We travelled down by train, as I did last year. Since we were four in couchette, we could pay an extra E40 to be just us, and did, since that was very convenient. Due to, let me say, slight infelicities in my booking efficiency the Friday night trains were full, so we went over Saturday night, which is a minor pain because you cannot pick up a hire car in France on a Sunday. But it gave us a leisurely Saturday, which was good, including time for a decent meal near the Gare d' Austerlitz. Also, weirdly, we ended up going via Marseille due to some funkiness of the track routing that night, which meant that instead of arriving at 8:30 in the morning we arrived around 12:30. In other circumstances that would have been annoying; as it was, M and I were both tired from work in the run-up to hols (and for reasons related to that, trying to leave on Friday would not have gone well) as were the infants, so a morning of relaxing, reading and watching unexpected bits of France go by was fine. It also solved the what-to-do on Sunday puzzle. Instead of rushing around hiring a taxi out to Vallouise for the day, we just looked around Briancon.
The pix here are
from last year, but the place hasn't changed much. From the park, looking ENE up the Durance gorge, with the upper walled town off to the left. We walked down the park, into the gorge as far as the pont d'Asfeld; sadly you can't go further.
The cathedral and the town walls. E and I went there in the evening for an concert of the amis de l'orgue: Handel, Bach, Haydn, Vivaldi. They did somewhat blend into each other. Even E, who has culture, admitted that all Baroque music tended to sound the same (it wasn't the highest Bach).
Pont d'Asfeld. Actually this is a bit out of sequence; after looking at the park and gorge we dropped off our bags at the Auberge de la Paix in the walled city, had a quick go at getting into the fort de la cite but we'd missed the last entry, so wandered as far as the pont instead.
To the Auberge for dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment