Having stayed half way up a mountain hill side last night at 1500m, this was our balcony view that We awoke to this morning:
After a drive up and around the actual “Pra-Loup” resort, (nothing to see much in the summer) We started heading down and can see the town of “Barcelonnette” down in the valley below:
So the “Barcelonnette” area has 3 x excellent mountain passes when wanting to drive South, but today We took what I think is the most scenic one, which is “Col de Cayolle”
The first section is a shady canyon section:
Then a greener lower meadow section, where We stopped at the little hamlet of “Le Villard” which has a bar and road side tables with a nice mountain, church and water trough view & most important for female navigators/passengers – A decent toilet.. :tu:
Moving on, come to this upper section, with waterfalls and surrounded by towering 3000m plus mountains.
While taking these two pictures I noticed the suspiciously larger boulders positioed in the middle of a green road side meadow and so decided to move on a bit sharpish....
Always worth keeping an eye out for local wildlife & came across this chappy – A “Marmot” (related to squirrels, if You believe Wikipedia!)
With the clouds building, only stopped briefly at top of “Col de Cayolle” (Alt: 2326m) before heading down the South side of the pass:
After a selection of hairpin bends off the summit, stopping half way down at a nice lay-by with good views of the road making it’s way down the valley. ##Google Maps Link:
https://goo.gl/maps/aHiowoPsSnz
(Can see the builders of this road didn’t worry too much about the terrain and just a case of a bridge & two tunnels & the river valley was crossed – This type of engineering was seen again & again in the Alps..!!)
Luckily every SLK comes equipped with a “food preparation surface” in the boot and on the picnic menu today: French Bread, Blue Cheese, Tomatoes & Grapes
After our alfresco lunch enjoying the view, kept heading South on some nice roads, including a section just South of “Guillaunes” which I call the "Red Rock area" and has 17 tunnels in quick succession:
##Google Street View of sign:
https://goo.gl/maps/5EFKZrXovrC2
## Google Street View of the view:
https://goo.gl/maps/77hh78WRwb52
Before making it to our base for two nights in “Les Salles-sur-Verdon” where our Hotel:
https://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/auberge-des-salles.en-gb.html
...though not looking that inspiring from the street, the hotel had obviously blagged (taken) the best spot when the valley was flooded to create the reservoir that now sits in its back yard.!!
# SLK Driving Stat’s for today: 117m @ 21.3mpg + 6 hours (Low mpg due to driving in low gears..)
# Road Trip Total after 4 Days: 989m @ 26.5mpg + 27 hours of driving
