On Saturday we recieved a local tourism magazine. The feature article was on the most beautiful drives in the Isere region. The picture on the cover was enough to make you drop everything and hop in the car, which is exactly what we did late Sunday morning.
We grabbed some sandwhiches, fruit, and cheese and threw them into our cooler, which reminds me of something else I've been meaning to talk about. Ice, it doesn't exist over here, at least like it does at home. They don't put it in drinks, it's not made in your refrigerator and they don't sell it at the gas stations. I had to buy a new travel cooler for occasions such as this. It's got it's own cooling mechanism and runs off of 12 volt power in the car. You can't even put ice in the thing or it'll short out. Just something I thought you'd like to know, I'll get back to the story.
The magazine article had about 8 different routes that you could chose from. It also had a description of each, but such vocabulary is not quite in my grasp yet. This meant that we were reduced to just closing our eyes and picking one out. The lucky winner was located in the Chartreuse mountains which is on the other side of the valley from us. The route itself is a 12 km patch from connecting one mountain town to another. I simply put the first town into the GPS and we set out. 45 minutes later, and a beautiful drive in its own right, later we reached the first town; however, it was lunch time.
Luckily we found a wonderful picnic spot with a play area. So we took our sweet time and even took a short hike on a nearby trail. Amazingly it turned out to be one of the most beautiful walks we've been on. We saw an old mountain church, a few caves, a few tiny bridges over picturesque mountain streams, and even a boar skin strapped up for tanning (this, by the way did nothing to help my mild homesickness brought on by the fact that a fall without deer hunting is rapidly approaching). So, after lunch, some play time, and a short hike it was time to start the drive.
Now seems like a good time to mention the article in the magazine following the article on "le belles routes". It was, as far as I could surmise, all about the safety of the mountain roads in the area. There were a few words that I could make out along with pictues of guys in hard hats hanging precariosly from cliffs while installing heavy wires and chains. Apparently a large amount of time and money has recently been spent to make sure that schmucks like me can go for a Sunday drive.
Your French would not have had to be as good as mine to read the sign that sat at the beginning of our randomly chosen route.
ROUTE BARREE
DEVIATION
Even if you couldn't read the sign, you wouldn't have accidently driven down the road. It was undoubtedly closed to any type of traffic. Now, I've questioned the French and some of their decisions many times over the last two months, but I doubt even they would justify purposely closing a route that was being advertised in a tourism magazine. Judging by the looks of things, I'd say the route was closed due to something less forseen, like say a rock slide. Ironic, heh?
Rather than give up we chose another one of the magazines selections which was only 15 minutes away. It was worth it. Pictures don't do it justice. We even found an old chateau along the way, which we explored.
All in all, a great Sunday
We grabbed some sandwhiches, fruit, and cheese and threw them into our cooler, which reminds me of something else I've been meaning to talk about. Ice, it doesn't exist over here, at least like it does at home. They don't put it in drinks, it's not made in your refrigerator and they don't sell it at the gas stations. I had to buy a new travel cooler for occasions such as this. It's got it's own cooling mechanism and runs off of 12 volt power in the car. You can't even put ice in the thing or it'll short out. Just something I thought you'd like to know, I'll get back to the story.
The magazine article had about 8 different routes that you could chose from. It also had a description of each, but such vocabulary is not quite in my grasp yet. This meant that we were reduced to just closing our eyes and picking one out. The lucky winner was located in the Chartreuse mountains which is on the other side of the valley from us. The route itself is a 12 km patch from connecting one mountain town to another. I simply put the first town into the GPS and we set out. 45 minutes later, and a beautiful drive in its own right, later we reached the first town; however, it was lunch time.
Luckily we found a wonderful picnic spot with a play area. So we took our sweet time and even took a short hike on a nearby trail. Amazingly it turned out to be one of the most beautiful walks we've been on. We saw an old mountain church, a few caves, a few tiny bridges over picturesque mountain streams, and even a boar skin strapped up for tanning (this, by the way did nothing to help my mild homesickness brought on by the fact that a fall without deer hunting is rapidly approaching). So, after lunch, some play time, and a short hike it was time to start the drive.
Now seems like a good time to mention the article in the magazine following the article on "le belles routes". It was, as far as I could surmise, all about the safety of the mountain roads in the area. There were a few words that I could make out along with pictues of guys in hard hats hanging precariosly from cliffs while installing heavy wires and chains. Apparently a large amount of time and money has recently been spent to make sure that schmucks like me can go for a Sunday drive.
Your French would not have had to be as good as mine to read the sign that sat at the beginning of our randomly chosen route.
ROUTE BARREE
DEVIATION
Even if you couldn't read the sign, you wouldn't have accidently driven down the road. It was undoubtedly closed to any type of traffic. Now, I've questioned the French and some of their decisions many times over the last two months, but I doubt even they would justify purposely closing a route that was being advertised in a tourism magazine. Judging by the looks of things, I'd say the route was closed due to something less forseen, like say a rock slide. Ironic, heh?
Rather than give up we chose another one of the magazines selections which was only 15 minutes away. It was worth it. Pictures don't do it justice. We even found an old chateau along the way, which we explored.
All in all, a great Sunday
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