France, Border of Spain and a Hospital visit
As we drove through France we saw a lot of interesting countryside. One of the first impressions have been the villages right after the border to Switzerland. Then we headed into the country and since we do not drive highways (first reason to avoid those: you do not see as much of a country if you only take the highway, second reason: they cost money) we saw a lot of land there too. But not as interesting as the Alps.
The next day we headed to the Rhône with the goal to reach the area where the river opens into the Mediterranean Sea. There we arrived at sunset and I had the opportunity to get a time-lapse of the sun setting over the mountains with a great reflection on the rivers surface. In addition to the beautiful sun the clouds looked wild and there was a notion of rain in the air. But that night there was no rain.
Going further south and a little bit west, we went to see the ‘Gorges de l’Ardèche’. A very impressive canyon but since the river was massively crowded by people with canoes and other tourists we just looked from some viewpoints and went on to reach the Mediterranean Sea that evening.
Going from there we drove more west and south to stay at the sea and headed into the country to see two other canyons. On our way up there we reached the —for now— highest point at about 1750m altitude. Those two canyons have been impressive but not as great as the ‘Gorges de l’Ardèche’.
Going further south we soon reached the Spanish border but stayed in France for the nights ahead. The street through the Pyrenees are a little tricky but built well and nice to drive if driven slowly. There are some awesome photographic spots to capture the nice cliffs and sea. We soon found a nice little bay with just a few people and very clear water to swim in and planned to stay there. But since we had no diving goggles we left again and went to a shop to get some.
Probably we should have bought some fins too! Because we had been diving, I took a deeper dive and on my way up I cut my right big toe at a rock pretty badly. So we had to leave our great beautiful spot and head back about 60km to go to a hospital. This has been my first time in a hospital while traveling. Definitely not to be repeated (hopefully) but interesting of some sorts. The foot got cleaned and sewn and I had to clean it for the next days and replace the bound.