France – Page 6 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

April 12, 2018 Rommaneche-Thorins FR

We woke up to a pretty steady rain in our Aire in Cluny. Ton pointed out that I had been throwing the term Aire around in the blog when there is nothing like it in the US. An Aire is a very basic place for RV’s to park up for the night. There are thousands of them in France and they range from designated areas in parking lots with no services, to parking areas with electric, water, and dump stations. Most of them do not provide electric, but do provide a place to get rid of the waste water. A surprising amount of them are free, and the rest charge a nominal amount. The towns put them in figuring if you park up for the night you will end up dropping a few Euro somewhere in town.

Typical coutryside in Beaujolais. It is as green as Oregon this time of year.

After a quick check of the weather and seeing that it was supposed to clear up shortly, we hit the road. The intent was to follow the route of one of the scenic drives in Ton’s DK Backroads France book. The drive was called the heart of France and was about 60km’s. We managed to keep on it for most of the trip though there were a couple of unexpected detours caused by missed turns.

Typical vineyard just as the bud is breaking on the vine.

Around lunch we came to Chateau de la Greffirere that advertised tasting and a museum. When we arrived we were met by a lady who asked if we spoke any French at all when we said no, she looked a little flustered but began pouring us wine. A couple of minutes later we were greeted by another lady who completed the tasting and gave us a tour of the facilities. At the end she opened up the real prize for us and as it was lunch time handed us an English guidebook and went off to lunch. The museum was fantastic as it was full of antique wine production equipment. We spent about an hour wandering around and really enjoyed ourselves.

Leaving we continued following the Heart of France drive, but went amiss somewhere and ended up in the town of Macon. It felt more urban than anything else we have encountered so we punched in the place we planned to stop for the night and let Garmin guide us from there.

For the night we are staying at a France Passion site on a winery called Domaine Mortet. We were greeted by Jean Pierre Mortet after we parked up for the night. He was just in from the fields, but took us down into his cellar for a personal tasting. It was fun and very interesting speaking to Jean as he is a literally a one man show. He is the owner, winemaker, vineyard manager, and sales manager. He took over the winery from his father, who dropped in while we were tasting. We want to thank Jean Pierre for his hospitality.

Jean Pierre and Ton in the cave of Domaine Mortet. Thanks so much Jean Pierre

October 2, 2018 Bordeaux FR

Everyone we talked to over the last few days told us we had to go to Bordeaux. Ron was a little intimidated with the idea of driving into a big city, and there are no official aires or campgrounds in the city. After some research our Dutch Parking App listed a parking lot next to a soccer stadium and municipal pool that had good access to the city by bus.

One of the new trams in Bordeaux, there is a lot of work going on to expand the tram lines.

To everyone who told us not to miss Bordeaux thank you we both enjoyed it very much. It is a medium sized city with a very well developed transit system that was easy to use. The waterfront promenade goes on for a couple of kilometers and is wide and pleasant to walk. The promenade has cafes on one side, and river cruise ships, and one very expensive yacht on the other.

These Buildings fronted the river. Bordeaux is one of the larger ports in France.

We visited the World of Wine Museum which is a little pricey, but a very modern multi-media museum, and the entrance did come with a taste of one wine from their world selection. The different multimedia displays included something to taste touch, and many different ways of visually presenting information about wine. It was interesting to see how curators are trying to integrate all of the audio visual stuff that is available now. We also got a small taste of French humor in some of the presentations which was fun.

Most museum stores have books and t-shirts for sale, this one has wine. My kind of museum.

After cutting ourselves off after over three hours in the museum we headed down town to look at some of the buildings in town. The city center is quite nice, and looks like it was not terribly damaged during WWII despite being a major base for German U-Boats. With a city as tuned into wine as Bordeaux is the cafe scene is quite extensive, and a lot of people were enjoying an afternoon drink, so we decided to join them for a beer. We had a couple of French microbrews and they were quite satisfactory.

October 1, 2018 St. Laurent Medoc FR

We spent the day exploring the wine region on the west side of the Gironde River. This area has some of the most expensive wines in the world. To get there we had two choices, a 100km drive around the Gironde and thru Bordeaux, for the time and gas, or a 20 minute Ferry Ride that would put us right in the middle of the wine area we were aiming towards, for cash money. We opted for the ferry ride because Ron is a sucker for ferries, and does not like driving thru big cities.

François posing in front of a windmill and grape vines.

We really wanted to see the town called Margaux which is the center of the Premier Cru wines. As we were driving there, harvest was in full swing everywhere. This limited our opportunity to visit wineries as the smaller wineries that we tend to visit were closed due to the harvest. When we got to Margaux the town itself did not make much of an impression, besides having a couple of larger than normal homes it could have been any small French village.

Surprisingly to us they harvest a great deal of the grapes in Bordeaux with machines.

We decided to get out to take a quick walk thru town, and were about to head back to François when we saw a winery that was open, in France we have learned that an open sign does not always mean they are open. We were poking around the outside trying to decide when a lady stuck her head out of the door and informed us they were open. We went in with her and found ourselves in the poshest place we have been to in quite a while. She offered us a tour of the winery for €50 each. We decided to splurge for a glass of wine and some desert instead. While we were savoring our small moment of poshness, another American couple came in and joined us. We had a nice conversation with them before heading out. The wine was really good.

Ron enjoying a good wine, and trying to look like he belongs in such a nice place.

On our way out of town we saw the signs for Chateau Margaux whose wines retail for over $1200 per bottle and decided to do a drive by. On arrival we saw that their parking lot was pretty full so we turned into the winery, but were stopped by a security guard and told to turn around. We clearly are not Chateau Margaux customers!

Chateau Margaux where we were not welcome.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around looking at the Chateaus, and the harvest process before parking up for the night in a little village in the center of the wine country. The village of St. Laurent Medoc is not nearly as posh as Margaux so we fit in.

September 30, 2018 Blaye FR

We had an early start to the day. The weather continues to be great, highs in the low 70’s and lows in the low 50’s. We headed into Bordeaux which is the home of Cabernet Sauvignon, the area we wanted to visit produced some of the most expensive wines in France.

Our Dutch App that we use to locate places to stay recommended we stay at a winery called the Marquis de Vauban. It was free so we punched it in as we left Rochefort, after a nice relaxing Sunday drive of about 110Km’s we arrived. Our expectation was a spot in a parking lot. We were very pleasantly surprised to find we are parked right in the vineyard of the winery with electricity, and water provided. We went into the tasting room and signed up for the 4pm English tour.

We had a few hours to kill so we walked into the town of Blaye to see the fortifications there which is a UNESCO world heritage site. This is another fort designed by the French designer Vauban, (the same guy our winery is named after). It was designed in 1660 on the site of a medieval fort on the River Gironde. The Gironde is the largest River estuary in Europe and it is about 3 miles wide here. The purpose of the fort was to protect Bordeaux from ships coming up the Gironde. It is an immense fort and was put to the test in 1814 when the British besieged it. The fort withstood the siege and kept the British from getting down the Gironde. It was decommissioned after WWII and turned over to the town.

Looking across the Gironde River towards the town of Paulliac. Goats have taken over one of the outer parts of the fort.

An inland entrance to the fort with a bridge over the dry moat facing the town.

We took our winery tour and tasting with a couple from Wales. After the tour we took a nice horse carriage ride into town to top off the night. While we were relaxing there was a knock on the door of the RV and it was the guide from the horse carriage wanting to know if we wanted an aperitif for the night, of course we did. The aperitif was poured from a used Evian water bottle. After everyone from the campground got their glass he asked what it was, we had no idea, but felt better when none of the other guests knew either. It turned out it was blackberry currant mixed with red wine. It was delicious. After that we returned to the RV to have our dinner, and call home.

This black swan was out looking for dinner outside the RV.

September 29, 2018 Rochefort FR

Today we reluctantly left Brittany and decided to take a big bite out of our trip to Spain. We covered over 350km today to the city of Rochefort. The roads were generally good and for almost half of the way were limited access free ways with no tolls.

Rochefort is an interesting town. It was founded in 1666 to support a naval yard that was placed here by one of the kings. Unlike any French city we have ever visited it is actually laid out in a grid. The town itself had a kind of mediterranean/California vibe. Ton thought it was kind of boring, but Ron was comfortable in a town he could navigate without getting lost!

Even thought the roads were straight there was still a nice old gate in Rochefort.

We made another attempt at getting a French phone. The guy at the Orange store (the biggest French mobile phone company), was really nice, but basically told us that there were no good solutions to our problem. We could either get a standard French mobile plan and pay the monthly cost, or get a sim card that only works in France and nowhere else in Europe. We are going to keep trying, there must be a way to make this work.

We went down to the old naval yard. It was a major producer of vessels for the French Navy from 1660 to the 1920’s. In addition to building French Ships of the Line (really big sailing battle ships) and Frigates like the USS Constitution, it also built France’s first submarine (scarily named the Plunger). Unfortunately the location was not good for larger modern ships and it was abandoned.

The French Frigate Hermione reconstructed.

Today they have a replica of the French Frigate Hermione. This ship is famous here for being the ship that took Lafayette to the US during the revolution. It is really well done.

After that we took a look around the ropery which was a large factory used to make all of the ropes used in the French Navy. By the end of the walk we headed to an aire for the night and relaxed.

The ropery building at the French Maritime Museum.

November 1, 2018 Issoire FR

After a short nights sleep and feeling a little worst for wear we woke up to beautiful blue skies. It was time to make some tracks and begin heading towards the barn. Today we decided to drive about half way to Sens, and for the first time we used a toll road on the trip to expedite the 550 km’s we wanted to drive.

There is not much to talk about today as it was a long drive, and it turns out a holiday in France so there was extra traffic. Ton took a couple of windshield pictures of fall colors as we drove thru the central mastiff a mountainous region in central France.

This highway bridge the Viaduct de Millau jumps over a valley and is about 500 feet high and over two miles long. It is also quite expensive costing €12, but it probably saves you 45 minutes of winding down into the valley and then climbing back out. Instead you jump across the valley in 2 minutes.

April 16, 2018 Rivieres FR

Today turned into a maintenance day. We are at a campground in Rivieres and we did not move here. After we were done visiting Albi yesterday we moved to this campground for the night, but to tell the truth when I wrote the blog last night we had no idea what town we were in. When we woke up this morning we decided it would be a good day to take care of cleaning up and doing laundry. By the time we were finished with the laundry we decided to stay another night.

While we were doing the laundry Ton was reading about the local area and noted that this is one of the oldest wine producing areas in France. The area is called Gaillac and the original vineyards were planted during the Roman times, and for the Romans it was the major wine production area in Gaul (France more or less).

So when I extended us for another night I asked the owner of the campground to recommend a winery in the area. She recommended Domaine Escausses. So after a quick stop at Lidl (grocery store), and a stop to replace one of our propane bottles we headed up into the countryside to Domaine Escausses.

The mustard is taller and a little further along than what we saw in Burgundy.

The setting for the winery is right out of a movie. The views are spectacular, and the tasting room is small and quite nice. We were met by the 7th generation winemaker who in addition to pouring wine for us was taking care of her children. We had a great discussion about the unique varieties around Gaillac. Her white wines were superb. Her daughter is about 9 or 10 years old and is already in training to be the 8th generation winemaker. She was kind enough to give us some ideas about places to visit going forward. So even though it was a maintenance day we had time to enjoy another touch of France.

April 15, 2018 Albi FR

The day started out with a visit to the cheese shop under the supervision of Patrick the campsite owner. He also had a French couple in tow who turned out to be from the Yonne department of Burgundy which is our honorary French home, as that is where François the RV is based. We ended up with about 1/3 of a kilo each of three Cantal cheeses, one is called Cantal, one was called Salers, and the last was a blue cheese from the area which one food critic labeled the best he had ever tasted. The Saler cheese is a variant of Cantal that is only produced in two months when a certain flower is in bloom in the region, as the flowers mixed with the grass makes the cows milk that much better, you have got to love the French! We will give you a report later if the flowers make a big difference.

Patrick leading us down the road to the cheese store.

After two days of cold and damp weather we decided to head south in search of sun and heat. We had originally picked out a target of a town that was about 130km as the crow flies. But when Ron punched it into the GPS, the route said it was over 400km’s. Ron cursed and figured he had punched in the coordinates wrong. But after some further study of the map it turned out that this was really a case of the proverbial you can’t get there from here.

This cow is a Cantal which is a breed unique to the area around Salers.

Ton likes Cows and this calf is the cutest she has ever seen, it almost looks like a sheep.

After some further study of maps, Ton proposed the town of Albi as a destination. It was south, the roads looked reasonable, and best of all it was the hometown of Toulose-Lautrec which is both of our favorite French Artist.

The bridge in the foreground was built around 1300 and is still used for traffic today.

The plan for the night was to stay in the Aire in Albi. The GPS led us close to the medieval old town down increasingly narrow roads, and only about 500 yards from the final destination we came to an arch that the road was going under, but the road under the arch was filled with construction equipment. After some studying of the map, and a little maneuvering in tight quarters we headed to our alternative route to the aire. About half way there we fell in behind a Dutch RV that appeared to be going to the same place. Again within about 500 meters of the aire we ran into some more construction and the Dutch pulled over and parked. Ron parked up behind them and knowing that almost all Dutch speak English he walked up and asked them about the aire. It turns out that the road to the aire is under construction and while you can barely make it there, it was full anyway. The husband said that they were thinking about parking for the night at a site we had passed on the way in, but the wife switched from English to Dutch and told him no way they were parking there. I don’t speak a word of Dutch but I didn’t need too to understand that conversation.

Ton and I decided to just leave François where he was and head into Albi to have a look around. Albi turned out to be a real Gem. This is why you do these trips without agendas, to find places like this. Our first stop was the Toulose-Lautrec museum. The museum has an incredible collection of his art, because apparently the Louvre turned down the collection when his parents offered it to them. The museum is housed in the Palais de la Berbie which is the old palace of the archbishop of Albi. The building is as impressive as the art collection.

An example of the art in the Toulose-Lautrec museum.

The exterior of the Toulose-Lautrec museum which is in the old palace of the archbishop.

Next door is the Cathedral of Albi, which is the largest brick church in the world. We went into the Cathedral and it was as impressive as the outside. We got a break as one half which usually costs 5 euro to get in was open in preparation for a concert so we got a free look at it.

A view of the ceiling of the cathedral in Albi.

April 19, 2018 Fitou FR

We are parked in an aire next to a hotel in Fitou France. Do not try to find it on a map unless you have a very detailed map of France, it is somewhere near Narbonne.

After a slow start to the day, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and had a nice conversation with our German neighbors, who were a little confused at first when we did not respond to their initial conversation starters in French. After they sorted out we were not French they effortlessly switched to English. We had a nice time talking to them and getting to meet their dog. They are German versions of snowbirds, spending about 6 months a year in Spain and Portugal.

We decided to head into the town of Rose to have the meal we missed yesterday. We had a fantastic 4 course lunch for €13.50. This was a huge meal including a glass of Sangria for an aperitif, a bowl of mussels for an appetizer, paella for her main dish, and a creme brulee for desert. She had a choice of wine or water and chose wine. Ron had Sangria, calamari for his appetizer, a dish similar to paella but with noodles instead of Rice, and flan, because he was driving he had water. We were wowed with the quantity and quality of the food, and enjoyed people watching while we ate.

The town of Rose, on the Costa Brava, the Costa Brava may require a longer visit in the future.

One correction, all of the fields we were identifying as mustard are actually canola fields, or as they call them here Rapeseed. The yellow fields are still really beautiful.

April 25, 2018 Chateau Neuf du Pape FR

The plan for today was to visit Roussillon which is another one of the most beautiful villages in France, but we also had to find a place to dump our tanks, add water, and we needed to get some propane. Depending on when we had accomplished all of those things we would decide on the next step for the day.

We were up bright and early, so we headed over to Roussillon and were amongst the first arrivals of the day. Rousillon is famous in France for it’s red earth. It is another pretty village and very upscale, in fact Bradjelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) had their French house here. It was once again nice and worth a visit, but frankly the most interesting thing was watching a truck driver maneuver a large delivery truck down a street with literally inches to spare on each side while shop keepers were pulling in awnings, and moving flower pots out of the way. French truck drivers really earn their living here on these narrow streets and roads.

The buildings in Rousillon all have this red tint to them from the surrounding earth.

We have been trying to visit an olive oil factory for about a week and thought we had found one on the way out of Rousillon. After Ron and the GPS had several arguments about the best way we finally arrived at an olive oil factory quite near to where we spent the night. It was one of our disappointments of the trip. The staff was not very helpful, and the promised tour did not exist, so after a short walk thru we were out to François and deciding on our next step.

During the drive we passed thru a nice canyon between Gordes and Orange.

Ron found a winery in the Chateauneuf du Pape area that was a French Passion site, and we decided to see if we could stay there. French Passion sites are provided with our rental, and are wineries and farms throughout France that let you stay on their property for “free” if you are a member. The catch is that you are highly encouraged to sample their product. In the case of our stay tonight for roughly the cost of a normal campground we purchased two very nice bottles of wine, and got to enjoy a beautiful warm evening on a very peaceful winery in Provence. It is worth every penny.

Some of the vineyard at Chateau Cabrieres. If you look carefully you will see the incredible amount of stones in the vineyards. This apparently is what makes Chateauneuf du Pape wines famous.

April 24, 2018 Gordes FR

Today we headed towards another one of the most beautiful villages in France. Gordes is considered a must see stop in Provence by most of the travel writers.

After an uneventful drive including a stop at a grocery store to replenish some critical items, and wine. We headed up to Gordes. As advertised it is quite striking, but has definitely been discovered by the rich and famous. A lot of the old farm houses have undergone renovation to make them appropriately comfortable for the well off. Ron was looking at a listing of homes for sale, and they were running 1.2 to 2.5 million Euro. As we walked into town we passed a beautiful 5 star hotel that we later checked and found out rooms could be had for around $500 per night.

The view of Gordes as you approach on the main road. The white umbrellas are the $500 per night hotel

Having said that I can see why people are willing to spend that kind of money for Gordes. It really is striking and the town has an old world feel that is pretty magical. We arrived just as the weekly market was packing up for the day. We really enjoyed poking around town, and the views were worth the walk. At the end we ducked into a coffee shop for a beer and a coffee and sat on a balcony about 100 feet above a gorge. We were really enjoying it until a couple of groups sat down next to us and about 5 people simultaneously lit up cigarettes. There is a lot I like about the culture here and one of them is the abundance of outside dining, unfortunately smoking is still allowed in the outside dining, so Ton and I normally find ourselves inside to avoid the smoke.

We walked back to François for the night and enjoyed our free aire. Tonight our neighbors are mostly British, and we had a nice conversation with a couple from Birmingham.

Ton really liked these stone fences with the tops of stones set on end. This one was near our aire for the night.

April 23, 2018 Saintes Marie de la Mer FR

Today was about Flamingos. After some muddling about in the morning and doing some laundry we were off to the Camargue which is a large delta where the Rhone River empties into the Mediterranean. It is a famous bird sanctuary.

There is an ornithological park as you drive into the delta, and we decided to stop and take a look not knowing what to expect. It turned out to be a great walk where we were surrounded by many different kinds of birds but the star attraction for the average Joe (or Pierre) were the flamingo’s. There were hundreds of them on display. Ton wore her battery out shooting pictures of them.

The bodies are slightly pink, but the wings are quite striking as this bird is showing. These are Rose Flamingo’s native to Africa, and Europe

It was a really nice walk and in addition to the flamingos there were a lot of Heron’s. In fact the serious photographers with the long lenses were ignoring the flamingos and shooting the Herons. There must of been something significant over there, but we did not figure it out.

All of the serious photographers were concentrated around this area, we are not sure what the attraction was.

After a couple of hours of exploring and pictures we headed down the road to the sea to visit the town of Saintes Maries de la Mer. Driving in it did not make much of an impression on us. But when we pulled into the aire we figured there must be something to the town as there were easily 70 or 80 RV’s in the aire. We took a walk and it was a seaside resort, not a particularly fancy one, but pleasant. We decided that we would have dinner tonight to compare French seafood with Spanish. Spanish won.

The Mediterranean is apparently warm even in April, as the water was full of kids playing.

April 22, 2018 St. Remy de Provence FR

We decided to shift a little south to another part of Provence. The town of St. Remy de Provence was highly recommended to us, so here we are.

St. Remy turned out to be a very nice but touristy town. But it did have an interesting walk themed around Van Gogh. He spent a year here in a sanitarium trying to clear his head, and did some really nice painting. The walk had you follow a road out of town to the sanitarium where he stayed and periodically showed you sites where Van Gogh had painted pictures. It was quite fascinating and at several of the stops you could really see quite clearly the setting he used.

We think this is the setting for this picture.

At the end of the road was the sanitarium where he stayed, and it is still functioning as a sanitarium today having been founded around 1200 AD. The room where Van Gogh stayed is on display, as are the gardens that inspired some of his paintings. We really enjoyed ourselves and found the place fascinating.

On the way back we stopped at the ruins of the Roman settlement of Glanum. We poked around a bit and saw the Arch of Triumph, but decided to pass on visiting the Roman ruins.

Part of the Roman Arc, the Arc itself is a slightly more worn version of the one in Orange yesterday

As we passed thru town we decided that this one of the more upscale towns we had been in, and it reflected in the price of the restaurants. So we decided to postpone our Provence meal, and headed back to François for a very late lunch, and a siesta.

April 21, 2018 Orange FR

We had an adventure today that we did not at all anticipate. Our plan was to shift about 40km’s from Pont du Gard to Orange to visit the Roman Theater in Orange. Enroute we were going to stop at a Carrefour to get some gas. Actually sounds like one of our easier days from a travel point of view.

We were rolling along on nice wide roads when we came into a little village. The roads were kind of narrow but we were used to the roads narrowing going into little villages. Then Ron missed a turn, the GPS reprogrammed and the roads were narrow but one way so Ron decided to follow the reprogram, and then we came to a point where the GPS wanted us to turn down a walkway…big problem. Ron parked and since we had come down a series of one way roads we could just not turn around and go back the way we had come. Ron on foot followed the one way road thru the village for 2 or 3 hundred yards and it looked doable, so back to François. Ton backed Ron down the road for the 20 or so yards to the turn, and just as we were getting ready to head down the road a fellow jumped in front of us and in rapid fire French told us that the GPS was wrong and we could not go that way. There was only one way out and he would show us, or words to that effect. Just as he was turning us around in very tight quarters another car came up behind us, and we managed to let him squeeze past, but rather than carry on he got out and began to help us turn around and get pointed in the right direction also. Ron was responding to commands of droit (right) and gauche(left), and a lot of vezzies (afterwards Ton and I decided it was the French version of come on, or keep going), we got turned around passing within inches of several parked cars, and liberally using the sidewalk (all two feet of it) when necessary. We got pointed at an opening that was maybe four inches wider than Françoise with both mirrors folded in. The two guys gave me a resounding Voila!, and a thumbs up. We squeezed down the alley, and popped back out on our nice wide main road. We shouted some Merci beaucoups (thanks much) at them as they were walking away, but without them our day may have been really a mess, so to the two anonymous French gentlemen, merci beaucoup.

This is about the width of the road we were squeezing François down.

We arrived at Orange 20 minutes later, and visited Carrefour which is turning into Ton’s favorite grocery in France. Stocked up with food for a few days we were going to get fuel, but it looked like a tight fit and Ron was a little skittish so fuel is tomorrow.

We finally made it to the Roman theater in Orange and it was really interesting and beautiful. It was built in the 1st century AD, and is incredibly huge for that era. The grounds will hold 10,000 people, and the theater wall behind behind the stage is over 100 feet tall. The scale is hard to describe and Ton had a tough time capturing it on film. We followed the audio guide thru out and it was fascinating. The theater is still used today for concerts and performances. The facade of the theater is also grandiose but it is undergoing renovation and we did not get a look at it.

The wall at the back of the stage of the Theater in Orange, it was one of the few walls that have survived from ancient Roman theaters

The seating area of the theater. It holds over 10,000.

After the theater we passed by the ancient Arc de Triumph of Orange. This Arch was built by veterans of Cesar Augustus legions who settled in Orange after they completed their service. It is to honor veterans of the Gallic Wars around 24 AD. We had actually passed it as it is in a roundabout on the main road in town on the way to the campground. But this time we were on foot and had time to take some pictures.

The Arc de Triomphe of Orange, built by the legionaries of Cesar Augustus.

April 20, 2018 Pont du Gard

Today we needed to get serious about going east. Our plan for the past few days has been to head to Provence, but we never quite got ourselves going that way. So today we abandoned our backcountry roads and jumped on the motorway for almost 200km’s to get to Pont du Gard.

This site is one of the most famous Roman sites in France, and features on a lot of travel ads for France. We decided that this would be a good place to begin our visit of Provence and southeast France.

We arrived in the early afternoon and it was unseasonably warm with temperatures in the high 70’s low 80’s. After a nice lunch Ton declared it was siesta time and Pont du Gard could wait.

Around 4 pm we wandered down to see the site. Pont du Gard is a three tier aqueduct that was built around 19BC. It stands over 160ft high above the river Gardon and was used to supply the city of Nimes. The aqueduct that the Pont du Gard supported was over 30 miles long.

It is quite an impressive structure and very beautiful. The French are certainly much more laid back about managing historical things like this, and the atmosphere was more relaxed and informal than we are used to. People were swimming under the bridge picnicking on the grounds around it, there was not a policeman or ranger in site to keep order.

We walked back in the evening to get some more shots as Ton thought the sunset would be pretty there. She was right!

November 14, 2019 Nice FR

We have a friend who arrived in Paris a few days ago. Ton and her have been keeping in touch and sharing some photos. We thought they were going on to Savona from Paris, but last night she sent Ton a message saying they were going to Mice today. Ton showed me the message and said do you think she means Nice? A short phone call confirmed that she was heading our way and would arrive on a train about 1:15. So our plans for today were set with a happy meeting of friends.

In the morning we took care of our last laundry for the trip, anything that gets dirty from this point is going home with us. The weather was threatening all day but the rain held off in the morning. As we were locking up François to head to the rail station a French couple walked up and hit me with a long and complex blast of French. When he took a breath I told him that I was very sorry but I do not speak French. They switched to English and we had a nice conversation about traveling both here and in the US.

We arrived at the train station a few minutes before the train from Paris arrived and were able to meet our friends at the platform. It was a nice surprise for them as our friend from Portland Boo had not told the other two couples she was traveling with that we were in Nice. After saying hello to Moo, Nit, Jeap and Dit we headed off to their hotels.

After they checked in we headed off to the promenade and old town for a bit of sight seeing and catching up. They are on an extensive trip that started in Paris, they are heading on to Italy to catch a trans-Atlantic cruise to Brazil, after they arrive they are going to linger in South America for a couple of weeks. Ton and I are a little jealous.

Ton and one of her very best friends from Oregon Boo.

Walking along the promenade and the old town of Nice was fun as we exchanged travel stories. The promenade was empty as while it was not raining yet the wind was blowing hard and it was cold. Despite this everyone was having a good time. Ton and Boo were having a great time talking as they walked arm in arm thru town. I think it was good for Ton to have a friend to talk to instead of me and in Thai instead of English.

After a few hours we realized that we had left the key to the gate for the campground in François. The campground we are staying in is gated and they close the gate at 7pm, without the key we would not have access, so we left a little earlier than we wanted to, but this turned out to be a good thing.

As we were walking to the train station it started to rain. The weather report today was pretty ominous actually with high winds and heavy rain called for. It turns out while the wind and rain was delayed when it hit, it hit with a vengeance. When we got off the train in Villeneuve we were hit with a gust of wind of 20 plus miles per hour and heavy sideways rain, umbrellas were collapsing and people were actually staggering as they stepped off the train. The walk back to François was in a ferocious rain and wind storm, with flashes of lightning to add to the fun. By the time we arrived at François we were soaked to the skin, and now the bathroom is full of wet clothes.

November 13 2019 Nice FR

Last night we were discussing what to do today, and as we often do when planning things we consulted the weather channel app. It told us today was the last sunny day we should expect on this trip. So we had to make a decision, we are positioned equidistant between Nice and Cannes so we had to decide which town would we spend our last sunny and relatively warm day on. As with all of these type of decisions I left it up to Ton and went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning she said Nice, and gave me an agenda.

We started off with our mile walk to the train station thru the massive condo’s. This morning we discussed again the architectural merits of the buildings, and we both admitted that the buildings had grown on us. Ton said she looked at her pictures last night and began to see some of the subtleties of the buildings that are hidden by their sheer size. While we will not be purchasing a condo there anytime soon we can see ourselves living there if the opportunity arose.

The condos that have grown on both of us as we spend more time around them.

When we arrived at the train station we found a representative of SNCF (the French National Train Company) posting a notice on the still broken ticket machine. He said that the construction near the station had cut the power to the machine, and to his office so he could not issue tickets. We asked him what we should do, and he said just get on the train and if the conductor comes by tell him you got on here and they will sell you a ticket on the train. I said what if we do not see a conductor, he said the ride is on us! On the platform I told Ton that we should take a picture of the notice on the ticket machine just to be safe, a lady on the platform overheard us and asked in accented English what was going on. We told her and she said she would go with Ton to take a picture also. When she returned I noticed she had a Johns Hopkins University sweater and it turns out she works in their Washington DC office and was also a visitor to France for a couple of weeks. She was taking advantage of the good weather to head to Monaco for the day.

Ton’s itinerary for the day consisted of visiting the Central Market, an ice cream shop, and another walk on the Promenade Anglais. The first stop was the central market where we poked thru the vegetable stalls and souvenir stands. Our only purchase was a couple of nice local themed shopping bags. We were drawn to a stall selling a dish called Socca which looked a lot like a dish we had eaten in Lucca that we really enjoyed and never learned the name of.

We were tempted but we had ice cream to eat so we set off to the ice cream shop. We saw one branch of the shop and it was closed, but I told Ton not to worry as this was not the main one, and the main one would surely be open. When we arrived there were several workers working cleaning the chairs and tables but they were not open. I asked one of the workers when they were opening and he cheerfully replied “next year”! It turns out they were cleaning up before their winter break. So Ton’s luck with restaurants continues.

The special bicycle used to deliver Socca to the market. The cover goes over the pan of Socca as it is driven from the restaurant to the market.

We were unfazed because this put Socca back on the table. We found the restaurant that produces the Socca for the market on a back ally in the old town. Inside there were three generations of the family working. The father was ferrying giant platters of Socca on a specially made bicycle to the market, the son was doing the cooking and serving in the restaurant, and the grandson (who Ton spent the meal wondering why he was not in school) served the customers outside. Socca is a simple dish made of chickpea flour, water and olive oil poured onto a large shallow pan and cooked in a wood fired oven. Like the dish we had in Lucca earlier (called Cecina in Tuscany) it was absolutely delicious and cheap.

We spent the rest fo the day wandering the old town and along the Promenaid Anglais. Ton really loved the Promenade and kept saying lets go just a bit further and we will stop. At one point I sat in a chair and she went down on the beach and spent half an hour happily taking pictures in all directions.

The beach and Promenade Anglais in Nice.

After we had walked about 10 miles we decided to head back to François and take it easy for the rest of the day. It was a simple day but the kind of day that makes great memories.

An interesting statue in front of one of the grand hotels along the Promenade Anglais.

November 12 2019 Nice FR

We finally had to reluctantly leave Italy behind. We will talk more about our impressions of Italy later, but we both found it wonderful. We had read a lot of negatives about Italy, and were prepared for a tougher experience than we had had in other places. It turns out Italy was pretty easy to move around in and we did not experience anything that would cause us to discourage anyone from traveling there. On the contrary we found Italy to be a wonderful country and we encourage anyone who is thinking of Europe to make sure they include Italy in the itinerary.

We woke up to sunshine, so we made an early start towards Nice. The drive over was uneventful but Nice made a bad first impression on us. First the year round campground that we planned to stay at after much research to make sure it was open, was closed. One warning if you are traveling in November call ahead and confirm that places that say they are open are really open. Luckily because of our research we had a second choice in mind and it was only 10 minutes away, and most importantly they are open year round as advertised. The next negative to our first impression of Nice was at the train station. We walked about a mile to the nearest station, which is a minor station. In Italy every station no matter how small had someone working there, this one had a nice lobby with an information window, but it was closed with a sign saying they were open random hours during the week. No problem we are serious travelers and can get tickets from any automatic machine. The one thing that will stop intrepid travelers like us is if the only ticket machine at the station is malfunctioning (actually completely dead, powered down). So now we were stuck, our first temptation was to just get on the the next train and if we did run into a conductor tell him our tale, but not really speaking French this seemed risky and could end up costing us an awful lot. At this point Ton saw an advertisement for an App the train company in France has where you can buy tickets on line so we tried that. Surprisingly it worked, and armed with our app bought ticket on our phone we boarded the next train to Nice.

As a quick editorial, one of the things we liked about Italy was the lack of automation, you bought tickets from people, who were able to answer questions, point you in the right direction and deliver a smile. Maybe that is why even though things are rougher around the edges in Italy we enjoyed it so much, because we were dealing with people and not machines and apps.

The beach in Nice is this pea gravel and not sand, but it does not detract from people heading to the beach. The gravel makes a really interesting sound as the waves recede.

Nice is much larger than I envisioned, somehow I had an overgrown Monaco in mind and not the big metropolis we found ourselves in. But it is beautiful and the waterfront esplanade is one of the best we have ever seen anywhere in the world. It is truly magnificent and I can see how you could fall in love with a city that goes out of its way to embrace the sea in the way Nice does.

The extensive waterfront esplanade of Nice, the best one we have seen in our travels.

We ended up walking more today than any day on this trip, just about exactly 10 miles. We climbed up to an overlook on one side of the city and waterfront and were rewarded with some fantastic views of both Nice, and the Alps in the background.

City view of Nice, with Italian style Duomo in the center.

When we arrived back to our broken home train station of Villeneuve-Loubet I told Ton I thought there was a better route home. When we were walking to the train station in the morning we had spotted three very large and striking condominium towers. We both find them striking but neither one of us will own up to liking them. We walked thru them on the way back and found a giant marina behind them, so they are catering to a very upscale clientele. It was sunset and the sky and the views over the Mediterranean were eye catching. From one beach we were able to look at the sea, and turn and look at the Alps with the pink light of the setting sun highlighting the snow caps. It was worth the diversion for a great sunset.

The striking condos and upper middle class yachts.

October 9 2019 Toulon FR

There really is not much to talk about today. We needed to be in Toulon at 3:30 pm to catch our ferry to Sicily, so there was no time for exploring. We spent the morning poking around the campground taking care of cleaning, dumping tanks, and filling tanks. At 11:30 we took off for Toulon looking to fill François up, and maybe do a quick shop for some of our favorite French things before we depart for Italy.

Everything was going to plan until it was time to get fuel. Periodically our American credit cards are refused at French fuel dispensers. There is no rhyme or reason about when it will happen, but it happened today. In the past we were able to overcome this by using a debit card we travel with for emergencies, but today they even refused that. So we were stuck on a tour of fuel stations of Toulon until we found one with a human being who could process our credit cards. Five stations later we finally found a station with an attendant and filled up François.

François and Ron waiting to board the ferry to Sicily.

Fuel taken care of we headed over to the ferry. It is the largest ferry we have been on and is almost like a mini-cruise ship, complete with bars and multiple restaurants. So after settling in we went up top to watch our departure from Toulon on the way to Trapani Italy.

October 8, 2019 St. Tropez

Today François stayed in place while we visited the neighboring city of St. Tropez. It was a short bus ride to St. Tropez, but it was a change from middle class to uber rich. Port Grimaud is a pretty city on the same bay as St. Tropez, but while prosperous it features 40 foot boats and nice condos. 5km’s away St.Tropez features 100 foot plus yachts, and helicopters scurrying over carrying their owners to their estates.

We can see why St. Tropez is such a hit with the jet setters as the climate and the setting is spectacular. The water in the bay is crystal clear and generally calm. It became one of the “it” places in the world largely because of Brigitte Bardot in the 1960’s. Several of her famous movies were filmed in this area and put St. Tropez on the map. It is a pretty little town with lots of restaurants and high end shops lining the waterfront. There are a lot of people walking up and down the harbor gawking at the yachts. The actual uber rich were out of site or blending in with the crowds.

The harbor in St. Tropez with some of the smaller yachts.

Ton had two things she wanted to accomplish; she wanted to visit the road named after one of her favorite authors Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, and to take a picture of a statue of Brigitte that is in town. After we walked thru the town we headed out to find the road dedicated to Antoine. He was Ton’s favorite author when she was studying French. The Little Prince is his most famous work. Antoine was a true renaissance man as in addition to being a great writer he was also an early aviator and explorer. It is located next to the old fort on the hill above town and had a great view of the town and the bay. We both find that we find small connections to our youth by exploring these towns and it adds some fun to the trip.

The signpost for Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, with a holder for his fans to leave flowers.

After our walk around town and up to the fort we were hungry. Ton had two restaurants on her list, but one had gone out of business, and the other was closed, and as we were running out of time for lunch we popped into a Thai restaurant. This was our first Thai restaurant in Europe and we left a little disappointed.

The final stop for the day was to be a statue to Brigitte Bardot, but after walking the streets looking for it (including seeing several French restaurants that only added to our disappointment with lunch), we came to the statue of Brigitte and had a good laugh. When we first got off the bus we walked thru a little square with a cute statue of a women nude, and Ton took several pictures of it as she really liked it. It turns out this was the famous Brigitte statue that we were looking for. Brigitte while long retired still lives in St. Tropez.

The statue of Brigitte Bardot who helped put St. Tropez on the map.

Since we were next to the bus station we headed back to the campground for a light dinner and a walk along the beach at sunset.