Route Barrée - A diversion in the Jura by Trevor Morgan. Pictures by Paul Edwards.

The Jura is a mountainous area near the Swiss border. During winter it snows and during May the roads are repaired. It also rains in May, or it did this year.

An Anglemog tour always has the same basic ingredients. The food is good and the hotels invariably excellent. The runs are usually scenic and this year, thanks to the dreaded "deviation", long. We usually arrived back at the hotel late and exhausted.

Miraculously Anglemog ladies manage to transform themselves from, shall we say dishevelled, to glamorous in thirty five minutes, appearing in the lounge wearing posh frocks as if the day had been spent by the pool rather than in one.

This year Anglemog assembled at Dover 8.00am on a wet Saturday morning for the high speed crossing to Calais. This was to be a diverse group consisting of 17 regular Anglemoggers plus asylum seekers from Oxford (myself and Pauline) and Herefordshire ( Jean & David Willey).

Joining us in the Jura would be Vittorio & Millie from Italy and Paul & Janet travelling by Ryanair jet plane for less than the cost of a cup of tea, so they claimed. A total of twelve Morgans, one Audi TT and one Peugeot.

Our first night was at the Clos de Montvinage in Etreaupont, a hotel used as our base on a previous tour. Natalie, daughter of the owners, welcomed us. She is a natural comedian and her rendition of, "Listen very carefully, I will say this only once" as the French resistance girl in "Allo Allo", was memorable.

The next day 330 dry miles took us to our first "deviation" and our hotel at Goumois in the Jura. The Hotel Taillard

A lovely setting overlooking a valley and across the hill, Switzerland.

A scenic drive in the sun next morning tested the map reading skills of our lead cars as "Route Barrée" followed "Route Barrée".

However, the "deviations" took us to a restaurant somewhere in the mountains that was able to produce twenty-one lunches just like that. En route to a farm museum, the thunder rolled through the hills, a wind came from nowhere bringing the rain, horizontal rain. Some of us got very wet trying to raise the Morgan hoods. 

Even the occupants of the Audi roadster suffered a certain dampness before the electrics did their job. The first group made it into the farm museum - somewhat bedraggled and dripping, the other group who were but 5minutes behind, made it into a barn ……and then went home!

Manifestations in Besancon

Tuesday is market day in Besancon and Madam Organiser, Lyn Peek, had arranged with the town hall for special parking to be reserved for us in the market square, together with a gendarme to protect it.

Unfortunately a combination of R&D, rain and deviations, conspired to make us late. When we eventually arrived in the busy market square the gendarme had gone and the locals, ignoring the "Reserved for Manifestation" signs, parked in our places.

While the cars milled about the square our ladies began policing the reserved area. One by one the illegals were driven away and our places reclaimed. Unfortunately, for the ladies, this took a little while and by the time we had taken a coffee and comfort stop the shops were closing for lunch. Oh dear.

The Schlumpf Collection

One of the highlights of the week was a journey through Switzerland, along the Corniche Jura, and back into France to the National Musee de l'Automobile at Mulhouse.

On this morning the rain had reduced to showers and although Mulhouse had yet more "deviations" we eventually all arrived to find the gates of the museum opened, thanks to Willie and Val's organisation and we were allowed to park our cars in the private courtyard.

An excellent lunch, also organised by Willie & Val, was followed by a tour of the museum and when we emerged it was into sunshine. Hoods off!

A Scenic Tour

No holiday is complete without a low moment or two and when, after lunch, on Thursday, in the pretty town of Ornon, one of the group shouted from his sodden Morgan, "I am not spending another minute in this bloody car driving around in the rain.

I'm going back to the hotel." We understood but he did miss a very impressive waterfall, made all the better by the recent rain.

A Boat Ride

The next day, however, was the hottest. The sun shone and we had to dig deep to find the sunscreen lost under piles of waterproofs.

Again a drive across the Swiss border then back into France for a river boat ride along the Gorges du Doubs to another waterfall, the Saut du Doubs. A picnic was followed by a food tasting and finally back at the hotel another excellent dinner and we were all a bit pink, from the sun of course.

Home, so soon?

The long journey home was broken with an overnight stop in the Champagne region. A peaceful hotel deep in wooded countryside, the L'Oree du Bois provided another lovely meal. We would have liked to stay longer but the ferry called, after a lunch in Laon and a little wine purchasing, of course.

Lyn and Graham who organised and led the group did a wonderful job and it was a week that will certainly feature in the highlights of our lives.

In nine days of motoring over roads from AutoRoute's to goat tracks, over a 2,000 mile round trip, the only mishap was, unfortunately, a dented wing in a hotel car park. Not bad?

TREVOR MORGAN