escaping the heat: the Champsaur

Juan did come home, and I arranged for him to hook up to the internet at a kind friend's for the second half of the week. Having him around in a more leisured way than in our usual pressure-cooked weekends was a reminder of the "good ol' days". It raised the obvious question: why not work from home on a regular basis? Having just one day a week extra at Vaulnaveys would transform our situation. So I am allowing myself to hope that Juan will negotiate this with his boss at a propitious moment.

With more time than usual to play with, going away for a night felt possible. The scorching heat meant that rivers and bathing were higher priority than getting up hills. So we headed for the Champsaur, in the south-eastern Ecrins, finding a shady camping site where we could boil up some pasta and home-made pesto.

fine dining at Le Pont du Fossé

Next day we headed up the Drac Blanc valley, rewalking the route up to the Chaumette refuge last done in 2010. What a glorious valley it is. The river isn't swimmable (either too little water or too fast flowing) but we paddled and I skinny-dipped in pool on the way back.

The icing on the cake was, on our return, getting back online (when we arrived home the replacement modem was in the postbox). On reflection I feel rather embarrassed at how badly I've coped without ready internet access but (as per my comment in another post) plead rurality, expectations, language issues, self-employment meaning I have to be able to connect at home, and lack of back-up (ie smart phone). Next time I will take it easier.