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.
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| I'll take this muddy puddle over a clean stream any day! |
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| Looking down on the aire |
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| 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.