No hurry to stir ourselves this morning. Over breakfast we watch as other vans get ready to leave. Just up the road is a pay-to-use service point, but beside the aire mountain water cascades off a concrete avalanche shelter and a hosepipe has been rigged inside the flow. So after emptying for free on the service drains they take on fresh mountain spring water at no charge. Late morning it's sunny and the mountains have lost their misty helmets, revealing many...

Apart from a couple of nuts falling off the tree onto the roof it was a silent night, but like many French villages, Arette turns off the church bells at night and come 07:30 the tower chimes out forty-three o'clock to catch up. It's bright and sunny as we set off, immediately climbing out of the town and passing pasture land leading away to the mountains. We stop in Issor, a little village with the church square looking over the valley. The elegant, blue-shut...