A fine few days of getting to know our local area and settling into alpine living.

A big thunderstorm has re-set the temperatures around here. We used the overcast day to get some shopping done in Briancon, then went for a swim in the rain at Roche de Rame, where the lake water is considerably warmer than the lake near us. In the evening, we met up with John and Steve at their campsite bar. We arrived and got under cover minutes before a torrential downpour with hailstones the size of peas and more!

The great thing about alpine weather is that (usually), once the storm has passed, the sun comes back out and things dry up pretty quickly. The next morning there was barely any trace of the rain as we explored along the Durance Valley.

We tactically planned our run from our local lake to St Crepin and back, so that we could finish by cooling off with a swim!

Once we’d cooled down, we took a wander around the old village of St Crepin – the shady narrow streets were the perfect temperatures…

This is our local view from the house. A nice place to be based for sure…