RV Travels in Europe and North America
Travelintiger
This is a geographical breakdown of places we have visited in our travels.
Today was spent preparing François for storage. We slept in a bit, and woke up to promising blue skies after another rainy night. Unfortunately, the blue skies didn’t last and a thick damp fog set in. So after cleaning up we pretty much settled in to a movie marathon for our last day in François. Exploring the canals around us will have to wait for our return in the spring.
Another day focused on covering distance. We traveled about 380 kilometers all but about 30 of which was in medium to heavy rain, so it was not a very fun day.
There is not much else to talk about. I picked Beaune as the stopover today as it was a good distance north and a town we had fond memories of. It was the place we spent our second night in a RV in France. It is a beautiful town with a lot of interesting historic sites, and great wine.
With the rain the photographer in the family was not motivated to walk into town, so we hunkered down and had a big meal. We have a lot of food to eat in the next few days so we had a big meal and a bottle of wine. I took a quick walk into town but was quickly driven back to François and Ton when another shower came down. The rest of the evening was spent vegging in front of screens watching movies.
We are at a point in the trip where distance traveled in the right direction is more important than where we end up staying. Today we got lucky as we were able to get a good jump in our 4 day journey to Amsterdam, and stop at a place that has been on our list of places we wanted to visit. Avignon is famous for two things in the English speaking world, for about 100 years 7 popes of the Catholic church ruled the church from Avignon instead of Rome. The other is that every French language student learns to sing a childrens song about the Bridge in Avignon. Ton had told me about the song, and the other night Denise Cook also launched into it when we told her our plans.
We had a quick and easy 4 hour drive to get here, arriving at the municipal campground on an island in the Rhone River right across from the medieval city, and the Pont Saint-Benezat or the Bridge at Avignon just before the staff headed out for lunch.
When we arrived at the campground Ton almost aborted our walk into town. The campground here had a large commercial washer and dryer setup, and one of Tons top to do list items was washing our linen before we left. She wouldn’t agree to go to town until I went and confirmed that the laundry would be open late enough to get our washing done. Once she learned that it was open until 10 pm we were off and heading into town.
Avignon is a fortified city with most of the walls facing the river still intact. It also has a large cathedral and palace befitting its nearly 100 years as the center of the Catholic church. Even after the popes returned to Rome it stayed under Papal control until it was incorporated into France during the French Revolution.
We did a quick walk through town, and then to the Cathedral and the Palace of the Popes. The palace and the Cathedral were impressive, but we found ourselves drawn more to the gardens above the Palace.
By the way, the bridge used to cross the river, but was abandoned in the 1700’s because it kept collapsing when the Rhone flooded. The four arches and the gate house have survived and become the most famous tourist attraction in Avignon because of a children song.
With laundry looming over us we wrapped our quick tour of Avignon and took a small pedestrian ferry across the Rhone to return to the campground. So we are now 320 kilometers closer to Amsterdam, we have seen a town on our list of places to visit in France, and we have nice freshly laundered linen. Today was a pretty fun and productive day.
We were up bright and early as we had a 9:30 appointment at the repair place. It was an easy drive and we arrived to find a real polyglot operation. Initially they greeted us in French based on our plates, when I asked for English the person immediately switched to flawless English. She then got on the radio to have the technician come to the office and spoke what I thought was German to him, but I thought I had misheard and it was probably Catalan, later I learned it was German. The tech and I went out to the car to look at the problem and he was speaking in French until I asked for English, and he said oh good and also switched to flawless English. After a few minutes discussion in English Ton said to me in Thai that she thought he was German based on his accent. It turns out she has a good ear as he was indeed a German who had settled in the area. All of this talk of languages is because the repair itself was quick and easy and took all of 10 minutes. We now have a new latch and light for the refrigerator that seem to be working, as well as an admonishment to put less stuff on the refrigerator door shelves.
On the way to the repair shop, we saw a grocery store advertising the cheapest fuel we have seen in about 3 years. So we stopped and filled François up and probably saved about €20 over what our average fill has been lately. The gas station was attached to a large supermarket, so Ton ran in there for a few minutes while I was filling François. Well a few minutes turned into 45 minutes as we had discovered the largest Catalan owned grocery chain, and it was full of cool and cheap Catalan and Spanish food.
Ton had spotted a seafood restaurant yesterday that she wanted to try if it was open. Yesterday it was closed, but we hoped that was because it was Monday. Unlike the restaurants that are closed for the season, this one still had tables outside, and the inside tables were set with plates so we were optimistic. She even knew what she was going to order. Unfortunately, it wasn’t open. So we tried a Moroccan restaurant just up the street. We enjoyed the food, and the tea, so while disappointed that we didn’t get the seafood we wanted we still had a nice meal.
Every town in Europe now seems to have a little train that you can take to see the sites. We have taken a couple of them over the years. The one in Roses was exceptional as the “Engine” was a big Case or John Deere tractor instead of a little modified truck like most. We had stopped and looked at it yesterday, but there was no one there. Today when we walked by there was someone manning the booth. We were intrigued so we signed up for the one hour Cap De Creus tour.
The tour was mostly thru narrow streets full of vacation homes, and once again I was impressed as the driver navigated this farm tractor pulling two trailers down streets I would have cringed to take François down. The tour was narrated in French, German, and English, but not Spanish or Catalan. When we signed up for the tour they asked where we were from, so I suspect there were no Spanish on the ride today.
We climbed up quite a hill, and then dropped back down towards a less built up area which was part of a Spanish national park. For a short part of the trip we were on dirt roads, which is why they are using the tractor to pull the “train”.
On the tour they mentioned that the full time population of Roses is 20,000, but that during the peak of the summer when all of the hotels and vacation homes are full an additional 120,000 people are in the town! We both agreed that we were glad we were here when the population was closer to 20,000.
Tomorrow we are heading north as we only have 6 days until our flight home. We are planning to cover about 300 kilometers a day, which should put us into Amsterdam with a couple of days to spare. So today was our last day of traveling without a plan, unfortunately.
As much as we liked Perpignan we had to leave today as the campground we were staying at is closing for the season. We looked at our options and everywhere North and East of us had rain. I pointed out to Ton that we were only about 30 minutes from the Spanish border. One of our favorite memories in Spain was a meal we had in Roses, so that’s how we ended up here in the town aire. I told Ton that we should leave early as the recent reviews kept referring to it being sold out. We arrived about 9:30 in the morning after a quick drive down the freeway and claimed a good spot. I went to get rid of some trash around 5pm and they had just sold the 70th and last spot for the night to a RV from Iceland.
Our memory of Roses was of a very lively resort town where we had our first and most memorable Spanish meal about 6 years ago. It was a three course meal with both an aperitif and a glass of wine for €13. We were hoping we would recognize the restaurant and see if we could replicate the meal.
This time instead of a bustling seaside resort with lots of shops and restaurants, we found a bit of a ghost town. Out of season 90% of the hotels and restaurants shut down. We had the beautiful seaside promenade to ourselves most of the way. We found our favorite restaurant but unfortunately it was also closed for the season.
But we did find a restaurant where we could get a three course meal for €17, but this time the wine was extra. But, the meal was wonderful, and Ton was thrilled with her first course which was a giant plate of mussels, and her second course which was a very meaty fish called a monk fish. So Roses continues to meet our expectations for good meals.
We are going to spend another night here in Roses as we have to get a little problem fixed on François before beginning our trek north. A part of the latch on the door to our refrigerator has cracked. The door closes fine, but the door ajar alarm keeps going off because some circuit is not being closed. It is quite annoying to be woken up every few minutes by an alarm, sometimes it goes off continuously and sometimes it will be quiet for a few hours and then suddenly go off for no apparent reason. So tomorrow we are off to try to get it fixed.
Our original plan was to head to Avignon to look at a bridge. The weather forecast for Avignon was a lot of rain, so Ton went on line and looked at weather and places to see options and landed on Perpignan. Perpignan is only about 30 minutes from the Spanish border and is part of French Catalonia, and most importantly is supposed to have good weather for the next 3 days.
We woke up to the rain that is driving us towards Spain, so we were not in a hurry to get up and get going. Before departing we went over for a final coffee with Fred and Denise. We enjoyed another conversation and after about an hour reluctantly headed down the road. We are going to keep track of their travels and are hoping to find another opportunity to meet them. Our only regret is we did not get a good photo of them and us together.
As we drove down the autoroute the weather was initially pretty bad, but as the forecasters predicted the rain got lighter and lighter until we finally broke into a bright blue sky. We arrived at the campground I had picked out, hoping they were still open. The internet said they were open until the 15th, but I was a little nervous about the accuracy of the information. When we pulled up I was relieved to see they were open. When I checked in and asked for 2 nights the guy at the desk said only two nights as they were closing for the season on Monday. So while the information was not accurate, it was accurate enough for our needs.
We settled in and then took a walk around the reservoir the campground is on. After that Ton prepared a pizza on the stove top using a technique our friend Cory taught us on her boat last year. It was delicious.
We woke up to a very chilly François this morning. The thermometer by the bed said 51 degrees and I was tempted to run the heater for a few minutes, but Ton is made of sterner stuff and told me it was ok. Then just as we began to stir it started raining hard, and did so until about 10 am. So the morning turned into a late breakfast, while Ton stayed tucked up warm in the bed, and I puttered around François.
We finally decided to head into town because Denise and Fred really liked Aigues-Mortes. Before we left we set up a rendezvous with Denise and Fred for lunch. They were going to go into town by bike while we walked the 4 kilometers.
Yesterday I mentioned that Camargue was known for three things, salt, flamingos, and horses. On our walk thru the country we saw all three so we got the full Camargue experience.
The Camargue is heavily influenced by the Rhone river delta, which makes up a good deal of the area. On our walk we saw a lot of canals and dikes to control the water flow from the delta. In addition to horses, flamingos, and salt they also raise cattle and grow rice.
We tried to get a good picture of the flamingos, but they would not cooperate and come close enough. You will have to trust me that we saw them on our walk.
About half way on our walk Denise and Fred passed us by on their bikes which are a much more efficient mode of movement than walking. We agreed to meet at the town gate, and they agreed to scout for a restaurant.
Aigue-Mortes is an old fortress town, and its entire wall is still intact which is unusual. In most cities sections or nearly all of the wall have been removed for modern buildings or to widen roads. In Aigue-Mortes you can walk the entire perimeter of the old town on the walls if you desire.
Fred and Denise met us at the gate, and we headed into a Spanish Steak house. But as the waitress that took our order said, the Spanish has been heavily influenced by French taste. We were very impressed as both Fred and Denise were able to speak French with the staff which certainly sped up the ordering process and generated some good will from the staff. We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, and before we knew it, it was 3 pm.
We took a quick turn thru town and would have liked to have spent more time there, but with day light savings time the sun is now setting around 5:30. So much earlier than we would have liked we found ourselves hiking back to the aire for the evening.
We have shifted about 200 kilometers west to the Camargue region. The Camargue is famous for three things, salt, horses, and flamingos. But the real reason we are here are to connect with our good friends Fred and Denise Cook who are traveling Europe in their American Expedition Vehicle. It is built on an old Italian Mercedes Firetruck and is an impressive sight. The Virginia plates also catch peoples attention in the Aire. Compared to their truck François looks like a small car.
We arrived at the aire about 1pm after an easy drive from Toulon. After we got settled in we went over and spent the afternoon and evening sharing tales of travel, and places we have enjoyed visiting. Tomorrow we are going to set out to visit the town, which Denise once spent a few weeks living in as a student.
Our ferry left about 45 minutes late last night, but it was a very rough ride. The wind was still blowing strong, and the sea was very rough. The ferry was about 600 feet long, and even at that length was getting tossed around quite a bit most of the night. We both eventually fell asleep and when we woke in the morning it was much calmer as we put into Toulon.
Toulon is a big city and we arrived at 8am. We were one of the very first vehicles off of the ferry and headed right into downtown Toulon. I was expecting rush hour traffic, but traffic was really light. I finally asked Ton is today a holiday in France? A quick google search confirmed that it was All Saints Day which is a national holiday. So thanking our luck we arrived at our campground less than 30 minutes after rolling off the ferry.
We wanted today to get our laundry done, and give François a good cleaning. While we were waiting for some washers to open up I walked down to the town center. Ton passed on the walk after a long night of being tossed around by the sea.
I took a quick turn around the waterfront and then headed back to François so we could get our laundry done. After completing our chores we relaxed for the afternoon and began to think about our plans for the next week. Based on weather forecasts we are going to be staying in the south as the weather in Paris and Amsterdam shows 10 straight days of rain.
A short one today. The wind built overnight until we were getting gusts around 40 to 50 miles per hour. From our campground the ocean looked pretty rough. We spent the day hunkered down in François with him shaking pretty vigorously in the wind. We finally followed the example of our Dutch neighbors and moved over by a tall line of shrubbery that blocked some of the wind, though we would still get knocked around pretty good. We spent a good part of the morning watching our email fearing that the ferry would be cancelled. Finally about 3:30 we moved down to the ferry port where we are currently waiting. The departure board says we are leaving at 7pm. I expect it is going to be a rough 13 hours to Toulon.
We had a weather shortened day. We forgot about daylight savings time, and did not realize until this morning that it had happened yesterday here, of course we were not late for anything because most days we don’t have to worry about being anywhere at a certain time.
Our first stop for the day was a LeClerc to stock up on some food, and to pick up some Corsican things we have grown to appreciate that we probably will not be able to get once we head back to the mainland on Tuesday. This was a huge LeClerc so Ton enjoyed herself window shopping as well as filling the basket.
We were planning to visit a town called Saint Florent which is on the other side of Cap Corse, but when we came out of LeClerc the wind had really picked up, and the mountains we were going to have to cross to get to Saint Florent looked socked in, so we decided to go up the side of Cap Corse we were on to our campground for the day. On the way we stopped in Erbalunga which is a cute town.
Erbalunga is a quick stop, but we enjoyed watching the ocean putting on a show. Ton remembered she needed to some onions so we popped into a little neighborhood market which was doing a thriving business, and then headed to our campground for the day. We are parked in a big open field with about 5 other RV’s. It is a really nice campground with great facilities. When we arrived there was a sign that said go pick a spot and come back at 6pm to pay. When I went by at 6 pm no one was there, so maybe tomorrow morning.
The wind really howled most of the afternoon, frequently giving François a good shake. But towards sunset it died down completely, and now all we can hear is the surf about a quarter mile away. Another front is supposed to come thru tomorrow just in time for our departure on the ferry.
Today we visited the second largest city on Corsica. Bastia was founded around 1370 as a Citadel guarding a port that Genoa was trying to use to rule Corsica. Over time it became the primary port for Northern Corsica and today is the primary ferry port to connect to mainland France and northern Italy, we will be departing from here on Tuesday. Italy is closer to Corsica than France is, and there are two prominent islands off shore that are part of Italy, one of which is Elba where Napoleon lived in exile until his death.
Corsica has always been a tough place to govern. All of the major cities are fortress towns where the off island rulers (Genoa, and France) have tried with mixed success to control the interior of the island. The extreme ruggedness of the center of the island makes it a rebels paradise. Even today as we were driving into Bastia, most of the highway overpasses and bridges had “Corsica is not French” spray painted on them, so even today there is a Corsican independence movement.
We accomplished another thing today as we decided to park at the ferry terminal for the day, so our trip in to catch the ferry on Tuesday will now be a little easier as we know the route and the layout of the terminal. As we walked into the town center we came across a sprawling Sunday market on the main square of the city.
The largest part of the market was a huge flea market. While interesting for people watching, other peoples junk is generally not our thing. So we passed thru pretty quickly.
We kept on thru the center of the city and next found ourselves at the harbor. The harbor was where all of the high end restaurants were located. We did some window shopping, but in the end decided to have a home cooked lunch today.
Our last stop for the day was the citadel built above the harbor to protect it. The citadel was a good climb up, and as we were walking up it I saw a sign saying that one of the problems that Bastia has always had to deal with is connecting the citadel above the town with the harbor. Today the answer appeared to be that the lower town and the harbor are the center of the town, and the citadel is very quiet.
The lower town was very lively, the market was busy, and the restaurants were full. When we got to the citadel it was mostly empty, and except for one restaurant all of the businesses were closed. It was quite a contrast.
We wandered about for a few more minutes looking at signs describing the buildings, for the first time today we heard languages besides French. Our conclusion was that the citadel was for tourists and since the season is over all of the businesses have packed up. So we headed back to François and out to our campsite for the day.
On the way to the campground we wanted to swing into a grocery store to pick up a few supplies. Unfortunately, all of the parking lots at the major grocery chains we saw had height barriers. This is a uniquely annoying French thing where they put gates at about 2.6 meters above ground to keep oversized vehicles out of parking lots. Sometimes you can find a back entrance, or a secondary lot that is not restricted, but today I didn’t want to go on the search, so we decided to keep our money to ourselves.
Today we shifted to the other side of the island to Cap Corse. If you look at a map of Corsica you will see a panhandle sticking out of the northern part of the island. That is the Cap Corse.
We headed out pretty early as we have learned that Corsican roads are twisty and hilly things that require some time to negotiate. Todays road was pretty straight by Corsican standards so we beat my estimated time by nearly 30 minutes.
We followed the east coast of the cape for about 20 kilometers after leaving the largest city on the island Bastia. I was expecting something like our drive down the D81 but it was completely different. Much of the coast line here is developed and we were more impressed with the beautiful homes than the coast. The coast line was impressive but after a week on Corsica our standard for a spectacular coast line has gotten quite high.
We had a quiet afternoon relaxing and conversing with our Dutch neighbor whose 3 year old took a shine to me and was teaching me Dutch so I would play with him. Later in the day we headed down to the beach. During the afternoon we had heard a few gun shots in the vicinity of the campground. On the trail to the beach we came across a gentlemen in hunting gear and carrying a double barrel shotgun. I got his attention and asked him in my best French c’est Securite, pointing down the trail. He gave me a big thumbs up and replied Oui c’est bon. So we hustled down the trail to the beach.
We took a quick walk along the beach as the wind was up and it was getting chilly. There were a fair amount of locals around, all bundled up also. There was a dark cloud coming over the hill, and after the downpours of the last few days we didn’t want to get caught out so we headed back to François for the evening.
After our short train ride into Calvi yesterday, we decided to head the other direction to the opposite end of the line to the town of Lisula. On the maps the town is labeled by its French name of L’Île-Rousse, but given its history and our observation of the preferred name in the town we decided to go with the Corsican name.
The town was founded as a port by the Corsican separatist Pasquale Paoli in 1758. It was put on a point of land that allowed the Corsicans to cut the flow of goods between Genoa and Calvi during the rebellion that was going on at that time. The rebellion was successful for a short period of time and Corsica became an independent country for a few years, before Genoa sold the rights to the island to the French and it was occupied by them in 1768. So in this area there is an ongoing rivalry between Calvi and Lisula going back to the 1760s.
The wind has been howling since last night and when we arrived we decided to head out to the island first. The walk across the causeway was pretty intense as a couple of gusts of wind actually staggered us. The high wind was a constant companion all day, even at lunch when one gust blew thru the covered seating area we were in and knocked over chairs, signs, and blew glasses off of tables. Ton and I both showed good reflexes to grab our wine glasses before they blew over.
When we walked into town we saw a bunch of tents set up and a lot of people on bicycles. It turns out that the town is hosting the Corsica Bike Festival this weekend. So in addition to enjoying the pretty waterfront we were entertained by different bicycle events and displays.
One of the events is an urban race course that runs thru the streets and alleys of the town. The surface is cobblestone mostly and at one point it runs down a set of stairs near the town hall. We watched one race and it looked pretty challenging as they had to navigate tight corners and run up narrow alleys, all the while dealing with changing surfaces and curbs.
We enjoyed our stay at Lisula enough to extend to a later train back. Our old train was packed with people returning to Calvi after a day outing to its rival Lisula. The coast line here is also stunning and we really enjoyed looking out the window of the train at the cliffs, beaches and inlets as we headed back to François. Corsica as a destination is a beach bums dream.
We finally got our chance to go to Calvi today. After a day and a half stuck in François while a huge storm passed thru, we were anxious to get going. So at 9:40 we were at the train stop.
10 minutes after boarding we were deposited at the foot of the citadel that is the main attraction for Calvi. Most of the tourist oriented places were closed as we walked up to the citadel. The citadel is impressive, built out on a point of land guarding the harbor. It really looks like an Americans vision of an European castle/fort.
As we walked into town two things made me connect to Calvi immediately. The first was the cities motto carved into the main entry to the citadel in Latin, “Civitas Calvi Semper Fidelis” The city of Calvi is always faithful. Semper Fidelis is also the motto of the Marine Corps. The second thing I saw was on one of the old fort buildings was a sign that said it was the officers club of the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment who are based here. I worked with one of the officers from the 2e REP (as it is abbreviated in French) during my brief time in Lebanon, the only time I worked with the French Army.
We walked around the citadel for about an hour enjoying the views and admiring the fort.
Calvi makes a claim to be the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. The locals admit that there is no evidence to support this claim, just local stories passed down over generations that he was born to a fisherman from Calvi. But when he went to get help from the Spanish for his voyages he couldn’t admit he was from Corsica because the Corsicans had a bad habit of slaughtering Spanish soldiers and sailors who came by. So instead he said he was from Genoa who were the rulers of Corsica at the time. Research on the internet allows for some doubt about Columbus true birth place, most scholars say Genoa, but others say he was Greek and a few say he was a Pole, but no one but people from Calvi say he was Corsican.
After our tour thru the citadel we went into the new town and explored the marina and did some shopping at a SuperU grocery. We learned that the same train that we took to Calvi, goes to two other towns that are on our list to visit while we are here, so we will be taking the same vintage train in the opposite direction tomorrow.
Our last stop for the day was at a microbrewery near the campground. It looked promising. The set up was much like we are used to in Portland with a chalkboard of todays beer offerings. We ordered a couple of beers and asked about food, the only thing they had was some dips made from olives, eggplant and tomatoes and bread so that is what we ordered. After our order arrived we were then ignored and eventually abandoned. When we were ready to leave Ton finally went and knocked on the window to the back room to get somebody to come out and take our money. It was a strange visit, the beer was fair.
The picture at the top is Calvi taken from the train stop near the campground. We almost got there today, but ended up staying buttoned up in François all day. The bad weather from yesterday cleared up for a few hours last night so we planned to head into town about 11:30. But just as we got to the train station it started raining again in buckets so we scampered back to François.
We decided to take a day off and take advantage of the good internet here to stream some movies and relax. I did a little work on the blog adding a page for Sardinia, and updating Sicily, but otherwise we did not accomplish much.
Sardinia was full of surprises for us. We were both looking forward to seeing a part of Italy that neither one of knew very much about. The island was full of surprises for us starting with the geography. I expected a very rugged island with difficult drives. The coastline is very rugged and a lot of the beaches are surrounded by steep cliffs and mountains, but the center of the island is a broad and relatively flat plain.
Driving in Sardinia turned out to be very easy. The island has a very good network of free high speed roads, one of which runs along the entire spine of the island. The quality of the roads were generally good, and the traffic volumes were low. In many ways Sardinia was one of the easiest places to drive in Europe. Totally unexpected.
The people are a little more reserved when you first meet them than in other parts of Italy, but when you break thru the initial greetings they are charming, helpful, and good fun with a dry sense of humor. We really enjoyed the people.
The food is also something like the people. It is not flashy on the surface, but the tastes are wonderful and unique. After our lunch on the last day in Sardinia Ton said that the island was 100% on meals, meaning we did not have a bad meal there, high praise from Ton. We learned about a couple of new wines that we will be looking for in the future that are unique to Sardinia.
Sardinia is not a place to look for history. If you are looking for Roman ruins this is not the place to come, but if you are a beach bum, or like hiking in the mountains, or trying new tastes that are unique to a specific area, then you will love Sardinia.
On our next to last day on Sardinia we planned a short trip down the coast from Alghero to Bosa. The drive along the coastal
We were very interested in visiting Olbia as it is in one of the five blue zones in the world. A blue zone is a
We have a pretty set morning routine, I get up first and make the coffee for the day. We have two travel mugs that I
We were looking forward to our visit to Alghero. Our friends who had visited here really liked it, and the guide books raved about its
One of the most important cultural symbols of Sardinia are the Nuraghes. These are bullet shaped stone buildings built without mortar. There are many of
We had a very quiet night at our agritourismo in the hills above the coast. It even cooled down enough that for the first time
Today was a lot of driving. We left Ogosoro about 9:30 and drove back to Cagliari to pick up François. We double checked the three
When we went down to breakfast Peppina the host at our B&B asked what our plans were for the day, we both looked at each
Today we explored the mountain valley around Ogosoro. We didn’t have a set plan except to visit the local costume museum in the regional capitol
Tonight we are staying in a bed and breakfast in Orgosolo. We picked Orgosolo because our friends Ovi and Cory recommended it for visiting central
Tonight we are set up in the parking area of the RV dealer in Cagliari. We had a couple of minor issues that have cropped
We have changed islands and are now in Sardinia. We had an early ferry departure and for the first time on this trip set an
Ton and I have had the privilege of driving some beautiful highways in our time traveling, the Alaska Highway, Utah Highway 12, the Pacific Coast Highway, the Amalfi Coast, and today we added another beautiful and memorable highway to the list, the D81 between Sagone and Osage on Corsica.
Our thought was to move up to Calvi today. It is the next major town north of us and somewhere we planned to spend a day during our visit to Corsica. I had looked at a map and I remember telling Ton that it was not going to be a quick trip as the road looked very curvy, and mountainous. I punched Calvi into Greta our navigator, and she first reported that it was 47 kilometers north of us by air, she then calculated the route and said it was 118 kilometers of road. That is a lot of curves.
I checked the weather and it was not good. It was supposed to rain most of the day, so in addition to the mountains and curves we were going to have wet roads. We had a short debate about whether to stay put for the day, but while the campground was nice the only entertainment around it was a very nice grocery store next door, so we decided to move on.
Just as we were pulling out of the parking lot of the supermarket there were a couple of thunderclaps and the moderate rain we had been experiencing turned into a full on downpour. Ton asked if we should abort the drive, but I decided to push on.
For the first 45 minutes of the drive the windshield wipers were on high to handle the volume of rain. We had to keep our eyes out for water running across the road and deep puddles. Fortunately the traffic was pretty light, and we did not realize it at the time but this was the wide and straight part of the drive.
After about 45 minutes the rain let up and then eventually stopped just as we were reaching the area around the town of Piana. The timing it turns out couldn’t have been better as we were reaching the Calanques de Piana. We passed thru Piana which was the largest town we had seen so far on the trip. There were several substantial hotels in the town and the views from the town were great including some red rocks in the distance.
A couple of kilometers outside of the town we came to a sign in French which said approximately, the road is very narrow, there will be places to pull out so when you run into another car, work it out. Or words to that effect. We were entering the Calanques de Piana.
But what a magnificent stretch of road. The road is carved thru these amazing red rocks that reminded me a bit of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. There were hair pin turns to negotiate while you were peering around the corner to see if anyone else was coming, and simultaneously gawking at another beautiful vista.
Once going around one of the corners I ran into a tour bus coming the other way. We both stopped and checked our mirrors and I was planning to back up about 50 yards to a pullout, but before I could get into reverse he gave me a hand signal to wait and he threw the bus in reverse and backed into a small pull out part way to give me enough room to squeeze thru. Over the 10 kilometers or so of the narrow part of the road I came across 5 vehicles, 3 times the other person backed up to make enough room, and twice I did. Often you would see another car coming and we would park in a pull out and wait for them to go by. As the sign said use the pull outs and work it out amongst yourselves.
Not only do you have the red rocks but you can see the ocean from the road. This stretch of road is absolutely one of the most beautiful we have ever seen. When we set out in the morning we had no idea we were going to have one of the most memorable drives of our life. Today is the reason why we enjoy traveling in our little RV’s. We would have never experienced the D81 and the Calanques de Piana.
We left the campground at 9:45 and arrived at our campground in Calvi at about 1:15, so our 118 kilometer drive took three and half hours for an average speed of 33 kph or 20 miles per hour. It was not a fast trip but we enjoyed it immensely. Right as we got settled into the campground the sky opened up again and we spent the rest of the day watching the rain pour down with high winds and the occasional thunderclap. It was a memorable day.
We woke up early as we were both a little nervous about the Controle Technique that François had to undergo. The Controle Technique is an inspection that every motor vehicle in France has to go thru every two years. There are 136 points of inspection and if you fail you have to find a mechanic to fix the issue and bring it back in to have it reinspected. We were also worried because our inspection was due in August, but we were in the US and François was in Greece, so we did not know if we were subject to any penalty for being late.
If the timing was better and we knew a mechanic in town we would have arranged to have someone go over François before we went in for the inspection. I took a look at the list of 136 things, and while some of them were easy to understand such as are all of the lights working, is the windshield intact, are the tires in good condition etc. Some were pretty obscure, and some require a diagnostic computer. So after talking it over we decided to just go in and get the inspection and see what happens.
The other concern I had was if something was wrong would I be able to communicate effectively with the technician to understand the issue. Google translate is pretty good, but sometimes for technical issues things are not that clear. When we arrived we were both pretty nervous, but the guys in the office and the other customers put as at ease by treating us as an interesting twist to their day and having fun with it. I surrendered our registration document to the technician and he immediately got a giggle out of the name of the “company” François the motorhome is registered to which is Corbin Voyage. He showed it to a couple of the other customers who smiled and one of them gave me a thumbs up.
The tech finally asked for the keys and drove François into the bay for the first station of the inspection. Ton and I were at the window looking into the shop like two parents watching their child trying out for a team. We watched the monitors, and tried to guess from the reaction of the tech if he was doing good. After about 20 minutes of nervous observation interspersed with being teased by an older gentleman who was there getting his Smart car tested. The tech drove François out and came into the waiting area and announced that our score was perfect! Though I did see him shoot some air into one of the tires, so it wasn’t quite perfect. There also wasn’t a fine for being three months late getting the inspection. We were very proud of François and celebrated by going to a LeClerc and buying some French goodies that we both have missed since our last foray here.
I had picked out the closest campground North of Ajaccio that was still open. It was only 38 kilometers, but we are learning that the coastline of Corsica is very rugged and the roads are full of hairpin turns as a result. Between some traffic in Ajaccio and the hairpin roads it took us nearly an hour to cover those 38 kilometers. As a result we arrived 10 minutes after the campground office had shutdown for their two hour lunch break. I may have muttered a curse word when I realized we were going to have to park and wait two hours, when I heard a voice behind me ask if I spoke English, she then said she was going to open the gate and let us in, and that I should then come back at 2pm and check in.
We set up François, and Ton whipped up a wonderful lunch. It was our first food of the day, which probably contributed to the high bill and the amount of deserts we had bought from our pass thru LeClerc. All in all a good day.
The day got off to a good start as when I woke up Ton looked at me and said we should wash some clothes while we are here. She then sent me out to look for a laundromat. I scouted the main road in front of the hotel, and just as I was about to give up, I spotted a laundromat in a little strip mall walking distance from the hotel. So we gathered up our laundry in François and by 10 am had our laundry done. To celebrate our logistical victory we stopped in a Boulangerie and bought a nice French breakfast.
Ajaccio is the birthplace of Napoleon and his name shows up on many of the buildings, streets, and businesses in downtown Ajaccio. We spent a good part of the day walking from one memorial to Napoleon to another and finally to the street where he was born and raised. He last visited his boyhood home in 1799 and never returned as he became Emperor of the French and then went into exile after he was defeated at Waterloo.
Beside being the birthplace of one of the most famous Frenchman ever, Ajaccio is also the capital of Corsica. But it is a nice compact city that is easy to move around in. The city is surrounded by mountains in 3 directions and the ocean in the fourth. It is a beautiful setting for a city.
Sundays are usually pretty low key in France, but the waterfront in Ajaccio was humming and the unseasonably warm weather had all of the cafes full. We enjoyed walking around and noticed that for the first time in a long time we heard nothing but the native language of the town being spoken. We can’t remember the last time we went a whole day without hearing either English or German being spoken by a significant percentage of the people. There were so few tourists around that all of the people we needed to talk to just assumed we were French until we proved otherwise. It was fun.
We noticed that the market was open, so we made a bee line for it as most things grocery related shutdown around 1 pm. The market is always a happy place for Ton. This was a good one with a great variety of foods.
The food looked a lot like what we saw in Sardinia. Great looking seafood, a lot of smoked meats, and cheese primarily made from sheep. There were vegetables and fruit available, and while nice were not up to the quality and variety we saw in Sicily.
Ajaccio was a great introduction to Corsica. The natural setting of the town is beautiful, the people looked happy and prosperous, and the food looks like it is going to be a treat. Even the Corsican beer we tried at one of the cafes was a cut above anything we have had since we left Belgium. We are excited to begin digging in to Corsica tomorrow after we take care of our technical inspection and make François legal to drive again in France.
