Another day with a long long up and a long long down. 60km 1,100m climb, 1,200m descent
It was cold and misty first thing so I took my time getting up and breakfasted and packed. I set off at about 10, still misty, but up and up on a reasonable road and by 11:30 I was up above the mist in the valley below.
There is little more to say, The view above was from a kind of preliminary climb, which I did just to avoid a main road, then down to the start of the real climb, up about 800m in 30km. Bigger road than yestaeday but nearly as quiet. Blue sky, cool breeze. Another lovely day.
A good set of bells on this church.
The granite cross is made from a single piece of stone, and has a carving of Adam and Eve on the base, amongst other things.
The thing about a church, as opposed to a museum, is that a church still has life in it, the atmosphere speaks of the generations who have used this space, signs from the past are everywhere, showing changes through generations, and then the present day also, perhaps fresh flowers, lit candles, and here a set of well-thumbed hymn books, on a shelf behind a pillar.
Inside they have the musical notation as well as the words, hymns for feasts and occasions etc. This one is for “Dimanches ordinaires” though.
At the very top was Lac Saint Front, a lake in an old volcanic crater.
I was settling down for a little post-lunch snooze on this bench when a walker clumped up, somewhat disappointed I rose an said “Bonjour Madame” to be polite.
She was a small person, in hiking gear, very short and skinny with a wizened face, several moles with long hairs curling out, aged well above 70 I should think, looking out into the bright sunlight from under a peaked cap, very voluble and lively. Her “marie” was somewhere ahead, he wouldn’t wait for her, he was sports-mad it was an addiction, he had entered for a Triathlon recently, done ok with the swimming and cycling but conked out half-way through the running. He hadn’t done enough training. Then we went on to her son, he had trained as an engineer, but failed the exam, so learned to be a mountain guide, but there was no demand, so tried mechanics etc. etc. /She was a caution.
On the way down I tried an off-road track, lovely at first,
but became so stony that I had to push the bike for 2km. I was in no hurry today though, plenty of time to get to the destination, and all downhill now.
The descent was 15km of whizzing down switchbacks, quite a wide road but with this low wall on the right and the occasional precipice over it, not much traffic luckily.
And that’s it, I’m now in a big apartment in an old house in this isolated village, no internet, peace for a few days. I will have a bath for my aching muscles, go for a walk or two, chill, in the mountain air.