longer.blue

Day 12 of our trip to the Pyrenees: Word of the day… Cold! 🥶 After temperatures reaching up to 40°C in Spain, the northwestern foothills of the French Massif Central—at an altitude of around 1,000 meters—gave us the cold shoulder today with a mere 11°C 🥶. That was reason enough for us to dig out the down liner jacket that had been nothing but dead weight the days before… 🤔. Note to self: If you travel far, be prepared for varying weather and temperatures 😉. We missed our daily destination of Troyes by about 100 km, but we still covered around 420 km—quite impressive considering some of the road conditions. Anyone who complains about bad German roads should experience French roads where signs read "Chaussée déformée" (uneven road surface) and "50." Doing 50 km/h there can sometimes be a pretty bold move… 🤔🫣🤣. Still, we had fun driving along French country roads. We passed through Darnets and Moutier-Rozeille (which gave us a Sauerland/Black Forest vibe) and Felletin, took a quick coffee break in Ainay-le-Château, and—since it was right on our route—made a very brief detour to Magny-Cours 🏁🏎️😉. We ended up today in the mystical town of Avallon (fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley will recognize the name from *The Mists of Avalon*). Its origins date back some 2,000 years to when it was a Gallic fortress of the Aedui tribe. 🏰 Since the remaining distance is still nearly 770 km, we won't try to knock it all out in a single day on the motorway—an 8½-hour slog (driving time) come hell or high water. Instead, we’re going to treat ourselves to two more lovely days of driving along unfamiliar routes—better safe than sorry. I’ll keep you posted 😉.