.............not all those that wander are lost..............

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Out and About this week.............

As I said in my previous post I've been both downhill and cross country skiing this week.

The snow is particularly good for the time of year. But the weather has been very mixed. The cold wind that I commented on is still blowing - maybe even more strongly.

However we have managed to steal more than a couple of good days.

{Photo from the highest point above St Veran in the Queyras - 2800 m}


{Photo from top of the pistes at Abries in the Queyras}


I had a couple of days out with my neighbour and her friend from Paris on my x-c skis. We were very lucky and managed to get excellent sunny days. The snow was good and grippy so I had no problems with the downhill sections - even without proper edges!


{Photo taken x-c skiing at Vallouise - you can see the snow blowing off the slopes above}

John went to Lyon today to get a flight back to UK for some meetings. He caught a train from the station here at Montdauphin at 6.30 am - so although I offered to get up with him (I did, honestly) he drove himself down to the station and I walked down later to get the van.

I set off about midday - and saw nobody! It is very quiet here now the holidays have finished and lunchtime is always the quietest time of the day. I walked down via one of our local tourist attractions - a huge natural fountain called la Fontaine Petrifiante.


{Photo of fountain at Reotier}

When we first came here it was possible to climb up and over the top of the fountain and paddle underneath it.  But the Elf & Safety must have visited and now there's a railing and some steps up the side. Pity! There's also a rather technical information board next to the fence now.

{Photo of information board about the fountain's geology}

The railway line runs just beyond the fountain and when they were digging it out in the late 19th Century a hoard of Roman coins (about 400) were found by the workmen. It's thought that they had been thrown into the fountain over time for good luck.

On the way down to the fountain I passed this ENORMOUS hole at the side of the road. It's only just appeared and is so deep you can't see the bottom. Very scary!

 {Photo of hole - as close as I dared to get}


And just to prove I haven't spent all day in bed, on the computer or taking photos - here's some logs I stacked earlier!


{Photo of logs outside the front door}


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