Trip to the French Alps - 20 June - 3 July 2024
One area of France we haven't visited to-date is the French Alps, so we booked a chalet in Aillon-le-Jeune in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region of France. For us, part of the holiday is the journey and we like to avoid the peages and motorways, so we had two overnight stops and enjoyed the D roads and villages en route. We took our usual DFDS ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe and drove to our first overnight stop at Au Nid des Champs a B&B in Dammarie. The next day we drove to our second stop at Beausejour, a chambre d'hote in Montaiguet-en-Forez, Bourbonnais run by a delightful couple, Marc and Michele, who were the perfect hosts, making us feel very welcome and serving up a wonderful meal that evening. On the third day, we drove the final leg to our chalet in Aillon-le-Jeune, arriving there Saturday afternoon after a journey of 570 miles.
boarded the ferry at Newhaven
in Aillon-le-Jeune
on our travels around France
- circa 12th Century
towards Gresy-sur-Isere
where we had lunch at the water's edge
on Lake Annecy!
The Gorges du Fier were created over a period of thousands of years, when the glacier that would become Lake Annecy, melted and its waters emptied into the surrounding area. The softer rocks in the area gradually eroded and slowly carved out the gorge. As can be seen from our photos below, there are 252 metres of walkways through the gorge, secured into the rock between 20-30 metres above the fast-running water below. These walkways were first constructed in 1868, an amazing feat in those days. Whilst on the walkways we met a lovely couple from Hayling Island in the UK, Les and Daz. We ended up walking through the remainder of the gorge with them and continuing our chat with them afterwards in the gorge cafe.
with the walkways above them
settle on ledges in the gorge
through a bridge over the gorge
from the top of the gorge
grazing in a field on our travels
- circa 13th Century
the women's Tour de France which ends at
Alpe d'Huez this year
built in the shadow of a massive boulder!
this one in Mizoen
en route to Col du Galibier
one of the stages on this year's Tour de France
the Tour de France everywhere!
in the Bauges Massif at an elevation of 1,562m
We had one overnight stop en route from our chalet in the French Alps back to Normandy and the B&B we stayed in was
Domaine les Grands Perons, with a lovely Dutch couple, Tanja & Rob. On arrival, we found this lovely welcome sign on the table in our room. Tanja & Rob
made us feel very welcome and provided us with a wonderful dinner that evening and breakfast the following morning.
Whilst staying with our friends Tim & Laura in Normandy for three nights on the way home, we visited 'The America & Gold Beach Museum' in Ver-sur-Mer.
between
USA and France on 1 July 1927
after crash-landing in the sea 200m
off Ver-sur-Mer beach
We also revisited the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, having been there in November 2021. On this
occasion, we wanted to see the newly-installed 'Standing with Giants' display.Standing with Giants, a UK
charity, have installed 1,475 silhouettes across the wild meadow fields of the British Normandy Memorial. These silhouettes, named 'For Your Tomorrow',
reflect the number of servicemen who died serving under British Command on D-Day, 6 June 1944, together with silhouettes of two nurses, Sisters Evershed
and Shield, who died while saving 75 men from a sinking hospital ship. The installation remains in place until 31 August 2024.
What an amazing trip! We drove 1,770 miles in all, saw some spectacular scenery and met some lovely people. We can highly recommend visiting the French Alps!