Hiking the GR6, GR5 & Tour du Mont Blanc 

DAY 3: Monday June 4th: Chaloux to St Etienne: 25k walk, 7hrs 30mins: beautiful blue skies, cool 15°C to 21°C

We awake to a very cool morning.  About 15°C.  It's been raining heavily all night but the morning sky is blue.  We have breakfast with our painting friends, repack, the head off at 8.40am.  But we have a friend.  The friendly dog from yesterday has decided he likes us (me) and he trots off with us.  He seems to know where he going so we follow him.  It's fun for a while but after 5k we begin to worry he'll get lost.  We shoo him off but its doesn't work.  Another k further and we pass a caravan park and do a detour to seek out the owner.  TG he speaks English.  We have this dog and he's following us, he comes from Chaloux. Yes, he will ring Gilles and let hime know.  As far as we can tell its about 10k by road so we hope Gilles picked him up safely.  

It's such a beautiful day - Provence is turning into Haute Provence (the High Provence) and the hills are getting bigger.  We follow the GR6 trail and at 10.30am, on cue, boil the billy for a coffee.  We're looking for a spot of sun - it's still cool.  The countryside is very Corsican, dry forest with stony tracks, and we continue to Les Bourbons which is the turn off to Ongles that we need to take to St Etienne.  Our GPS is worth it's weight in gold it has already saved a dozen arguments in the past 2 hours.  You cannot argue with a GPS tracking system.  

Ian said we should stop for lunch when we see the next table and chairs for a picnic (mind you we haven't seen one in three days) but lo and behold, 10mins later we come across a field of sorghum (could be barley) dotted with red poppies and there in the middle is a chair.  Yes a chair.  This is our cue for lunch.  I stroll across, pick up the chair, carry it back to couple it with an appropriate sitting stone for Ian, the bring out the lunch.  Left over jambon, goats chefs, rice crackers, and onions from Paris. 

We walk for another 2hrs following the signs to Ongles, then get lost - TG for the GPS. We reach Ongles about 3.30 just in time to build the billy for a cup of tea.  Only about 5k to go and we are following the D951 into St Etienne.  It's this road or the high route up and over a mountain, so after 3 days on the track, we choose the road - it's already a 25k day. 

We turn the corner and far away in the distance, we see the snow capped Alps - our ultimate destination in 2 weeks time. It's still cool.  My dangling thermometer reads 20°C.  We continue up the road and see the village of St Etienne perched on a hill in the distance.  The problem with seeing your destination is that it then takes forever to get there.  It seems like an eternity when we take the turn at the church cross to the Hotel Saint Clair booked by Gilles from Gite Chaloux.  It's all downhill from here.  

We arrive at the hotel, checkin, and finding our room in brilliant sunshine, do our washing and hang it on a clothes line strung from the knob on the wardrobe to the knob on the chest of drawer.  Then we head to the bar.  The French Open is on TV.  We sit in the lounge with a wine/beer and do diaries etc whilst watching Richard Gasquet play Andy Murray.  The French commentator is going berserk as Gasquet is up 6-1 in the first set.  But Murray is a slow starter so  it should be a good match. It's 7pm and a few wines and beers later and we are ready for dinner. Dinner is 4 courses.  Entre is rock melon with a slice of jambon (ham), main course we thought was chicken and baked potato but by the end, the chicken bone was too big for a chicken, so we're not sure what it was - bloody good whatever.  Dessert was firstly a slice of goat's cheese followed by creme brûlée - Ian's favourite - he finishes mine as well.  We waddle down to our room and find our washing is almost dry.  The humidity is very low.  

Time to check out the weather for tomorrow.  Some website say its 5°C to 18°C, and fine, others vary between 12°C and 27°C and rant or cloudy or partly cloudy, depending on which website you are on.  The more adds on the website, the better the weather forecast.  We like the one that says 18°C to 22°C and sunny so that's what we're expecting tomorrow. 

It's a 22k walk up the mountains to Jas des Bailles.  This was a refuge I had booked in 2008 when we had planned to walk from Avignon to Sisteron following our bike ride in the Czech Republic where I broke my elbow. Of course we had to cancel this booking but I am interested to find out if they remember us.  It's the ONLY refuge up in the mountains so it was imperative that we book. 

It's already cool when we go to bed.