It was time to take our leave from Le Ch'Ti Franoi and Steve and Audrey. We had a great time and Steve and Audrey were excellent hosts, so relaxed and easy to get on with.
I can thoroughly recommend Le Ch'Ti Franoi (www.campinglechtifranoi.com) as a place to stay and, given all of the local attractions that we hardly touched, we will certainly return. Seeing Steve and Audrey again will be a real bonus.
Steve had told us that all East-West routes from that area were windy and slow but we hoped that that also meant that they would be picturesque. We therefore plotted a relatively short journey (2.5 to 3 hours according to the satnav) to Le Monastir. The journey was indeed picturesque, climbing soon after we set off and reaching 1150m at the pass 'Le Col des Tribes'. The scenery was very rugged, reminding us of Scotland, with dark-stoned villages hugging the hillsides or set beside the fast-flowing streams. We passed a fairy-tale a chateau with those small circular towers with inverted cone roofs and a ruined castle perched on crag, all surrounded by the wild countryside.
We stopped for lunch high in the mountains with a view over a valley to the peaks beyond. We were on a fairly major road but in the 40 minutes we were there, less than 10 cars passed us. It is difficult to imagine a similar road in England that would be as quiet and it makes driving in France very pleasant.
We arrived in Le Monastir at half past three to discover that the camperstop was (temporarily?) closed and we had to implement Plan B to move on to the next camperstop at Millau just under one hour away. By now, we were on good major roads and very soon a motorway so the journey was very easy. This camperstop was quite an unusual one – overnight parking, waste water and WC dumping were free but there was a charge for fresh water and electricity. For €6, you had 20 minutes of fresh water and 50 minutes of electricity and this was only available in two positions, away from the parking and in the position where you dumped the waste water and WC. I could understand the charge for water but why 50 minutes of electricity – perhaps if you were addicted to Coronation Street? It also meant that you occupied the dump whilst you were connected to the electricity, very strange.
After parking up, we wandered into the town. It has an interesting old town and has a huge number of shops, obviously a major centre for the surrounding area.
Back then to Henrietta for Tartiflette (a Savoyard – northern France – dish of potato, cheese and ham) and chicken escalopes.
Photos: Our pitch at Ch'Ti Franoi; View from the campsite; Our hosts – Steve and Audrey; View on our journey; Christmas lights in Millau.
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