Stuck on a mountainside

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The last few days in France, we’ve just been heading west really with no particular place to go – just like the song – but then we found ourselves on Puy Mary, (1787 metres), in Cantal, Massif Central, Puy Mary is a volcanic peak which attracts half a million visitors a year, mostly in the summers and on weekends. Guess when we were there? (rhetorical question only). Anyway for quite some kilometres there were slight ‘bulges’ to the side where vehicles could pull in to let others past. These were positioned very 300 metres. However on the narrowest parts of the road there wasn’t room for two motor-homes (camping cars) to pass. We were driving merrily along when suddenly we had gridlock – almost. Two motor-homes well up ahead had met and couldn’t pass. Eventually we pulled in tight behind another motor-home and let a lot of cars past. Then someone well up ahead pulled over and our group were able to progress up to the next biggish pullover where we waited for the next lot of cars to come from the other way. It seems that somewhere there is a sign saying motor-homes can go down the mountain in the mornings and up in the afternoons (or vice versa). This stops them meeting and not being able to pass. But obviously we weren’t the only ones to miss the sign and I still don’t know if we had the right time of the day. We were getting low on fuel and were going to have a scratch dinner unless we could find a shop – and it was Sunday. Much of France shuts down on Sunday - not to mention all lunchtimes. Stay tuned!