Autumn 2019

Sisteron - 10 September 2019

Kay drove through the Gorges de la Bourne and on to Vassieux-en-Vercors for lunch. It’s cold and wet today so we decided to drive on to Sisteron dropping down 1200m in one go with lots of hairpins.

10 September

Last night made a pea, ham and tomato risotto in the oven - despite it going out at least half a dozen times - grr - infuriating! The man in Guernsey was going to replace the thermo couple before we left - but was on holiday himself and then didn’t have time.

Watched a few paragliders landing just in front of our window - they must have had lots of practice as they all landed like experts. Think we could have a go for about €100! May have to go on my bucket list - but not just yet!

Duvets were made back up to 13.5 tog, as it felt quite chilly 🥶- Tintin even slept with his fleece blanket on top!

This morning was about 13° in Dave, and 11° outside. Either our gauges aren’t correct, or there’s not much insulation going on!

I started off driving today for about 75 minutes. Drove through the Gorges de la Bourne. Well, I’m glad I didn’t meet too much traffic! Obviously I knew we would fit under some of the craggy rock overhangs, but definitely a leap of faith! The cliff walls are over 600m high, the road seems narrow in places and you can’t see what’s coming around the tight bends!

Phew, after that drove to Vassieux-en-Vercors where we had a healthy salad for lunch - no baguette or pastries today ☹️. We then serviced Dave - €2 for water, even washed Dave off a bit - probably pointless - as it rained afterwards!

It was a very grey, cool sort of day - so we didn’t fancy parking up and walking or riding. Tintin then drove. It’s fair to say that we’ve both had our fair share of hair pin bends today.

When driving for hour after hour through immense mountains and such spectacular scenery, it makes me feel very small and insignificant!

Sadly we didn’t get very good photos of the zigzag road which took us down 1,200m -as we came out of a tunnel - and were straight into the corners. Tintin drove for about another hour, then I took over for the last hour.

We’re at a place called Sisteron. It’s still on the route ‘Foothills of the Alps’ from our guide book, but we missed off some of the stops. There is a huge citadel in front of us waiting to be explored - but the rain set in a few hours ago - so will have to wait until tomorrow.