Meadows, Mountains & Musings

So, here we are then, blog number 9 and now into unchartered territory in terms of maximum time we've been away together for as we exceed the previous best of 6 weeks back in 2005 touring New Zealand.

This post (assuming I can get enough G's to power up the internet!), sees us in probably the best free Aire yet. We are roadside, in a place called Sixt-Fer-a-Cheval - not entirely sure what the reference to Goats is, as we've not seen a single one! That said, we are still in the mountains, at some 700 or so metres up with views at every turn. More on that later though.

So last blog post was from a lovely free site overlooking the vines in the Alsace. We spent a lovely afternoon on Tuesday exploring more of the Alsace area, stopping at Hunawihr which is mainly noted for having views of vines at every turn, but also 15-16th century church with both commanding views over the vines but also some classy grape inspired clock face hands.

We then headed onto Riquewihr which is again well known for its wines, but also the Alsatian take on a pizza - think thin piece of dough liberally spread with cheese, bacon, onions, and if you fancy, a bit more cheese! It felt only right to have a sample, so we treated ourselves to lunch.

From here we headed towards Kayserberg which was to be an overnight stop for us, but seeing as it was mainly a car park, and the local town mayor had his greedy head on, we turned our backs on paying getting on for £20 and headed to Pfaffenheim and a free site we'd spotted. Turned out to be a great move as it was a much nicer spot next to a vineyard (what did you expect) and had a peaceful night there.

Wednesday was to be a bit of a driving day as we needed to cover some miles and get us close to the Swiss border to see the Tour of Romandie on Friday. This wasn't in the original plan, but on realising how close we would be and with weather set fair, we thought it was worth the effort. The first part of the trip saw a brief shopping stop for some supplies in Decathlon (new walking poles for Jen) and Auchan (finally sorted the TV situation out with a cheap HD digi box thing!) so in all a good morning's work. We stopped roadside for a picnic lunch with the hills really starting to roll in front of us. So far, the non-toll roads are not proving too challenging, and saving us a fortune! Having done a few days off grid, we opted for a couple of nights in a lakeside campsite in Malbuisson which is with in easy reach of the Swiss border. On rocking up, we were told to select our own pitch so we opted for a stunning pitch lakeside. Being a Wednesday, we did our usual budget tot up and even with the treat lunch we were £45 under for the week - thanks mainly to some fab free nights here and there.

Thursday dawned bright and after a bit of a lazy start, we did a short walk lakeside up to the local town for the obligatory bread for lunch! Back at the van we spend a few hours on housekeeping jobs ready for a few more days roadside.

Friday was the earliest start for what feels like weeks! The morning was looking bright but very misty (I've not seen 6.30am for many a week!) and we rolled out of camp pretty much on schedule. We'd decided that with a bit of a drive in Switzerland, and the possibility of a 200 Swiss franc fine if we got it wrong, we would purchase the Vignette to give us flexibility for all roads in Switzerland. It lasts for a whole year so at £40 it's not too bad compared to France. This gave us a stunning view from the off, running down the side of Lake Geneva with the snow topped peaks all around us.

Now, this is where the trouble starts with this week's blog! As with all things #Jexit related, there is a system! I download the pictures, save them to our hard drive, delete the crap and make a note of the ones I want to use in the blog. Usually about 1/2hrs work - this week with over 400 pictures, it has taken miles longer! In my opinion, there is nothing finer than a bright blue sky with a snowy peak - how I would have managed with an old school 24/36 exposure film I don't know! Anyway, so's not to bore you I have only included what I think are some of the best.

Onto the Tour of Romandie (Switzerland really), this is a 6 day stage race which is seen as a bit of a warm up for the longer tours which start next month. We were headed for Ollon, which is a mountain time trial stage of 9.9km - basically each rider goes on their own for the best time up the hill. In spectating terms it's fab because you have a good 3hrs entertainment watching each rider in varying degrees of pain. Once we located the right road, and the way up, we managed to find a great spot by the bus stop with a couple of (eventually) friendly Belgians. We had a wander up the hill to some spectacular views, and settled in for the afternoon - enjoying the freebies from the obligatory publicity caravan!

The TT is run in reverse general classification order so we had a good idea what riders to expect when. This meant we could spot all the Brits and give them our very best Brizzle shout out! Jase took the view that a bit of gentle encouragement using the line "come on, it's pissing down back home" would work wonders! Well, maybe not wonders, but we did get a laugh from Peter Kennaugh, thumbs up from Luke Rowe and Alex Dowsett dropped his bottle for us! We were hoping Geraint Thomas might have been on for the win, but it wasn't to be.

At the end of the stage, we decamped quickly and headed off the hill. Our overnight stop was to be back in France (the budget won't stand too much of Switzerland!) and at a free Aire just outside of Chamonix. What we probably didn't expect was a route right over the Col La Forclaz! It wasn't a major mountain climb, but certainly the highest thing we've taken the van over and fully loaded too! Fair play to Jase, he drove it really well - I'm not usually bothered by heights, but there were parts of this road that had me leaning the other way! Throughout the journey, we kept saying it's ok, we're not in the snowline - and then we found the snowline with unbelieveably high snow banks of probably 6ft or so either side of us!

We made it safely to our free stop in Argentiere which was basically a car park, but with some pretty awesome views & we settled in for the night.

The next morning, the views were incredible, and we headed from the Aire, into Chamonix. We had a lovely wander round the market, and then headed up by the chairlifts for a bit of a walk. We had been warned that many of the usual walking tracks were inadvisable at the moment due to the extreme avalanche risk. We heeded the advise and stayed firmly on the grass! The views were simply stunning though. The afternoon was set really nice, so we opted for a campsite - one of the downsides of some of the Aires is that you are discouraged from "camping activity". What this means is reality is not getting tables and chairs out etc - this isn't by any means every one, but certainly for anything vaguely free we'd seen in Chamonix would have fallen into this category. Hence, opting for the only open campsite in town, called the "Deux Glaciers" for fairly obvious and scenic reasons. We spent a lovely afternoon in the sun, reading and simply staring into the view.

Chamonix poses an bit of a juxtaposition at this time of year - most places are happy to be out of the winter and heading towards better weather. Not so for Chamonix! It's very much a mountain town built for the snow and all the activities that go with it. There is something quite ominous about seeing chairlift simply swinging in the breeze, knowing that nothing much will happen there until the next snowfall. Unlike a lot of other resorts, Chamonix hasn't really embraced the summer mountain pursuits - there are walks and cycle routes, but it's nowhere near as set up for it as other areas.

Sunday was another lovely morning, and after a stroll around the campsite, taking in as many views (and pictures) as was reasonable, we headed out of town and towards Sixt-Fer-a-Cheval. This is a place we spotted in the "Most Beautiful Villages of France" book, as recommended by Kay and Rusty (thanks both). It was a lovely drive across, with a stunning stop at a waterfall (my second love after mountains!).

We found the Aire without any issues and quickly determined that this would be the Aire by which all others are measured! This one is a large layby, with room for about 20 vans with free water available. The only charge is for electricity if you want it - we have plenty of solar from the wonderful sun, so no issues there. It is riverside, so has a lovely rushing water sound and mountainous views all around. No major road noise or urchins hanging around, so a strong 10/10 from Jen!

After lunch we headed to see the Cascade du Rouget which was around a 6mile walk with 300m of uphill! It was totally worth the effort though and made the drenching all the sweeter!

Now it's Monday, and Jase is out riding the Col Joux Plan and I'm hoping I can harness enough G's to upload this little lot! In terms of our next plans, we need to head more south as we have a 2 week booking in Vaison-La-Romaine from next Monday 7th May. The route is a bit weather dependant but we are planning to head to Annecy for a couple of days, then down into the Ardeche before hitting Vaison. Well, that's the plan as I type.

And so we turn to the musings. Getting over the 6 week mark feels quite epic in some ways. I'd always thought that I wouldn't feel "into the groove" until we got to Vaison, but that's not been the case. Since we left the Classics, and started the journey for real (and found the sunshine) the whole thing has become second nature. There aren't many annoyances to deal with - one of the main rules we have in the van is to put things back where they came from - having such a small van plays into my OCD nicely as literally everything has a home - but only 1! You have to have a few little routines to keep things working well. My health has improved immensely - I am doing way more exercise than I ever have before, and have not used my inhaler once! I'd like to think I might have lost a bit of weight, but with the wine, pastries and bread that is unlikely I think - I'll settle for my clothes fitting better though! I also have a better tan than I've ever had, certainly for April, and my general wellbeing feels more on an even keel. We both had stresses in our work life before, but it is amazing how quickly that melts away. There are stresses here, but of a different kind - like getting the laundry done or how much water we have on board, and of course money. I think Jase is more relaxed with the free camping idea, and I've definitely had a few restless nights with it, but it's all part of the adventure and one which I am hugely grateful for being able to undertake.

Finally, to this week's question which comes from my sister. What silly things have I done to the amusement of Jase and others? Well, as most of you know, I am a bit of a tool most of the time, so there are endless possibilities here. I've picked what I think are the best (and least embarrassing) two:

1. Back in Germany, I went to pay for some diesel, thinking to myself I needed to pull some of my schoolgirl language skills to the fore - I correctly asked for pump vier (4) and bitte (please), duly paid and then when the attendant asked if I wanted a receipt, for some unknown reason I went for Spanish and "si"! I panicked and followed this with a bit of French "oui" before finally finding "ja" - cue very much laughter from the attendant.

2. Out for a walk with Jase, and we were practising some French, and I was dreaming about being in Vaison and enjoying a salad with a nice chilled rose. I turned to Jase and basically asked for a toilet of wine! Cue much laughter from him. Languages has never really been my forte, but at least I'm trying!

That's it for now, stay safe all, see you next week for blog #10

J&J