{"id":19592,"date":"2016-02-05T18:16:26","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T18:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=19592"},"modified":"2019-04-02T12:45:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T11:45:36","slug":"is-that-mont-blanc-it-certainly-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/is-that-mont-blanc-it-certainly-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Is that Mont Blanc? It certainly is!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zagan the motorhome have the most amazing view from his windscreen, he is perched at around 1250m on Mont Saleve looking out across the Plateau des Bornes to the Alps (N46.073282, E6.12595). This place is why we love motorhoming.<\/p>\n

This morning I was woken by the birds in the trees around us chirping, everything else was silent. Not a car, voice or raindrop to be heard. Charlie was snoring gently in his basket and after breakfast I took him for a leg stretch while Jay had another go at fitting our snowchains. After the sprinkling of snow we drove through yesterday, he thought another practice was in order. \u00a0This time, following the instructions, they went on first time – now we’re ready for anything!<\/p>\n

\"DSC09675<\/p>\n

We had planned a short run today, but as we got ready to go the rain started again. We’re both finding rainy days\u00a0a bit tiresome as everyone stays at home and places are deserted, so it was an easy decision to make – lets do another long (for us) drive. Annecy was punched into the satnav, once again we told her to avoid tolls roads, so we had a three and a half hour run ahead of us.<\/p>\n

\"DSC09677<\/p>\n

We wound our way through the Jura region\u00a0with vineyards climbing the hills either side of us, each ‘domaine’ trying to out-do its neighbour with metal wine related metal sculptures. Just over halfway through in the High Jura Mountains I spotted a belvedere (view point) and we pulled in for a rest. We sat and ate a chocolate bar each looking out over Lac de Vouglans, a nearby noticeboard telling of the people that used to live in the valley before it was dammed and flooded.<\/p>\n

\"DSC09697 \"DSC09689<\/p>\n

Looking at the map to see how much more we had to go, we flipped over to the page we were heading for. Just north of Annecy Jay had marked up a free parking place which was said to have a great view, so satnav was reprogrammed and we trimmed 10 minutes off our journey.<\/p>\n

Leaving the town of Oyonnax, satnav decided to test our nerves by sending us on a short cut through Foret d’Echallon. A lovely winding road through pine trees, which climbed, and climbed and soon brought us into the snow. There wasn’t loads of snow, just enough to bring the UK to a standstill. The roads themselves were clear, but it still took all of Jay’s driving skill to get\u00a0us over\u00a0the twisty loops of tarmac that clung to the edge of the mountain.<\/p>\n

\"DSC09702<\/p>\n

Topping out we arrived at a village, Jay pulled over and indicated to let a van pass us. The van didn’t move, so he put on his hazard lights to tell him we weren’t going anywhere. The yellow van slowly pulled alongside us and two worried looking faces peered out as Jay explained we are slow. Realising that we were OK, they smiled and set off in front of us. It was nice to see that\u00a0they look out for each other around here, even if they weren’t that much faster than us on the descent.<\/p>\n

Berating satnav for taking us up hill and down dale, I set in a waypoint to keep us on the main roads, as an act of defiance she decided not to announce a turn which almost saw us heading into Switzerland. Fortunately ours can’t be the only pedantic device and about 5km from the Swiss border we picked up another main road to get us back on track.<\/p>\n

Finally we started to climb up to our stop for the night, we knew it would be a climb as anywhere with views of Mont Blanc and Annecy has to be pretty high up. Once again Jay gritted his teeth, pain shooting though his shoulder as he coaxed Zagan up yet another winding road. Just wide enough for two cars to pass, we of course are wider than a car so extra care was needed, especially on the hairpin bends which the locals seem to see as some sort of speed challenge.<\/p>\n

It was only 7km up the road, but it took us nearly 20 minutes to get here, and\u00a0as we turned into the empty car park we knew it was worth it. We sat agog for a while at the view, then realising it was 3pm and we hadn’t had lunch yet, the kettle went on for a brew and food was foraged from the fridge. We’ve taken so many photos of the view, but none of them do it justice – so we’ve uploaded a video too.<\/p>\n

\"DSC09713 \"DSC09735\"DSC09723<\/p>\n