France 2007

My last picture series was of Switzerland and I admit it is hard to beat that type of experience of large peaks and huge waterfalls. I met up with a guy named Patrick in Switzerland and we were trying to find out where we should go next to get some climbing in. We figured that there was a certain place nearby with the world reputation to make it extra special so we hopped on a train to head towards Ceuse, France. We didnt really have any idea how we were going to get to Ceuse however since it is near a little town called Gap and the train ticket was going to be much to expensive especially for a return. We didn't have much time and so we decided to try and get a rental car once we got to Bern, Switzerland. The train arrived and we had a few hours before the car companies closed and we were stuck without a car so we worked fast walking right to the companies. The car was going to be much more expensive then we hoped! Almost $300 Swiss Franks for 3 days was much more then I was willing to spend especially since it didn't even include gas. We spent the next few hours running around town calling different companies and even trying the internet all without luck. We headed back to Europcar and stood out in front of the door talking it over for a while when Patrick finally dangled a treat out in front of the deal. He told me "I will put up buy you a ticket up to $100 to anywhere you want to go when we drive back. I am willing to put up $250 for this. I really want to go." Well I just couldn't pass up the deal and we got our little volkswagon golf and headed toward France. It was almost 7pm and we didn't have time to waste so I drove most of the night. Patrick was under 25 so I would be doing all the driving to save money. We got from Bern, Switzerland to Gap, France in about 6 hours and slept in the car. We woke up to a beautiful site of cliffs overlooking the city of Gap. Throughout the night our plans had changed a bit though and we had decided to go to Verdon Gorge instead where Multi-Pitch climbs were abundant.