Prehistoric Lascaux caves

Saturday 20^th Grotte de Lascaux

We were up and off first thing. Our drive started with a visit to another of the ‘one of the most beautiful villages in france ‘(there are 150 of these) named Beynac et Cazenac from there we drove a little further north through some lovely countryside passing La Roque Saint Christophe. This 1km stretch of limestone rock has been constantly eroded by the river and frosts and has man creating hundreds of rock shelters and large overhead terraces. The natural cavities have been occupied by man since pre historic times and were later altered in the Middle Ages to form a fort and a town until the start of the Renaissance period.

We continued our drive up to the famous Lascaux caves. When we arrived we were told that the caves were only accessible with a guide and this required purchasing a ticket from the nearby village of Montignc. Back down the hill. We purchased our tickets and then headed back up to the caves. The caves are really interesting. They were not discovered until the early 1940s when a group of boys literally fell upon them. When they saw the prehistoric painting they realised this was something special and brought a old teacher to have a look with them. He realised the importance of this find and so the appropriate authorities were contacted. The caves were open to the public until the 60s but then when the painting started to deteriorate due to moulds and respiratory moisture brought in by the tourists they were closed. An exact replica of the caves was then created including 90% of the famous paintings. This was opened in 1983 and so it is now 30 years old. It was this replica that we visited.  The paintings had all copied in an authentic manner with same pigments and techniques and were mind blowing. What a find it must have been for those four boys!

We really enjoyed this visit and after our 40 minute tour we walked up to the original site that is now closed off and then headed back to the van. We still had a bit of driving to do and we ended up in another medieval town called Donzenac. This had a small aire next to a campsite. We pulled into a space next to a French couple who had brought their dog and cat with them.

Sunday 21^st Donzenac to Champeix

Today was a travelling day as we made our way back towards the east of France. We left our aire about 9am but as we were leaving we saw an intermarche with a launderette in the car park. Annoyed that we had not seen it last night we pulled in to get some food and to get our bedding washed. Shopping was not easy as there are so many lovely choices in French supermarkets but as our fridge is really struggling to keep anything cold much of what was bought was in jars or cans. Once our chores were complete we set off again. It was to be another day well into the 30s but we found a lovely picnic area under shady trees where we could have our coffee. We were only saying how quite it was in this spot when another motorhome arrived. This was a dutch couple with a large black Labrador cross. Of course we went over to say hallo. We spoke about their travels and they showed us a video  ‘ the last post’ played at Ypres that they had visited. The last post has been played every evening since WW1 (although we did wonder what happened during WWII years). We said our goodbyes and continued our journey. Most of it had been on the main road but we came off to explore the small towns of La Bourboule and le Mont Dore.  These are in an ancient volcanic area of France and we found ourselves once again driving up mountain passes. All very attractive. We eventually stopped in Champeix at a free aire by a small river. The aire was lovely but the town was uninteresting. We went for a short cycle but could not find anything of interest so returned home to have supper and for Mike an early night.

Massif Central and the Dordogne

Wednesday 17^th July

Jacqui made an early start to the day and was working by 7am. At 9am she had a skype call with Pat and she continued to work until lunchtime. We then set off on a  beautiful drive through the Massif Central, Haut Loire and Ardeche regions of France. Last night’s rain had disappeared and after a few hours driving we found ourselves in Murat of the edge of the Auvergne on the Mont de Cantal route. Murat was a lovely old town and we had an enjoyable walk round it in the evening. As we passed the market hall we were surprised to see people dancing in local costume accompanied by regional musical instruments including their variation of the bagpipes.

Thursday 18^th July

Leaving Murat in the morning we soon found ourselves driving on very minor roads through lovely green countryside (lots of walnut trees) and sandy coloured medieval towns. All very quaint. Mid morning we stopped at St. Flour to pick up some local information.  It looked a lovely town but we moved on with our next stop being Carennac.

 This was a beautiful medieval village. We walked around the chateau which displayed local information and then around the rest of the village. We had our lunch before we set off again and by now it was very hot and being in the van was uncomfortable.

We were still driving on very narrow roads and in parts it looked quite dangerous as the cliffs that run along the Dordogne hung over us. We carried on until we reached Sarlat – le - Caneda. 

This was a beautiful medieval town if overrun with tourists and restaurants. Here we again picked up a lot of information from the Tourist information office and this allowed us to plan our next couple of days. We headed off to La Roque-Gageac where we parked in a very pleasant aire on the riverside. There is a lot of boat activity here with a huge number of canoes being launched from here as well as the traditional boats known as ‘gabarre’. However the river had a very strong flow and despite the number of canoists we did not see a single one paddling upstream so we decided not to put our kayak on the river as logistically it would have been difficult to get back to the van.

Friday 19^th July

The day started with an atmospheric mist rising by the river but it was clear it was going to be another very hot day. Jacqui went off to buy bread and croissants and also stopped off at the market to buy some fresh fruit and salad.

After breakfast we cycled to Domme a village listed as one of the 150 ‘most beautiful villages’ in France. We are not sure how many of these we have seen but we are ticking them off at a good rate. This one lived up to its name.  It was only 5.5km away but with a steep climb up to this hill top town which in temps in excess of 30C left Jacqui red faced. Mike just got the camera out! It was a busy town. We were in the heart of gastronomic France and there were lots of shops selling foie gras and other pates as well as truffle products and walnut oil goods. It amazed me that you could go to the geese farms and see the geese being force fed. Some stated in a traditional non stressful manner. I cant understand this as force feed surely means exactly that!  Domme had some lovely buildings but the view over the Dordogne plain was spectacular. Once we had seen all we wanted we enjoyed the downhill cycle back to the van where we had lunch sitting by the river.

In the afternoon we got on the bikes again and cycled another 5km in the opposite direction to chateau at Castelnaud.  Of course, it was on top of a hill again! Here we had a very interesting guided tour where the history of the castle and middle age warfare was explained to us. It was now about 6pm and temperatures were still in the high 30s but we had one more place to visit. Back over the river we went up another hill to the Marqueyssac gardens another 3km away. The gardens were interesting for the mass of box topiary bushes and  stunning views over the valley.

Still hot we cycled back to the van past the fields of sunflowers for a well earned drink and supper.

Le Tour 100

Monday 15th July travelling south for 'Le Tour 100'



Whilst we had been staying at Lake Annecy we realised that the Tour de France was happening a few miles south. Actually it was quite a long way away but it was the 100th anniversary so it seemed appropriate
to take a major detour to watch the race for a day.

Monday was a rest day for the Tour so we decided to get ourselves on the route between Vaison la Romaine and Gap - the 16th stage. It was a long drive, we were on the road by 8am and stopped for breakfast by another lake at Aix de bains. It made for a pleasant breakfast stop. our route south took us through Chambery and Grenoble and along some other mountain passes. We stopped on one of these for lunch and chatted to a French couple who had travelled from Lyon with their two girls to watch the tour also. At 4pm and in wonderful weather we eventually stopped on a mountain road outside of Sedderon where after much manouvering we succeeded in getting ourselves off the road but not down the cliff .


 Much of the route was already filled with camper vans of all nationalities. Close to us were two Czech vans and further down the road a dutch couple who have seen every Tour de France for the past 16 years. There were also Dutch, German and Belgian families and of course French. We also chatted to an English couple who loaned us their Tour programme so we were able to get up to speed before tomorrow. It was all very exciting especially as Chris Froome was currently in the 'yellow jersey' position. By the evening the heat had died down a little and we offered to take our neighbour's dachshund for a walk. Its owner (Czech) was elderly and walked with sticks so we felt that this young dog would welcome a longer walk. Overcoming our language barriers we set off up the mountain to talk to more spectators and to take in the lovely mountain views.



Tuesday 16th July

We could have a lie in this morning as the Tour was not expected until 2.30pm and we were all set up in our viewing position. The first part of the morning we spoke to an English couple who were following the later stages of the Tour and who were planning a camper van trip to Greece in August. We shared some of the good places we had visited and wild camping spots.  Later on we were joined by another young British family who lived in Switzerland. They were on there way to a French campsite but had stopped off to watch this leg of the Tour. They had two girls Charlotte and Lucy who were keen to use our van to escape the fierce heat that was building up.  At 12.30pm the caravan came through. This is the sponsors' time to chuck freebies, water and anything else at the spectators. The two young girls loved this part.




At 2.30pm the breakaway group came through. It was good being on the hill as we had plenty of time to see them. The pelaton led by Team Sky came through about 7 minutes later but this was fast enough for Chris Froome to retain his yellow jersey.

It was extremely hot as we packed up and headed west to our next destination the Dordogne. We eventually stopped outside Aubenas at a municipal campsite (15 euros) as we needed electricity to keep the fridge working. It is really struggling on gas in this hot weather.

 We also had internet access so made some effort to catch up with our blog. Mike skyped his sister and Millie and then about 1030pm there was the noisiest thunderstorm yet. It rained all night and was still raining when we woke up in the morning.

Lake Annecy

Friday 12^th July Chamonix to Lake Annecy

The mountains and Mont Blanc were looking beautiful in the morning sun as we said goodbye to Sarah and Damien (collecting water from them first). It was a pity we could not stay in Chamonix longer but we could see it would be a good day to be driving through the mountains. We left Chamonix in the direction of Les Houches with Mt. Blanc on our left hand side. We continued on a minor road to St Gervais and then to Megeve where Jacqui had skied many years ago. From there we continued to Flumet where we turned right which took us onto the D909 and into the Haute Savoie Mountains. We stopped at the top of one of the mountain passes: the Col. Des Aravis and then it was downhill all the way to La Clusaz. This was a beautiful area and one that the Tour de France would be passing through in a few days time.

Eventually we could see lake Annecy in the distance. We stopped at Veyvier and caught the Tourist information office just before it closed. They gave us local maps and details of campsites that were on the water’s edge. The first campsite we went to had no internet facilities so we continued to Angon just outside of Talloires.

It is difficult to describe the beauty of this lake. It is an amazing blue colour and is surrounded by mountains. Over the next couple of days we enjoyed watching the paragliders float down from the top as well as watching all  the water activities.  Once we were settled we pumped up the kayak and had a good paddle around the lake admiring the waterside properties.

The evening was a glorious balmy one and we sat outside until it had been dark for some time. We chatted to our neighbours who were an English couple who were in France visiting their daughter who was a chalet hostess.   Now that the ski season is over her daughter is busy with folk who travel into the area for mountain biking.

Saturday 13^th July Lake Annecy

Jacqui had planned to do some work this morning including a skpye call with Lizzie. The signal was not brilliant but we coped. Before we had lunch we cycled into Talloires to get some food including some sausages to BBQ that evening. It was another very hot day and it was a pleasure to get back into the kayak and onto the lake with its cooling water. With work out of the way we had a very relaxing day. We played boule in the evening which Mike won and then we played crib with Mike winning again. We had our BBQ and at 10pm we went down to the water’s edge to watch some distant fireworks.  It is Bastille Day tomorrow and some of the lakeside villages chose to have their fireworks a day early so as not to compete with Annecy.

Sunday 14^th Annecy

It had been our original intention to leave the area today but as it was Bastille Day we decided to join in the celebrations in Annecy. We left the campsite hoping to find somewhere we could park overnight further up the lake. Annecy was extremely busy. All the car parks were full. We found a road that had a ‘no waiting’ sign for the summer period for camper vans but as there were already four vans parked there we decided it was not being enforced today.

After our lunch we took the bikes off the van and cycled around the top end of the lake and into the old centre of Annecy. It was very pretty but absolutely crawling with people. We are not used to this! We identified where the firework display would be and then continued our cycle around the lake to Sevrier. Here we stopped for an expensive ice cream and to cool off by the lake.
 We got back to a very hot van about 5 pm. After a salad supper we went back out to enjoy the festivities. Bars had music playing, people were dancing but best of all was ’tribe percussion’ a drumming band who were marching and playing all around the park.

At about 10.15pm there was a fabulous firework display. The fireworks were let off from floating pontoons in the lake and were excellent. After that we had a final walk around the area before heading back. The roads were completely grid locked as there had been tens of thousands of people watching the fireworks and we were glad we had made the decision to stay in Annecy overnight.

Switzerland: Meiringen, Grindlewald, Lauterbrunnen Valley and Interlaken

Sunday 7^th July Lake Maggiore to Swiss Alps

By the time we had breakfast our lovely peaceful layby was surrounded by a dozen vehicles as loads of divers had used this spot as a meeting place. It was definitely time to move on. We headed up to the top of the lake to Lugano and Mike tried to retrace his steps from an earlier holiday. We had planned to book into a campsite here to catch up on some work but the campsite we called in at cost 89 euros a night! Too much for us. We eventually found a free parking spot by the lake where we were able to pick up an internet signal. Jacqui worked for a couple of hours and was able to skype Richard. It was great to have a long chat with him.

We continued to Ascona, again for Mike and then took the road over St Gottardo’s Pass. The alternative would have been to use the 17km long tunnel but this did not appealto Jacqui that much. From there we took the even more beautiful Sustan Pass eventually stopping for the night outside of Meiringen. We went for an evening stroll, stopping at a Swiss restaurant for a beer and wine before heading back to Buster.

Monday 8^th July Meiringen

After breakfast we headed into the town of Meiringen – famous for its Sherlock Holmes connections. First we went to the Coop to do a small shop where we found Swiss prices much higher and then on to the tourist information to get information about the Reichenbach Falls.


This was where Sherlock Holmes met his supposed end along with his arch enemy Moriarty. Armed with the info we headed for the falls taking the funicular railway (renovated in Victorian fashion) both up and down.  We explored the Falls quite quickly as we wanted to make it to Grindlewald for the early afternoon.

After our visit we took the ‘green route’ stopping at the beautiful lake at Interlaken for lunch. Once in Grindelwald we found a campsite that cost 40 euros. Again, camping is more expensive in this country.  After we had settled ourselves we decided to go for a walk but it was not a successful one.


 It was a very steep climb for the first hour and then we found ourselves in the midst of a heavy thunderstorm. We decided to turn round for home to plan tomorrows day.

  The evening brightened up and camping right under the Eiger was lovely.

Tuesday 9^th July Grindelwald

The weather forecast showed that we would have a good sunny morning with cloud and rain coming in later in the day. We got up early and were on the gondola lift to Mannlichen (2227m) by 9am. The gondola took 30 minutes and is the longest lift in Europe. From Mannlichen we took the ‘Romantiche Weg’ down to Alpinglen (1615m) to catch the train back to Grindlewald Grund. It was a beautiful walk down. We had lovely clear panoramas of the Eiger (3970m), Monch (4107m) and the Jungfrau (4158m).      



The pastures were full of a wide variety of wild flowers and the sun kept shining. It took us about two hours to walk down and we had an early lunch before catching the train.

In the afternoon we wanted to visit the Lauterbrunnen valley on the other side of the mountains. This was a more beautiful and dramatic valley than the one we had been in.  The valley is surrounded by steep cliffs and 72 waterfalls. The most spectacular had to be the Trummelbach Falls which carries the icy water  (2C) from the glaciers from the three mountains listed above. Over the years the water has carved a corkscrew route down the inside of the mountain.  Tourists can go right inside the mountain to view the Falls.

It was an extremely exciting experience and is considered one of the most dramatic falls in Europe.  We continued the drive right up to the end of the valley to Stechelberg where we stretched our legs before returning to Lauterbrunnen. We stopped here to see the Stubbach Falls, which mike decided to climb at 300m, the highest in Switzerland and then drove onto Interlaken.

With difficulty we found somewhere to park for the night and then went out for a delicious typical Swiss cheese fondue meal.