Last days in France and the beginning of adventures in Switzerland 

After leaving Besançon we stopped in Ornans which is 20km after the Chapelle des Buis this is a very pretty little town. It is the place of birth to Gustave Cobert It is a jewel on the Via with houses perched over the river and stylish buildings and streets. It also has a Gothic Church dedicated to Saint Laurent.

Photo: Ornans Gustav Cobert place of birth

In the next 25 km we found Mouthier-haute-Pierre, Lods and La Main very picturesque surrounded by beautiful parks waterfalls and thick woods. Only pictures can tell the story here we have no words to explain their natural beauty.

 

Photo: cascades of Saint Ann

The villages close to Ornans were extremely beautiful Vuilafans, Lods  Mouthier-Haut-Pierre and Le Main were particularly interesting. Visiting these places we understood that this part of France is blessed with natural beauty.

 

Photo: Mouthier-Haute-Pierre from the hill

30th /5 city of Pontalier

We were advised to visit Pontalier and stay there a couple of days for rest. However we could not get out of it fast enough. We found that it was very dirty and full of all kinds of non French people. Everyone was shopping and shopping as the Swiss francs had improved its value against the Euro so the cars were stacked in like sardines in the carparks mainly with cars from Switzerland. Also one of the parking lots did have several caravans with Gypsies from Romania so everyone was commenting on the strong possibility of losing wallets and other objects this weekend.

We left Pontalier so famous for a green alcoholic drink which was marketed as medicine. This drink was based on a toxic ingredient “wormwood shrub” and became very popular outside the medicine field. By 1805 this product was very popular and the people of France were consuming 13 million litres per year. By then a French entrepreneur Henry Pernod purchased the rights to the recipe and opened a distillery at Pontalier. In 1915 the drink was banned for the toxicity of the main ingredient. So Mr Pernod developed an aniseed aperitif known as Pernod or Ricardi.

30/5 Heading to the Swiss Border

We left Pontalier and walked the last 22 km in France. Our destination was Les Echampes the last town before leaving this lovely area.

 

Photo: wild flowers by the railway tracks

We walked the trainline that has only one steam train going twice a day with tourists visiting some walking tracks. It was so good and amazing to do it. We had difficulty here and there but after a few kilometres we reached the first village known by the name of Hopitous Neuph. This hospital was created in the times of the plague to be able to segregate the people affected by the pestilence from the people that were suffering of other illnesses which were left in the old hospital. We stopped for a bit of a rest here and an ice cream which we found quite refreshing. We continued our route until we reached Jounges not without getting lost a couple of times.

 

Photo: Walking the tracks on the way to Les Echampes

Jounges is a very interesting very active little town with several interesting areas. We took several pictures and continued walking through the bush. What a lovely track. We were so happy with the peaceful surroundings. The only noise we had was that of the river and birds singing for a long while until we got close to the major road.

This route through the bush misses the castle and the Chappelle of Sainte Michelle but we did visit them when we were looking for the best track with Francis.

 

 Photo: Jounges woods

At the Saint Michelle Chapelle we saw a couple of chamois climbing the rocks what a treat. The Castle dates to the 11 century and is very interesting. It has been conserved and maintained and still shows its charm even though it is empty. It still attracts tourists and Pilgrims that use this track to cross to Switzerland. We arrived at the last house in the last town in France Les Echampes . We stayed with Michel and Francois. We were planning to leave on Sunday, however we had to leave on the Monday. It is a bit complicated to travel on the “seventh day”. Perhaps it is good to inform the readers that the last weekend in France we slept in the last house in the Main Street of Les Echampes which was about 200 metres from the Swiss border.

The owners of the B&B were really lovely, so helpful. They went beyond expectations ensuring that we were comfortable. The lady was such a magnificent cook and even made the bread every day. So our last two nights in France were comfortable and relaxed. The house was very similar to the houses in Switzerland with a roof designed to survive heavy snowing. The balconies had red flowers in ceramic pots and in the garden there were a lot of pines.

We will always be grateful to Michel and Francoise. They spent time with us, gave us a lift to the supermarket when they went for their shopping and on the way they showed us the area around.

Michel was happy to show the slopes where the ski fields settle in the winter. It was amazing we could imagine how exciting it would be to ski in such inviting slopes. Also we went through a Roman aqueduct very impressive almost incredible to see such precision of engineering. In addition they showed us the salmon farm and took us to a cheese factory outlet where we bought our last 150 grams of Comte Cheese.

It was clear that Michel and Francois are justifiably very proud of their region. Obviously they are enthusiastic skiers and to have the fields near by their house is considered a gift by them .

There it is we have met so many lovely people. We said goodbye to them with a bit of heavy heart as perhaps we will not see them ever again.

1/06 Leaving France

We are already in June, time goes by very quickly. We are leaving France with a bit of sadness as the people here are so nice and friendly and you feel at home after being here six weeks. Once again we were blessed with a lovely sunny day so we felt very energetic, had a lovely breakfast and left after a warm “see you again” kind of greeting.

We started our walk towards the Swiss border and before long we were crossing the imaginary line and turning back our heads to look at France. The way ahead looked very inviting, we walked through lovely green fields and woods very green and in many areas we could smell the pines. As we walked deeper into the woods we noticed that we were on top of a Roman way made out of rocks and stones and the exciting part was that now we could see the grooves which were there from many Roman chariots having travelled from A to B, that was something!

Well we left France, new adventures are waiting for us in the Via Francigena in Switzerland.