Yesterday started off quite well, so I decided to go to Le Mont-Dore, about 7km up the road from La Bourboule. It is also a spa, an old one - already the Romans had a therme there. It is located in a narrow valley, so everything is much more cramped than in La Bourboule. It is said that Le Mont-Dore is for the luxury end of the spa market, whereas La Bourboule is more down to earth. I am not sure about that, if you are looking for diamond-encrusted mustache curlers and such like you will be cruelly disappointed in either location. There is quite a lot of skiing in Le Mont-Dore in the winter, and I have never seen so many shoe-shops anywhere else. I did manage to locate a shop that sells lace curtains, nice ones made from cotton locally, not the polyester type ones you see elsewhere. I often admire them in French houses, and bought some in this shop - they had a sale ....
Two hours were more than enough to scope the place out top to bottom, and since the weather was sunny I decided to walk back as well, rather than wait for the bus - a big mistake! Yes, you guessed it, rain rain and more rain, on and off, with a few gaps that allowed me to take a few photos. A truly beautiful walk, though. I found a 10 cent piece while trudging along, my first coin in La Bourboule this time. It is a funny thing with coins - you would have thought it easier to find them where lots of people walk around, not next to a road in the dirt ....
Three more days and I am off home again! Time is a funny thing in La Bourboule, it seems like I only just arrived, and as though I have been here forever, both at the same time.
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| The hight of Charlannes - the weather was good when I set out |
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| Downtown Le Mont-Dore |
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| Post Office |
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| Grand Hotel - very disappointing inside, I tried to have a superior lunch there and decided to wait until I got home to eat instead |
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| Narrow little streets |
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| Delicious ham is made in the Auvergne |
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| The Thermes |
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| Chairs neatly stacked - lots of places are closed already for Fermeture Annuelle |
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| Central Park |
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| Lace curtain shop |
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| What I bought |
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| Cute, eh? |
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| Looked good when I left |
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| These flowers grow wild in little cracks in the asphalt! |
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| Lots of little waterfalls along the way |
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| Moss-covered tree |
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| Memorial along the way |
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| and another one |
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| That's what I got home to, dripping wet |
