DAY 20: ANZAC DAY: Home from Digne through everywhere....

 April 25, 2023

ANZAC DAY

It was only 200 kms (say 125 miles) but it took all day.

We were only underway for about 15  minutes when Margaret and Geoff called to tell us that the Mighty Magpies had won. Great call. Thanks. 

We were only underway a further 15 minutes when Deidre discovered she could not find her phone. We stopped and searched the car and our baggage to no avail, so we called our hostess and headed back. By the time we were back she had searched the room with no success. We searched it all again with the same result. 

Reconciled to this unexplainable loss, we set off again.

Red poppies grow all over the place in this part of France. Being ANZAC day we stopped and picked a small bunch to mark the day. Losing the phone now seemed a very minimal loss. 

We have our poppies, direct from the field.
(I was NOT surprised that they did not have a light wire stem)

This mountainous area is identified as the Western Alps. Some mountains in this area reach about 4,800 meters (15,000 ft). The highest our road took us was only about 1,000 meters  (3,250 ft) but were were surrounded by high rocky mountains and saw snow in the distant mountains. Our path was always windy and sometimes windy also.

There was plenty evidence of farming in the valleys, especially lavender. (The lavender was planted in very rocky earth.) There was another vine crop that we were not able to identify. 

Lavender fields in the distance

Lavender fields thru the telephoto lens

There were some small villages on our route, but very few places to buy lunch. Eventually we found a "café" in Monieux (???) where the nice lady in charge of a closed for lunch café took pity on us and made us a couple of sandwiches. 

Very late lunch

Eventually we made it out of the mountains and began the slog of roundabouts home to Uzes. 

Overall a wonderful three days, and we slept well. Thank goodness we rented an automatic car and not a stick shift.