Morvan 2017 – english version

Jour 1 : Avallon

It was pretty cold this morning in Dijon and in Avallon. Pretty grey. It even rained a little when I was in the bus (taken after two different trains… #country).

wp-image-1762012148 — The Avallon’s happy train station, under a radiant sky.

wp-image--1208633342 — The cutest police station in the world

wp-image-1816566735 — Zoé and the sun arrived at the same time

wp-image-437775427 — We saw this Insoumis’s poster, we wanted to make a selfie for Dad, but when getting closer… (For non-french readers, the graffiti means « Soral is right ». The Insoumis are a radical left wing group, while Soral is a radical right-wing polemist)

wp-image--1919514056 — Not far from the poster, this time the Insoumis win the poster battle. (translation : « Soral is grotesque »)

wp-image--548975814 — For now, we’ve been on the GR13 (the great journey across the Morvan). We followed the Cousin river, with a lot of watermill. Some of them were converted into turbines. They all were tranformed to let the fishes pass freely.

wp-image--304212683 — We set the tent next to a field, on a hill,near sheeps. Soup, fresh cheese toasts. No dry sausage because I achieved to lost my awesome knife on this very first day, before even using it.

wp-image--1049423189 — Our foot soles are painful, but no blisters – yet. Well, one for Zoé, who asked me to correct.

9pm, it’s dark, we’re in our sleeping bags, good night !

Jour 2 – Vault de Lugny > Saint Père

After a tea which strangely tasted the same as yesterday soupe, we left at 10am and climbed to Domancy sur Vault. There, we quickly visited the church, then a nice lady filled our gourds with water.

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We got very lost in the green triangle between Domecy le Vault and Fontette

We should have go left here, but moved with tremendous joy, we took left.

Zoé didn’t know our mistake on that moment.

But if we took the right path, we wouldn’t have met this warrior hobbit’s shelter.

Zoé was bored to be on all photos, so here I am.

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We finished at the Saint Pere camping site, with ice creams and crossword.

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Jour 3 – Saint Père > Saint André en Morvan

We woke up at 8:30am, and less than 30min later, it was raining. We carried all our belongings in the courtyard. After the breakfast, we packed and prepared ourselves.

We sheltered at l’Auberge des deux ponts. They were very kind and wellcoming.

We ate delicious, fresh and seasonal things and got a little less wet.

When we left, rain had stopped and we took the GR13 again.

We followed the cure aaaall afternoon.

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First ray of sunshine at 16pm.

I found plenty of blackberries. Happy me !

We climbed and went down a lot…

We set our tent next to the church of Saint André en Morvan, with WC and nice neighbourgs who gave us water and meteo insights. Behind Zoé clothed hung to dry. EVERYTHING IS WET.

Jour 4 – Saint André > la chaume au renard

Tomorrow there might be storm. First thing : choose a nice place to stay at night.

But today is our one and only sunny day according to weather previsions, so let’s enjoy ourselves !

Some vocabulary :

Gite d’étape : a place with bunk bed and rough comfort where you can stay a night, if you are on a hike.
Chambre d’hôtes : a room in some local people’s house, you can stay one or more night, generally with breakfast. Could be translated in « Bed and breakfast »
Gite : a house you can rent, generally for at least a week.

Well, at 6pm, we arrived at La chaume aux renard which is no longer a gite d’étape, only a gite, and already rented.

But the owner gave us permission ton set our tent in the garden. The evening wasn’t so worse. We bathed in the Cure river, had some pesto pasta and did crosswords.

Jour 5 – la chaume au renard > Saint Brisson

We wanted to wake up earlier to get to a gite d’étape early in the afternoon, but the storm caught us before we even started to drink our tea.

We carried our belonging under the gite’s porch. The tenants invited us to enter and have breakfast. We bandaged Zoé’s blisters and when we left, the storm and the rain were over.

After climbing 20min we figured we forgot the soap, its box and the washcloth where we camped. So I dropped my bag and went down running to the gite. Back and forth : 26min !

Up there, it was all stone, fir and heather

No real rain after that. The day went by nicely.

Dry sausage, dry bread, wheat couscous : what a royal meal !

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After that, we had hell of a climb. There should have been a gite d’étape up there, but it was closed since 2013…

We went down to Saint Brisson where another gite d’étape was waiting for us. Closed since 2008.

We head to the camping site, where we met two nice people, Henri and Jeanine who explained all we had to know about the place and offered us a lemonade.

We ate in the bistrot du parc, a morvandelle plate and a cheesecake.

Back at the camping, Jeanine and Henri offered us a hot beverage.

Jour 6 – Saint Brisson > lac des Settons

Jeanine and Henri offered us a breakfast and drove us to the Saut de Gouloux. This way, we saved 3 hours of walking.

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We walked to MontSauche to run some errands (bread, food, cash, bandages for blisters) and eat, then we continued to the lac des Settons, a very touristic place.

We followed the western shore of the lake to the camping we had chosen. Swimming into the lake, then hot water shower : the dream.

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Jour 7 – lac des Settons > Anost

The day started in the sun, on the pontoon. We got all our belongings dried and had a nice breakfast with the croissants the baker offered yesterday in Montsauche.

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Then we left, walking once again on the GR13. Weather was great, the path wasn’t so difficult, but it took Zoé all her courage to go all the way : there is a little Verdun under her feet…

The afternoon was very difficult indeed. We finally got to the camping site at 6pm.

We rested a little, then we went to the festival to feel the atmosphere and eat some andouillettes.

Considering we walked all day, I hadn’t planned to go dancing right away. But I did, from 9:30pm till 11pm, with all my heart. I was soaked and I got my first blisters ! But it was sooooo good !

Some photos

Jour 8 – Anost, fête de la vielle

We did woke up early, because of the greenhouse effect under our tent.

We bought chocolat croissant at the baker’s truck and had a nice tea. Our neighbourg, Claude came to chat… till 11am ! A very nice encounter 🙂

We had our last couscous based meal, embellished with some zucchini from Claude.

Then we ran to the festival before the rain comes. We sheltered at the photo exhibition, then at the open stage. I couldn’t restist. I re-danced.

Zoé insisted a bit, so here I am :

Ce soir, une pizza et bal bal bal (pour moi: Zoé en assez vu ^^). Je vais peut être tomber les chaussures, voir si c’est mieux pour les ampoules.

Tonight : pizza and bal, bal, bal. For me, Zoé saw enough of those nerd stuffs ^^. I may drop my shoes to see if it’s better, regarding the blisters.

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Jour 8 – Anost > Autun

For this last holiday day, I wanted to sleep late. Especially after going to bed at 3am. But grasse matinée are way to mainstream. Heat and baker truck woke me at 8am.

We had breakfast, folded the tent, packed our stuff, then had lunch at the festival.

Then we met the Bréchot Family (my brother’s step family). We made the dance some scottish and a bourrée behind the open stage. After that we visited the instrument makers’s stands and people who were learning how to dance Morvan’s bourrées.

The right hand makes the wheel turn, and that makes the strings vibrate. The left hand press the keyboard.

I left Anost by car with Frederic with whom I danced the previous evening. I checked in at the hotel, then I visited the city and had diner in a nice restaurant.

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