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Published: July 18th 2011
Well, today was a huge adventure! The high point for Lori was the lowest point geographically. We woke up at a normal time finally and enjoyed a run in the beautiful weather (Scott - at one point Nigel had to "run ahead" if you know what I mean, actually, he did yesterday too now that I think of it...). Then we headed east to the Vercors Regional Nature Park. The destination was Grotte de Choranche (caves). The first part of the drive was quite lovely and then we hit the mountains. Lori literally could not look out the window and had to shield the right side of her face with both hands to avoid seeing out the window. She estimates that the stress of the drive took about 5 years off her life. When we were almost there, we had to take a sharp left and then started REALLY climbing (15% grade according to the sign). Near panic set in but we were so close it seemed a shame to turn back. So, she squeezed her eyes shut and Nigel got us safely to the top. We joined up with a cave tour.
The cave was fascinating. The stalactites descending
Suspended houses
Again in Pont en Royans. Imagine living in one of those!from the roof were tiny 4 mm diameter calcium carbonate straws. Even at 3 metres in length they were uniform in diameter their full length. They are hollow. They form at a rate of 5 cm per 100 years (no surprise that the guide admonished us to not touch any, which didn't stop the fellow ahead of us - tourist!). We also saw stalactites that had joined stalagmites that were estimated at 15 million years old!
There were these troglodytes called olms - a kind of blind albino salamander-looking thing with tiny arms and legs. They sit very still on the edge of the underground river and eat the occasional shrimp or insect that passes by. They only eat very occasionally apparently as they will often go as long as 8 years (not a typo) between meals. To conserve energy, they almost never move (exciting to watch - ha). That may be Nigel's new diet...out with the beans, in with the OCCASIONAL shrimp and never moving. They live around 100 years. The ones we saw were about 30. They are the largest cave-dwelling animals on the planet. It was like watching planet earth dvd's live!
The cave itself
Stalactites
These were all 4mm in diameter and hollow and grow 5 cm every 100 years. Some of these were 3m long! extends into the mountain for 33 kilometres (we walked in less than 1 km). But from the point we turned around onward, a lot of the progress is made by spelunkers in wet suits as you have to swim and occasionally dive 30 metres underwater in the pitch dark before you come up again and access the next cavern. As we hadn't brought swim suits, we turned back with the rest of the tour...plus the water did look cold.
The drive back down was only marginally better due to the fact that we were heading DOWN, not UP! The drive back included a stop in an absolutely gorgeous old Roman town called St. Nazaire en Royans. We wondered around with a gelato in hand. We discovered an ancient roman aqueduct, a hotel that Napoleon stayed at in 1859, and quaint cobblestone streets in the "vieux village". If you are interested, the old 3-story hotel Napolean stayed in (Le Chapeau Rouge) is up for sale (although it requires renovations to make it habitable). Fix-and-flip anyone?
Meegan, this one is for you. We came across our first public toilet (foul!) that was a hole in the floor with footprints showing
Skinny building
Among the mountains. you where to put your feet while you squat. Yuck. Rachel assumed the position reluctantly and than abruptly changed her mind!
We arrived home to enjoy a bottle of Cotes du Vivarais 2008 (from Ardeche region). The last bottle was a 2008 Chais du Grillon from Mont Ventoux (silver medal winner Paris 2010) and the one before that was a Saint Joseph from Tournon-sur-Rhone (you've been there Scott C.). Join us on a tour of French wines, a new bottle every day. Have the same wine we're having while we write the blog, as you read it. See if you can pick them at up at SAQ or LCBO. They all taste like red wine to us (ha) but maybe your palates are more discerning.
Off to the park tonight to set a new record at the obstacle course. Last night Russell and Rachel started off with times like 2:21 and 3:00. They got all the way down to :13 and :11 when they discovered how much quicker it is to just sprint alongside the obstacles without actually doing them.
More driving comments for today: we have noticed that there are some sections of road that contain
as many as 8 roundabouts in less than a kilometer. Also, today we encountered our first triangle-about. Man, that was a tricky one. Don't even ask how we made it through....
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