France (2)

After a brief visit to Le elephant (see climbing) we sped away from Fontainebleau at our blistering speed of 48mph. Down hill, with a wind behind, tail-gaiting a truck, doped up on speed we can do 52mph but that just gets plain scary. Our goal was to reach south of Auxerre or nearby (always leave it open to avoid disappointment). We finally stopped up in a small village by a very beautiful river and feeling like a night out we thought we’d try some world famous French culinary delights. There was only one available restaurant nearby so no real choice, which is thankful as it would have been a bad one. I’m not sure I could really describe the meal we both had, one green and one orange puree of unidentified vegetable matter, one piece of sweaty white fish, starchy wet tagliatelli and some fruit de mer (obviously from a jar). Washed down with the most awful drink they could have manufactured, beer and lemonade, now if they had left it alone at that I would have managed, but the addition of Grenadine and some non-descript citrus juice, well the phrase ‘goat curry’ came to mind.

The next day we passed by a ‘motorworld’ type of place and was amazed that even through the language barrier they can still offer you that spotty 16 year old, haven’t got a clue about cars approach to service. We spent two hours in a Mercure hotel car park trying to get this internet site online, god knows how we’ll keep it going in Congo!

	On we travelled into the dark and parked on a thin verge of grass outside some houses in Saussiois. True to Patrick’s forewarning, in the morning we found that we were actually a few hundred yards from a large car park. Rain the next day so we slept in, actually we don’t do early’s any more, but went instead for a long walk in the afternoon, not sure how were fitting it all in these days. On the way we spotted what I think are sloes, so we stopped off to pick a bucket full to see if we could make sloe gin, we’ll keep you informed if it works or not. If only we had a mushroom picking guide we’d be manging the champignons.

	Climbing at La Saussois


	After climbing the next day (see climbing), we found that we had a severe power shortage in the truck, so to boost supply and have our first warm shower in two weeks we pulled into a camping ground and plugged into the mains. Everything went on to charge and we also had the luxury of the electric heater in the evening. Did a mountain of laundry in the shower, dancing in a trug of soapy clothes, and hung it out to drip. In the morning we packed up and posted 10 euro though the honesty letter box.

	Had a leisurely start and headed further south. On the way to Nevers, we passed through Lucy-sur-yonne, which was just up the road from Misery. There was a fantastic sign-post saying Misery and pointing straight at the church! Lunch in Moulins was wonderfully French and the restaurant was so amazingly Parisian, bohemian and fallopian all rolled into one. Tonight into the Massif Central and the Parc regional des Volcans, I’ll let you know if we find Spock, over and out.

	The drive into the Volcans National Park was the first real test of the truck on winding thin steep roads, and it loved it, ok, not super quick but with steady ease it climbs like a beauty. We arrived at Chaudefour Valley in the morning and met two English climbers called Matt and Rory. Both had been to Bangor Uni and now were on a bit of a road trip across Europe sleeping in the back of Matt’s Astra van (you may struggle to find a smaller van, even sooty would have complained). They both recognised the truck from Fontainebleau, and as it was raining we invited them in for a brew. Note to Bet, the coffee-making-thingy for the stove makes fantastic coffee! As things cleared, we headed off to climb a huge Volcanic Plug (see climbing). It was fairly cold but the guidebook assured us it was climbable throughout October, and since it was only November 1st we chanced it. The area is so beautiful and well worth the visit just for walking. There are even two ski resorts in the area, which I found surprising.

			That evening after a Douche bath in the disabled loos the temperature was dropping and the thermometer in the van was reading 9oC. The wind was biting cold so Matt and Rory came over for more coffee and a game of Texas Hold’em. They had photos and video of their climb which we watched, and also some of the Bangor students antics/web site (I don’t know if all of what we saw is online but well worth checking out, Matt is doing some crazy shit on a bike). Jools and I got fleeced at the poker, and I fried up banana with cream and grated chocolate that went down well with the lads. In celebration of a great days climbing and to warm the bones we also cracked open a small bottle of damson gin (bought at Nantwich Food Fair). All in all a great night, but as the temperature inside the truck fell to 3oC we kicked the lads out and snuggled into bed under the 15tog king-sized duvet that I had once complained was too much! (Matt’s van computer was reading -2oC).

	La Rancune ( the 1st and 2nd of November!)

In the morning it was as if winter had arrived overnight, thick frost covered the trees, the ground was frozen and snow lay on the hills. Thankfully we had bagged the climb the previous day, as it would have been far too cold, today. We left the lads at the car park and headed to Millau for Via-Ferrata (see climbing).

It was a long run down to Millau as we have been avoiding the payage and autoroutes. Although this is taking longer the scenery has been amazing, France is very beautiful off the main drag. We passed through so many gorges and small villages with tunnels and narrow winding passes. As evening fell, Jools directed us to a possible spot to overnight. As we arrived, there was the definite aura of climbers around and we realised we had landed into a popular climbing destination the Gorges du Tarn. There is a great little house built into the rock which is derelict but the French climbers seem to occupy it as a squat during the off-tourist season. The next day we carried on to Millau.

We spent the morning after the Via Ferrata driving around trying to get a good shot of the Via Duct (The world’s tallest suspension bridge…as seen on Top Gear), but we couldn’t find any good viewpoints to photograph it (unlike Top Gear), so we decided they must have C.G.I.’d it. The only way we could have got a proper shot was to pay to cross over it and that would have cost less than the fuel we used up farting around all morning, but the best placed plans of mice. Amazingly though with all the winding hills and passes we seem to still be averaging 12mpg(20lt/100km).