Puy de Dôme - 7 September 2019

7 September

Despite it being quiet last night, neither of us slept particularly well. Tintin was up at about 3am asking where his plink, plink fizz (solphadeine for the uninitiated) was, and his voltarol - he had a headache stemming from neck ache. On the plus side it meant we heard some owls ‘talking’.

This morning we walked back to the other carpark - but no market going on, so found a boulangerie and prepared to drive again.

I drove first, for nearly two hours before having lunch. Tintin took over for the next couple of hours. We stopped off in Aubusson and serviced Dave whilst we had the chance. When I say ‘serviced’ - what I mean is draining the grey water (from shower and sinks), emptying the black water (Tintin emptying the toilet cassette!) and filling up with water so we have about 100 litres. This can last about three days with both of us showering daily, all the water for tea and coffee! - plus washing up after each meal. However, if we’re going somewhere that’s unlikely to have free services, or even any services - we do try to top up so we never have to just drive to find services.

Very different roads today, more windy and up and down - not too busy. However, I wasn’t that happy driving through Limoges. Huge place, so many traffic lights, lots of traffic (would be worse on a weekday!), a bit of a complicated system - Tintin thought the person who times and co-ordinates all the traffic lights did very well! When he was driving, the road we should have been driving on just didn’t exist! We followed a diversion - the first French one that actually took us to where we needed to be!

We arrived at the big car park for Puy du Dôme and in our hurry to get going, forgot to turn the gas on (glad to report that after 4 hours away, everything in the freezer is still frozen - phew! - especially as I’ve cooked and frozen 6 lots of chopped up chicken, and a couple of chilli and spag bol meals!

We started walking at 3.30 and signposts said it would take 90 minutes - which it did. It was fairly steep in some places - a good workout for the heart/lungs and legs! Most people were coming down as we were going up.

There is a train which can take you up and down, but after sitting so long driving, felt we needed the exercise.

There are the ruins of the temple up there, along with the meteorological station - and obviously views everywhere. We could see where Mont Blanc was, but not very clearly. It was really quite chilly at the top - 1,465m. We treated ourselves to our pain au lait which we bought this morning.

The descent was a bit slippery in places. I had decided to wear my new Zero sandals (everyone else was in trainers!). They are minimalist shoes, so no heel or cushioning. Were good, except it took quite a while to clean off my dusty feet and shoes on our return!

There were a few people running up and down - suppose it takes all sorts!

Think we were both pleased to see Dave again! Oh, there’s a picture of Dave from the top which Tintin zoomed in on - and the next picture shows how far away we were!

We’re glad to have ‘done’ the climb today, as it’s possible rain tomorrow. In fact we probably had really good weather, as it wasn’t too hot going up - I’m sure there may be better views on different days - but we take what we find!

Hopefully our bodies will regenerate with a good night’s sleep 💤tonight!

More photos follow