Le Carina Gap

... day hikes, a 2-day climb, night in a refuge, hikes to pick up blueberries to bake pies and make jams... one can't get bored in the mountains (unless you don't like hiking or climbing). In between our hikes? Playing tarot cards with my uncle and my aunt (a passion shared by most family members on my Mom's side) and going to the movies once in a while...

I'll upload pictures, they will express more than words...

Leaving Cannes we picked up the Route Napoleon at Grasse, straight away we could see how good this was going to be. The further we went the steeper the terrain, we encountered a few slow moving coaches which provided a little entertainment (got a video somewhere ...

... meal. We took the airport shuttle to the airport to pick up our rental, a pretty painless affair. The car was lovely a Peugeot 407. Automatic, we had decided we were too old to both drive on the right and change gears. The car also had a GPS, so finding our way was easy, until I must have pushed the wrong button and 'SHE' wanted us to do a U-turn. As I was sure we were going the right way I told Peter to ignore the directions. Everything was fine until we tried ...

More information on this campsite can be found here. Beautifully located campsite with quite good facitlities at about 1500m altitude and one of the best views on the Lac Serre Poncon. Located very near the small Lac St.Apollinaire. Start of some great hikes right at the entrance of the campsite. The hikes are rather steep at the start.

Soo.... it's pretty much self-explanatory once you see the photos... so have fun and hopefully the French Alps will impress/amaze/inspire you as much as they did me! See the photos here .

... re sure he should be a school headmaster!) Mia for reminding us that taking a double doctors prescription of pills isn't a good thing Fiona for drinking lots of 'woit woine' with Kylie Simon for keeping things in perspective Ken for the fashion tips BUT, no thanks to Keir for his foul **************. and a big thanks to Kylie for giving it another go!!

... matin. Il ne reste déjà plus de neige à Grenoble malgré les grandes tempêtes en France des jours précédents et elle me manque déjà. Le lendemain nous nous levons vers 5 heures 20 du matin pour avoir la navette de 6 heures du matin pour l'aéroport. Il y a beaucoup de courants d'air dans l'aéroport et j'ai froid même avec mon manteau... J'aimerais bien un chocolat chaud, mais à 3 Euros la tasse pour un peu d'eau chaude et de poudre, je passe mon tour !

... was skiing on some fairly icy patches of the slopes. But all together I was proud of accomplishing some pretty intense skiing and only have muscle aches to complain about. Of course after skiing the fun continued with two amazing dinner parties hosted at my groups' apartment. When you get some good cooks and amazing people together you get some of the most entertaining and intelligent nights you could ask for. However, after several ...

... mondiale et plusieurs monuments du coins y sont dédiés. Après notre promenade historique, nous prenons le temps de nous préparer une bonne tartiflette avec les grandes courses de la veille. Les ingrédients sont très simples et faciles à trouver : fromage Reblochon, lardons, oignons, pommes de terre, crème, vin blanc de Savoie... Le plat est délicieux et ce repas copieux remplit bien l'estomac après une longue journée de marche !

... of her then. We spent today walking to Cezanne's studio and an area where he painted a mountain several times under many different lighting conditions. There was a semi-circle of prints of some of these variations (the originals are in various museums all over the world). When you turn around you see the actual scene he painted, the mountain with the red roofs of houses in the foreground. We had a picnic lunch there and enjoyed the view as we ate ...