Stage 9 - The E4 through the Vercors to Grenoble

Although you're walking through mountains for almost of the French part of the E4 it's not all the same.   Crossing the Rhone in particular meant I was leaving one type of geology and geomorphology, the ancient and fairly gentle Massif Central, and moving into another type which was younger and fresher.  I was now moving into the Vercors, essentially the western foothills of the Alps.  The Vercors, like a lot of the Massif Central, is limestone but here the uplifts have been relatively recent and as a consequence the erosion and the resulting cliffs are more dramatic, a little bit like their cousins in the Dolomites but of course with a different colour.

From Leoncel onwards the walk takes you through the Vercors Natural Park where the mountains form what has been described as a limestone "citadel", a huge upland massif with deep gorges sliced out by the rivers.

Tuesday 14th of June la Balme de Rencurel to Grenoble

Mid walk change of plan, instead of stopping at Autrans, I carried on walking to Grenoble. The point of no return was 3.30 in the afternoon when I had to turn in the wrong direction to Autrans, which was about 90 minutes away, or carry on in the right direction to Grenoble, which was about 5 hours away. Going backwards was more painful than going forwards so I went to Grenoble. Took me a bit longer than I had hoped after getting lost at St-Nizier but I got to Grenoble just after 9. Walking for 13 and a half hours, 2300 metres of climb and 43 kilometres, sore feet but no permanent damage.

Got away from la Balme de Rencurel by 7.30. The hotel gave me an early breakfast and the biggest sandwich so far, had everything in it including little gerkins, top sandwich award. The weather was OK but looking up the valley it was cloudy. Just like at la Vacherie, three days ago, when the wind is from the north the clouds seem to hang on the tops of the mountains. Looking south the views were great.



Steady climb up the Rencurel valley and then a short tough ascent over the ridge into the Autrans valley. As soon as you got above 1300 metres the views disappeared in the mist. I was on outskirts of Autran, looking across a sunny valley by about 11.30.

Autrans

Motivation was a bit difficult at this point. The plan involved walking around this huge semi-circle, which was probably going to be in the cloud, only to come back to a point I had got to mid-morning. Anyway I pressed on climbing up through trees and after about 90 minutes my fears were confirmed. I was standing on a ridge, at the Signal de Nave, out of the trees but looking into the mist.

On the ridge in the mist

No choice but to carry on around stopping periodically to commiserate with other walkers sitting at the frequent view points staring into the cloud. Not only couldn't I see it was also hard work as it was far from flat, with a series of mini peaks all around to the loop.

It then started to clear and for the last third of the ridge I got some amazing views: looking back along the ridge with it's huge cliffs; into the Isere valley with Grenoble looking deceptively close; and across the valley to the Chartreuse, the next stage of the walk.

The Ridge looking east

Ridge above the Isere

I blame the improvement in the weather for the decision to carry on. After walking in the clouds it was now just so nice that I didn't really want to end the walk going in the wrong direction. I could see Grenoble and, despite the fact that the route went in the opposite direction, my optimistic streak was unconsciously telling me it would be easy.

Going away from Grenoble meant going to St-Nizier, which meant going down to Engins and then back up and then climbing over an incredibly steep cliff (featured in the picture below). I would have stopped at St-Nizier if I could have found some accommodation but as it was I just got lost. Was in too much of a hurry to check the map and the route has changed. At one point I was heading along a bit of the GR9 in the wrong direction.

Le Moucherotte

Anyway I eventually found a route down and after 600 metres of descent was in the suburbs of Grenoble. After such a day the hard surfaces were very painful but I made it to somewhere near the middle, found a cheap hotel, got showered and went out and bought a pizza. What treats.

Have now got three days without walking, so no blogging until Saturday. Staying with a friend about a hours train journey from Grenoble and then back again on Saturday to start 10 days of walking to the Swiss border.

Monday June 13th Pont-en-Royans to la Balme de Rencurel

Brilliant walk but with the steepest bit of climbing I've had to do since going up Canigou. Really great scenery and although the weather doesn't exactly feel settled it stayed fine all day.

The first easy part of the walk involved a walk east out of Pont-en-Royans through the Gorge de la Bourne (named after the river that runs along it's bottom) to the village of Choranche. Great views of the of the cliffs on either side.

Grande Cournouse

River Bourne

After crossing the river at Choranche, it was a gentle climb for a kilometre or so and then a sharpe left and up a path that somehow managed to find it's way up the cliff. Was climbing really steeply for 400 metres competing for space with a group of runners coming sporadically the other way. The views along the valley just got better and better.

East along the Gorge de la Bourne

Climbing up out of the Gorge de la Bourne

Arriving at the top you could see out the east west running Gorge de la Bourne cut through another valley, which at much higher level ran north south. In the distance was a line of mountains, looking like frozen waves on the point of breaking. The last of the line, and the highest, is the Grand Veymont at 2341 metres.

2000 metre peaks through the heart of the Vercors

Although the real steep climb out the gorge had finished there was still more climbing to do, mainly through trees but very nice. In total today's walk involved over 1500 metres of ascent. Eventually you start to drop into the Rencurel valley. The picture below shows the north south valley, the trees in the middle ground are actually at the top of the Gorge de la Bourne, running east west. Behind the row of trees in the middle ground you can just make out the cliff face on the other side of gorge.

Heading to Rencurel

There is hotel in Rencurel but unfortunately it was full so I had to walk down to la Balme de Rencurel, 2 kilometres off the track and a drop of 200 metres, which will add to tomorrow's walk. Shouldn't complain because the owner of the hotel has been really helpful in sorting out my accommodation. In the end all three options on the GR9 were shut so I'm going to have to modify the route a bit and spend the night in Autrans. Potentially, if the route is not too tree bound, it could be a absolutely brilliant walk.

Sunday June 12th Bouvante-le-Bas to Pont-en-Royans

Not a lot of sparkle shown by the management of the Hotel Sapin in Bouvante-le-Bas but the accommodation was cheap if not necessarily cheerful. Great big hotel in a tiny village, no customers, I guess it's hard to smile, could be ages before someone else comes wandering alone the E4.

The basic summary of today's walk is: steep climb up through trees; walk across the top of the plateau through trees; incredibly steep descent from the plateau down into a gorge, mainly through trees; along the base of the plateau to Pont-en-Royans.

The scenery is really dramatic but for much of time the trees were so dense that you couldn't see anything, just little snippets, and it wasn't until the last third of that you got some real views.

The hard climbing work was done at the beginning and after walking an hour I had already gone up 600 metres. Climbing up the side of Val Sainte Marie you could occasionally see the cliffs on the other side or the longer views out into the Isere valley.

Climbing up the side of Valle Sainte Marie

Looking west to the Rhone Valley

Once on the top it was pretty solid forest trails including a really ugly stretch along a newly bashed out forest road, presumably being prepared to extract some of the timber.

Horrible Forest Road on the way Col de la Machine

Having passed the hotel at Col de la Machine, and resigned myself to a limited return on what was now 1,000 metres of climb, things started to open up. Dropping below the Col de la Machine is a gorge, a slice out of the limestone plateau called on the map, Rochers de Lavel. Firstly you get to see it, a sort of amphitheater with cliffs all around some of which must have been 600 metres and then, if your not careful, you get the chance to walk down it.

It was only when I got to the bottom that I realised that the way I had come down was a variant, the scary variant, and I could have stayed in trees on the top. I'm sure I got to see more this way but it was very steep.

Looking down to Laval

The steep GR9 variant down to Laval

Anyway I wasn't going to climb back up again to try out the other variant and carried on along the base of the plateau to Pont-en-Royans. On the way you got to look into another of these incredible limestone amphitheatres.



Pont-en-Royans is apparently quite a famous beauty spot and below is the classic photograph everyone takes showing the houses built on the cliff above the river. Staying at the very reasonably priced Hotel Royan and looking forward to another big climb up to the top again tomorrow morning.

Pont-en-Royan

Saturday 11th of June la Vacherie to Bouvante-le-Bas

Really good walk today despite a navigational cock-up and cloudy cold weather.

Was really cold in the night and multiple blankets didn't seem to make much difference. Looking south out of the bedroom window the weather was perfect, completely blue sky and fresh. Leaving the Gite the first thing you noticed was a bitter cold wind and the second was the cloud hanging over the tops of the mountain in the northerly direction I was heading. Wasn't long before I had to surrender and put a fleece on as well as gloves and two t-shirts, a thing I have only had to do a couple of times on the whole walk.

The cloud also spoilt the view. la Vacherie is set in a wide valley, with limestone ridges on either side which narrows as you approach Leoncel the next village along the route. The valley was full of long grass waiting for hay making.

Wind swept grassy plain north of la Vacherie

As the valley got narrower, turned into a gorge, trees dominated and provided some welcome protection from the wind. Was following an obvious forest trail, listening to music too embarrassing to name, and didn't notice that the red and white markers had disappeared. Decided that going back would have meant a lot of step retracing and assumed that the real track just went down to the road at the bottom when in fact it crossed the valley and went high up the other side. When I eventually got down to the road I decided that I somehow needed to get on the right trail as I might be missing something. I found a path up the other side, hit the GR 9 and walked back to the top of the trail to check for hidden gems. Although the path got much higher it stayed mainly in the trees and as it happened I could have saved myself the climb.

Along the valley north of Leoncel

It was on the way down that the views started to open up and would have been spectacular on a really fine day. Huge limestone cliffs in the distance with meadows and trees in the foreground.

From the Rocher de l'Aiguelle looking north east

Looking down from the Rocher de l'Aiguelle

The real surprise was the stunning gorge at the bottom of the valley, not mentioned in the Topoguide but something which in most places would qualify as a 5 star beauty spot, be the destination for coach journeys from the other side of the country, and be full of people taking pictures. Given that it's a Saturday, a bank holiday weekend, I can only conclude that the French haven't found it yet, or inexplicably don't like long trips on coaches.

My pictures don't do it justice. It was in fact two gorges merging with the divide formed by a narrow curtain of limestone. In the first picture below the limestone in the middle ground is the curtain with the limestone behind the wall of the second gorge. The route took you along the edge and then right down to the meadow at the base of the gorge. There was supposed to be an echo but despite shouting several times I couldn't make it work.

Pas de l'Echo

Looking down

At the bottom

After the gorge bonus it really was a steady climb up to Bouvante-le-Bas, although on the way had to go through the tiny village of Les Sables, which should have been called Les Kennels because it had at least thirty dogs in it and they were all barking at me, felt very welcome.

Friday 10th of June Saillans to la Vacherie

Staying on your own in Chambre d'Hotes or Hotels in France is a bit expensive so a couple of cheap nights in Gite d'Etapes is helping put the budget back on track. Actually they are OK apart from the absence of wifi. Last night I needed my sheet sleeping bag but tonight the only negative is a trip down the corridor to find the toilet. Everything else in the room is brand new although they do seem a bit short of customers.

Not a bad walk today but nothing to compare with the cliffs I enjoyed yesterday. To be honest the GR 9 doesn't take you into the highest part of the Vercors, I think I would need to be on the GR 91 to get near the 2,000 plus peaks. I think the E4 is doing the Vercors the easy way. At least I covered the ground, 30 kilometres and 1500 metres of climb.

Saillans, is a another nice town and I got great help from Tourist Information as I continue to fiddle about with my itinerary. As well as the Gite d'Etape, it also has a couple of hotels and all the shops I needed for a great picnic. The weather was cloudy, a bit humid but dry and I was walking by 8.30.

Climbing out the town and past a series of vineyards, the first third of walk was mainly through pines growing on hilly, moraine type countryside, not memorable. The main feature was the view back to the cliffs above Saillans which I walked down yesterday. Later on you could also see back across the Rhone Valley and into the Massif Central.

Looking back to Rocher de la Laveuse 

The half way village, or slightly further than halfway, was Beaufort sur Gervanne, which I sneaked past in a guilty way because having booked to stay at the hotel there I then decided it wasn't taking me far enough, so have messed the hotel about a bit.

Beaufort sur Gervanne

The pull up out of the town cut across the zig zags in the road. Beat an English couple on bikes to the top. They of course were confined to the road but I think me getting there first might have been the cause of a matrimonial dispute.

The Rocher du Vallan, above Plan-de-Baix, was perhaps the highlight of the walk, great looking up at the lump of rock towering above the village from below and good views from the rock itself once I had climbed to the top.

Rocher du Vallan

View from Rocher du Vallan Beaufort sur Gervanne 

The dimple on the horizon is the Rocher de la Laveuse the cliff above Saillans so the picture gives a good view of most of today's walk apart from the last eight kilometres I still had finish.

The rest of the walk was along the side of the limestone ridge which runs up to Rocher du Vallan but as you're in trees most of the time the views are limited. Approaching la Vacherie it opens out a bit and the village itself is set in the middle of pastures.

Approaching la Vacherie

The Gite d'Etape by the way is in an enormous building, by far the largest building in the tiny village. Dinner was wonderful, and although the hostess didn't speak any English she did laugh at lot.

Thursday June 9th Bourdeaux to Sallians

Firstly special thanks to my hosts at the Tulip Sauvage (apologies for the spelling, sure it's wrong) at Bourdeaux, great place to stay and the other French guests, a group of friends on a trip in old British sports cars (two MGBs, an Austin Healey and a TR4), made it a really enjoyable evening. Because my hosts were concerned that I hadn't sorted my accommodation for what is another bank holiday weekend they took the trouble to ring ahead and book for me. Really kind and the Tulip Sauvage is the place to stay in Bourdeaux.

Another great walk, two in a row although this was a bigger walk than yesterday. Again it involved climbing out of valley, across a finger of east west running limestone and then down into the next valley, a more important valley and host to the River Drome.

Market day in Bourdeaux and was disappointed that at least one of the two stall holders who apparently had a fist fight over a space last week didn't turn up. Unsporting police presence seems to have put them off. Still I was able to get stocked up and was out the village by 9.30. No idea what to expect but my hosts were a bit concerned that I had a big climb.

It wasn't long before I had climbed high enough first to get some great views back to the village as well as being able to see down to the Rhone valley.

Looking back to Bourdeaux

Climbing up to Le Signal

The finger of limestone actually had two edges with a hollow in the middle, although the finger as a whole got higher the further east it went. Once over the first edge after a climb of about 500 metres there was a gentle descent, really a contour walk, before you started a steeper climb up the inside of the second edge. This was really nice walking through open meadow and then beech trees. There was a path up to a summit which I think was called The Signal, which I was tempted to take as it was clearly out of the trees, but as it happened I wasn't going to disappointed with the views I got.

The highlight was a feature called Rocher de la Laveuse which literally appeared out of the blue. All of a sudden the path was right on the edge of huge cliffs towering over Sallians, 400 metre cliffs in places, with the limestone forming gigantic vertical columns. Can't think of a more dramatic feature on the whole of the walk so far made better by the fact that it wasn't expected.

Rocher de la Laveuse

Amazing Views

Views down to Sallians

The walk then took you along this ridge for about a kilometre and as well as views across the valley into the Vercors looking north you could also look along the finger of limestone heading west. For the first time I met some other walkers including one woman clambering down the rocks with a poodle in her bag, the woman looked nervous but the poodle was unconcerned.

The Ridge running east

It was then a really steep walk down to Sallians and once out of the beech trees the route took you down stretches of road mixed with off-road short cuts. Actually the road was the more interesting as there was a rally going on and every minute or some exotic car came flying up the hill (Porsche, MG, Lotus etc) all driven by women - it was the "Princesses Rally". The scenery, the cars driven by women with flowing scarfs was like a scene from a James Bond film, the only incongruous feature was this smelly bloke striding down the road waving walking sticks.

Women only car rally

Back up to Rocher de la Laveuse

Wednesday 8th of June Dieulefit to Bourdeaux

Perfect day, nice and short after yesterday's mega walk, a dry day and great countryside. There are a lot of trees in France and it sometimes feels like you're in a maze unable to see anything and loosing all sense of direction. It gets particularly frustrating when your walking through scrubby evergreen oak trees across fairly even countryside when the occasional view isn't much to write home about. Had a lot of that over the last few days but I think I have now broken out into some great scenery.

Pouring with rain this morning and because the walk was only 16 kilometres decided to hang around as long as possible to see if the weather changed. It did from rain to cloudy, windy and fresh.

Dieulefit is a nice town, had two hotels and lots of Chambre d'hotes. The little hotel I wanted to stay at, near the church in the centre, was fully booked forcing a long walk out of town. Anyway, armed with an enormous sandwich I was on the GR9 by 12 and there was even a sign that referenced the E4.

Hen's teeth - an E4 sign

Essentially today's walk took me up out of the one valley, over a fairly shallow pass, and then down again into another valley. The valley's are running east to west, down to the Rhone valley, and I'm heading north. Climbing over the pass today meant going up 400 metres to 800 metres but the climbs will get a bit more substantial over then next few days. Although there was still a lot of trees, the topography is now more varied, the walk was more open and the views were much better than I have had over last few days.

How green is my valley

Walked past a stunning romanesque church located right on top of a hill. Churches, fortified houses, castles and the remains of castles were scattered about the countryside.

Eglise de Comps

By the time I was heading down into the next valley the weather had improved, and although the clouds were still hanging over the tops of the mountains you could start to see the sort of countryside I'll be going trough over the next few days. Looks great.

Dropping down to Bourdeaux

Bourdeaux is a bigger village than I had expected and with the remains of what must have been an enormous castle towering above it must have had an even more significant past. The picture below only captures a part of the ruin. It was an important protestant centre until the Wars of Religion an interestingly became a focal point for Methodism in the 19th century.

Castle ruins above Bourdeaux

Tuesday 7th of June Chateauneuf du-Rhone to Dieulefit

Big 40 kilometre walk with a over 1,000 metres of climb so the plan was to get an early start. Had checked the opening time for the local supermarket which was 7.30, so that was the earliest I could start. Really frustrating to find a handwritten note on the door saying they would not be opening to 8.30, had no choice but to wait as I was completely out of food. It was too early to get breakfast at the hotel I was staying at, and there were no shops on the way.

Given the late start and the distance I was under pressure to keep up the pace all day. The weather had deteriorated since yesterday and although it wasn't raining it didn't look settled. Walked for 45 minutes along the road and joined the GR 429 just south of Malataverne. After going over the motorway, which I guess is the Autosud, and underneath the TGV line, I started the walk proper.

Underneath the main north south transit

After climbing about 300 metres it was countryside similar to the last two or three days, oak forests with the occasional clearing. A small wind farm on top of the hill and views back across the Rhone valley were the main distraction. The path was well marked which was just as well as a big detour would have me pulling my hair out.

The first milestone was the Trappist monastery at Aiguebelle, about 16 kilometres from the start of the walk, lovely location, very quite, and I had my first lunch there. Got there at 12.30 so everything on schedule.

Aiguebelle Monastry

Gradually climbing all the time the countryside started to open up a bit with fields of lavender and hay meadows breaking up the countryside. The weather also started to get worse and by the middle of afternoon it was raining, not heavily but definitely waterproof weather.

Lavender

The highlight of the walk was the steady climb up Mont Rochas which is about 900 metres. Although by no means a clear day the views in all directions were impressive and you could see the more dramatic Vercors countryside I will be passing through over the next few days.

From Mt Rochas looking east

After a long downhill walk through forest I was in Dieulefit by 7.30. Took me ages to find the place I had booked which was about 2 kilometres out of town to the east. Got there just after 8 just before it really started to rain heavily. The hotelier gave me a blank look when I said I had a reservation and swore blind that I could not have contacted them. For a couple of minutes I thought I was going to be stranded but of course they had loads of rooms and were only too pleased to get my business.

Watched the weather forecast which continues to look bad. Shoes get smellier, holes have suddenly appeared in my socks and feel in need of a 2500 kilometre service. Oil change, new brakes and definitely a new air filter.