Stuck Inside of Montebeliard With the GR5 Blues Again

There is adventure travel, featuring thrills and chills all planned and priced out to the last detail. And then there is travel adventure with its ups and downs provided by lucky breaks and missed connections. We have been experiencing travel adventure non stop and especially since we left Rouge Gazon.



We stayed two extra days there to rest up enjoy the atmosphere, and avoid some foul weather. This messed up our itinerary, which we have changd and fiddled with all along the way. It is, after all, only to keep us pointed in the right direction. After looking at options we decided to walk to Ballon d Alsace and then bus and train across the Belfort Gap, a major industrial area, between the Vosges and the Jura Mts, to St. Hippolyte back on the trail. This I thought I could do even with the queasy stomach I had developed.



We have cut off portions of the trail as it wound around cities before. We find riding the buses and trains through the suberbs and industrial centers gives us a more complete view of Europe, with strip malls, freeways, and big box stores. Its not all castles and outdoor cafes here.



So we left Rouge Gazon in the rain (best laid plans) and hiked to the summit of Ballon d Asace, thinking that we could get a bus, as there were buses all along the rest of the Crete de Vosges. There are no buses here, so we retreated to the Hotel Sommit for some food. We asked about travel arrangements in pidgin French and the owner said he would give us a lift to the bus stop in Giromagny. The ride through the switchbacks in his Peugot roadster was hair raising. Before this we had only watched with wonder how cars, cyclists, and hikers avoid catastrophe.



We waited a short time for the bus, but found when it arrived that the driver would not take cash. After many hand signals, shrugs, and "poofs" the exasperated driver let us ride for free and let us off the bus at the Belfort Garre. We caught a train for Montebeliard ten minutes later.

At Tourist Information we found out that a bus would leave for St. Hippolyte back on the trail in less than an hour. We repaired the the Cafe Garre to celibrate and call ahead for a room when our luck changed.



This is the weekend of the big music soiree in St. H. so there were rooms to be had. We took a room around the corner, even after getting a whiff of an oder upon opening the door. The plan was to take a bus the next morning to the trail and start hiking.

The next morning I was sicker, so we decided to stay over another day to rest and recuperate. We were too lazy to change hotels and noticed the smell a bit more while resting in the morning. It was the sunniest day in a while so we spent the afteroon at a cafe people watching.

Yesterday morning we got up and I was feeling no better and the smell in the room had become intolerable. We bailed out of the hotel and looked for options to get back into the countryside near the trail. We called to Goimois and got the last room in town and then found the only way to get there was by taxi. We will not divluge the fee.

We arrived at the Hotel Talliard and immediately decided it is what we needed to get well and then head up the Doubs Gorge on the trail. So we are staying another day today. The hotel has wonderful food, is very quiet, is decorated throughout with the owners own paintings, and overlooks the village below half in France and half in Switzerland split by the River Doubs. Did I mention it poured yesterday and today?