{"id":806,"date":"2012-07-02T19:35:01","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T18:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=806"},"modified":"2025-11-23T06:07:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T06:07:29","slug":"the-big-drive-through-alps-and-clouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2012\/07\/02\/the-big-drive-through-alps-and-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Drive Through Alps and Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large group of German teenagers arrived late at the campsite and despite trying to get ahead of them by heading to the shower block at 6:55am I ended up in a 20-minute queue for a 2-minute shower. I should have waited because when Rodney went over later, all\u00a0three showers were empty\u2026hhmmph!\u00a0 Ah well, it\u2019s the first time in 10 weeks that either of us has had to wait.<\/p>\n

After breakfast Rodney gave Eileen a good rinse down; no queuing for her.\u00a0After so many dry and dusty days just lately, she was starting to look a bit grubby and fly spattered.\u00a0 While\u00a0Rodney was busy outside, I got my sewing kit out and pulled out\u00a0two pairs of my shorts and a pair of Rodney\u2019s.\u00a0 Despite all the baguettes, cheeses, tarts, croissants, ice creams, etc. we\u2019ve both lost weight. So I cut off the top button and moved them all in a bit; hopefully Rodney\u2019s will now stay up and mine might stay in place a bit better\u2026\u2026.!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Somewhere on the D900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today was really one big drive.\u00a0 We started up the D900 enjoying the view of the mountains on both sides and noting that the architecture seemed to have suddenly taken on an Alpine look.\u00a0 I thought we had already crossed in to Switzerland!\u00a0 Even the church towers had changed from having a wrought iron bell tower with the bell on view to now being\u00a0tall, very narrow, spires with any bells not on view.\u00a0 Also, the cows were no longer bony and white; they were now a deep, warm chestnut brown and fat.\u00a0 We had sunshine and showers and the clouds clung around the tops of the ridges in layers.\u00a0 We went over the Col de Maure at 1,346m, through Seyne and on down to the Lac de Serre-Poncon.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lac de Serre-Poncon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We turned west along the south side of the lake and then crossed over the Durance River at the enormous dam.\u00a0 It is a massive earth dam holding back one of the largest artificial\u00a0lakes in Western Europe and the hydro-electric power stations can provide 10% of France\u2019s electricity and the power is equivalent to\u00a0two nuclear power stations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
The Dam at Lac de Serre-Poncon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We stopped in Gap for lunch\u00a0and watched\u00a0the rain pour down and then took the snaking N85 north and over the Col Bayard at 1,248m.\u00a0 We followed the Route Napoleon through numerous villages and, every so often, hit long stretches of hair-pin bends.\u00a0 We passed La Mure and when we got to Laffrey we had to pull over in to a checking station because we are over 2.6m high.\u00a0 The stretch of road was marked as difficult and dangerous and large trucks aren\u2019t allowed down it to Vizille.\u00a0 It seems we passed the test because the barrier opened and allowed us through, but it really was one helluva drop down; 5kms at a continual 12%, with no lay-bys or let outs.\u00a0 Rodney switched from low gear to braking and back again, continually, and I kept my fingers crossed we would get to the bottom without burnt out brakes or gears! We skirted the busy, built-up suburbs of Grenoble and continued north, stopping at Challes les Eaux Aires for the night.\u00a0 We had only driven 250kms, but it was a tough drive and it was 5pm, so we decided to call it a day.\u00a0 While Rodney went for a stroll to stretch his driving-legs, I tried to recreate the goats cheese on baguette slices with salad, which was ok, but the cheese was maybe not the tastiest we have had. I also boiled all the left over apricots with sugar and water to make a rather yummy sauce for later use.\u00a0 We ended the day watching Michael Palin\u2019s \u2018Hemingway Adventures\u2019 and checked emails until the computer battery ran out, then hopped in to bed for an early night.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Eileen in the Challes les Eaux Aires<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A large group of German teenagers arrived late at the campsite and despite trying to get ahead of them by heading to the shower block at 6:55am I ended up in a 20-minute queue for a 2-minute shower. I should have waited because when Rodney went over later, all\u00a0three showers were empty\u2026hhmmph!\u00a0 Ah well, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8168,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/8168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}