Staying overnight at Ann and Alan's we got off to a good start for Dover and the ferry to Dunkirk, squeezing enough out of the tank to avoid the queues at the petrol stations and fill up at Super-U. By nightfall, and despite our out-of-date map, we were in the Loire valley and found a municipal campsite at Long. This lies at the end of the 'Rue de la Chasse a Vaches', a sport that strangely doesn't seem to have caught on beyond Long.
More excitement followed next day as we skirted Paris, desperate to avoid the peripherique. Leaving Versailles, which was far too crowded for a visit, we accidentally drove our 1.99 metre van into a 2.00 metre 10-mile tunnel which seemed to be some sort of double decker road under a motorway. A bit like the intro to Doctor Who or 2001 as the lights flashed past 1mm above our heads before hurling us out into some alien Paris suburb. Shocked and disorientated we drove as far as Nevers and settled for a nice little hotel and a pizzeria in the old quartier.
From there we drove to La Bourboule just below Mont Dore (in the photo above) to a nice little year-round campsite. Fortunately we had a good camp site book as most of the sites opened on April 1st, the following day.
Jim had brought his brand new road bike so he and I rode up to Mont Dore to christen it, sipping beer in a cafe as the sun set over the snow-capped peaks.
Another freezing night with Jim in the tent with two sleeping bags and us cosy in the van. Then over the col and cross country through the mountains and then into the Cevennes, all taking turns driving and arriving at Anduze in time for supper.
Sadly, JZ is having to sell the house that here father lived in for many years. You can see it and the town in a Joseph Zobel interview in Anduze on Youtube. Most of her fathers things, including paintings and sculptures he did while here, as well as furniture, will be being shipped to Martinique for a re-creation of his workspace there. In addition JZ and Edward are having to prepare the house for viewing and Jim and I spent the day helping to create a terrace to disguise the rubble from a wall that had been demolished - see video and our theme song .
JZ and Edward left yesterday morning and we spent the afternoon climbing the hillside behind the house - rows of stone terraces and no obvious path until we got to above the tree line and found a track, though it wasn't clear whether it had been made by human, wild boar or 'mouflon'. Whoever made it, it didn't seem to lead anywhere so we scrambled home. Plenty of other walks to do. Weather turning colder and we had rain through the night but were made to feel better hearing that there was snow in the North of England.
Today was cloudy but rain held off so Jim and I did a run followed by a bike ride up across the ridge to Generagues were we found the cemetery and the Zobel family plot. Very steep climbs, including the last couple of hundred yards which you have to climb whenever you come back to the house. Jim then drove off to Arles to visit Decathlon. Margot and I were going to do a walk but it started raining again so we have postponed that for now.
See our holiday snaps on https://plus.google.com/photos/100479903138288883757/albums/5727586393755881297
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