45 - 6/14/2015 Chamonix to Avignon

Sunday, June 14 (Day 45)

For those of you who have enjoyed, or at least read our e-mails, all things come to an end. For those who are tired of immediately pressing their "delete" key, the same observation pertains.  We appreciate the feedback from friends as we've traveled suggesting things to see en route. We in turn evidently have given some travel ideas to others. Pam would like to just stay in Europe and keep seeing the sights. That's what happens when there is no doggie to come home to. Norm is ready to hang up the Peugeot keys and take a breather from the romance of the road. Besides, home is where the heart is and that home needs some tending. With a reported record breaking 106 degrees in Sacramento yesterday for a June 13 all kinds of mischief could be happening despite the valiant efforts of our good neighbor Ron to hold back the ravages.

We left Mont Blanc swathed in clouds and mist this morning precluding taking a cable car up to see the surrounding countryside. Up and back with time to hang around would have taken a very doable two hours. But if the only thing visible were white, not much purpose. 

There were some para-gliders circling slowly down from high up the mountain but our camera just shows them as small fly specks - too bad because they had colorful chutes. Shortly after this, no more blue sky.


Heading out from Chamonix toward our next night's stay north of Avignon took us over very back roads. We began seeing police stationed at all crossroads - lots and lots of police and streams of police on motorcycles and vans. We finally surmised from all of the the temporary "arrow" signs posted on poles that we were on some kind of race route. We finally managed to read the fine print on one sign and Pam interpreted it as " city race". This was soon replaced by an improved interpretation, "Criterium Dauphine". Checking the Internet later it was true - our route covered a leg of the race and we were lucky to be ahead of the pack. Once again, go figure on the timing. The race, which is considered a harbinger for the Tour de France, is only held once a year and the routes of the legs change each year. We drove the road in a car, in the rain and a narrow, bumpy ride it was. Good luck to them. Once at a double detour both GPS's lost it and only a policeman's directions helped us out. 

We thought they were coming for us until we realized that having French plates on the car was no longer a bad thing.

One lone, wet rider on the race course.  Whether he was part of the race, we don't know.  We never saw the peloton or other group of riders and the police seemed to just be setting up along the route as we passed.

Gendarmes lining the streets - note the huge Lotto T-Shirt on the hood of the car.

The summit of the bike race - downhill from here (for awhile)

This evening we are in Barjac, deep in the Provence region. Our hotel is surrounded by vineyards and exceeds our expectations since we thought we would be deep in rusticity. We are here because of the proximity to "La Grotte Chauvet Pont-D'Arc", newly opened this April. A state of the art exhibit duplicates nearby prehistoric cave paintings in the vein of Lasceaux 2, only more magnificent. We shall see, tomorrow. The site is about 19 miles north of here. 

Tonight, after spending time in the spa, we'll start tossing excess weight from our luggage to accommodate all of Pam's shoe purchases and the stock of new plastic place mats purchased from merchants thankful to get rid of the things, which apparently no longer find many buyers.

One downside with Pam always glued to her iphone camera is that she is snap happy, with Norm the usual suspect.  He's thinking, "Is there no peace?" Pam adds "Not for the wicked". (Evil laugh ensues)
Notice the spectacular lowering of our standards as to what constitutes an acceptable spa environment. Welcome back to the real world.

The double pool with infinity fountain between them - very restful.

Love the hotel decor: