Tuesday May 30th, Laragne-Monteglin

Fig yogurt - yummy

We’ve had a great day, we were in the mountains where the temperatures were a bit cooler and checked out some rather interesting towns.

This morning, Die was the first town we came to and it looked really interesting. Spotted an Aire that was not only close to the road, but close to the town. Wandered to the nearby information centre and picked up some maps then walked into the town, an old walled town oozing with history and really vibrant. I truly need to keep pinching myself as we walk down these sorts of streets with their little shops and alleyways. Picked up a nice bag of cherries for less than €2 and of course a small baguette for our lunch.

Street scenes in Die

There seemed to be a great discussion on the street corner.

Bought my cherries here, and they also sold wine, cheeses
and many other things. A very small shop.

Continued on our way following the D93 passing through hillside vineyards and then into more valleys with hay being made before climbing up into the Haute Alps (High alps). The map showed a lot of switchbacks but it was a piece of cake compared to Norway last year as the roads were a reasonable width and there was very little traffic. Crossed the summit at 4000 feet and found a nice pull off just below for a late lunch stop. Continued on down through the valley, such beautiful country with huge areas of fruit trees covered in netting, not sure what the crop was though.

Stopped at an Aire in the great little town of Serres beside a really fast flowing icy blue river. The old medieval town rose steeply above the road and we set off to see what was at the top. We climbed stairs and little streets in amongst a myriad of houses and we climbed and climbed but ended up giving up before we got to the top! I think there was a small abbey, but decided in the afternoon heat, that was now climbing to 30 degrees was getting a bit much.

Serres, quite a climb to the top.

Toyota Hi-Lux can go anywhere -
even climbing steps!

How would you like to sort this out Deano?

Back down to the van and after a refuel we continued down the valley. Had seen an Aire on a lake but we turned off and didn’t go far before we decided the road looked a bit suspect and the neighbourhood not that great. Kept driving and after checking out a “proper” campground that once again held no charm we came across this Aire in Laragne-Monteglin. Although it is only a large carpark area, it is just out of town and is very clean with a number of campers already here. It was great, parked and pulled out the chairs and sat outside in the cool.

Noticed two vans next to us with GB plates, have seen very few on our travels. First met Phil who was not in good shape. He is a very keen road cyclist and was not far from this camp yesterday when a car pulled out in front of him, he swerved and ended up going over the handlebars. Evidently the driver stopped but once he saw that he was moving, continued on. Paul, his friend who is travelling in the other GB motorhome and is also an avid cyclist ended up getting an ambulance as he had a lot of injuries. Phil was in hospital until 3am this morning and got a taxi back to the camper. He has a big gash in his leg that couldn’t be stitched, a broken toe, suspected broken tibia and lots of gravel rash. Tomorrow he needs to get a nurse to redress his wound and not sure if he can drive for a few days.

We ended up having a long chat with both Phil and Paul, they have been travelling in Spain as well as Italy so got lots of ideas from there about where to stay. These evenings are just so balmy and after sitting outside having our salad meal we went into town to check it out. Quite a few cafes with people sitting outside and generally a very nice feeling.

Really feeling that we are settling into the rhythm of travelling in this part of the world, hot days and balmy evenings means adjusting to what and when you do things during the day.  We are getting much closer to the Mediterranean now and looking forward to seeing the ocean again.