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Showing posts with the label Chorance

France, into the Vercors, 19th April, dawn and start of the French Resistance trail

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As we were camped in a fairly scenic spot I got up early and walked to the bridge across the river Bourne. The sky had remained clear overnight and although it was not a dramatic sunrise, the small fluffy clouds that were starting to accumulate were a pretty pink. As I watched the colour drain, the clouds rolled in big time and I knew we were in for another overcast day. We drove out of Chorance and back down the valley to Pont-en-Royans, where we stopped in a lay-by to take a picture of the river as it leaves the town. I had tried to do this on an earlier day but you have to stand in the road to take it which makes life difficult! Here I was lucky that there was little traffic. The Vercors was a stronghold of the French resistance movement during the second world war. In 1944 there were 400 active people working here and after D Day that rose to 4,000 volunteers. A plan was drawn up to form an allied bridgehead in the Vercors, aided by the air force and on 3rd J

France, into the Vercors,18th April, Choranche

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After lunch we drove around the network of roads at the top of the gorge, ending up by going through the road tunnel at Les Grands Goulets. As always on these narrow mountain roads it was difficult to find a place to park and take in the view. Here are some infrared shots taken from where we could stop.   Alan wanted to cycle some of the exciting roads we had just been on, so we drove towards the village of Choranche and then up a steep hill where we found the parking place for the cave at Choranche. Unfortunately for me there was no path I could easily take from there, but I had a little play with the camera while Alan was away and took a shot of the view over Choranche and the trees around the edge of the parking area. There were great nets of webs hanging in some of the trees. The sun at last was managing to pierce the clouds and was occasionally illuminating parts of the landscape. The last pictures in this set is a pinhole image. When