Alex and I have been following each other's blogs, and so when he said he needed a haircut, I immediately knew the place he was thinking of: Chris Coiffure in Allières.
We plotted a trip to Chambost-Allières. However, since Colin's scheduled meeting time today had been extended to cover 6:15-10pm, I made Alex and I dinner reservations at Le Cep Vert in Létra, which would require a second randonnée. All together, today's two randonnées add up to 21 km, with 300m in elevation up, then 200m down, 200m up, 300m down, another 330m down, then another 300m back up. Basically, a very hilly half-marathon. ;) I marked the first randonnée in orange, then the second in yellow. I put both on the same map, because practically speaking, they are one big grandonnée.
You see, the key is to get to the hairdresser's in Allières when they open at 2pm, and make it back to dinner in Létra by 7pm. If we play our cards right, we can be home for a quick "cheese time" in between randonnées. If not, we will have to push right through from one to the other without a break.
We walked North along rue Le Cocon, to the intersection with the two Le Cocons. We take the rightmost Le Cocon up to the Le Cocon signpost. Then from there over to Places Cocon and up the "yellow brick road." Here's some new Cocon photos for my blog "regulars." ;)
This time, as we pass Places Cocon, there are huge bales of hay wrapped up to look like giant black versions of Red Delicious apples.
We then take the left fork in the path, pass the wheat fields of Le Veru, and continue on past the point where we turned around on our last randoonée to this area.
Like the last time we went to Chambost-Allieres, we take the grassy path (Rue des Acacias) down into Chambost. Passing a stone cross dated 1725, we start musing about the purpose behind the numerous large crosses we have been passing on our randonnées. Are they marking special locations? Are they meant to be used as signposts for pilgrimages?
As we approach the church in Chambost (near centre top of photo below), Alex picks out his future dream house, and mentally designs all the things that need to be added to its courtyard.
We take a break behind the church, after examining the 16th Century linden (lime) tree standing guard over the World War 1 memorial, and a collage of the town made with photos of Chambost residents, including one black rabbit. We wonder if the rabbit was included because it's meant to be a game like "Where's Waldo," or whether he's just a really important Chambost community member.
Across the highway D116, there is a frog pond, then the road expands into a kind of informal parking lot, and there is another big cross, this one complete with an image of Jesus on it. Here, the road forks in two directions. We take the left fork and drop quickly into Allieres.
The road gets steeper and steeper, and rockier and rockier. As we slip-slide down, I comment that perhaps we should have taken the right fork instead, since that path is grassy and less slippery. We decide we'll take that other path back up later.
The rocky path exits onto Le Gourd Pilate, which leads to good ol' highway D116, which has circled around us as we dropped straight down the hill. It's a short hairpin turn away from downtown Allières. We enter town by Café de la Mairie.
We stroll up to Chris Coiffure right at the stroke of 2pm. You guessed it: it's closed. However, there is an older lady standing in the alcove next to the door. She says: "He's late!" We chat a little, then tell her we will go to the Vietnamese Restaurant for a bite, then return to check on Chris. She agrees this is a good plan, but just as we cross the street, she calls out: "He's coming!"
Approaching us was the pink-shirted man I had spotted previously at the Vietnamese Restaurant. He opens the door, lights up a cigarette, and turns around to see the three of us: "What is this?? The Inquisition?!" The older lady explains that she was here first, but we also wanted a haircut. He tells us to come back in 45 minutes. It's perfect timing for us to grab lunch.
At the Vietnamese Restaurant, I notice they have a little shrine set up behind our table. What I assume to be Confucius looks more like Santa Claus, and beside him appears to be a Happy Buddha but with a goatee. If anyone recognizes that statue, please leave me a comment.
We order the Menu du Jour. Alex's spicy Asian beef salad was great. My shrimp salad... had "a little" too much Italian dressing on it. Our curries were nothing to write home about, but the little desserts that came afterwards were delightful.
After our lunch, we head back to Chris Coiffure for Alex's appointment. I settle in with Oops! Magazine and catch up on my celebrity gossip, while Alex shows Chris a photo of the haircut he wants. English language pop music blares, and Chris humms along while cutting Alex's hair entirely with a shaver. Part way through, Chris takes a phone call and chats with his friend for about 15 mins. Alex shoots me looks in the mirror while Chris chats away. Eventually, Chris says: "Ok, I should go, I've got someone here at the shop..."
After our haircut, we have a choice of waiting 20 mins for the bakery to open, or head back immediately and get 20 mins to rest at the gite before heading out again to Létra. Despite us being dangerously low on croissants at the moment, Alex opts to go now.
Since we decided to avoid the steep crumbly rocky path back, and to instead take the very slightly more gradual grassy path back up to Chambost, we exited town on the North side instead of going back to where we entered town. Just past the bakery is a road called Allières, but again, that is not helpful since all three roads heading North out of town are called Allières. We take the Eastmost of the three roads, which takes us to the highway D116. Across the highway is a fork with two roads both named Le Cabinet. Either one will get us to Chambost,
At the Lozet signpost, we ignore the white arrow spray painted on the cement, and instead follow the hiking signage pointing us back to Chambost along the grassy right-hand path. Soon after that, we take the left fork-- again the grassy one -- and wind nicely through little shady treed areas until we hit the big steep grassy hill that will take us up the highway again in Chambost.
Did I mention this is the LESS steep way back? ;) At the fork with the crucified Jesus and the "parking lot," Alex pauses to eye the last push up to the church.
After the church, there is the last steep grassy hill to get up to the wheat fields near Le Veru, and after that it is easy sailing back through the Cocons. The last stretch is even a light downhill.
We get to the gite and Alex flops down on the couch in the living room. "Do we REALLY have to walk to Létra after this?" he moans. Unfortunately we do. So after a brief repose, and a little cheese, we head back out to continue the "grandonnée." We pick up where we left off... heading South down Le Cocon, towards Le Grand Bola, and La Burie.
After La Burie, I suggest we take the cut-through to the switchback, so that Alex can get a peek at Létra before dinner, because we will lose the light after dinner, and I don't want to go back that way in the dark. Unfortunately, we don't have time to go through the whole town, so he just gets a sneak peak before we rush down La Gabaudière (the road leading away up the hill in the photo below) to the Cep Vert restaurant on the highway (D385).
It is surprisingly busy, with locals drinking and chatting at the bar, but the waitress leads us into a different dining room with linens on the tables and murals on the walls... and no-one else present. It is actually rather grand. We decide on the a 4-course classic menu with appetizer, main, cheese course, and dessert. Then we tack on the house apératif, to be uber-French, which unexpectedly arrives with some delightful little amuse-bouches: pea and carrot purées with tiny cheesy puff pastries.
For the appetizer course, I order fish terrine and Alex orders the foie gras. We are both delighted.
To keep with our "uber-French" theme, for the main course I order escargot and Alex orders grenouilles (frogs legs). The waitress keeps asking us things in French, and even though Alex often answers in English, she keeps acting as if he is answering in French. That is delightful to me, particularly since my experience has often been the opposite: I keep trying to speak French to locals while they try to answer me in English.
For the cheese course, Alex chooses fromage blanc, which means plain yogurt, and accidentally orders it swimming in cream, which is how it often comes. I ordered fromage sec, which is a delightful assortment of cheeses. Have I mentioned that I find this restaurant delightful? ;)
By the time dessert time rolls around, we are stuffed beyond belief, so we ask for a 10 minute break. Then we realize that it is already 9:30pm, and we had meant to leave before 9pm to get back to the gite before dark. We gobble down two balls of wonderfully tart lime an berry gelato, and surprise the waitress by refusing a coffee course. The waitress is so considerate, she shows me some flyers of local upcoming events, and wonders if I want a map of the area. I tell her to reserve a table for next week, when Colin's family will be staying at our gite.
Trying to beat the sunset, Alex and I rush up Les Traitiés past the Korian Les Bruyères addiction centre, through La Burie, and make it back to Le Grand Bola before we have to pull out the flashlight. At one point, some large unidentified animal beside the path rushes away from us in the dark (the next day, Colin and I encounter a wild boar near that location!). The air above Le Bola is teeming with bats, and we pause to watch them swoop about.
To see Alex's writeup about our randonnées together, visit http://www.alexgoesaround.com/listing/tromping-through-the-french-countryside/
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