Friday 29 August 2014

Fosse Bellay & La Suze-Sur-Sarthe

Friday 29th August.

We are parked up tonight in the pretty town of La Suze-Sur-Sarthe right next to the river watching the sun go down behind the church on the opposite bank. We arrived here early this afternoon after spending a couple of days in Fosse Bellay, just south of Saumur with our friends Jenny and Chris. We met Jenny and Chris,who are fellow motorhomers, twice in Spain, late last year and early this year and we've kept in touch. It was great to see them and swop tales of where we had both been recently. They were great hosts, showing us around the area, feeding us and providing endlessly hot showers which is a real luxury for us. They have a lovely house which they have been renovating for the last fourteen years. Not much more to do now eh, J&C ?

So after a brief stop with a proper roof over our heads we are heading back to the UK after a tour of just over four months. It's been a fantastic trip for us and we have just a few more places to see before we finally dip under the tunnel next Wednesday or Thursday. Whilst we've had a great time it'll be good to see friends and family again, get a decent haircut and sup a decent pint of beer.

Pat.

 

Wednesday 27 August 2014

Nieuil L'Espoir and Neuville de Poitou

Tuesday 26th August.

We are parked up this afternoon in (another) vineyard just outside the village of Neuville de Poitou and about 10 kilometres north of Poitiers. It's a lovely setting, part of the France Passion scheme and there is an option for an electric hook-up too. We drove here today from Nieuill L'Espoir a pretty village about half an hour south of here, where we stopped last night, making a couple of detours on the way to try and source some cupboard hinges for the motorhome; unsuccessfully I might add. The existing hinges locked up several weeks ago and I've been trying to find replacements ever since, I know I can get them in the UK and it looks like I'll have to wait till we get home in a few weeks before I repair the cupboard. Repair and maintenance on a motorhome is much the same as that on a house, there are always little jobs to do to keep things running smoothly and keep the elements out.

There's not a great deal of news as we make our way slowly homeward. The French countryside is as beautiful as ever, the roads are as empty of traffic as ever and the quality of baguette & croissant is as hit and miss as ever. I'm keeping the blog going though just so our friends and family know where we are and hoping that some of them are still reading it. I guess the difference between a blog and a diary is that the latter is a personal thing which you don't necessarily want other folk to read and the former is the opposite; you want everybody to read it, be hanging on your every word and waiting breathlessly for the next installment. Unfortunately it's becoming harder and harder to create a cliffhanger experience for you. For the first three months of this trip we were in uncharted territory, so to speak, we were travelling in countries we hadn't been to before and it was all new to us in so many ways. It really was an adventure for us from when we left Calais and all the way through Greece and Italy. We had been to some of the Islands before, Crete, Corfu, Kefalonia but never to the mainland. It was the best part of this trip. We had so much fun, met so many lovely people and saw such a breathtakingly beautiful country that we will definitely return in the not too distant future. Whilst France is the most "motorhome friendly" country we have been to, Greece is the most "people friendly" country by far. And we only scratched the surface in the couple of months we were there.

I think what I'm trying to say is that this leg of our return trip to the UK was never going to have the thrills and spills and excitement of the outward journey. France is a beautiful country, we've both been here many, many times before. My sister lived here for over fourty years, our eldest daughter has been here now for twenty five years and despite our poor language skills we feel comfortable here. And yet, France is never going to knock our socks off, which is not to say the countryside cannot be stunning, Greece did though. France is like the rest of Western Europe, it's tidy and organised and regulated and, in a way, predictable. Greece is pretty much none of those things and that's one of the many things we loved about it. Whilst in France one gets a Gallic shrug, in Greece one gets an arm around the shoulder.

So, if the entertainment value here has dropped a little bit for you I apologise but can reassure you we are still having a fabulous time. As I write this we are waiting for the vineyard reception to open and then it'll be another tasting and a few more bottles in the van!

Pat.

 

Sunday 24 August 2014

Aubusson and Bourganeuf

Saturday 23rd August.

We are parked up tonight in Bourganeuf in the Limousin region, thirty or so kilometres east of Limoges. We stopped here on the way to Saumur because we read that there is a medieval centre to the village. This is true but does not tell the whole story. Far be it from me to quibble over these things but a couple of restored towers, a church and a statue do not, in all honesty, make a medieval centre. There is a "tour" at 11am every Wednesday in July and August. Unfortunately we won't be here then.

We spent yesterday and this morning in Aubusson which for five hundred years from the C14th was a centre for tapestry weaving and during it's heyday employed thousands of folk weaving and painting the originals from which the tapestries were weaved. I'm not sure how we ended up in a private museum, paying five euros each for a tour, wherein the English guide explained in poorly accented French to the French visitors the process and details of tapestry production in great detail and then, occasionally, vaguely, waved her hands around the room and muttered a few words in English to us. Never mind, I did discover that there are only two places left making tapestries in the town today; it takes approximately three months to weave a square metre and that's why it's mostly Sheiks buying them nowadays. Aubusson is a pretty town though and well worth half a day of anyone's time.

Tomorrow we set off for Bellac, a small town north of Limoges. We stopped there last year after our first trip abroad in the Motorhome and it's a lovely little town with a Roman bridge over the river. It was December then and freezing cold, we hope it will be a little warmer tomorrow. It is getting cooler now as we travel further north and our tans are fading fast although I refuse to swop my shorts for jeans until it's absolutely necessary.

Sunday 24th August.

We are parked up this afternoon in the village of Bellac. We are adjacent to the spaces reserved for Motorhomes which are currently occupied by cars which is a little bit irritating but, hey ho, we are parked up and when the picnickers have gone we can move over I guess.

We've now been for lunch in a bistro next to the river with views up to the town and very nice it was. We came back for a quick siesta and then back to watch a couple of guys with guitars playing Beatles songs and other '60s tunes. I have to say they were pretty good and they did a two hour set and the river with the village towering above made a great backdrop. The bistro accommodates maybe a hundred people on the outside terrace and it was packed. Not just packed but full of English people, residents and tourists. The bistro is owned by an English guy and is for sale for €196,000. I think that's a bit steep as you're only going to make any money for, maybe, six months of the year but it's a lovely setting and if I was a few years younger I'd be tempted.

Whilst we meet some lovely folk as we travel around we also meet some, what you might call, odd folk. Today, as we had lunch a strange couple of guys arrived, one in a kilt with a London accent and on crutches and his pal who looked the worse for wear on arrival. While we enjoyed our lunch they fired down about four pints each and when we returned after an hour or so they were still going strong but wobbling a bit. They were then joined by their wives/partners who looked hammered when they arrived and who then proceeded to quaff two bottles of Rose and then the arguments started as to who was driving the car! Eventually the least pissed of the two women staggered up to the car, (13 plate Range Rover) drove to the top of the hill, came back down and then reversed into the C12th bridge to the amusement of the locals and the horror of the rest of us.

We then got into conversation with a Swedish guy who lives in the town and whose partner is from Liverpool. He seemed quite pleasant at first but then as the conversation progressed we realised we had a moaning racist in our midst. Apparently every crime that occurred in the town was committed by immigrants and why should we park for free with somewhere to empty our waste and get free water and not pay? I gently explained that it didn't cost a great deal for the local commune to provide three parking spaces, a tap and a drain but he wasn't having it. I mentioned that we had bought a roast chicken from the butchers, a meal for two and a few beers whilst watching the band and so had probably dropped the best part of a hundred euros into the local economy? Still he went on and on moaning until, eventually, we bade him farewell.

The twelfth century bridge in Bellac.

 

The three camping car parking spaces in Bellac (zoom in on the sign).

 

Ex pats and locals enjoying the band.

Pat

 

Thursday 21 August 2014

Farewell to Aumessas

Thursday 21st August.

We are parked up tonight in the village of Perignat-les-Sarlieve a few miles south of Clermont-Ferrand and just off the A75 motorway.

This morning we left Aumessas after a wonderful week with our eldest daughter and her family and friends in this delightful village. We are always surprised when we visit that a village with a permanent population of about two hundred folk has so much going on in the summer months. In addition to the events mentioned in the previous blog in the last few days there has been an evening of traditional French dancing with a live band (think Scottish/Irish dancing but with more complicated steps!) a Balkan Folk evening and two nights ago in the massive garden of a resident on the edge of the village we had a mini music festival lasting from 8pm until 6am the following day. In between I managed a walk in the mountains with my son-in-law and grandson and a walk with Phil up to the waterfalls just outside the village. Finally, on our last night there was the weekly Wednesday night Boules tournament which has been held in front of the bar/railway station for anything between one hundred and two hundred and fifty years, depending on who you are talking to!

So a fun filled week for us and never a quiet moment. I think we may find our way back there next summer. Our plan now is to slowly make our way to Saumur over the next week to visit Chris and Jenny, motorhomers we met in Spain earlier this year and who have a house there in the Loire Valley

The view across the Cevennes looking down on Aumessas.

 

Aumessas from the viaduct.

The waterfalls.

The Wednesday night Boules tournament

Pat

 

Saturday 16 August 2014

Avignon (almost), Anduze and Aumessas.

Wednesday 14th August.

We are parked up tonight in Anduze next to the steam railway line and it's pretty full of Motorhomes, at least 30 parked up tonight. We arrived here this afternoon after an uneventful drive apart from some madness in Uzes, a town that became rich on silk, linen and liqorice however it's main claim to fame now is the Haribo museum. It took us the best part of an hour to negotiate the town and it's roundabouts as a result of the number of visitors to the museum. As we entered the town and saw the signs we thought we might pop in and buy a box or two but when we saw the number of vehicles in the car park and the queues to get in to the museum we didn't bother. It was absolute madness with cars parked in every available space on and off the roads and the sections between the many roundabouts just gridlocked. Eventually we managed to clear the town and arrived here to find the car park rammed and just managed to find a place to park. Now the trains have stopped running for the day it's just us motorhomers left and it's pretty peaceful.

Our plan yesterday was to take the train from Gadagne to Avignon and do some sightseeing. We walked along the country lanes from the vineyard to the station to catch the 10.15 train and were surprised to find we were alone on the platform. By 10.30 we suspected there may be a problem and then an engineer from SNCF arrived and bade us a cheery bonjour. I asked him when we could expect the train and he said we couldn't, they were working on the line and there would be no more trains until late afternoon, if we wanted to go to Avignon we would have to walk to town and get a bus. So we walked to town to find we had missed the bus by ten minutes and the next one was not for another two hours. We wandered about Gadagne for half an hour or so before we realised that this was not so much a one horse town but a town sans cheval and set off back to the vineyard. A quick search on the SNCF site showed there was a train the next day at 8.55am so we set the alarm and looked forward to a day's sightseeing today. Last night or early this morning it started raining. It woke me and I closed all the overhead roof lights, went back to sleep but this morning when the alarm went off it was still hammering down. It was a disappointment and it seems like we weren't destined to see Avignon. We packed everything off and set off here and the satnav took us through the former papal seat but it was still raining as we came through so we didn't stop. We'll save Avignon and it's bridge for another day.

Tomorrow we set off for Aumessas at the bottom of the Cevennes to visit our daughter and her family. We're really looking forward to it especially as they have an African Fete in the village this weekend. We've been to Aumessas a few times before and it's a peaceful place to stay and we have happy memories of earlier visits. Phil and Catherine, our daughter, celebrated a joint 100 years birthday there a couple of years ago (I won't divulge how the numbers added up). There are lots of beautiful walks around the village, the locals let me play boules with them although they mostly groan when they have to partner me and Patrick, who runs the bar, always gives us a warm welcome. We're looking forward to it.

Saturday 16th August.

We are parked up today in the village of Aumessas. Well, the van is parked up and we are enjoying some luxury staying with our daughter and family in four walls with a roof over our heads, it's all a bit strange. We arrived on Thursday as the village was preparing for the Fete Africane which is held most years over the bank holiday weekend. The village has a strong long lasting relationship with a village in Burkina Faso and over the years many different artists and musicians have visited here. In return folk from here in France have helped build schools and wells in Burkino Faso. Yesterday the Fete was a great success, plenty of stalls selling African crafts, a Batik workshop and a great group of African drummers and dancers. The bar also did good trade. Today was a "recovery day" although our granddaughter is taking part in a tableau and a musical extravaganza today , representing the village of Aumessas in 1910. Not the kind of thing you see at the average English fete I have to say but good entertainment none the less. After applauding the village folk who acted, sang and danced after many rehearsals we retired to the bar just in time for Patrick to wink at me and change the TV channel to the Arsenal - Crystal Palace match. A nice start to the new season with three points.

This evening the entertainment comprises of a Celtic/Cajun crossover band and fire eaters!! It's all go in these tiny French villages.

The African drummers.

 

The 1910 re-enactment.

Pat.

 

 

Monday 11 August 2014

Villeneuve, a sunset over the vineyard, Banon and yet another vineyard.

Friday 8th August.

We are parked up tonight in a Camping Car Aire in the very sleepy town of Villeneuve on the edge of the Parc Regional du Luberon. We bade farewell to Greoux-les-Bains this morning and after a stop at Super U for some shopping arrived here. It's a great little spot we are parked up on amongst a mix of pine and olive trees and yet it's one of those towns that one wonders why one came here. A bank, a couple of bars, a boulangerie and a pizza shop. That's it. Oh yes, a clock tower built in the mid nineteenth century which dominates the town.

We wandered around the town this evening, which didn't take long, and ended up in a little bar with a terrace overlooking the valley and over to the hills in the distance. The other customers comprised of a couple of English families, slightly paunchy pasty faced blokes with blonde wives who were struggling to control kids called Hugo, Archie, Domique, Olly and Luke. We know the kids names as their parents were constantly screaming at them as the kids threw their pizzas around the table and behaved just as you would expect kids with those names to behave. Sorry, but I can't help having a dig at the Chelsea set and their badly behaved kids

Tomorrow we are setting off to explore more of the Luberon, we have plenty of options and we are no hurry to rush away from this area.

Saturday 9th August.

We are parked up this evening in a vineyard in Bonnieux near Apt in the foothills of Montagne du Luberon. Whilst it's free to stay in the vineyard as part of the France Passion scheme it's accepted that you will taste the wines produced by the vineyard, in this case Chateau Les Eydins. So after we got ourselves parked up and settled down we wandered over to the cave where a very pleasant elderly lady gave is a taste of the wines produced there. Now, it would be a harder man than me who would then say thank you very much and return to his motorhome empty handed. We could probably stay on campsites for less but, then again, we wouldn't have a motorhome full of wine would we? On all the vineyards we have stopped at here, in Burgundy and in Bordeaux there are always hunting dogs wandering around and today was no exception. There was a kind of cross bred bloodhound with big feet, a dopey expression and a tennis ball in its mouth. I got fed up with throwing the ball before the dog did but I'd made a friend as Phil found out when she fell over the dog this morning which was lying under the van step.

Before arriving at the vineyard we stopped in Apt, which is the capital of the Luberon and which according to the guide book doesn't have much going for it other than it's Saturday market. We thought that a little unfair, the market was in the throes of closing down when we arrived but there were still plenty of stalls selling all manner of food, clothes and other tempting delights, but we thought the town itself quite pretty too.

We shared the vineyard camping with a Belgian couple and a British motorhome, the first one we've seen for ages. I went over to say hello and have a chat but the door was firmly closed and I could hear the tv so I left them to it. I wonder of they missed the sunset over the vines, we didn't and it was as beautiful as ever.

Sunday 10th August.

We are parked up tonight in the car park in the little town of Banon next to Plateau de Vaucluse. We only intended to stop here for a leg stretch and a sandwich but we were enticed by the Sunday bric-a-brac market and by the many restaurants full of families enjoying Sunday lunch. The specials in all the restaurants was lamb in various forms which neither of us fancied so we stopped in a wine bar and bistro for a drink while we decided where to lunch. When I say wine bar it really does the place a disservice, the owner sat us down at the bar with a glass of white and a glass of rose which he insisted we first taste to make sure it was to our liking and when I asked if he had any food exclaimed that he had some incredible food. We looked around and sure enough people were tucking in all around us. In-between serving the other customers he explained that he would serve us a tomatoe paste on whole meal toast, a pea houmus, two kinds of ham, one dried and one with truffles, a green salad, two cheese, an olive spiked muffin, and a small pot of local grains flavoured with cumin, carrot, coriander and something else I forget. It doesn't sound like much but it was light and delicious and he recommended a different rose wine to accompany the food. A mini chocolate fondant, a cheesecake topped with apricot, a raspberry fool and a couple of coffees completed the feast. The small dining area was almost squeezed in between boxes and boxes of wine and floor to ceiling shelves displaying wines from all the regions of France but especially the local vineyards. The wines ranged in price, obviously, but he only charged an extra €5 for serving them to diners, very reasonable. Almost everybody who enjoyed lunch there bought wine to take away as well. Not just the odd bottle but cases. Additionally folk were calling in to buy wine who weren't eating, again it was at least a half dozen bottles purchased at a time. There were maybe thirty or so people eating and people popping in and out for a drink all the time and there was just the owner, his wife and a lass helping in the kitchen. They never missed a beat and had time to chat with everybody, even us! They loved the fact we were in a motorhome and said they were taking a week off in September and were hiring a motorhome for themselves and their two young children to tour parts of France. We enjoyed our aperitif wines so much that we had to buy a bottle of each for the motorhome which is beginning to resemble Oddbins-on-wheels.

The Bistro.

And our lunch.

Obviously driving was out of the question after our lunch so we will push on tomorrow to Sault at the foot of Mont Ventoux. There's a scenic route that takes you to the summit at nearly two thousand metres but whether I can stand twenty kilometres of switchbacks is another matter. We'll see tomorrow.

Monday 11th August.

We are parked up this evening in a vineyard in Chateauneuf de Gadagne, another wine producer participating in the France Passion scheme. We are a stones throw from the cave and overlooking the vines with their dark red grapes. We are not far from the Chateauneuf du Pape region but here the wine is all CĂ´tes du Rhone. Yes, we tasted some on arrival and yes we bought some, it would be rude not too! We are also just five hundred metres from a railway station that will take us into Avignon in fifteen minutes. We were planning on driving to Avignon tomorrow and stopping a couple of days but the people here tell us it will be much easier taking the train and parking here for a day or two.

This morning we left Banon and set off over the plateau to Sault and at last we saw our first fields of lavender.

We also came across this example of agricultural art, hay making with a difference.

We stopped briefly in Sault for our coffee and croissant and watched the cyclists setting off for the twenty six kilometre climb to the summit of Mont Ventoux. We set off following them and as we climbed through some stunning woodland I tried to remember why I remembered the mountain from years ago. I knew it was a regular climb on the Tour de France and then, as we neared the summit I remembered just as the memorial to Tommy Simpson came into view. It's almost a shrine now and the parking area next to it was crammed with vehicles and cyclists so we had no opportunity to stop. The summit is only another few kilometres which makes his death at that point all the more poignant. The last few kilometres are above the tree line and the sun bouncing off the limestone rock and shale is so bright that we were squinting in dark glasses. The first few kilometres out of Sault aren't too hard for the cyclists, rolling pastoral countryside but then it kicks in and it's a 10% climb all the way to the summit. We were lucky today that there wasn't too much motorised traffic on the way up as the road is fairly narrow and we managed to reach the top without knocking any Lycra clad madmen or women into the pine forest. The views from the top are breathtaking, it's 1900 metres and a refreshing cool wind was blowing when we finally found somewhere to park, take a few photos and make lunch.

The views from Mont Ventoux.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 4 August 2014

Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon

Saturday 2nd August.

We are parked up tonight in Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon on a dedicated motorhome parking spot with about twenty or so other motorhomes, the parking bays are marked out and it's been full since mid afternoon. When we arrived at about 1.30pm we got into one of the two remaining spaces, it's busy around here to say the least. We have a fabulous view down onto the Lac de Saint Croix where the river Verdon opens up after travelling through the Gorge we visited yesterday. The lake is a beautiful bright green and this afternoon the sails of the small dinghys and windsurfers were glistening below us as they reflected the bright sunshine.

Our first job this morning before we left Moustiers-Saint-Marie was to pay last night's parking fee. We set off and found the Marie and although the doors were open the place seemed deserted. We wandered around the gloomy building turning on lights and ringing bells until eventually a door was opened by a lady who informed us the offices were closed, this being a Saturday and that we should go next door to the Municipal Police Office to pay. So we strolled down the street a little further to find the police station closed also! Eventually we stuffed the parking notice and €8.50 into a plastic bag and poked it through the letterbox, hopefully this should keep Interpol off our case. Next stop, coffee and croissants. The nice young girl in the cafe had no croissants so suggested we pop down the road to the boulangerie to buy some while she made the coffee, a sensible plan. Duly fortified we set off to explore a little more of the town armed only with a baguette. The town is very small so after a couple of circuits, including a visit to the beautiful gothic church we found ourselves climbing up a limestone pathway which offered some wonderful views but it was getting too hot to go much further so we descended back to town, bought a bottle of water and returned to the motorhome. After a quick lunch we topped the van up with water and headed off. We climbed another couple of hundred metres or so to a plateau of fields of lavender for which Provence, of course, is renowned. July and August are the best times to see the fields in full bloom so we were a little disappointed that the area we drove through had been freshly harvested leaving just the stalks of the plant. As we head west over the next few days we hope we'll be lucky and see some of the fields in bloom.

Sunday 3rd August.

Still parked up in Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon after a lazy day, popped up to the shops this morning for bread, stopped for coffe and croissant on the way back. Had a leisurely lunch under a tree with dappled sunlight watching the activities on the lake below. As a Dutch guy said as he passed by "This is the image they put on the brochures". Nothing else to say really.

Oh yes, we are parked next to a boulledrome! The clacking and clanking gets a bit tiresome after a while but hey ho. Last night it started raining at about ten o'clock so that drove all the players away. With any luck it'll rain tonight too. No 3G or WiFi here at all so won't be able to post this 'till we get back to civilisation.

Monday 4th August.

We are parked up tonight in the municipal Aire de Camping Car in Greoux-les-Bains just eighteen miles west from where we were yesterday. It's a great site on three levels and we have all facilities including electricity for nine euros a day and should we wish to we can stay here for up to thirty days. We briefly explored the top end of the town today and found the troglodyte thermal baths which have been patronised by the good and the great since Roman times. We called in to enquire as to the cost of a hot soak and a lovely lady dressed immaculately in what looked like an haute couture uniform kindly informed us that for €35 we could have a mud bath and a dip, approximate duration - thirty minutes. For €125 euros we could have the full works with all manner of treatments. We were a little crestfallen at this news and I guessed it showed on our faces however the smile never left her face as we trudged dejectedly to the exit.

This disappointment was offset, however, when we found the poulet rotisserie just around the corner. We love these places and today we ordered a chicken for seven o'clock which when we collected it and took it back to the motorhome and sat down to eat it was deliciously juicy with a crispy skin. Who needs a thermal bath when you can have a greasy chicken eh? So I think we may stay here for a couple of days, there's a big market here on Thursday and we haven't been to a market since we arrived in France and I'm sure there will be lots of things to tempt us.

No photos this time because although we have some 3G here it's so weak the photos won't transfer from my phone to the iPad. Lots of photos soon though folks.

Pat.

Saturday 2 August 2014

Castellane and Moustieres Sainte Marie.

Thursday 31st July.

We are parked up tonight in Castellane at one end of the Gorges du Verdon in the Parc Naturel Regional du Verdon and a very pretty town it is too. It would be even prettier if every second building wasn't a rafting/canyoning sales office and if they hadn't allowed the quaint alleyways to be turned into a line of tourist tatt shops. Despite all that the beauty of the original town shines through. We arrived here today after a great drive over the Rhone Alps, we drove across the plateau at 1000 metres for miles through some breathtaking landscapes and through some pretty hairy, very narrow, tunnels which had been gouged out of the mountainside. One of the great things about driving inland through France is the number of parking spots and lay byes provided. Unlike the coast roads where you basically just drive from point to point, here you can stop and admire the scenery and it was wonderful today.

After leaving St Laurent du Var this morning we set off keeping an eye out for a supermarket and service station. Sure enough after half an hour or so a Leclerc loomed on the horizon and we stopped for some essentials, Pastis, mint syrup, Rose wine,a tub of rillettes and a baguette. Phil also bought some food. A fill up of diesel at a sensible price, a coffee and croissant and we were on our way again. The only thing we are lacking now is LPG for cooking and hot water. I've let it get a little low and although we want to stay here a couple of days we may not have enough to last and so will have to push on 45 minutes up the road to a service station.

The other great thing about France, for us, is that it's so motorhome friendly. We are parked tonight in a car park in the centre of town where about a third of the area has been given over to motorhomes with large parking bays, fresh water and waste disposal facilities. This costs us €6 for 24 hours and we can stop a maximum of two days. I've just counted 25 motorhomes and it's a nice little earner for the town, I guess, and we'll all spend some money in the local shops, bars and restaurants too. We walked round the town this afternoon and called at the tourist information office which was packed and a very nice young girl from Nottingham, who is working here for the summer, gave us lots of maps and told us the best places to go to view the gorge. When it cooled down a little we set off to visit Chapelle Notre Dame du Roc which is perched above the town on a needle like rock. Unfortunately our flip flops weren't up to the climb and we had to abandon our excursion about three quarters of the way up. Tomorrow we'll put our trainers on and try again!

Friday 1st August.

We are parked up tonight in a dedicated motorhome Aire just beneath the village of Moustiers Sainte Marie and we are in trouble with the Police Municipale (more on this later).

This morning we checked our gas supply and it was getting desperately low so we joined the dash for gas and headed off northbound to a service station listed as having GPL. We arrived after a pleasant fourty five minute drive to find they had GPL - at €0.96 per litre!!! I drove away from garages in Italy where it was €0.75 because I wasn't going to pay those exorbitant prices. So we filled one tank and set off back down the road to explore the Gorges du Verdon. The scenery was stunning, the gorge is between 250 and 700 metres deep and the river bed at the bottom between just 8 metres and 90 metres at it's broadest section. At places the rims are only 200 metres apart. The limestone cliffs look like they have been torn apart and are truly spectacular and tear a swathe through the plateau for 25 kilometres. As you look down from the various viewing spots (when you can find a place to park) the river is a sparkling turquoise spotted with red inflatable rafts. Apparently Europe's largest canyon was not discovered until the early part of the last century although we find this hard to believe. It's not like you can miss it!

Just a comment here on the road and driving today. There is one road that follows the course of the canyon, the D952. It's a two lane road but narrow along most of its section with vertiginous drops to one side and overhanging cliffs on the other. The first confrontation I had today was with a guy driving a truck the same size as mine but who was pulling a trailer with six inflatables on. We met at a particularly narrow section on a bend and I was quite prepared to back up as far as I could until he started screaming that I shouldn't be taking my motorhome on the road. A road that carries buses and trucks far larger than my vehicle! I'll be kind and suggest his attitude was just an attempt to impress the girls he was taking to the rafting centre. A bit further on and we, and the vehicles in front, were overtake twice on narrow sections of road with maybe just a hundred metres between bends by drivers who had kids in the back of their cars. The second time the guy just managed to pull in before being taken out by a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Really scary.

So we arrived here at Moistiers Sainte Marie this afternoon still in one piece and parked up above a field where the para gliders land. A field shared with some tent campers and the local kids kicking a football around. It was good fun this evening watching these guys circle and then land almost on a sixpence. When we arrived the barrier to the Camperstop was up and the payment machine taped up. A sign informed us that we should enter and someone would call around at 7pm to collect the €8.50 parking charge. At six o'clock we set off for a walk around the town and not wanting to avoid paying we left the money in a jar, on a table, in front of our door. We returned at seven thirty to find a note saying that as we were not at home when the collector called we had to call at the local police station or the Marie to pay our money or else. The clown sent out collecting must have had to move the table to stick the note under the door!! So tomorrow I have to find the local Marie or police station lest Interpol be informed or I'm detained a couple of months down the road at Calais.

Moustiers Sainte Marie is dubbed the Etoile de Provence, the star of Provence and it is, indeed, a very pretty village tucked between two limestone cliffs. A gold chain 227m long bearing a gold star is suspended above the town, which has a series of small waterfalls running through. We'll explore further tomorrow when I go hunting for the Marie.

Castellane.

Gorges du Verdon.

 
Moistiers Sainte Marie. (Look up closely and you can see the star)

We stopped at a Leclerc yesterday on our way to Castellane for some essential shopping

Pat