In The Alpes

15.9.11
A lazy morning - about 9am before we woke, but no rush. We will take it quite easy for the next few days after having a fairly frantic pace for a while.
Eventually we set out towards Mens and by lunchtime arrived at le Bourg d'Oisans. In winter this would be a thriving ski resort, but on a hot late-summer day, it was mainly cyclists and the odd tourist who enjoyed the 'Grillade de semaine' of Fillet mignon du porc with us at the only open restaurant. This quite pretty town is down in a valley, surrounded by enormous mountain peaks, but was still very hot during the afternoon.
After a 50ml carafe of wine for lunch, Bill was ready for a nap so I passed a little time in the supermarket (air conditioned!)
On our way again, but finding the areas quite built up by comparison to what we have been enjoying. I tried to plan a route out of Grenoble (what we saw was quite a thriving city, with industry and housing along a narrow strip in the valley) on what looked to be a minor road through the mountains, but even this had a continual line of traffic so definitely nowhere we would like to pull off to sleep the night. Another deviation took us into less travelled roads, but fatigue was setting in so pulled into a camping ground for the night.
Nothing special really – on an old farm complex in a valley surrounded by mountains. An elderly woman who spoke no English pointed out our campsite and explained the facilities. When her son arrived home from work later, he came to collect the money (also no English). I am quite proud of how I am managing to communicate in French, having ascertained from the son his relationship to the old lady, that they were originally French Canadian, both he and his wife work in the nearby village and his mother is here through the day and that he was going to mow the grass. I doubted myself when he said this – thinking he was excusing the quite long grass, but sure enough some time later out he came on his tractor with slasher to mow the grass! This of course meant that it is nigh on impossible to avoid a van full of grass clippings – reminding me of home! We also had a brief conversation about the “camper-car” – he was curious how we could be Australian, yet have a French vehicle. I can only assume they don’t have so many overseas tourists ‘en vacance’ here! I am afraid my only comment when he asked me how the vehicle was, had to be ‘Bien’. The technicalities of motor vehicles are not primary in my need to learn in French.