DAY 128 TUESDAY JULY 31 RHONE VALLEY

The rental car was due for return today and as we could not get Avis to answer the phone we drove to St Etienne and extended the contract to Monday 6 August. Pam navigated us to a beautiful gorge east of the town and we had a huge lunch at the Hotel Rochetaillee. The stairs were guarded by a fox.

 Across the road was a derelict fort right in the middle of town. Great views of the gorge from both the hotel and the fort.

 We drove to Mont Pilat via numerous villages and parked near the Cret de l'Oeillon which had a huge transmission tower at 1370m.

 We saw groups combing the shrubs for myrtilles which we have been eating as jam on our baguettes. No one has ordered escargots for a meal but we are considering trying grenouilles.
There was also a large group of young teens riding scooters with bike wheels. We drove down from the mountain and followed the Rhone river south for a while then headed west to come home. We stopped at a Lidl supermarket on the way and found groceries were ridiculously cheap.