Sorry, both wifi and mobile here at Cliousclat are so bad, I couldn’t add anything tonight.
Wifi seems to be somewhat better this morning. As I write, the Cruas nuclear power station dominating my view of the Rhone Valley is venting clouds of water vapour from its cooling towers.
We left Florac (eschewing the 11 euro hotel breakfast) and set Camille for the village of Cliousclat in the Rhone Valley, with waypoints at Mende, Langogne, Aubenas and Privas to give her as little leeway as possible in choosing a route. At the end of the day in Cliousclat I found the navigation settings. She was already at fastest, which is a problem since I wanted to change her from shortest to fastest to prevent the absurd shortcuts she’s always taking down minor roads. I settled for compromise. I hope it works like optimised does in a Garmin.
It was a fantastic scenic drive through the Ardeche on the N102. Very little traffic, but more of it was large trucks than cars. The road climbed to a high plateau for much of the way, then descended into the Rhone Valley. Being a national road, the N102 is wide, with passing lanes, and it was possible to overtake slow moving vehicles, although passing large trucks in the left lane around right hand bends is still interesting at times. Virtually no visible life in the towns along the way. We found a cafe with outdoor tables in Barnas and negotiated a couple of sandwiches, orange juice and coffee in French. No English spoken here.
The highlight of the drive turned out to be coming within 2 metres of being squashed by a large articulated truck in a carpark. We were on the lookout for a WC. Because France is a civilised country, most towns and villages have a working public WC and signs toward it. We found one in the village of Mayres. Upon leaving, I was about to pull out of the carpark, which was an area open to the road for perhaps 50 metres. I glanced to my right, then left, all clear and was at the instant of accelerating to my right onto the road when this huge truck, moving rapidly towards my left, materialised from nowhere. I braked to avoid colliding with him, he braked hard to avoid colliding with the rock wall at the end of the carpark. I stopped perhaps a metre or so short of him. I was still at least a truck width inside the car park. Where did he come from?
Thinking about it, I realised he must have entered the parking area from the wrong side of the road on my right, so I couldn’t see him coming. He wanted to be in the correct position to execute an expertly judged reverse parking manoeuvre into the carpark, which he completed without ever glancing at me. If I had already been moving faster, or been half a car length closer to the road, it would just have been our bad luck.
We saw our first glimpse of the Alps from the Col l’Escrinet as we descended into the Rhone Valley, and found the village of Cliousclat, between Montelimar and Valence. The reason we are here is to rendezvous with Gerard, a cousin of our friend Denise. Gerard lives near the village, whose raison d’etre is as a base for artisanal potters, especially during the summer. Very quiet at this time of year. We went for a walk around the village, and saw only three older men playing boules, or petanque.
The outright theft of foreign words by the English language reminded me of this: “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” –James D. Nicoll
At La Treille Muscate, as we were one of the earlier couples to check in, they offered us the best room, at a discount. Obviously they hadn’t rented it to anyone yet. It had twin beds and was 25% more expensive than the one we had booked. But it had a great view down the Rhone Valley and was a bigger room, so we took it. It came with a side benefit. When we arrived in the restaurant for dinner we were shown to the best table. No cheaper alternative dining around here without driving (so no drinking). The €22 formula I’d noticed on a blackboard outside was nowhere in evidence on the menu. Perhaps it was lunch. The meal really was excellent. All negotiations were conducted in uncompromising, rapid French. I heard “poissin” and ordered the fish plat. I heard “boisson” and ordered a beer. Anne swooned over her Rhum Baba dessert, with a shot glass of fiery liquor glued to the plate.
One great thing about being here in September has been the weather. It’s been fabulous since some showers leaving Bordeaux nearly three weeks ago, and brief rain in Cauterets two weeks ago. Because the Continent is an hour ahead of GMT and still on summer time, it’s just getting light at 7am, and still light at 7:30pm. Perfect.
After Cliousclat It was time to plan how to use our remaining 9 days. We had time to revisit the Jura if we were inclined to. Anne wanted to stay in the village of Nans sous Sainte Anne, adjacent to the Source du Lison and bearing her name. No accommodation there for Wednesday, but I got a room in l’Ombre du Chateau for Thursday. Where to stay Wednesday? The hilltop village of Chateau Chalon looked intriguing. Anne reminded we had stayed there. Ah, I remember! The room and the view. Then I recalled visiting the opposite of Chateau Chalon, a village nestled in a gorge only a few km away. It had been raining quite heavily at the time. Baume les Messieurs. I booked a room there, in the abbey. That left 7 nights. I decided to spend two nights in Annecy. I love Annecy. I thought I could afford to do that booking a day later, but a day later, on Tuesday, I had to settle for a hotel 2km out, along the lake shore, for Friday, Saturday nights. Then two nights in Bourg d’Oisins, at the base of Alpe d’Huez to allow me to drive the major alpine cols used by the Tour de France.
Thursday night in Nice is already booked. That leaves two nights somewhere between Huez and Nice, possibly one of them in Grenoble, and nearly three days to cover about 500km before I turn the car in at Nice Airport on Thursday afternoon.