Château de la Muzelle

The website over-eggs it, of course, but Château de la Muzelle, in Bourg d'Arud, was a very pleasant hotel located in a fabulous haute montagne hamlet that we've driven through, and thought "that looks nice", a zillion times. So here was a great excuse to implement the philosophy of "less is more", and base ourselves in this very congenial spot for 36 hours.

The low spot was Juan being stopped from wearing his brand new swim shorts in the adjacent municipal pool because they weren't the regulatory "trunks" style. You're wondering why? See this Guardian article. Or, more briefly, because of concern about hygiene. "Bermudas or bigger swimming shorts can be worn elsewhere all day, so could bring in sand, dust or other matter, disturbing the water quality". Ha ha. Other matter...

Naturally, Juan exploded ("That's it! I'm going home!!") - before he remembered his wife was with him, waiting to swim. Swallowing all pride he followed up the pool attendant's suggestion and borrowed a pair that conformed, trying hard not to imagine quite how many others might have preceded him. The high point of the weekend (for me) was seeing this event unfold, hysterically funny as it was. That - and going down the water slide with all the kids.

And yes, there was a bit of walking of a low-key kind because we can't forget this, can we:

We had lovely views of the Venéon valley from new angles:

walking downstream into Bourg d'Arud - magical and a complete surprise 

looking towards Bourg d'Oisans from Champ de l'aiguille, above Bourg d'Arud

Venéon valley between Bourg d'Arud and la Danchère

... hamlets and paths we hadn't explored before:

the hamlet of l'Alleau

and a favourite waterfall:

the Pisse... see me in foreground, for size reference

All in all a wonderful couple of days.