A Wet Day in the Vercors!

Yesterday evening the sun began to appear and produced a fabulous rainbow with a backdrop of mountains and towering limestone cliffs. Eventually the cloud cover cleared altogether and provided ideal twilight photography conditions, and later we were rewarded with a star studded sky. When it was well dark we began to hear a constantly repeated short deep whistling noise. At first I thought it was a mechanical noise but when it started to move I began to suspect an owl. Perusal of the bird guide narrowed it down to scops owl. Tengmalm's owl is also present in this locality but the call was wrong.
Last night boded well on the weather front but the forecast proved to be correct and we woke to grey skies, which soon degenerated into a day of steady rain. Undeterred, however, we sallied forth to Die, our nearest town, 6 miles away. Like Chatillon, the centre of Die is medieval, the shops and houses built of soft warm limestone. After a coffee and wander around followed by an excellent lunch of emmental and jambon sandwich we headed for the mountain village of Vassieux-en-Vercours. The approach was via the 12 mile hairpin road up to the Col de Rousset. As we approached it seemed impossible that there could be a way through the vertiginous cliffs but the road was wonderfully constructed as so many mountain roads are. Once over the col the road quickly took us to Vassieux, set in a verdant bowl high on the limestone plateau. As beautiful as it is, this area has a tragic history. In 1942-1944 the Vercors became the refuge of the local maquis or resistance. Although being driven back towards the Rhine, the Germans made one more assault and launched 10,000 troops on the plateau, many flown in by glider. In July 1944 many of the maquis, but also large numbers of villagers and farmers were massacred and Vessieux completely destroyed. It was eventually rebuilt but has a very sad air (not helped by the low cloud and persistent rain) and there is now a museum detailing the tragedy and the history of the resistance in the area. An austere memorial sits high on a col above the village.
Time now to return to the site for a cup of tea, beer and a meal. Unfortunately when we got settled in we discovered that site has suffered a power cut. Ho Hum!!
No photographs today I am afraid as I am still having wifi problems. If anyone knows how to get pictures from a laptop to an IPhone without recourse to wifi I would love to know.

The cliffs above the campsite.

A wet day but when the sun did appear briefly we had a super rainbow over the lake at the site.

Twilight over the Vercours.