Well, Dole market comprised just a few stalls with none of the “livestock” Andrew had promised me, so we moved on earlier than planned. The overnight rain had finally stopped and we wanted to make the next part of our journey before it perhaps turned wet again.
The Aires Book had found us Nantua, in the Ain Department of Rhone-Alpes region. Hmmm…remember the word Alpes. Soon, we spotted a roadsign which announced an uphill gradient of 13% ! Yikes! This was where the “Hill assist” function came in very useful, combined with a damned good driver (Andrew). The satnav, however, was constantly “pinging” with z bend warnings, oh and she also warned us a part of our road ahead would be dangerous as there would be a height and a width restriction, both of which the van would exceed. Ha, sure enough, the restrictions were on a part of road the road just beyond the Aire. Panic over!
The Aire was nothing more than 12 parking spaces, along the side of the lake. The borne had water, but it wasn’t labelled “eau potable”(drinking water) so we didn’t risk it. Instead we would make do with our “50% full ” tank of water for showers, washing up etc- showers being our priority of course. Having spotted a Lidl (woohoo, just like home) along the road, we wandered along to check their opening hours, and further into town. Hmm…not a lot going on here, it seemed most of the town had packed up for Winter.
What Nantua did have was a very poignant memorial to the local residents who’d been deported to Concentration camps in WWll.
We later enjoyed a walk of a few miles along the lakeside, wondering at the amazing scenery, oh and there was an occasional TGV train passing on the track just across the road.
OK, there was some muttering of “not sure why this aire costs €9 a night” and we were quite happy to leave in the morning, not having been visited by the money collector. If they’d asked we would have paid, but…well, like some friends did recently (you know who you are) we just left, keeping our €9 to spend elsewhere. Oh and another thing..it turned out this branch of Lidl didn’t have an instore bakery, so Andrew had to go to a Boulangerie in the morning for boulangerie priced croissants. Pah!
Sorry if this sounds a bit negative. Nantua lake is truly stunning with its backdrop of mountains but overall I don’t think we would return here.