I just have to pinch myself that I can pop down to the shops via the Col de Romeyer, and still only do a round trip of 10 miles. Anyway, that's what I sis this morning, while it was still delightfully cool, but after I'd opened the house up for a couple of hours to take its temperature down by a degree or two. That I can keep it pleasantly cool even in the current climate is testament to the builders of three hundred years ago – it seems like they knew what they were doing!
Just a singular photo taken using my drone at 250ft – it's too hot to do much after noon at the mo, so I just wandered down the road to reacquaint myself with the drone, once I'd charged everything up.
This is one of my favourite angles, as not only can I see Romeyer (and my house!) in the middle in its gentle green valley, but up behind is Vercors and the Roc de Toulau, and to the right is the Rocher de l'Aigle. Further to the right is the mighty Glandasse, but I think you know what that looks like by now!
It's one of the nice summer rituals for me: popping down to the market in Die, especially for my first one of the summer, with the range of choices of local fruits available, often at knock-down prices (partly a function of a lot of the fruit being picked almost-ripe and ready for sale). On today's menu for me were peaches, melons and a large beef tomato. As the next market is Saturday, there's no need to buy in bulk!
As I need to keep doing a certain amount of daily exercise for my recovering heart, I took the Lapierre gravel bike down, so I could make the most of the gentle ascent back home for today's workout, before the heat of the day kicked in.
Job done.
Apologies for the pun, but it has to be done at least once!!
Anyway, you'll gather I arrived safely: a day of three trains: Eurostar to Lille Europe; TGV to Valence TGV, and then the local train to Die, where a neighbour kindly met me and ferried me to Romeyer. The TGV had a few small delays, but thankfully there was enough leeway for the 15 added minutes not to cause me to miss anything.
This first week is planned to be a fairly lazy one, given my preceding four weeks of activity, so this morning I just popped down to do some salad shopping, and to see what the mountain around Justin (just south of Die) looked like after the forest fire (4200 hectares affected). Like the fire at Romeyer, it's a patchwork, and sad though it is to see the greens intermingled with brown and black now, nature – with human help – will heal and repopulate with plants that are more suited to the climate era we're entering at speed, it seems. The forest that was there was the result of human intervention at the beginning of the 20th century to re-forest barren hillsides, and since then, things have changed.
On the optimistic side, it's pleasing to see just what progress the Romeyer forest has done since the fire in 2022, and when health allows, I'll be back up there again looking at what's already exploiting the opportunities that come after forest fires.
It only feels like a couple of weeks since I was last at Romeyer... mostly because it has only been two weeks since I was there!
I've completed my joyous duty of directing all the music for Exeter University graduations on the Exeter and Penryn campuses, so it's time for the long summer holidays.
So yesterday I took the train up to London, and today it's three trains: Eurostar to Lille, a TGV to Valence, then the train to Die and a lift from the station to my house from my lovely neighbours.
And now: we're just about to leave St Pancras.
Just a quick and very short there-and-back ride up past les Planeaux this morning, before tidying, packing and catching trains to Lille at lunchtime. Fortunately the rain last night has done a good job of largely extinguishing the Die forest fire, though there will undoubtedly be hotspots, and lots of surveillance will be required over the next couple of weeks. There's the possibility of more thundery rain tonight, so everyone is keeping fingers crossed.
Anyway, the air was delightful this morning, as you'll see!
I spent the day at home today, not least as it was very hot out again, and with little wind, the smoke from the forest fire at Die was hanging in the valleys. There was a small heavy dose of rain later in the afternoon, which might help the firefighters keep things under control (it was looking a bit more positive today), and it allowed me to go out before my evening meal.
Anyway, it wasn't a prolific stroll for photographs: just two butterflies on the lavender by Romeyer temple (the Protestant church)
