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Road trip - day 14 - Friday
We are vegetarians away in Europe & have only had one pizza in 2 weeks ..... pretty good going!!
I am also starting to really struggle thinking of the English words to use, goodness knows what I'll be like in another 3 weeks! Especially when's French isn't really improving, although G is getting better at holding full blown conversations.
Today was a late start, our last lazy get up in Franche Comte, Eastern France. Started to pack some clothes, wrote postcards, started a new book ..... Luke Delaney looks promising as a new author in my repertoire.
Again misty, cloudy, dull, chilly ... but atmospheric
Decided to visit castle de Joux after debating Bescanson. We knew it would probably be closed but decided to try the road; it had looked very steep when passing earlier in the week on our way to Neuchatel. In fact the road was fine so we went up & came down to visit SuperU for a present for Christiana before going back after lunch.
In SuperU we found a box of chocolates as the present and also some boxes of Swiss selections & pine honey bought as presents. A cool bag was also purchased to keep our purchases cool in Provence!! Also added to the purchases was a new Bluetooth speaker as a replacement for the one that we had to throw away a couple of days ago.
We stopped at the cafe for a drink & a small tart - very indulgent!
Back towards Castle De Joux we stopped on a lay by to take pictures then on to the car park. The place was packed with cars, motorbikes & the odd camper van. We worked out that you could only go around by a guided tour, the next one was due. We walked up a very steep entrance path to find there was also parking higher up & a bar/restaurant. We decided not to do the tour, it was already busy & lasted 1hr 15 mins with lots of stairs. We decided to head to Bescanson for the afternoon instead & maybe get some tea there???
Ok, so Bescanson was 40+ miles away & it absolutely sheeted down with rain on the way there, the road was like a river in places. When we got there the citadel was signposted as up a street with an indication the route was difficult & there were only 90 parking places. On the circular tour of the base of the citadel it seemed like the idea was to park & take the bus, but it was late & although the rain had eased off it didn't look like the weather was going to be great .... so we carried on back towards Pontarlier. We did stop at a local artisan shop near to Pontarlier & bought interesting gifts including a bar of proper Swiss chocolate. The shop also showed a film on the making of Comte cheese which was very interesting, although we still don't know why some cows wear bells. Also turned out from the info in the shop that Bescanson is at least a half day visit
We decided on a pizza for tea & headed back for the 3rd time today towards Castle de Joux to the pizza place we had spotted earlier. Got there at 6.30pm, opened at 6.45pm so waited in the car. Our timings today have been really rubbish!!!!
Lovely meal, feu de bois veggie pizzas with pear ice cream for G & a plate of mini deserts for me plus expresso coffees - a first for me!
Pouring down with rain on leaving, back to our old favourite the laposte hotel for a wifi fix. Back to the Gite around 10pm.
Tried the new Bluetooth speaker, sounds good.
Decided to get up early in the morning to pack up & clean. Christiana is due at 9.30am so a 7ish start!!
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