Celtic Camp and tree felling

Saturday 31 August 2024 

Nido's parked up at a free aire in the village of Faucogney-et-la-Mer in the Haute-Saône department.  It's within the Plateau des Milles Étangs (Land of a 1000 Lakes) formed when the last ice age receded, leaving many small lakes, swamps and peatland.  

 It's been a hot day so we haven't done too much especially after our exertions yesterday. I'm sat outside the van watching the bats fly around and hoping the van cools down a little more before bedtime! I can here the accordion music from the village fête, which looked good fun when we took our evening walk. I was up early yesterday morning to walk Salty then up the road to buy a baguette from the bread van. A quick van service and we hit the road and drove to the next village for a bit of food shopping, before driving to our overnight spot - a free park up at Col de Crénée. I found this on Park4Night after checking out a place to walk to. I've not had a great deal of success with P4N; many of the stops seem to be road lay-bys or just not a nice place to stop. But occasionally it throughs up a good one - this was one of them. It's a stony car park surrounded by trees at an altitude of 550m. The last 4km are up a single track road with only a couple of passing places, so I wanted to get up here early to avoid any oncoming traffic. 

There were a few cars when we arrived, but we still had plenty of space to park up and have breakfast. Our first walk of the day was about 25 minutes to the Camp Celtique de la Bure. The Celtic camp belongs to a network of high-altitude sites: Pierre d'Appel (Etival-Clairefontaine), le Chazeté (Taintrux), Warrinchâtel (Saint Rémy) and la Corre (Housseras). Overlooking the Meurthe valley, the site consists of a barred spur, naturally fortified, whose defensive character was reinforced from the 2nd century BC by a series of fortified works (including a murus gallicus). Covering an area of ​​3 hectares, the site was the subject of multiple excavations, which discovered remains of craft activities (forge work, stone extraction, etc.), agricultural and religious activities (sculpted representations of several divinities linked to the cults of Diana, Jupiter and Mercury) as well as more than a thousand coins (Gallic and Roman) testifying to significant exchanges. We spent at least an hour walking around the site, reading the noticeboards and taking in the magnificent views. We had the place all to ourselves and it was easy to imagine the sights, sounds and smells of what would have been a thriving community. 

Back at the van we had a cup of tea with a lovely piece of black forest gateau I bought on the journey here. By now the car park was quite empty as the heat of the day kicked in. Our second walk of the day was following a circular route called Les Routes des Trois Fontaines (the route of the three springs). It took us downhill through the forest. The first spring was trickling and the second was dry! The walk was longer than expected and by the time we reached the third spring - the aptly named Fountaine de la Coeur (see photo) we were delighted to find a heart-shaped bowl filled with refreshingly cool clear spring water. Heads were dunked and necks were wetted! It only took about ten minutes to return to the van and after cool showers we had the place to ourselves. We were famished after our too long walks in very hot and humid weather, so supper was wolfed down in no time. I wonder if there are wolves here..... As the sun set and the darkness fell we sat outside and listened to the cicadas, watching the sky turn purple then black as millions of stars appeared above us in the gap in the forest canopy. 

Tea and gateau being prepared as Salty stands guard

We didn't sleep to well as it was so hot. I actually made up a bed on the floor and was cooler there. Salty preferred it too and laid across my legs, making me even hotter! I did drop off to sleep but about 0500 a large lorry with one of those huge machines that cuts down and strips large trees turned up and parked next to us. For the next couple of hours it moved up and down the forest tracks, stacking the huge tree trunks on the other side of the car park. I guess he makes an early start to get the job done before the hikers arrive, so it made sense. We were therefore up and out walking Salty by 0700, moving up the forested hillside for about 20 minutes until we reached a large rock and cliff face with views down into the valley. Breakfasted and packed up, we drove back down the single track road, luckily meeting nothing coming up. 

After a food re-provision and van service, we arrived at this aire. It's split across two areas next to the football pitch and we managed to get a spot on the end in the shade of a tree with grass next to us. The village sits in a valley by a river and all around are hills covered in pine trees. As it was so hot we had a lazy afternoon. I took Salty for a walk and found a clear stream that allowed him to plonk in and cool down. We walked down into the village later to take a nosy at the houses and gardens (our favourite pastime!) and took a quick wander around the fête. The locals were all sat at long trestle tables tucking in to food; it's probably open to all comers but our French isn't strong and we were much to shy to ask! So we returned to the van and sat outside with a few snacks as it was still too hot to eat a cooked meal. I suspect I'll be sleeping on the floor again tonight. I'm not in the doghouse (although it is where Salty normally lays down!) but it is cooler for both of us. Tomorrow I may seek out a municipal campsite so we can avoid travelling for a couple of days until the temperature cools a little.