We have made our way northwest, to a campsite near Pisa. The site is on an a nature reserve, beside a lake, so we are expecting mozzies (in fact there were very few.) We are now near sea level, so it is even warmer, but we have sussed out how to put up a makeshift awning. I have bought some industrial strength suckers that stick to the van like limpets, and we have attached a flysheet to them. This is working fine. We have always resisted investing in a proper roll out awning, because they add so much weight.
At last we have a decent wifi connection, and I have published blog episode 7. It seems that BT Internet thinks my emails are Spam, because of the number of bcc recipients, but if I send them individually they get through OK.
N43.6356 E10.3652 height 56 foot
Tues 27th June
Woken at 5 am by a German caravan beside us, who decided to leave at some ungodly hour. Then, at 5.30, a German motorhome followed suit. Thanks guys! A Dutch guy suggested that it was because one of the Swiss tunnels in the Alps was to be closed for maintenance during the day (not night!) and they may have been trying to beat the closure.
We left at about 10.30, a long drive to a site north of Nice - 266 miles. Most of the journey was on an Italian toll motorway, and some 200 miles or so cost only €41, but saved us 6 hours of driving. We must have driven through 60 tunnels, at least. French toll roads around Monaco and Nice added another €4 - they would have been murder to drive through. We are now at a campsite in Haute Provence, lots of steep hills and valleys.
Early in the trip, near Pisa, because of the confluence of rivers and motorways, we navigated, successfully, a whole series of junctions that make Spaghetti Junction a doddle, but these weren't nice motorway junctions, but a series of roundabouts, and we seemed to do a number of figures of eight. Almost impossible without a satnav.
A nice evening - but then live entertainment opened up at the restaurant - and the entire site got the benefit. I was rather after peace and quiet. But at least it stopped at 11.15
N43,9567 E6.862 height 1902 feet,
Wed 28th June
A cool morning gave way to a thunderstorm and heavy rain at midday - that's the first rain we've had in 6 1/2 weeks away, so we can't really complain.
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| that's us - perched on the top, left (taken on my phone) |
Thurs 29th June
2 nights here have cost a very reasonable €38. Access and egress is difficult - very steep and narrow with tight bends.
We have climbed steadily, spectacular gorges , cliffs and mountains to equal the Alps. At one point an eagle soared over the road, no more than 100 feet away. They are BIG birds!
We're aiming for the lavender growing region of Provence, using Lonely Planet as a guide. LP has some spectacular photos, but did we see anything similar? (NO!)
We took the lavender tour from Dignes Les Bains to the Priere de Salagon, without seeing a single lavender plant, although we had passed a few lavender fields earlier. The Priere cost €8 each to go in, and had some reasonably interesting gardens, but the staff left a lot to be desired. 3 people, one of whom was chewing gum with her mouth open, but only one actually doing anything. Each customer took around 7 minutes to process, and they seemed to find us amusing. (Fair enough- I find us amusing!), But it didn't set us off in the right frame of mind. The priory itself was disappointing.
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| Priere de Salagon |
We are spending the night at an aire not far away at Villeneuve. It is a hilltop town with fine views, but the town itself is rather sad looking.
N43.986 E5.8618, height 1434 feet
Fri 30th June
We have spent the day hunting lavender, with only limited success. Eventually we found a plateau above Apt which had many fields of the stuff, but getting a picture that looked anything like the professional pics seen in travel books is almost impossible. Most of the fields had weeds, not the nicely manicured fields advertised.
We are now in a car park at Rustrel for the night. We came here last autumn.
And we have booked a ferry home,. Dunkerque to Dover. Logging in to the DFDS website, each time I attempted to book (but failed) the price went up from £70, to £85, to £133. Instead I went to DirectFerries.com, and, without any hassle, paid £62. All we have to do now is get toDunkerque by 11.00 next Friday.
Sat 1st July
At last! We have stumbled across fields of glorious lavender. The road from Rustrel to Sault is beautiful at any time, one of the most scenic roads we have been on, but in June and July there are large fields of lavender. And easy to see and access. We did follow another Lonely Planet lavender route, but that drew a blank. Then the road from Sault to Banon was even better. In one particularly colourful field an extended Italian family was photographing the solo Bambino amongst the lavender.
We are spending the night on an aire in Banon- a pleasant small town with a mediaeval town above. We had a very nice plat de jour at Les Voyageurs restaurant, €14 each. We keep forgetting we are now in France and say "grazie" instead of "merci.
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| Apparently this is the 2nd most famous bookshop in France, and stocks every book published in French. It is much bigger inside than it looks on the outside |
I spent a happy half hour under the van spraying WD-40 onto the gear change mechanism. Hopefully this will allow me to get into 5th gear and, more importantly, out again. It has yet to be road tested, but my thanks to fellow Rapido owner Ian in Falmouth for the suggestion. (A problem he had already encountered).
N43.9235 E5.474 height 1486 feet
Sun 2nd July
We found a reference to a lavender festival at a small village nearby, Ferrassieres, and are parked on a small hill opposite (along with many other motorhomes), and plan to spend the night here. When we arrived, quite early, the Mistral was blowing hard, and it was very cold indeed. Until midday I was eating a windproof thermal jacket, but it warned up in the afternoon.
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| Lavender festival, Ferrassieres |
The village is tiny, pop'n only 90, but lavender based stalls line all the streets, and by mid afternoon it was crowded. Every street into the village was blocked by a tractor, to prevent a repeat of last year's lorry massacre in Nice. We took a one hour walk around the lavender Fields - I now have a lifetime supply of lavender pics! Apparently most commercial lavender these days is a hybrid of true lavender and spike lavender, producing five times as much oil, but it looks very similar.
Lunch was in an open marquee, and was rather a bunfight. There were various queues, and no one knew which queue was which, but wine was just plonked on the trestle tables, to help yourself. €10 each bought us a very nice lasagne, but served agriculturally ("splat").
We have concluded that French ice cream is not a patch on Italian, twice the price and half as good.
We have bought so much lavender that I feel am living in a mothball. The idea is to put it in our wardrobes to keep moths away, but we have so much of it there won't be any room for moths (or clothes).
This year we have majored on cherries - we have eaten more cherries in the last 6 weeks than we have in all our previous years combined. And they are huge, juicy and delicious!
N44.1364 E5.4747 height 3290 feet
Mon 3rd July
A very cold morning, giving way to a hot day. We are heading North, ready to begin a storm through France, to get to the huge Auchan hypermarket at Lille by Thursday, and ferry on Friday. Had a lovely run through Haute Provence and Haute Alpes to an aire at Laragne Montegrin. Rosemary tells me the town is a rather sad affair - I had a book to read and a beer to drink.
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| Montbrun Les Bains - what you see is what you get - that's all there is |
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| One of the few residents of Montbrun Les Bains |
On the way we stopped at a lovely looking old town, Montbrun Les Bains. After scaling a hot steep hill we found it is nothing but an empty facade. Disappointing! Further on we drove beside the Gorge du Mouge, lots of wild swimming spots, and cascades.
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| Gorge du Mouge |
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| Gorge du Mouge |
N44.3121 E5.8255 height 2027 feet
Tues 4th July
(50 years ago today I was at the coronation of king Ahou Tupou IV of Tonga - just thought I'd drop that in. And 9 years later I was in New York for the Bicentennial celebration. Happy independence day to my American readers.
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| 4th July 1967 Nuku'alofa Tonga (taken with an ordinary camera, no long lens) |
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| 4th July 1976 - Tickertape parade New York |
Time to head for home. We drove 6 1/2 hours to an aire North of Bourg en Bresse, in the Jura. We are parked below a limestone cirque, and beside a classic limestone karst stream.
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| Karst cascade |
The road to Grenoble was excellent, and the scenery stunning. The further north we got the flatter the landscape.
Interesting headline in The Independent today, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-news-vote-leave-director-dominic-cummings-leave-eu-error-nhs-350-million-lie-bus-a7822386.html. The man who led the Brexit Leave campaign, and who came up with the infamous "£350 million a week for the NHS" lie, now says calling the referendum was a dumb idea and Brexit is shaping up to be an unqualified debacle.
N46.6913 E5.6393 height 1500 feet
Wed 5th July
An early start and a long drive, 322 miles, got us to an aire at St Hubert in Belgium. Gearbox was fine the whole way. Thanks Ian. We have stopped at St Hubert on the way out, but at a different aire. We were surprised to find a large abbey in the centre of the village, and a number of bars and restuarants, St Hubert is a good distance from the coast, a 2 1/2 hour drive, so a useful place to overnight.
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| St Hubert abbey - front and side views...it can only be France |
On the way the through Luxembourg we filled up with diesel, only 82 pence a litre....and Luxembourg drivers are the worst we have come across this trip.
N50.0271 E5.3809 height 1638 feet
Thurs 6th July
Two and a half hour drive to Auchan in Lille. Close to Lille there was a sudden thunderstorm and torrential rain. One of my recently acquired wiper blades flew off, last seen disappearing under a Polish lorry. Luckily it was on the passenger side, so I could continue to a service area to a) have a cup of tea while the rain stopped, and b) make a temporary repair so the wiper arm didn't scratch the windscreen.
The Auchan hypermarket here is huge, but the car park has height barriers. No problem, you drive to an entry labelled for use by buses, vans, and motorhomes, press a button and speaker into the speakerphone, the barrier rolls back and you drive in. We have done this numerous times. Except this time the man on the other end wouldn't open the barrier for us. Wouldn't say why, so we caused chaos by backing out of that entry point, and trying a different one. Same thing happened. Then a van approached the gate, coming out. The barrier rolled back, he came out and we went in. I guess the problem was our English accents and English plates. Coming out was no problem- I had visions of having to employ the same tactics on the way out, or spend the night there.
We are now on an aire at a small village called Hondschoote. Despite its Flemish sounding name it's actually in France, 24 miles from Dunkerque. We are booked on the 12.00 ferry, but we are hoping to get there in time to catch the 10.00. Then it's 2 hours to Dover, arriving 11.00 UK time.
N50.97618 E2.58033 height 170 feet
Fri 7th July
No problem catching the 10.00 ferry, which actually docked at 11.30 UK time. At Auchan we had bought a pack of sushi, which we ate on board. Just as well, because the rest of the journey home was a nightmare. By far the worst leg of our trip. Sally (satnav) automatically warns us of road closures, traffic incidents, stationary traffic, etc in real time - a very useful feature. Today it appeared that the entire south of England was a traffic jam, and we went a very convoluted route trying to avoid the worst of the jams. M2 to Medway, M20 M26, M25 (the usual route) A3 towards Guildford, Hogs Back, M3, then down country lanes to Wilton and the A30 to avoid the usual snarl up at Stonehenge. What should have taken just over 3 hours took 5 1/2 hours. Driving in Europe is pleasant, interesting and (mostly) relaxing. Back in the UK, it is suddenly stressful, hassle, aggressive, like driving through Turin for 5 1/2 hours.
Interestingly, as we queued to board the ferry, we could see that about 75% of the cars waiting to board were Dutch, French, German, Swedish, Italian. Normally they make up about 10% of the traffic. I guess they are coming to visit the UK while they still can, before the shutters come down.
Total miles for the trip- 3162.
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