#10 Welcome to France

Actually, more motorhomes arrived yesterday evening in the darkness. The site seems to be known and popular.

The next morning, we are again startled when we look at the clock - 08:45 AM. Once again, no early rising. Not a big deal, as we don't plan to drive far today.

During breakfast with Italian white bread, we agree - it can only get better.

The French border at the pass height (1991 m) of the Colle della Maddalena is only 22 km away. However, that also means 800 meters of altitude with some hairpin turns. These are gladly marked here with the respective number (Tornante No. 1 to ...). We diligently count in Italian (uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque ....) until we don't know what to do at 10. In the end, there are 20 marked hairpin turns until we reach the mountain pass. The landscape became rockier, the snowfields more numerous, until we could actually walk in the snow at the summit.

The road kept its promise. The trucks in front of and behind us were also able to conquer the pass.

The racing cyclist just before the finish particularly pleased me. 👍

Our destination today is the large reservoir 'Lac de Serre Pencon', where we stopped a few years ago.

The dam on the upper Durance regulates the water flow of the river 'Durance', which previously caused huge floods regularly before the dam was built. The Durance flows from the Alps through the southwest and empties into the Rhône at Avignon after 323 km. On its way, it collects a lot of water from many tributaries. Since 1961, the irregular water flow has been regulated with the dam. There is also a huge hydroelectric power plant in the dam that meets the entire energy needs of the Hautes-Alpes department. You could say it’s alternative energy generation, without wind turbines spoiling the view of the landscape.

Our drive takes us a few kilometers directly along the artificially created lake. Initially, it has water that presents itself in an inviting blue color in the sunshine.

 As we drive away from the dam, the water becomes less and less until at the other end, when the Durance enters the lake, it is almost non-existent. Only the Durance water flows in the riverbed, but there is no more lake.

This seems to be normal, as the water only comes with the complete snowmelt in May/June and then the lake gets filled.

It looks a bit dreary here at the moment, and so do the tourist facilities. Many campsites are still closed, and the few open sites have hardly any guests. It's clearly still the low season.

We struggle to find an open spot in a suburb of Embrun at the end (or beginning, depending on where you look) of the lake. Besides the permanent campers, only a few Dutch motorcyclists and a young mother with her two children ventured onto the site.

Our intention was to escape the bad weather front and to stand a little more comfortably with a shower and internet.

Both were fulfilled.

The weather is still dry today, so we can take out the bikes and go on an exploration tour. This leads along the lakeside promenade, which encloses a separate lake for recreational activities (Aqua Park Embrun). Kite surfers, kayakers, and water sports enthusiasts of all kinds can enjoy themselves here - but rather in the summer months.

After a visit to the supermarket 'Super U', we head back to the motorhome.

Speaking of which - the supermarkets here are amazing - huge shopping temples with so many things that it's hard to take it all in. You really have to restrain yourself to only buy what you entered the market for.

Tonight the heavy rain is supposed to come, so we have no plans for Sunday.

In fact, a little rain does come, but nowhere near the feared storm. Even Sunday has dry and sunny phases. What’s going on here? Do we now have to come up with a program?

No, we will clear out the motorhome and dedicate a laundry day. After nearly 3 weeks on tour, some clothes are already running low. It fits well that there is also a washing machine in the laundry room.

And then I spend the whole afternoon trying to access the ARD livestream of the DHB final of the Handball Final Four in Cologne using the existing internet account from the campsite. Again and again, the error message appears that reception is only possible in Germany and our IP address is located abroad.

There must be a trick? Unfortunately, it did not show itself to me until the end of the game.

The THW Kiel won the final against Melsungen with 28:23 and thus made Patrick Wiencek's career end in the summer a grand affair.

Tomorrow we will continue our journey. Our goal is to always choose a pitch with a good view. We currently do not have that.

And we need to slowly think about where we want to be for Easter. The weather map is currently not very clear.