DAY 9: Sunday June 10th - REST DAY at Fombeton: NO walk: blue skies then rain in afternoon, 15°C to 20°C
Donna, Ian, Milton and Jan planning and wondering what Graham and Jenny might be doing
A total rest day. We sleep in and spend the day washing and planning and watching the final of the French Open.We sleep yup in the loft in the cabin behind Moulin de Fombeton - it's really comfy with our own shower and toilet downstairs. We have a tea the head off with Phil and Dianne to the Artisan Boulangerie we had seen the previous day on the road from Sisteron. The bread smells wonderful and we walk out with armfuls of French sticks, Croissants and slabs of Olive bread. We sit down to breakfast at 9.30am - it's a beautiful blue sky day so we do our washing. Some of us go in the pool - it's warm with insulating covers. Then back to the Super U for more shopping for dinner - wine and pork fillet.
We sit around the green with maps, comparing notes with Lisa and David and checking as to where we might meet up with them on the Tur of Mont Blanc - they are also walking the TMB, but we are a few days apart. However, we do catch up in Les Chapieux and Les Contamines, the last 2 days of our TMB.
Planning ahead - it's freezing - see the fire in background
Ian also checks that all the IGN maps have been downloaded for the rest of the trip - easy to do so now than on the top of a mountain pass in white out mode, trying to determine where we are and which way to go - this happened on our last trip in 2009 on the top of the Col de la Seigne. All is good.
Lunch at 2pm - bread, cheese and ham - you can never tire of this French basic meal. It starts to rain so we gather in our washing from our makeshift line strung between two deck chairs and retire to the lounge to watch the tennis. It's cold and getting colder. Ian and the boys light the fire in the massive fireplace. It's also raining in Paris - after 3 sets with Nadal 2 sets to 1 against Djocovic, the tennis is called off. We load mor logs on the fire and decide to check out if all the IGN maps for the whole trip have downloaded properly. There's one small gap which Ian fills in while we're still connected to WiFi. We then book ahead so we have the next 3 days covered, Seyne (already booked from home at Hotel Chaumiere), Lauzet Ubaye (sec ours Nature) and Savines le Lac (Hotel Chaumiette). We also change the booking at Landry (Maison Caramel) from the 28th to the 27th June - we are ahead of schedule, it looks like being only light snow on some of the high passes, and it will turn our long day from Landry to Plan de la Lei , into two shorter days. TG everyone replies except the auberge at Valezan which we can check later.
Dinner is another magnificent spread of Bar B Q'd pork fillet with rice and salad - cheeses to follow. We retire at 10.30pm, and pack for tomorrow.