Holiday in France - 21 Col de la Cayolle

At Guillaumes we had turned the corner and were now heading back north in a homeward direction. The road crosses a wide gorge from the Var river and then narrows, going through tunnels in the mountain and past some interesting geology, glistening black hillsides and incredibly folded rock. It follows the Var to it's source just before the Col de la Cayolle. The pass itself is rather disappointing - just an open field, albeit rather chilly at 2326m. On the way we were shocked to find the road was closed for repair, there had apparently been a notice which we had missed. There followed a moment of panic as we were due at the vet's in Barcelonnette at 3.00pm and it would have taken us hours if we had had to turn round and retrace our steps over the other side of the mountain. I do as I always do in this type of situation and play dim English woman who does not understand anything (easily done) and smile a lot. It worked and after a digger had been moved we were allowed through.
The dog made it to the vets and was duly injected with the anti tapeworm stuff allowing her to travel back to the UK. It was then decided that it would be a good idea if Alan cycled some of the road so we headed back towards the pass and I was parked up with the van at the side of the road where I could access part of the Gorge du Bachelard and take some photographs, the last ones shown here. There are also 3 monochrome conversions which I have included.
We had a good night's sleep as the next day was going to be a serious push north.
















 





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