In Épinal, planning my route across les Vosges

Monday

07:27: Up on two legs.

07:59: Washed and dressed.

08:57: Breakfast with Gisèle and Bernard. Lots of laughs and conversation in French, English and Elsässisch.

09:56: Picked up a stack of brochures at the tourist office — I’ll need to read through them carefully. I need to find places to stay and places to buy food. Next I’m going to the post office to post some bits home.

Crossing les Vosges

Épinal to ~~Granges-sur-Vologne (Gina Park Camping)~~

Uzefaing

Mossoux

Docelles

Xamontarupt

~~Laveline du Houx~~

Tuesday 16 May: Camping-de-Noirrupt

Wednesday 17 May: Refuge du Schupferen

12:53: Phone almost out of juice. Time to get some lunch and then retire home.

13:34: Sitting in the main square, I had something called a Salade Vosgienne which was a delicious gallette (savoury pancake) with lardons, potatoes and cheese embedded in it, riding on top of a salad of lettuce and tomatoes topped with a fried egg and accompanied by two cone-shaped gallettes, one filled with a cream cheese mayonnaise. Much, much better than I was expecting. The main square is very pretty — on a very human scale with no grandiose statuary or any kind, just shoulder-to-shoulder three-storey buildings with tall windows dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.

So plan A requires that I make 30km/day over the mountains. I’m going to put together a plan B that only requires that I do 20km/day. I’ve actually got probably 40km/day in my legs now but it’ll be nice to have a pre-planned, easier option in case of injury or bogus navigation.

At 30km/day, it seems to be possible to get across the range in three days, from Épinal to Colmar. There are no established walking routes between either town, according to the tourist office.

On day one I’ll camp in an official camping near Le Tholy and on day two I’ll stay in a refuge just over the pass at Le Hohneck. Day three brings me into Colmar. I think I’ll camp there too. Otherwise I’d be committed to making an AirBnB booking, which seems like a lot of pressure.

One rather annoying aspect of trying to use the tourist offices here is that each one has its own little patch of territory, and they’re unable to provide information on the next territory over. Instead, I have to contact the tourist office in that territory for detailed information. It’s parochial and unhelpful. As it happens, despite the reams of brochures I got from the tourist office, Google Maps and MAPS.ME on my phone have been more useful. I don’t need another schematic paper map with no scale which lists only those campsites or refuges which have paid to be on it, thank you very much. It’s a waste of my mental effort.

Right I’m going to find a boulangerie for an afternoon treat and then head back to my host’s house.

€12.80 for lunch including a cup of tolerable Assam tea. I really have to get in the habit of having a stash of Barry’s tea bags with me.

It’s clouded over, but in a very pretty way. The clouds seem close enough to touch.

Crossing les Vosges

Thursday 18 May: Refuge de Schupferen to Colmar, 66A Avenue de la Republique

18:16: Finally finished planning my route across the mountains. Now I need to go and do some shopping for supplies.

Tuesday 18 (camping)

Breakfast supplied by Gisèle

Lunch: bread, butter, cheese

Dinner: hot soup, bread

Wednesday 19 (refuge)

Breakfast: porridge

Lunch: in Gerardmer [illegible] 2 days

Dinner: supplied by refuge

Wednesday 20 (AirBnB)

Breakfast: porridge, or supplied by refuge

Lunch:

Dinner: Anything in Colmar, or go to bed hungry

Shopping:

Moisturiser for my head