We are now officially back in the
mountains after our extended stay at the seaside, having spent the
last 3 nights in Puget-Theniers just outside the Mercantour National
Park. Since we are only around 1 hours driving north of Nice (we
don't want to go too far with each move), I suppose we are really
still in the foothills of the French Alps, but with peaks still
reaching up above 2000m nearby we are very pleased to be back.
Our habit of finding local fetes and
festivals has continued with us chancing upon an open air performance
in Puget-Theniers on our first evening (Tuesday) by a Mambo and Salsa
group, Barrio Cuba. (Later we found out this was one of 415 free
musical events put on by the Conseil General Alpes Maritimes over the
Summer). We had no idea what to expect when we saw the posters, but
went along as the sun began to set and found ourselves in a very
happy, family party atmosphere again. With a small stage set up
alongside open air restaurants and people in mid-dinner sat just
metres away from the 6 foot speakers (not sure if they expected
that!) the locals were soon up dancing round the square to the latin
beats. Esther even cajoled me into a short dance towards the end of
the evening which is not easy to do!
The following day we chanced a lengthy
bike ride through the mountains, following an 86 km route we'd picked
up at tourist information that climbed from our motorhome at 400m
altitude through a town called Valberg at 1750m. A good chance to
stretch our legs. We checked the weather which forecast maybe 1-2mm
of rain in the afternoon, nothing we couldn't cope with. We started the day in brilliant
sunshine and passed through the impressive mediaeval city of
Entrevaux with its fortress, built under King Louis XIV, situated
high above. After turning off towards Daluis we started the
climbing up towards Guilaumes.
The next part of the route passed
through the magnificent Gorge de la Daluis, the “Colorado” of the
Alps, a sheer sided gorge carved through the ochre rock with pillars
reaching up hundreds of metres from the river below. It was
breathtaking and our slow climbing, through 17 short tunnels, on the
bikes gave us lots of time to take it in.
Unfortunately after 45km of riding and
just as we had started the serious ascending to Valberg, passing
1000m altitude on the now 8% road, the rapidly darkening clouds
started to drizzle gently and we realised the sensible option was to
abort. It was the right decision, within minutes the thunder started
rolling. Descending through the Gorge de la Daluis we'd never seen
rain like it, with visibility down to 5m forcing us to hide in
someone's doorway until it eased. We did eventually make it back to
the motorhome, but covered in road mud and having seriously exceeded
the limits of our Goretex. The 1-2mm forecast was a little off!
The rain hung around on Thursday so we
recovered in the motorhome and explored the small town of Puget
Theniers a little further, looking round the old town with its small
narrow streets and being very surprised by the impressive inside of
the small modest looking church. The passionate gentlemen who had
set up some information on the 16th century carvings and
frescos kindly explained their history and importance to the town to
us in English.
Waking to sunshine today we decided to
attempt another excursion, this time on foot. Checking the weather,
we were expecting thunderstorms and rain again all afternoon, so we
chose a shorter hiking route from Puget-Theniers up the valley side
to around 1000m and a traverse to the beautiful castle at Entrevaux
some 6km away which should have taken 4-5 hours.
It was part of one
of the GR routes which made us smile as we set off following the
traditional GR red and white markers again, as we had done in the
Pyrenees last September. However, as the clouds darkened rapidly
around midday we again felt obliged to cut the trail short and headed
back to the motorhome after around 3½ hours of peaceful hiking,
with views over the rolling hill stretching back towards the sea
(having even found our first fossil, looking like a smallish 3cm
ammonite). This time, however, the thunderstorms just never arrived.
It's been a lovely afternoon!
So, now, as we prepare for our next
move further into the hills the lesson of our first few days back in
the mountains is to never count on the weather forecast and to trust
what you see in the skies....and always pack for rain!
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