Framedlight

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. T...

We awoke to rain the next morning in our campsite at Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée, but nonetheless Alan decided that he wanted to cycle up the Col de la Bonette and back again. I took the dog for a walk up a little valley at the back of the campsite where there were some limestone encrustations by the side of a busy stream. When Alan returned he was suffering slightly from hypothermia having cycled down from the col in the rain. He had to spend some time in the shower trying to warm up. We set out late following the road south and then west to Guillaumes. The weather did not improve and I have no pictures of this journey. We parked the van by the river Tuebi for the night and had an evening walk through the narrow streets of this small historic town. Next morning we visited the castle which stands on a cliff overlooking the river. I have tried to find something out about it but have only conflicting information. The river was covered in mist but this dissipated as the sun rose to a blue sky...

It was well into the afternoon by the time we started to ascend the Col de la Bonette, at 2715m  (8907ft). An extra piece of higher road has been added as a loop around the hill at the top and a signpost says " Col de la Bonette - Restefond, 2802m above sea level, highest road in Europe" which, according to Wikipedia is  incorrect, the Col de l'Iseran, the Stelvio Pass and the Col d'Agnel are higher passes as the loop road is not technically part of the pass, but it is the highest asphalted road in France. The weather was fabulous, sunny but with a some white fluffy clouds to add interest to the sky. We were halted on our way by some sheep and goats crossing the road, being led by their guardian dogs with no evidence of human intervention. As we approached the top the cloud cover increased and having got to the loop we parked up and took the short footpath to the very top of the mountain. Cloud was coming and going and as I had the tripod on me I took the ...