Day 46: Ornans to Mouthier-Haute-Pierre

May 29, 2019

We had a choice to stay an extra day in Ornans or take a short day to Mouthier-Haute-Pierre (henceforth referred to as Mouthier), we opted for the short day. It was only 9 and a half miles but we gained well over a thousand meters of elevation!

The route out of Ornans traced the river for a bit, past the old town mill and some cute cottages. We encountered a few curious critters on the way.

Then the path broke away from the river and headed out toward more of the mountains.

We stopped at a bench so I could get a rock out of my shoe and the nearby cows came over to inspect the strangers.

Then we started to head up into the woods. The path quickly got steep and rocky.

The second half of the day led us back out to the Loue River, which we traced for a few kms.

After crossing the river, we had another steep series of ascents through a couple tiny villages, and then down through the village of Mouthier and back to the river.

We arrived at our hotel and the owner/manager walked out from the back saying “Ah, the Americans! Madame Fischer, oui?” and without breaking stride whisked past the desk, picked up a key and motioned for us to follow. I was delighted. At the end of a long day of walking it can be a pain to have to go through an elaborate check-in process somewhere. You just want to sit, drink water, eat food, and just relax for a second.

On the way to the room we discovered he didn’t have much English and I didn’t have much French (but he did compliment my pronunciation for what I did say–M is a witness! 😉 ), but as I’ve mentioned before, you can get far in a conversation with a lot of good will and using what words you do have. We learned dinner was at 7, breakfast was at 8 and his name was Olivier. 🙂

Oh, and we had an incredible view of the Loue River Valley:

I was charmed by Mouthier-Haute-Pierre. Apparently the town has 333 people and has maintained a population between 250 and 350 in the past 60 years (according to the population information cited on wikipedia, at least). I started to dream about it being like a little Northern Exposure-style community where everyone knows each other. I’m curious about how people come to live here—is it mostly generations of the same families? How often to new people move in?

We ended up having a 5 course meal in the hotel restaurant. For the cheese course Olivier brought a massive trolley with over 15 options and made sure we had some of his favorites (and I made sure M tried the Eppoises, a cheese famous in Bourgogne (I tried while in Dijon)). There is a reason Savarin called it the “King of all Cheeses” 🙂 We were happy, sleepy, and full by the time dinner ended at 10pm.