From lavender towards the Alps – 15 July 2010

We left our delightful campsite, near a fragrant field of lavender, and visited several other towns on the lavender tour. The best coloured lavender was at Ferrassieres. Workers were out in the field of the richest colour, cutting and bundling lavender to leave it to dry in the sun, one day later and we would have missed this stunning sight.





Photographing lavender is very addictive, but we finally dragged ourselves away, and bought a picnic lunch, which we ate at a at a picnic site overlooking the really stunning hilltop town of Lurs. This town had been abandoned, but since WWII it has been restored, and is a delight to visit, quiet and calm, the tourist throng seem to have bypassed it. As our last taste of lavender, literally, we sat on a terrace in Lurs enjoying the view and a lavender ice cream.

Setting our sat-nav to take us to the border crossing with Italy, at a town called Montgenevre we had no idea what type of road we would be on, but it turned out to be wonderful gorge, with dozens of old stone bridges to cross.

A mountain pass took us over a range to wonderful views over Lac de Serre-Pancon. We unfortunately got stuck behind two logging trucks, as a result of stopping to take photos, but after winding down the mountain to nearly lake level, the sat-nav turned us off the main road (which we assume wound around the lake shore) and instead of the easy road, we had fun winding over the hills to the far end of the lake. Imagine our surprise that, when we reached the main road again, we had to give way to the first of the two logging trucks!

The lake was tempting to camp beside, but we decided to press on further, and eventually camped by a very small lake at Roche de Rame, the temperature of this lake was perfect for swimming, so a good decision.