Pont De Barret

I'm still trying to finish all the kalymnos entries. I should be done this week, if preparations for my photo show don't get out of hand.

Anyway, this weekend we went to Pont-De-Barret in the Drome for my birthday. It was at a gite that I had found earlier for chloes birthday, but we had been unable to go because she got sick. I had originally been told of Pont de Barret because a guy I know in our climbing gym had told us that there was a new secret area near the town. So on saturday afternoon we set out for the Drome. We managed to get a little lost, and had lunch by the side of a small river

and continued throught Saou

and some ruins near Soyans

The climbing area is visible from the road, and is above another (maybe the same) small river.

After a 30 minute walk, you get to the base of the cliff

Because our topo was very incomplete, it was kind of a disasterous day of getting on the wrong routes. We warmed up on a .12a that we had thought was a 10b, then, on a .11b I ended up crossing onto a .12d, ran out of draws near the chain, and had the wind invert my chalkbag and dump out all my chalk!

We walked back down the hill, waded through the river, packed the car and headed for thi gite. It was easy to find, and we were both impressed with the buildings and stone driveway as soon as we pulled up. However, we didn't really have time to explore because we had dinner reservations at "l'Oiseau sur sa branche" in Saou. We quickly showered and sped off down the road through the wheat fields

to Saou

And had a very nice meal. The amuse bouche was some kind of crazy sausage which was baked in a loaf of bread. I had seen these before, but never tried it before, and it was fine, but about what I expected. I ordered the asparagus (they are in season, and along with picodon and garlic, are a well known product of the region) in a light garlic butter sauce and the volaille. Chloe had the volaille as well and a unqiue potato-snail dish which I had never even seen before. It was excellent, but I found the chewy snail texture a little strange juxtaposed with the soft potato cubes. The volaille was... volaille. Dessert was a chocolate moelleaux which had been cooked in a cute little mini cake mould. It came with creme anglaise and an apricot sorbet on the side. We had a generic Crozes Hermitage with the meal. All in all it was a great value in a very nice atmosphere.

We got extremely lost on the way back to pont de barret, but eventually made it. We also saw a GIANT wild boar waddling off the road about 100 feet from the gite.

The next morning (Sunday) we had a chance to talk to Yves about the gite. It was the usual stilted french conversation, but he understood us and I understood most of what he said. I started off by asking, "So, when you got here, this was all..." and he finished the sentence simple with "in ruins". That was twenty years ago, during which time he has turned the gite into a truly stunning place. The property, which he has re-assembled (It is called "The Bastard" and the original plot had been subdivided among all the children, and childrens children) by purchasing them in a piecemeal fashion, was overrun with bushes, had no water, a single light socket and all the stone buildings were essentially piles of rubble. He is from paris, and when he arrived, had no idea about fundamental things like how to operate a tractor, install plumbing etc. When you hear him talk about it, and you look out over the perfect laws, stone walkways and immaculate houses, you realize what a huge task it must have been. The gite and environs:








We did some great moderate climbs today, and I took a beating on some harder ones, then drove home just as it started raining.