Day 20 - Vassieux en Royans to Lus la Croix Haute

 

Saturday 26th September 

It's been another spectacular drive today from Vassieux through more of the Vercors national park, these roads really are amazing to drive along with scenery to die for at every turn.

I have to keep stopping for photos.

Talking of Die, I called in to Die today and managed to get the groceries I needed, plus I filled up with LPG and diesel which was a good chore to get out of the way.

Die is pronounced Dee apparently.

I think I'm going to save all the dash cam footage of driving through the Vercors and do it all again when I get home as a reminder of my trip 🤣

We arrived at our destination for the night, Lus la Croix Haute and it feels considerably warmer than Vassieux, even though it's a similar elevation at about 1050m

Tonights view from the motorhome aire

Lus la Croix Haute village

Lus la Croix Haute laundry

It was very cold last night after dusk in Vassieux, the outside temperature dropped to about 8c so the heating was made full use of to avoid hypothermia setting in, lol.

It quickly warms up in the day though and we had a high of 26c, very plesant with unbroken sunshine

I'd been avoiding using the heating for a day or two as it's not really been that cold so far, but I wanted to conserve the gas for the fridge as it's always a guess as to how much is left in the tanks, but with full LPG tanks today I can hammer the heating tonight if necessary without the worry of running out.

Lus la Croix Haute is only a small village, quite picturesque with a couple of bars and shops but the surrounding countryside is it's main attraction by far and is spectacular, I put the drone up earlier and here are some

of the photos I took . . . . .

Lus la Croix Haute village

This rocky range is called Grand Chamousset

 

I'll be sorry to leave the Vecors region tomorrow but I'm sure more beautiful countryside will await me

Day 19 - Villard de Lans to Vassieux en Vercors

 

Friday 25th September 

We had a bit of excitement on the aire this morning when some guys turned up with a hot air balloon and all the kit.

I've no idea what the plan was but they mostly just stood around talking amongst themselves and not much else really happened.

Will they, won't they ? I gave up, I think they may have just been giving it an airing

By about 1000 I got fed up waiting for the frenchmen to decide what they were doing, so we set off for our lunch stop destination.

This was to be Pont en Royans, accessible along the A532 Gorges de la Bourne road. 

This is a famous ‘balcony road’ through the gorge with tunnels and overhanging rocks. 

Unfortunately it’s partly closed at the moment for work to improve security from falling rocks.

So I had to detour onto the D221 which was equally impressive and gave some dramatic scenery views and slightly scary tunnels and rock faces towering over the road, I was very entertained by the drive through the gorgeous landscape.

The main attraction in Pont en Royans are the medieval houses built in the vertical rock face of the gorge with the river flowing below.

Pont en Royans village

The Museum of Water ! but closed for lunch

The medieval houses built in the vertical rock face

This doesn't look too secure

It must have been quite an achievement to build them but I'm not sure what motivated it, there must be easier places to build a home ?

The carpark was impossible for me to get to being a sharp left turn into a very narrow lane, but I managed to find road parking nearby and the village was just a short walk away.

After walking around the village for an hour and taking lots of photos, we set off for tonights parkup.

It's in a small village a few miles further south in the Vercors, called Vassieux en Vercors and is in a stunning setting on the Vercors plateau.

Vassieux en Vercors

Vassieux en Vercors motorhome aire

Vassieux en Vercors WWll museum

A German glider used in an attack on the village

Imagine being told to sit on that bench as you're launched in the air !

WWll memobilia

There's yet more resistance history here and a museum tells the story of a German attack on the village.

After the D day Normandy invasion of June 1944, the allies supported resistance fighters with parachute drops of weapons and supplies along with military advisors to help push back German forces.

They were successful and in August 1944 American forces fully liberated the area.

I must say I'm very impressed with this area of France, the Vercors national park has some breathtaking scenery and I've certainly enjoyed exploring the area.