Randonée de Faucogney-et-la-Mer

Monday 2 September 2024

Nido's parked up on a Municipal Campsite in the village of Pays-de-Clerval.  Our pitch overlooks the river Doubs.  It's a busy and popular campsite and decent value at €13.90 including EHU (and €1.50 for Salty - not sure what he gets for that though!).  After our exertions of yesterday we haven't done much today - more of that below.

We decided to stay on another day at Faucogney-et-la- Mer.  Although we walked to the fête last night, we didn't explore the old fortified village.  We also fancied a bit of a walk, despite the heat.  So before breakfast in the cool of the early morning we walked around the village, wandering down some of the narrow, empty streets.  I checked out a couple of circular walks on the tourist noticeboard and we bought a baguette for breakfast.  Back at the van the area around the football pitch and clubhouse was busy.  The BBQ was already lit and walkers were turning up, registering and heading off on one of two walks (randonées) - 10km and 20km, starting and finishing at this location.  

We'd decided on a walk that would take us up through the forest to St Martin's church, we we could see high up on the ridge above the trees. With a bottle of water and a few snacks we headed off, turning right out of the aire.  The marshall in a high-vis jacket wished us good morning and only as we walked down the road and turned off to enter the forest did we realise we were following the same route as the community randonée, marked by large chalk arrows on the ground and hazard tape tied to the trees.  We decided following their route would be a lot less stressful than trying to navigate our own, so we joined the walkers as we weaved our way steeply up the hillside through ancient deciduous forest.  The 10k route took us up and down hills, along tracks and roads, through ancient forest and past the many lakes and ponds of Le Plateau des Milles Étangs (Land of a thousand lakes).  These were formed as the last ice age receded and now make up a large area of water, swamps and peat lands.  The area is also known as 'Little Finland' as the many water spots and terrain are similar.  We walked past about thirty in total and I'm glad we did, as they're very hard to spot from the road and many are privately owned so out of bounds.  Near the end of the route, we reached a high viewpoint looking down the valley, down over the village and the aire with a tiny Nido to our left; I could just make out the woodsmoke from the BBQ!  The worst section was the descent from there back into the village, down a steep, stony and very slippery path.

I'll take this muddy puddle over a clean stream any day!

Looking down on the aire

A very tired pooch!

By the end us and the pooch were completely knackered, but satisfied with our effort.  I have to say 'Chapeau' to the many French septuagenarians who fairly skipped up, down and around the route and returned to party hard at the outside bar and BBQ next to us!  They must make 'em tough around these parts - acclimatised to the hot, humid summer, yet able to cope with the cold, severe winters.  The party wrapped up about 8pm and we were soon all ready for a good long sleep.

It rained in the night, a steady rain for about a couple of hours, so it was a slightly fresher start to this morning.  We stopped in Lure to buy food and fill the LPG tanks before driving to a Camping Car Park site in Mandeure.  We serviced the van and tried to use our CCP card to enter, having first walked around to find a suitable pitch.  However it turns out this particular site needs to be pre-booked, not something I've come across before.  I tried this on their app, but I would have to purchase a 'Privilege Pack' to allow me to do this at an additional cost of €29, which I didn't want to do.  So we turned around and came to this campsite.

By now it was quite hot, so sat in the shade for lunch before taking a short walk along the river.  Dinner was a vegetable paella and, as we're on electric hook-up, all the things are on charge and we had a bit of a YouTube catch up at the end of the evening.  There's quite a few mozzies about, so we've had to shut the door and put the fly screens over the skylights.  

Tomorrow we head further south towards the Jura region and hopefully some wild swimming.  Nearly every where we've been the past few days forbids swimming in the lakes and rivers and we're desperate for a swim in some cool water.

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.