A lake, a castle and a valley

The heat continues but none of us fancied another whole day at the swimming pool just like yesterday.

Instead we planned a sightseeing tour through the area. We would go in the direction of Pontarlier. The lake ‘Lac Saint Point’, a bit further will be our first destination.
After the lake the plan is to visit a nearby castle and after that we will go for dinner in Pontarlier.

Departure time was 14.00, so prior to that Bas and Daan went swimming for a few hours after a late breakfast. Annemarie and I stayed at the camping for some reading and I also worked on the photo album again. I’m a bit behind schedule with that. I still have to do our trip to Baume les Messieurs, two days ago.

As said, we left the camping around 14.00 hours. It’s still hot but not as hot as yesterday. The air and sky are changing, there are more clouds coming our way. I’m hoping the temperatures will drop soon! Well, enough about the heat now.

We drove through a beautiful landscape, the valley of the river Loue and passed the town Pontarlier. We had a bit of a traffic jam there, but after a while that city was behind us. For what we could see of it from the car, we all doubted if we would go there for dinner later today.

We soon arrived at lake Saint Point and looked for beaches and a place to swim. We found two of them, but they were too crowded and there was no place left in the shadow for us to sit in. Sitting in the sun just wasn’t an option. Luckily Bas an Daan felt the same way, so all we did was a tour around the lake. After that we headed for castle ‘Château De Joux near the village La Cluse-et-Mijoux.
On our way there I stopped several times to make some photos of it. Finally we parked near the castle. From that point we had to walk a steep mountain to the entrance.
At the entrance there undoubtedly would be a ticket-office for a guided tour of 2 hours. None of us wanted that two hours tour. To get an up close glimpse of the castle after all, I got my drone up for a little while. Just straight up, taking a few photos and then down again. There were just too many people staring at it, and I don’t like attracting attention when flying it.

OK, so much for the castle. It was time to go back to Ornans. As soon as we would see a restaurant we would stop. Actually it’s still way too early for dinner. Here in France the restaurants don’t even open until 19.00/19.30.
We went through the city Pontarlier again (had another traffic jam), through the valley of the river Loue and finally came back in Ornans without having seen any suitable restaurant. 
What’s next? Shopping at ALDI and making dinner at home? Nah, no way.

We opted for a drink downtown Ornans and wait there until it was 19.00 hours. That worked out well. While eating the sky became darker and darker and we heard thunder rolling in.

By the time we were back at our cabin we had a heavy downpour and lot’s of lighting and thunder for a while. 
It looks like the heat is gone! Yes!!