Up shit creek, and other little mishaps.

Thursday, 2nd October

Today began with a couple of minor mishaps. First of all when I ran the van onto the levelling ramps yesterday I noticed that the one of the rear tyres was almost flat. Luckily it stayed inflated after I had pumped it up. We went to bed convinced it would be flat in the morning, but no, it has remained at the correct pressure ever since. All I can think is that the jolt of putting the van on ramps caused a problem with the recently fitted valve extenders on the double rear wheels. I have seen discussions on the web about this problem. I hope it's not going to reoccur.

The second mishap involved what might be politely called a Thetford malfunction. I won't go into the murky details, suffice it to say that fixing the problem required rubber gloves, yards of kitchen roll and most of a packet of anti-septic wipes. It's the nearest I've ever been to being literally, rather than figuratively 'up shit creek'. I really really hope this little problem never re-occurs.

Impending domestic disasters do not disturb the morning rituals

Anyway, how can you let minor mishaps get you down on mornings like these?

On a more salubrious note, I mentioned yesterday that we had been visitors to France over four decades. Even now we still discover corners of the country that are beautiful, and we wonder how we ever failed come across them previously. Today we took N roads southeast following the valleys of the Marne, Saone and Doubs rivers. It is rolling pastoral country with fields of grazing white and brown patched cattle. The fields and farms are interspersed with woodland. As you get closer to the Swiss border the houses get more chalet-like, and the deciduous trees are mixed with tall dark green firs.

We drove the first part of this route last year, before cutting past Dijon to follow the Burgundy wine route. We had driven straight past the hill-top walled city of Langres in our haste to head south. This year we found time to have a lunch stop there. It's an interesting ancient place full of sixteenth century palaces in the grand classical style all surrounded by massive medieval city walls. We were lucky to see it on such a clear sunny day. It very chilly however, the fresh northerly breeze reducing the temperature to a wintry 12 degrees.

We had to press on as our overnight stop at the Lac de St Pointe was still some hours drive away. The N roads were largely traffic free and the countryside gorgeous. It was a great, if somewhat tiring, drive. It was close to evening by the time we had settled down by the lake-side aire, a very peaceful and lovely spot. We needed to find some milk, but the only shop in the village was a local cheese maker. Only solidified milk products for sale. The cheeses looked really good though so we bought some to sample. 

Lovely late afternoon light

Gill throws breadcrumbs skywards, the sparrows catch them mid-flight.

Lac St Point, part lakeside nature park...

but mainly still a working hamlet of farms

Complete with Fromagerie

Local produce - not just cheese.

A very affable local cheese-maker

His shop,

Happy cow mascot and giant copper pot.

A lovely place, where the troubles of the world seem a million miles away - Make Cheese, Not War!!

Tomorrow it is goodbye France and hello Switzerland and the Alps, some rain is forecast, but I hope it holds off long enough to get a clear view of mountains. So far we have driven 800 miles, not quite half way to the ferry at Brindisi, and time to slow down and stay a couple of nights here and there. I've driven five days solid, that is beyond my preferred limit. I am looking forward to a day off!