Flashback: Day 21 (France: Die to Briançon)

Drat it, I'm getting so far behind! At least 20 days of photos to post, from Switzerland to the British Museum, Windsor, Provence... Gah. *massages head* I'll make a dent tonight, and try to get it done before memories fade even further: this kind of time is worth recording, I think. :)

Note: chronological order now officially abandoned.

These are the images from the start of the four-day roadtrip Dad and I went on in my last week in France. We're surrounded by sunshine, fields of gold and lavender, a quintessential Gallic paradise: so what do we do? We drive into the mountains, and straight into the stormclouds.

Pictures begin after driving for over 30 minutes from Grignan, just past the turn-off to Patrick and Katie's. It's around 11am, and the van is piled high with camping gear, packs and food supplies - the last bulky but virtually devoid of nutritional value. We did have salt!


Nameless little town in the foothills, which I remember as having a tiny and ancient church just by the roadside.

So French: plein trees, stone cottages, 'les lavandes'. Oh Provence, I miss you.

Here, you can see the clouds. They're not normal, of course: an exceptional occurence, the once-in-a-month-or-maybe-longer super-condensation that invades the mountains. What can I say? Exquisite timing. ^^

Aha! This is a small part of a range Dad and I spent a while alongside and within. They're absolutely massive, a size near-impossible to convey on film (at least by me). My memories include an overwhelming sense of weight, encirclement, drama - none of which you can in these pictures. :P


Little towns were scattered all along the roads, clinging to the valley sides or clustered on the open plain. 'Gites', the equivalent of a farmstay, are also everywhere in France.

Gorgeous dramatic landscapes, yay! ^^ I quite liked the storm at this stage: aesthetics and habitual fondness had temporarily overcome the threat of a crippled road trip.


Totally off-topic: I'm listening to a random shuffle at last.fm, and part of a them to POTC: At World's End has come up. It's the bit with the multiple Jacks. Just thought you might like to know. :P

Looking out from the carpark in Die (pronounced 'dee' - though the name did seem rather ominous, and thus very fitting to the weather so far). By this point I was a bit grumpy, what with clouds having obscured our vision and the inevitable frustration of trying to take photos from a moving vehicle. How irritating would it be to have four days in one of the world's most beautiful locations and not be able to see a damn thing? Also, I was hungry - and the supermarket was closed. Grrrrrr.

Die.
The name has a similar ring to awful Tivoli: grey skies, unwelcoming people, titchy shopkeepers and no food. *wrinkles nose* Now I know that's just me, but there it is. On the plus side, Betty and Dad loved the town the first time they came. It must have been sunny.

And then the rain arrived!

A rather famous mountain. The Needle?

End of visual recording for the day: we just sat back and drove. Went through Grenoble, getting lost marvellously in the city centre after making an attempt to follow the route of Napoleon - then bought coffee and hot chocolate. All was well. ^^