we were soon leaving the beautiful  Romanche Valley and the Oisans Region behind but as we were heading for the N85 and Napoleon's Route (which had been recommended to us by some fellow travellers and is said to one of the top 10 drives in Europe) so we had high hopes of more fantastic vistas to come.  The current Route Napoleon first opened in 1932 and follows the way taken by Napoleon in 1815 on his march from Elba to Grenoble after his abdication. It runs for about 150 km, but today we only followed it for about a third of it's way - from Grenoble to the town of Gap.

And to be honest we were a but underwhelmed!  The road surface wasn't that good - John commented 'maybe it's the original that Napoleon put in'!  For us it just lacked WOW factor - possibly because we'd enjoyed such magnificent scenery in the Oisans Region!  Having said that, I think it probably gets better further on than we travelled, and we're planning to do that part later in our tour, so fingers crossed we wont be disappointed.

After about 50 miles we pulled over for our coffee stop - and WHOOPS we discovered we'd travelled all that way with our roof skylight open - luckily it was still in T4rdis2's possession!


Then once we got going again - with all our orifices firmly shut - it was a stop off at Gap for fuel and LPG gas before we continued on our way and found ourselves in the Ubaye Valley.  The valley passes more towering mountain peaks and is about 60 kms long, and it is here that the  Poncon Lake can be found.   This massive expanse of water is the second largest artificial lake in Europe, and the Dam that holds it in check is the biggest Earth dam in Europe!


Here we also found signs identifying the road as 'The Route de la Fruite' and I'm fairly sure that must have had something to do with the myriads of orchards, vineyards and greenhouses that lined the sides of the roads.






Eventually we pulled into a quaint little Aire in the village of La Breole, and after our regulation cuppa we decided we'd have a 'stroll' back to have another look at Lac de Serre Poncon!
This turned out to be about a 5 mile hike along rugged steep stoney trails but our high vantage point provided amazing views.  The only problem was the gradient of some of the paths - you'd think by now we'd be used to steep hills, but we'd only got our trainers on and there were plenty of 'rolling stones', especially on the down hill sections that tried to upend us/me!  But we did get back safe and sound and a good walk at the end of a long days drive was just what we needed!

The View to the Left
And the view to our right!

Our planned drive for Wednesday wasn't supposed to be so long - we were only aiming for an Aire at Briancon from where we planned to cycle up the 10 sheepish miles of the Col d'Lzoard - but as often happens - Plan A was a dud, and as we didn't have a Plan B at that time so we quickly had to hatch one out!

But before that Wednesday's  journey started with another long twisty climb that took us up to the opposite side of the Lac de Poncon, and for our trouble we were rewarded with more dazzling lake views under clear blue skies😎.  Then we followed the lake side for many miles until we reached the resort town of Savines-le-Lac, and from there the Lake waters receded behind us but we still had the company of the tumbling River Durance which provides several areas of white water for canoeists and lots of parking spots - one of which we picked for our coffee break.


The Aire at Briancon -  It didn't feel
right so we moved on!
Once we got going again we were eventually  tippled out into the town of Briancon, and after a quick stock up at Aldi we followed Mrs Snoopy's instructions that led us to the town's Aire - but oh dear!  It was nothing more than a car park, and a scruffy one at that.  There were several other old vans that seemed to have been parked for quite a while, and on an adjacent area there was what looked like a gypsy encampment.  We just took one look at each other and it almost didn't need saying - 'we're not stopping here'!  However, by this time it was 2pm and we were hungry, so while we incubated Plan B we scoffed our lunch.

Monument at the top of
Col D'Lzoard
John had our trusty Aires book out and also checked to see if there were any local ACSI campsites but there was nothing in the immediate vicinity, so in the end we decided that we'd drive over the Col d'Lzoard (instead of cycling) and continue on to our next planned stopping place which was near the top of  the Col de Vars

You can just about see T4rdis2 Basking in
the Sunshine at the top of the Col







And in a way it was probably a good job we did!  The climb from Briancon to the top was quite gentle and would undoubtedly have been a lovely ride, but by going up in the van we were able to park and climb up another huge mound to an orientation area from where we had 360 degree views of all the high mountain peaks and glaciers that surround the Col - and we wouldn't have been able to do that if we'd had our bikes with us!


After we'd drank it all in we set off on our journey down the other side - all 20 miles of it on narrow vertiguous roads but luckily we didn't meet much traffic coming the other way!  Apparently this part of the 'hill' is called the Casse Deserte - its an area of barren scree slopes punctuated by huge rock pillars that seemed to change colour as our angle changed with the twists of the road.



And once we were down off the Col the tortuousness of our route continued to challenge my excellent chauffeur!   The road almost buried itself in the deep Guil Gorge where more shear cliffs reared up on both  sides, and where rough long tunnels were hewn out of solid rock. 



The Gorge is also the home of white water rafting on a river by the same name - there are some fantastic pics of it in full spate  if you click here! The canyon like valley continued for several miles, but once we could see daylight again our journey was far from complete!  Now we were very near the bottom of the heavily forested lower slopes of the Col de Vars, so once again T4rdis2 had to put on crampons and  start up another very steep climb which was facilitated by numerous hairpins that came in very quick succession.  


After 15 miles of constant uphilling we finally arrived in the top settlement of Vars les Claux at 1850 metres (there are 2 more Vars villages further down), and from there we only had a couple more corners to go around until we reached our Aire which has fantastic views of Alpine lodges and, more distantly, more mountain tops and glaciers. However, we're once again at an altitude of about 2000 metres so thermals might be in order!  Also, on the way up we'd become a bit concerned when we heard a loud popping noise - twice!  It seemed the change in altitude had caused pressure to increase in a crisp bags and they had exploded on the shelf - oh well - it gave us a good excuse to eat them!



Thursday 21st September 2017

Before I tell you about our day I need to tell you about the wonderful news we received last night! Adam, Vicky and Jack are expecting a brand new little person into their family and the chap on the right is deliver him or her at the end of February. We're really chuffed for them and  looking forward to the arrival of our 4th grandchild.

Huge Congratulations to you all - We can't wait to meet your new arrival!  πŸ‘Ά πŸ˜—πŸ˜—πŸ˜—


For us the day dawned warm and sunny, but the start and end of it had a very definite cold  nip - when I crawled out of bed the thermometer was only registering 6 degrees - so I very quickly put the heating and the kettle on, and then crawled back in while things warmed up!



Anyway, the warming up bit didn't take long, and by the time we were ready to go out walking the sun had got his hat on and had already been playing for a while 😎!  Today our target was the summit of the Col de Vars which has been frequently used in the Tour de France - and while we were out we saw plenty of cyclists trying to replicate the victories that have been achieved there!  However, we didn't follow the road, instead we followed part of the Longueur trail which  tracks through green scrubby fields nearly all the way to the top! Here we mostly found peace and tranquillity - that is if you could blot out the occasional roar of motorbikes that were heading for the summit!


But that didn't happen to often, and for most of the way all we could hear was the drone of bees, the buzz of flies, the ding dong of cow bells and the chirping of millions of multicoloured crickets and grass hoppers - we had to be very careful where we were putting our great big size 8s and 10s!

Monument at the top of
Col de Vars

Once we got to the top our first requirement was feeding - maybe that was because we'd  been walking steadily uphill for over 2 hours!  But once our appetites had been sated we pottered around the plateau to see what was interesting.  We found the Igloo Cafe and the monument on the right,  and we were also treated to  more fantastic views of glaciers that seemed to be all around us. We also learnt that the other side of the Col is called The Home of Damsels because apparently it is here that there is an area of rock formations called 'Demoiselles Coiffees'. These came about because hard stone was contained within a softer matrix and eventually the softer stone was washed away by rainwater and this left tall columns that looked like women with piled up hairdos!  We didn't get to see them today, but when we leave we'll be descending on that side of the Col so hopefully there will be an opportunity for a quick photo shoot!

And that's about it really, we pottered back to T4rdis2 via the same route, and then popped a casserole in our slow cooker for later!  So all we've got left to do now is sit back and relax for the rest of our evening.

So until next time - Take Care πŸ˜™

Click here to see our French camping spots