part-2

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• Sat 11th Jan
  Left Tom and Alex’s this morning, Roger and Maggie’s car repaired, so they are returning to Liverpool.
  Sue’s cough/cold not nearly as bad as last week, but far from better.
  Drove to Chateau de Voltaire at Ferney, where Voltaire spent the last 20 years of his life.
  Involved backtracking through Geneva traffic light capital of the world.
  An elegant house-
  

  The ground floor as very pleasant, very liveable in.
  

  

  

  

  

  

  A

  All rooms connected off each other. The first floor had more furniture, but the rooms were smaller.
  The basement, a real rabbit warren, was very strange, all sorts of displays about grottos, and there development of the years. No indication if this had any relationship to the house or Voltaire.
  Set off to an Aire for the night, but a narrow road winding up the side of a mountain with increasing snow was decidedly not a good idea. Would be most tempting in the spring or summer.
  So, we decided to head off for our next stop, Bourg en Bresse, and, throwing caution to the wind, we traveled on a peage motorway. Some 50 kms short of Bresse, (or is it Bourg) a motorway service station had LPG, so we decided to fill up. Some drama getting the pump to work- again. These used to be so easy before they were improved. Anyway, we decided to spend the night at the service station, a large space for caravans (just us), no lorries, and a splendid dog walk, where Josie is delighted in a new pastime, trying to dig up and catch moles. If she succeeds in catching one, will update tomorrow!

• Sun 12th Jan
  Woke up to minus 5 degrees, and a gentle bitingly cold breeze. Our motorway service station stop worked really well.
  Set off to continue our journey to Bourg-en-Bresse, and the Monastery de Bourg.
  The outside.
  

  

  The main entrance.

  

  

• Cont’d
  From the informative notice board-
  “In 1504, at the age of 24, Margaret of Austria, daughter of Emperor Maxmillan, lost her husband Philbert the Fair, Duke of Savoy. She decided to raise the Royal Monastery of Brau to honour his memory and to commemorate her love for him”.
  The church, very plain.
  

  A lot of carved decoration around her tomb, viewed from the upper gallery.
  

  The stained glass windows.
  

  There were two two tier cloisters, rather mundane, her living quarters, and monks cells. All have been converted into art galleries, mostly paintings but some sculptures.
  The largest of these spaces.
  

  Interesting (mostly), but nothing to get excited about. And, almost inevitably, one room devoted to modern paint splodge waste of resources crap rubbish.
  Despite this, a very enjoyable morning going round, despite being frozen in the church and cloisters.

  After lunch, we needed a few bits and pieces (well, onions in particular), so drove a short distance to an Intermarche, only to find that we are too used to UK long opening hours, and arrived just as it was closing. Whilst contemplating what to do, we availed ourselves of the launderette, and eventually, I found an open shop (Google search for “convenience store”), so all was well. Now parked up in the Aire behind the monastery, and the temperature already below freezing. But, a cold sunny day such as we have had infinitely preferable to rain. Tea was greatly improved by the addition of onion.

• Mon 13th Jan
  Drove to Annecy,this time eschewing the peage motorway. A fine journey in bright sunshine, not a cloud to be seen, although temperature well below freezing. The road was slow, down a hillside into a valley, and up the other side. At one point, the cliff to the side of the road was covered with icicles, some about 18 inches long.
  Eventually dropped down to Annecy, and after a false start in an unsuitable car park, found another parking up a very steep hill with a grand view over the town and lake.
  Walked down to the Palais de l’lsle, the palace on an island.

  Looking one way, the river rushing past.
  

  Looking the other way.

  

  The oldest part dates back to the 12th century, and there appears to be not much information about its purpose and history, except it was used as a prison until it became an “administrative centre”. Now contains displays showing the history of Annecy from about 1900 on. Unfortunately, all in French, and notably ignored the period 1939-45.
  I was, however, intrigued by the toilet.

  

  An upside down gravestone, moved here in the 18th century. How interestingly odd.

  Would have been really nice to have wandered round the narrow passages surrounding it, but Sue was too cold to contemplate any wandering.
  So, we toiled up a hill to the castle.
  

  Very little about its history – built between the 12th and 16th century, suffered several fires, became abandoned, lived in by squatters in the 1950’s (des res squat?), and then restored.
  The entrance.

  

  The whole castle is given over to art display. This is the hall of columns.
  

  What shows up very starkly the comparison with English Heritage and the National Trust is this photo.

  

  This is the kitchen. Only surmised because of the huge fireplace, and the bread oven out of sight behind me. Would never be so starkly bare.
  All in all rather disappointing, although one section, unexplained as to what or why, was this……

  

• Tue 14th Jan
  A bit of a nothing day. Still cold, just a tad below freezing, lots of cloud, clearing after lunch.
  We visited two supermarkets, an E.Leclerc for diesel, unfortunately they seem to have given up on bio goodies, so went to an Intermarche. Unable to park in their car park, so went to the parking up the hill, and I walked, was really out of breath walking back up the hill.
  We went back to the same Aire we were parked in last night, and I went for a walk round Annacy, didn’t feel we had given it a proper look yesterday. Took a couple of photos.

  

  

  is It is a very nice place, but cold. Saw signs to Tourist Office, used Google maps to find it, ended up walking hopelessly confused, and failed to find it, so switched to Organic Map, took me straight there. It was inside a rather odd but very large building with a central glass roofed area, with a scattering of small isolated tables, each with a chair, and a person at each one. Very Jaques Tatti.

  

  The tourist office has given us some ideas for tomorrow, one centring on cheese in the mountains.
  In the UK motorhomes have to be at least 5 meters apart (H & S fire risk). Our parking here at Annacy.

  

  It seems the fire risk diminishes when we cross the channel.

• Wed 15th Jan
  Whilst in the TIC yesterday, I mentioned cheese making in this area, as I had seen several references to it, including a large display board in Annacey. The lady indicated the area on a map, and helpfully gave me the name “Cave Paccard”. Google search easily found it, entered address in SatNav, and off we went, a scenically stunning drive, unfortunately into the sun, so we had to put the sun visors down………but more sun!
  We were on a small road winding through hills with snow capped mountains looming above, and then directed to turn off onto a very narrow road winding steeply upwards. The road surface started to deteriorate, the road got steeper, we went round a sharp bend, and the narrow road had a drainage gulley down one side, and a sharp drop down the other side. Sue most alarmed. We got out, no way to turn round, reversing down absolutely not on, so I walked up to see what was round the next bend 100 yards away. Of course, as I was walking up, a car came down. Infact, there was space to turn beyond the next bend, the lady in the car adroitly backed up, and the road was not actually as bad as it looked. According to the SatNav we were at the “Cave”. According to the “Cave Paccard” website we were there. It wasn’t. A friendly bloke, with a little English tried to tell us where it is (if, infact, it actually exists), over the other side of the valley.
  The drive down to the through road was uneventful . No cheese.
  

  Looking down. It was much steeper than this photo shows.

  And a view.

  

  We then pushed on to our destination, Albertville. A visit to the BioCoop proved remarkably successful, the biggest best stocked yet.
  Our parking is a large car park a couple of hundred feet above the town, and a couple of hundred feet below the medieval town of Conflans, so Josie and I went exploring.

  The entrance to Conflans.

  

  Views inside the town.
  

  

  

  There is a shop “Artisanal cheeses”. Opens 10.00 tomorrow. Maybe cheese tomorrow!!

• Thu 16th Jan

  Sue and I (plus Josie) went for a morning walk round Conflans. Took this picture from the view point, as it was morning the sun was behind me.

  

  Interesting reflections of the sun.
  We were both underwhelmed with the medieval village, and didn’t bother to wait for the artisanal cheese shop to open. We actually have plenty, having raided the excellent BioCoop in Albertville.
  Set off for Briancon, the road running alongside the motorway. An enjoyable drive for about half the way, started seeing signs for diversion to Turin, but we aren’t going there….
  SatNav then turned us off onto a small side road winding very steeply up a hill. Temperature still below freezing, and snow getting deeper, although the road was clear. We eventually found a place where we could stop and consult the map. We were on a road to a pass over the mountains, clearly going to be very up. We decided to turn back, and use the motorway. Getting onto the motorway was a nightmare, we travelled about 10 miles in the right direction, then road closed, diversion up the steep side of another mountain. So, drove miles back in the direction we had come, until we eventually found the next motorway junction. At last going in the right direction, this took us through the Tunnel du Frejus, eight miles long, at a cost of €72.60. But it did the trick, and are now parked up in CampingCarPark. Which has, as anticipated and much needed, fresh water. Most sites have the water turned off in winter. Off to Italy tomorrow, to meet up with Catherine and James in Como. A part of Italy we have never been to, so an unexpected chance to explore.