27 August 2024

Another warm day. Today our theme was to be gorges and waterfalls.  We started off visiting the Cascades du Hérisson (Hedgehog Falla). We had been here several years ago and walked the whole of the cascade down.  I had to walk back to the van and drive around to the bottom to pick up R.  Today we just visited the first fall. It was easy walking to this fall, and there was a café there. We wanted to see the waterfall with some water flowing through it. The previous visit it had been particularly dry, and there was only a trickle. This time we were in luck and there was plenty of water.  We had an espresso each.

Next, we drove to see the Gorges de la Saine, stopping at a viewpoint on the road, then continued to the village of Les Planches-en-Montagne and parked in the cemetery carpark, to see the falls in the river La Saine.  Here we took a walk alongside the gorge and waterfall. This waterfall had once been used to generate power for the village. The gorge was incredibly deep and narrow. Many signs asking you not to participate in the sport of canyoning.  We walked along the gorge. We arrived at the other end where there was a large carpark, which perhaps was where we should have parked.

We then headed to near the N5 where there was another waterfall, the Cascade de La Billaude ou Saut Claude Roy.   Smaller waterfall in a ravine.  This waterfall had a long metal stairway down to the bottom, where you could go and bath in the river. Plenty of kids bathing in the water. A very idyllic spot.

Drove on back. The village where they were resurfacing the road was still being worked on. Most of the road surface had now been cleaned away ready for the new surface. The French certainly want to keep their roads well-maintained.

Back at the campsite, R worked on S’s thesis, while I walked to the local Bricomarche in the hope of buying a plug for the 16 Amp Euro connector, so I could wire this onto a UK 13 Amp socket. My idea was that R could stay and work on the thesis while I went to the Hedgehog Falls and completed the whole walk.   No luck, so we would have to do something together tomorrow.

Visited the bank for some cash, and then the boulangerie, where they had only that plain French bread that goes soggy in an hour. Be careful which bank you use to withdraw cash; Credit Agricole wanted to charge me 6 Euro.  Thankfully, there was another bank nearby which had free withdrawals.