Breakfast in Switzerland!

Wednesday 4 September 2024

Nido's parked up opposite the church in the small village of Le Frasnois, close to Lac d'Ilay.  We ended up here after trying a few other aires which didn't really suit us.  Still it's quiet (except for the church bells that get very excited every fifteen minutes!).  

Yesterday we visited two great water-based places.  The first was the Source du Lison, where the river pours from a cave halfway up the limestone cliff. We were able to get quite close via a number of stepped pathways.

The next stop was the Source de la Loue.  Here the source of the river Loue again pours over a waterfall that cascades from a huge cave mouth halfway up a towering 150m limestone cliff.  It was beautiful and we followed the river downstream for some way, enjoying the coolness the waterfall provided.  The power of the water is used to power a hydro-electric plant and it must be quite a sight when the river's in flood.

Our park up last night was on the aire at the base of the medieval town of Nozeroy, which sits on a high plateau with extensive views all around.  The aire is just below the castle ruins and we had a great view over the plain below with mountains in the distance.  After supper, as darkness was falling, we walked around the small town.  It was eerily quiet; none of the shops, bars or restaurants were open, so we wandered around the narrow cobbled streets pretty much on our own.  The main square was very pretty, but reminded me of the square in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when the Child Catcher appeared - it had that feel about it!

Sat on a bench above the aire watching a thunderstorm over the mountains

I set the alarm and we were up early this morning to drive to a Super U supermarket that had one of the outside laundrettes.  We had a fortnight's laundry and used both washing machines, plus an hour of drying time.  I also did a quick food top up.  By this time we were more than ready for a late breakfast.  As we weren't far from the Swiss border, we decided to drive to another country for breakfast!  The border crossing was seamless and a free aire just outside the village of Sainte Croix, we enjoyed sausage and mushroom baguettes with a big pot of tea - breakfast in Switzerland!

Admin Day!  Washing, sweep out, shopping

Breakfast in Switzerland!

Our next planned stop was back in France, but I found a route that took us through Swiss villages for about an hour before crossing the border again.  I'd picked this place as it had a pizzeria with wood-fired oven.  Unfortunately it wasn't open until much later this evening so we moved on.  On the way we stopped at one of the many pizza machines in France and bought two hot ones to eat later.

These and similar pizza machines are all over France and are pretty good

We tried a park up by Lac de Bonlieu, but it was very busy with cars as well as being wet, muddy and darkly enclosed by trees.  Le Frasnois was only a few minutes away though.  We took Salty for a good walk down to the lake where he had a good soak and an attempt to drink it all!  He'd been a good boy all day but was feeling a bit van sick I think, after all the hilly hairpin roads we drove today.  The pizzas went down well as we caught up with some YouTube and the rest of the evening was spent researching our route for the next few days, which will take us in to Burgundy.  It's been a welcome cooler day and it's raining now, with more forecast over the next few days.  So I'll need to put on a raincoat to walk Salty tonight; the first time this trip.