Sunday 7 August 2022
| Distance (km) | 12 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 3 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 375m / 395m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 80% / 20% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 33° 1 Bft
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In spite of the stress we slept well and so next morning at 7:00 we report for breakfast again. It is quiet, the only ones having breakfast is a French couple that
we saw at Lac Ste.Anne yesterday and we mostly noticed them because the woman was wearing a bright green dress. Not only is it rare to see somebody hiking in a dress, but
also we could see the dress from very far away for the whole way up to Col Girardin. And yesterday at dinner we found out they are staying here too. The other guests, David and his wife and a group of 8 elderly French, are not here yet. It is the usual simple breakfast of bread and marmelade with some juice and tea or coffee and we don't need much time for breakfast. By the time we leave David and his wife come in and they wish us a good walk today. It feels a bit strange to walk on my regular shoes as they are lighter and more flexible, so I literally feel every stone now pressing into the sole of my foot. The good thing is that I can get used to it as the first 8 kms will be along the tarmac road that leads to St.Paul-sur-Ubaye. Well, at a few places the GR5 is lead along a walking trail parallel to the road, but since the road is quiet and the trail is sometimes literally only a few meters from the road we don't see the advantage of it. Besides, we don't know how my shoes will like this terrain, so we'd rather stick with the tarmac. And so we pass La Barge again and then a long time nothing but the valley and the river until we reach the hamlet St.Antoine that has a very nice mural painting on the front of the church. From here we can now also see in the distance the Pont du Châtelet, the stone bridge high above the Ubaye river that forms the only access to Fouillouse. Where the road to Fouillouse splits off we decide to have lunch in the little shadow there is next to the sign announcing all restaurants in Fouillouse and Maljasset. We bought lunch from the gite we stayed and when opening the bag we see couscous salad, an apple, a large chuck of cheese, a bun, a cereal bar and a chocolate. So quite a lot to chew on, literally. And actually just the couscous salad is more than enough for us though we do decide to also eat the chocolate to avoid it melts in our backpack. While having lunch we notice the large amount of cars coming from St.Paul that go up to Fouillouse and we start wondering what kind of tourist circus we will find there. But we will find out soon enough. We continue a bit more over tarmac while passing Pont du Châtelet and a short road tunnel. Lupita is curious how high the bridge really is and looks over the edge. I, on the other hand, don't get even close to the edge as I have severe vertigo and I stay nicely in the middle of the road. But ok, a few 100 meters after the short tunnel we have to leave the tarmac and climb over a trail. And actually it is quite a climb and unfortunately also with a lot of flies again. I know we have to climb to just over 1900m and where we left the tarmac we were at 1673m so through the GPS I can keep track of how far it is. And so we arrive soaking wet from sweating with a cloud of flies around us at a crossing of trails at 1940m altitude. From here it is a 15 minutes gentle descent to get to Fouillouse where we arrive around 13:00. Since lunch service is going on we decide not to bother the owners of the gite and just sit on the terrace and have something to drink. About 1.5 hours later the group of 8 French that were with us in the gite in Maljasset arrive as well and we have a talk, mostly about the large amount of flies in the last climb. Actually, we now notice that the group of 8 has reduced to 6 and they explain that one couple want to St.Paul-sur-Ubaye to go from there to Barcelonnette as their holiday was running to an end. The remaining 6 are also staying here so I guess we will still see them tomorrow as well. The gite is fine but not as good as in Maljasset. The room is completely but less nice and the food is good but more simple. Actually we hear a lot of complaints that soup, lentils with any seasoning and a sausage is not really a meal but to us it is really not that bad, just more simple then yesterday. |
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