Hiking the GR6, GR5 & Tour du Mont Blanc 

DAY 14: Friday June 15th - Chateaoroux les Alps to Pallon: 25k, 8hrs: Blue Skies, a very warmish 18°C to 27°C

Another magic day, blue skies all day, luch watching the gliders take off into the Alps, an unexpected beer at the end, and a totally unexpected nice refuge, the Ancienne Presbytere de Pallon that we expected to be just a rood over our heads.

We awake to blue skies, pack and head downstairs to breakfast - 2nd word breakfast of the trip - Trip Advisor here I come.  At least the tea was hot, but the bread was like rock cakes, AND, when we leave half an hour later, we see the Boulangerie open right next door!  We buy up on quiche and really fresh bread and head off down a minor road.  The day is just spectacular.  We are surrounded by high snow capped alps and below is the River Durance running fast in the deep valley.  The road leads to a V shaped track that winds its way in and out of a gully, and we follow it to a spectacular fast running creek - Torrent Couleau - and spy a large rock near the fast running water where we have our ooffee - with a real breakfast - Ian has quiche, I have fresh bread and cheese.

We meet up with a minor road which is the official track of Chemin de Compostelle, one of the 5 arms of the St James way that meet up in the Pyranees at Jean st Puy, then crosses into Spain to Compostelle, the burial place of St James.  Pilgrims have been following these 5 routes for a thousand years, but the track we are on, now officially called the GR653D which goes from Montgenevre near the Italian border to Arles in France, has only recently been designated.  And we'll be following this track (in reverse as we are heading north) until Montgenevre - the high Alpine pass where Hannibal, Charlemagne and Napoleon all crossed with their armies.  We stop for a cup of tea in a small picnic area that marks our joining of the track, and the place is adorned with sweet smelling roses - time to stop and have a whiff.

We follow this track (now a minot road) for 7k until we get to the Mont Dauphin Gliders Airport. It's now 1.30pm - time for lunch.  We are well stocked up as we are not expecting any shops for the next 30k, so we have a choice of lettuce, capsicum, tomato, cheese, dried ham, sausisicon (salami) onion, mayonnaise and really fresh bread.  We keep it simple, and save the onion and capsicum and salami for tonights dinner - there's no restaurant at the refuge at Pallon (and no beer and no wine) but I remembered there might be a communal kitchen.  It's very relaxing sitting by the side of the road in the midst of the alps, with a field of red poppies over the road and gliders taking off so silently.  They are winched into the air on a long wire, which drops off and parachutes down when the glider reaches a certain height.  And then to watch them gliding on the thermals was just a magical lunch.

Time to move on - and my shoes are just great - they are red/black - so that have to be good.  And the hot spots on two toes yesterday didn't turn into blisters - I had bandaids handy just in case.  It's now all up hill and we have just broken our second cardinal rule of walking - don't walk uphill after lunch - my friend Donna calls it lunch legs - all the blood is drained from your legs and diverted to your digestive system so you feel like you have lead legs - they don't move.  By the way, the first cardinal rule of walking is don't stop for lunch before 1pm - any earlier and you're absolutely ravenous by 7.30pm when most restaurants open for dinner.

It's up and up and by now it's almost 27°C and we're thirsty - and we're not sure if this refuge has running water, let alone a beer.  The country side becomes forested, in stark contrast to the denuded mountains around us.  About 4pm we see our first sign to pallor - 1.5k - that's less than the distance from our house to the railway station, easy.  We walk a bit further and then all of a sudden, we come to a few houses and there's a building with a terrace and red umbrellas - the giveaway sign of a bar/restaurant - WTF??  We get closer and discover that it is also a chamber d'hôte.  How could I miss this in my research that showed only a basic gite in Pallon and nothing else for miles around.  We find out later that its new. Phew! It was only opened in May and isn't on the internet yet.  We stop for a beer - too good to pass by - the gite can wait.  

We ask for directions for the Ancienne Presbytere de Pallon - it's just around the corner 400 metres. We get there right on 5pm and the owner/minister/caretaker shows us to our room - just 2 beds - most of the rooms are dorms with 6 to 10 beds.  The showers are hot and there's a kitchen.  And there's also a clothes line in the sun.  We have a shower straight away, do our washing, hang it out, and I do diary for a few hours while Ian reads the Courier Mail he downloaded 2 days previously.  Then we take our left over food - capsicum, tomatoes, salami, onion - and stir fry it then sit outside and have a delicious dinner - brings back memories of our youth hostel stays in Europe in the 1980's.  

After dinner, we take a stroll back to the bar/restaurant called the Auberge La Dormilhosa - and have a really nice red wine.  The owner is a rugby fan so in broken French/English, we talk football.  It's a mild night, about 20°C, and on the way home we stroll up the road to the Hydro electricity dam across the torrent.  Pallon is set in a beautiful surround of trees and rushing torrents - from expecting a disaster, it turned into a memorable delight.