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.