I will be driving to my EA homeland through France in the middle of June.
The planned route is Caen to Barcelona passing by the Le Masssif Central and the Eastern Pyrenees.
I would appreciate any recommendations for nice and accessible summits as I will be hiking with the family.
Once in Spain I plan to activate a few summits near Castellon (EA5/CS) and maybe Viella (EA3/LL) depending on difficulty and time available.
Thanks & 73s.
Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG
In reply to M0HDF:
Hi Angel
I spent 3 weeks last summer in this region Massif central, and was able to activate some of them ; they are many easely accessible summits ; one of my favorite is Plomb du Cantal F/MC 002 ; you can use the cable railway from the ski station Le Loran on road D67 (sea Google map) ; after the terminal station, you have a 500 m path which goes to the real summit, 30 m higher. If WX is OK, the view is terrific on all the volcanoes area (Chaine des Puys). I dont know the snow conditions this year, but the altitude is over 1800 m, and you must be carreful in June !!
Enjoy Massif Central with SOTA
73 de Chris /F6FTB
In reply to F6FTB:
Many Thanks Chris. I will check this out.
73s de Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG
In reply to F6FTB:
Hi Angel and Chris
The ski station is “LE LIORAN” You can made just opposite of Le plomb du Cantal, Puy de la poche and if good weather (no snow) Le Courpou Sauvage in the same time… More longer Puy Bataillouse with Puy Griou (Can’t do it too snow and ice… And more if you spent time there… You can made in familly Puy du Bac on the road to LE LIORAN !!!
That for this part… I should go to Riom place and maybe do the 3 2 points summit near… So should say more to you arround 15 th June…
So it depent wich way you take for going ther and how many km can you do for a summit !!! (I’m leaving near Dieppe and going to Agen… So I’ve done the 1 point summit long the road… So let me know that !)
Have a good time there…
Bye 73
Tof F5UBH
In reply to F5UBH:
Tof be careful as i was going to activate a few summits near me in the South West, problem was the ones shown on the SOTA France site do not appear on the SOTA list here and some i think have been deleted but i could not find any information to be sure !!!
I posted on here to ask which one was correct and got nothing really back so i did not bother.
Let me know if your in my area and you very welcome to visit for an ‘apero’, same goes for yourself Angel, by the way i enjoy ready your blog, good photos, nicely done…Bravo
Either way i have added both of you to my ‘watch-list’ on cw skimmer so you will get spotted quicker by me on the RBN.
Regards Adrian
Adrian,
All the up-to-date information is in the SOTA Database. It sounds like the SOTA France website is out-of-date. On 1st April, F/SO-001 to F/SO-003 were discontinued, but F/SO-004 to F/SO-011 were added.
For reasons for these changes, consult the F Association Manager.
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
Thanks Tom, appreciate the info, thats exactly what i could not figure out as on the French site the now discontinued summits were still listed as current and not deleted, the new summits did not show up at all !!!
Thus i did not want to take the chance and activate a summit that did not exist.
I will phone up Laurent F8BBL as we are both in the Bordeaux Dx Group and speak to him about this and at the same time i will look at activating these new summits.
Incidently i know i worked you more than a few times with my GW4 call when i was still living in North Wales !!!
Once again thanks Tom.
Regards Adrian
In reply to F5VLY:
One of the things that is being worked on is a method for 3rd party apps/web pages to get access to SOTA database data. This is being done to aid the SOTA mapping project. Once we have something working then access can be opened up further. That means that in future web sites like SOTA France will be able to pull a list of summits to display straight from the database. Which in turn means that the data displayed will always be up to date.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Andy thanks for the update, appreciate the hard work by all concerned within the SOTA team, ironically, firsty, i have just checked the SOTA France site for the South West and Laurent has updated the database, none of the new summits have been activated so looks like i will have to make an effort and activate some new ones !!
Secondly i had only just posted a message to Tof and Angel and when i walked back into the shack there was Tof’s callsign scrolling up my screen on cw skimmer, i gave him a call and had quick chat…
Made my day 
Regards Adrian
In reply to M0HDF:
Hello Angel!
Just have a look into your email-box.
You will find infos there including fotos concerning your question.
73, Franz
OE5FSM
In reply to F5VLY:
Hi (AGN !!!) Adrian,
No problem for doing same summit… There are so lot of chasers that doesn’t make any problem hiii !!! F/MC-059 060 067… Only 1 activation !!!
I’ll be there for the TNJ (Tournoi National Jeune de tir à l’arc…) And will try to made the 3 of them but we just have one vehicle so maybe take my bike !!!
So thanks for the call on 7 mhz with my HB-1B and the battery (now good for charging and stockage !!!)
Heard and maybe see you soon
Best 73
Tof
Tof, Adrian, and Franz - many thanks for all the info. (I got the email too - great pics Franz).
We are still planning the trip, all I know for now is that we will be arriving in Caen on Sunday 15th morning and are planning to spend 3-4 days visiting places whilst we drive down leisurely. (we are most interested in the National parks and outdoors stuff primarily)
So, who knows - we might meet at some of the new summits!!.. or we might make take Adrian on his offer. I will post some more info when we have made a little bit more of research and planning.
73s de Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG
In reply to M0HDF:
Dear Angel,
After seeing today your EA2 callsign at the end of your posts, I looked you up on QRZ.com and started to think that I may have met you many years ago when we were working for a Northamerican multinational with a 3 letters name.
After a short research on the web, I’ve confirmed my guess was totally right.
Between 2001, when you joined this company and 2004, when I left it, we met sometimes at the Holford-Birmingham site and possibly you also visited the Pamplona site too (not sure).
We were working on the column driven electricly powered steering systems being developped in Birmingham and mass produced in Holford-B’ham and Pamplona at that time.
It’s very nice to meet you again and now under this beatiful hobby and the great SOTA program.
Well, I hope to copy you soon again on the bands (I chased you last May 3rd) and see you again.
Take care and let me know (my e-mail is available at QRZ.com) should you be around one day, as we may plan for a joint activation in the Pyrenees area.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to EA2IF:
Hi Guru,
Small small world, isn’t it? unbelievable…
I have just seen your message as I went back to this post to plan our trip through France.
I had a great time on my visits to Pamplona too, I think you might have left by then. It is very nice to meet you again here. Greetings to all the Pamplona SOTA crew too - I enjoy the web from Ignacio and Santi and I often work Manuel EA2DT on our activations.
I will have to stop to meet you guys during our Christmas trip on our way down to Zaragoza.
In reply to All:
Plan for this summer activations in France:
Sun 15th June - we will travel from Caen to Riom, with a stop near Tours for a Castle visit - I wonder if they let me activate the Castle…?
Mon 16th June - Plan is to go to Le Lioran and activate Le plomb du Cantal MC-002 (we might fall back to an easier summit if there is too much snow or the WX is not good.). Is there much snow over there now?
Tue 17th June - we will go to see the Millau viaduct and go up to Mont Seignao MC-071 following Franz’ advice.
Wed - TBD …
73s de Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG
In reply to M0HDF:
Hi Angel,
Wish to contact you on Plomb du Cantal… For complete hiii !!
See there for snow… Not a lot of…
http://www.lelioran.com/index.php?&alias=webcam-panoramique_hiver&insidefile=webcam_panoramique.html
Enjoy them… Should go near Riom on next Saturday if not a lot of storm should do 059 067 and 060 … Heard you next week…
Bye
Tof F5UBH
In reply to M0HDF:
I have just seen your message as I went back to this post to plan our
trip through France.
I saw the thread being scrolled down quickly by so much traffic on this Reflector that I feared you were not going to see my response.
Glad to see that you finally found it.
I will have to stop to meet you guys during our Christmas trip on our
way down to Zaragoza.
Yes, please, let us know in advance when you will be passing near by and we’ll make plans for a good SOTA party in Pamplona, Zaragoza or somewhere in between. For instance SOS del Rey Católico, which is a great historic village to visit with a nice Parador for a good meal. And I guess there must be some SOTA around…
Keep in touch. HPE CUAGN SN.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
Pics of our recent activations in France uploaded now to my blog.
Vy 73s de Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG