Parc national des Écrins

LP Hartley said "the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there". Dara had wonderful memories of France from her high school holidays, and we both had great memories of travelling through France the summer of "86. We spent a few days at Gap, at the southern end of Parc National des Écrins, to see how things had changed. It might have been partly the name (a gap in dentistry is just something to be filled?) but certainly after our first day we were feeling a bit disappointed and under-whelmed. It was hard to stop comparisons with our Italian experience, and Gap seemed a bit run-down, busy, and not especially "French". Our apartment was spacious enough but the kitchen was dirty (this did NOT go down well...!). It may be that we were a bit exhausted after the 900km drive from Bled, at speed on busy multi-lane autostrada with many tunnels and then tight hairpin bends over the passes. 

On our first outing, up to Orcières Merlette, we found everything deserted and closed for the season. It was like the apocalypse. The walks we started out on were hot, dusty and uninspiring, although a little old hotel served a good coffee and the hostess was chatty when she found out we from Nouvelle Zealande and not UK. We ended up doing a roady back over the grassy and scenic Col de Moisseire.







The overall experience improved when we had a look around the old town in Gap and found some interesting narrow streets and vibrant squares full of late afternoon shoppers, with attractive outdoor bars. We had found a nice friendly French restaurant. which somewhat rekindled Dara's enthusiasm for the cuisine. A visit to two supermarché's was an surprising eye-opener and we realised how lucky we were at home to have such a range of quality fresh food.

Day two in France started out better when we found a great bakery to stock up on picnic essentials.  We drove to a valley further north (La Chapelle-en-Valgaudémar) and more in the heart of the national park, and it was much nicer than the day before. Lovely little villages with town squares and a church, cafes, surrounded by woods and tidy little farmlets.




We found a narrow path leading up past a clear stream and waterfall, the Cascade de Combefroide.  Our picnic was excellent; baguette, ripe Camembert and tomato. 




The path was alive with miniature wildlife; little brown skinks, grasshoppers which tried to fly with bright red wings when they hopped, bright green locusts, and a praying mantis (also bright green) eating its lunch.




Praying mantis eating a fly.

These flying grasshoppers were really hard to photograph when flying (apology for the blur).

The mountain roads were popular with bikers.

Sightseers, trampers and climbers at the Chalet-Hôtel du Gioberney

The busy cafe across the road from out apartment served an amazing burger, further restoring our memory of tasty French cooking. But we missed Italy, so spent the evening (at least until the AB match against Italy), planning a route back through the mountains and lakes over the next five days to reach Venice.



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