Wednesday 190504:
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| Apparently there's very little that can be done about it - a not particularly unusual case of Early Morning See-Through Hair Syndrome. |
Off to Lons-le-Saunier, the administrative capital of the Jura region. There is really nothing to recommend about the town at all - as far as we know.
We got a little bit lost, then stormed up what, for a major road, is an unbelievably steep hill and overtook a Fiat motorhome just before the top. Well, you just have to, don't you.
Soon we were back into that marvellous scenery which had so impressed me last September - limestone and, mainly, broadleaved woodland - you can't beat it! Well managed mixed woodland was all around as we continued to rise onto the undulating plateau and were gradually introduced to its occasional deep valleys and gorges. This whole area still bases its economy mainly on timber. Up until the 1950s most people here farmed though the summer months and in the winter worked with wood, fabricating toys and games. (I read that on a tourist information board).
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The village above is the same one as in the photograph below. |
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Sitting "on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head". And look at the village blending into the landscape. |
Lunch on a Route Touristique, (I told you French was easy), south of Orgelet and we're using another new and very successful purchase, a slightly shorter table leg and its three-legged take-it-anywhere base. After a while we used the base in the van all the time as well - it saves you from being "imprisoned" by the table when its leg is set into the fixed position in the floor.
Notice to the left there's the top of a log-pile? They were oak logs, recently extracted and waiting to be taken to form one of those fabulous woodpiles that you see outside a majority of homes in rural France. A mechanical splitter must have been used in order to split those one metre lengths.
Contrary to our planned route, I'd chosen this route touristique on a whim - probably my best whim of the holiday. Looking ahead along the new route, Jo then made a totally inspired decision to aim us towards a campsite marked on the map at Matafelon. (Of course, she'd only been looking at a little teepee symbol on the Michelin map and didn't realise that we'd have to travel through a part of the steep, high and winding Gorge de l'Ain to reach the site).
Camping Des Gorges De L'Oignin is probably the very best site we have ever been to anywhere. So far.
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The view from our plot. And again the houses fit right into the woodland. |
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I don't expect for one minute that anyone reading these pages will ever go to a particular site just because we've said it's a good one, therefore I don't bother to ever properly recommend any. Except this one. This is one we recommend.
Everything was new, or nearly, and of the toppest quality, (except that there weren't many amperes at the hook-up, but that's no bad thing in a country which relies so very heavily on nuclear power stations. So saying, in this region many of the rivers, as was the one in front of us, have since the '50s been dammed to generate hydro-electric power). After a few days Jo found that if she firstly switched off the fridge, she could generally get away with using her electric hair straighteners, (it must be great to have electric hair), or even the kettle, without popping the supply.
The very young chap at reception spoke good English, (eventually), and I managed to delay my giggles when he asked us not to park on the grass, but on the grrrrwavels. (Gravillons = gravel).
