Monday 27 June 2011

The Cote d'Azur and its sunshine!



Over a week since we made it to the Cote d’Azur region of southern France and it feels like much longer – it really is the stuff dreams are made of! Mind you we had a stroke of luck when we left the last camp. The night before we had decided that the one we were booked into was far too far north and the wrong side of the mountain for access to the coast. The whole point of heading east! So we cancelled and choose another from the list we use all the time. Always be wary of descriptions, either printed or on the internet. I will not name the camp but after two hours plus on the motorway we faced up to a twenty minute ‘bump’ down a long, even longer, and when will we get there unmade up track, with the poor little Smart bouncing along behind. And it wasn’t worth the drive – it was a scruffy hillside with a long trek up to the reception and bar shack, the few caravans looked as if they had been stuck there for ever and I’ll be the trees were infested with insects! We did not hang around to find out. Having spoken with Madam (very sweet) about the difficulties of getting our heavy van up inclines, we pretended to take a look around and then legged it! Back down the track!

We then drove on to our second choice, happily less than 30 minutes down the main road (one of those Provencal main roads that resembles a switchback ride!) and as their electronic gate opened to let our vehicles in, we knew we had struck gold. A tiny site called Le Tuquette, run by a lovely middle aged French couple. Far smaller and compact than we are used to – no massive views here – but really good facilities, a warm atmosphere and friendly people. Our van is right by the bar (Victor cannot believe his luck), the pool is equally as lovely as the last one, and we are only fifteen minute drive from the most delightful French hillside town – Fayence – which we discovered on Day 2 here. It has everything including magnificent views across countryside, several great restaurants and bars, fun shops and sunshine all the way! So, in view of all this, and because of the wealth of sightseeing to do in the region, we have decided to completely alter our itinerary and stay here for a total of seventeen nights, leaving on Wednesday next week. Radical I know – but that is the joy of having our own motorhome – flexibility is the name of the game!

And so it was that last Wednesday 22nd June, we found ourselves driving to Grasse, the centre of the French Perfume industry. An attractive and historic hilltop town, Grasse offered us a simple French lunch at an open air restaurant near a fountain, browsing around Perfume shops where they distil their own fragrances, a tour around the old town in the little tourist train with headphones giving us a commentary, and a visit to the showroom and museum of the House of Fragonard, the original parfumerie in the town. Victor owed me a birthday present, so I chose a lovely light floral scent called ‘Belle de Nuit’ with notes of geranium, rose, plum and musk. As long as it had ‘Grasse’ printed on the bottle I was happy! It was less than an hour to Grasse, which made for a stress free day out in an iconic spot in Provence.

And then this Saturday was the big one – well, the first of the big ones – I drove to Cannes! Not without certain stresses I will admit, but we did have this deal that Victor will drive the van if I drive the daytrips in the Smart. But the roads around here – I know I have said it before but it is not Norfolk! But I managed and it was with a certain thrill that I drove us along the coast road and into this very special place! I don’t know what I expected from it, apart from sea and sand, but it surpassed expectations and you could smell the money! The sea and the sky really are as blue as when we swoon over George Clooney getting off a launch at the Cannes Film Festival, the restaurants on the beach really do twinkle with the crystal and the bottles of spirits, the girls really are beautiful (although not topless anymore it seems!), and the price tags really are as staggering as you might imagine! Oh, and the boats in the marina and moored offshore are as fabulous as those on any James Bond movie. And more so!

We spent some time taking photos of the boats before walking up the steep hill to the castle to get the panoramic view everyone wants in their photo album. Every few moments there was something else to gaze at, laugh at, admire, envy, lust after etc etc. There are black and white photos of film stars, old and new, in every bar, we found the handprints of several including Paul McCartney in the pavingstones outside the Tourist information and we found a little restaurant offering a three course meal (it included deep fried courgette flowers – yum!) that did not break the bank. Our post lunch stroll along the beach road (Boulevard de la Croisette) in bright white sunshine offered many memorable images, including the contrast between the small piece of public (and free) beach with multi-coloured towels and assorted umbrellas, with the strips of beach owned by the five star hotels, with their matching sunbeds, cushions and sunshades. Out to sea the huge yachts sit in the twinkling water, while helicopters buzz overhead, presumably bringing their wealthy clients in to the hotels or the vessels. There were people water ski-ing or paragliding, and others were simply enjoying a long leisurely and boozy lunch in the glass fronted restaurants that served as gateways to the private beaches with their tanned ‘beautiful people’. I was much taken with the four poster beds (honestly) that were available to hire on one particular stretch of beach, and we were blown away by the preparations being taken for a wedding reception that evening – a whole beach area had been taken over and changed into a big party space with a huge white leather high back sofa for the happy couple, pink and purple streamers covering a huge gantry with full disco lighting rig, round tables with pink cloths and crystal wine glasses and a fully stocked bar. Lucky girl!

As for weddings, at least four took place at the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) that afternoon. We know that because the tradition seemed to be that the couple come racing down the coast road in some fabulous ribbon strewn car, with their friends and relations in convoy, hooting and screaming and waving at all the passers - by! On our walk back to the car in the late afternoon, we could not resist the temptation to take off our shoes and walk onto the public sand (surprisingly crisp underfoot with all the broken seashells!), followed by a quick paddle in the Med! I think this amused the sunbathers! Typical English on holiday! At least Victor wasn’t wearing socks with his sandals! It had been a terrific experience and we were so fortunate to see it in such perfect weather. It was a long hot drive home with just as much anxiety as the outward journey but we got back in one piece and after two days relaxing in camp and up at Fayance, we plan a further trip to Monte Carlo tomorrow – and Victor has offered to drive! Monte is probably more like two hours away on the motorway – they are having a Royal Wedding at the weekend so we expect to see evidence of grand preparations! I will let you know! Enjoy the sun while it lasts!

Sunday 19 June 2011

Moving on to The Riviera!


Tomorrow we will leave this campsite and drive east. Le Vallon des Oiseaux was a perfect reintroduction to France with its wide open spaces, dark peaceful nights, big sky, constant birdsong and friendly neighbours complete with a big soft dog for Victor to befriend! As we have driven around Provence in the past week, I have noted how like Tuscany it is; little hilltop villages gazing down deity- like from above, tall pointed Cyprus trees and banks of flowers. No sunflowers yet, just fields of lavender. Well, we have those in Norfolk! Having taken the Smart out for its jaunt last Sunday, we have used her often since and realised the worth of towing her hundreds of miles!

On Tuesday we visited the University town of Aix-en-Provence, , small yet perfectly formed, developed by the Romans on top of a hot thermal spring, as they did! The capital of Provence, Aix is known as the ‘city of a thousand fountains’ and we certainly saw evidence of that as we wandered around, guide book and Hagan Das ice cream in hand! A mix of wide fashionable avenues with trendy expensive bars, and tiny wiggly streets full of independent shops and small cafes, Aix was welcoming and of course, we had a mission in mind! Aix was the home of Paul Cezanne, ‘the father of modern painting’ and the subject of one of the modules in my next (and final!) Open University course from October. We picked up the leaflet on the Cezanne Trail from Tourist Information, and although we did not cover it all, we saw a few landmarks including visiting the Musee Granet which houses the only nine paintings by Cezanne outside of Paris and the rest of the world. Not many I grant you, and even the most well known was out on loan to Barcelona, but it was good to see the real thing before walking up the hot and dusty hill to have an English tour of Atelier Cezanne, his workshop for the final years of his life, which is preserved exactly as when he died in 1906. It was most informative and quite moving to see some of the real artefacts used in his paintings such as the ginger jar and the clay pipe from The Card Players. I drove the car back to camp that evening – about 2 hours – not a good experience and one that Victor will not care to look back on, neither will the dozen or so French drivers who were stuck behind me as I crawled cautiously around the hairpin bends leading back to the safety of our van!! I get better....

Thursday was our fourth wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by buying ourselves a posh hotel room for the night in the inspiring walled city of Avignon, famous for its bridge and historical Palais des Papes, the 14th century stone fortification that housed the Popes in hedonistic luxury for nearly seventy years while problems in Rome were threatening their existence. The buildings dominate the skyline and having found a hotel with parking, we took a boat ride sur le Rhone which passed by the shattered end of the remains of Le Pont St-Benezet, better known as Pont d’Avignon from the French children’s nursery rhyme. The bridge was largely destroyed by floods in 1668 and no longer spans the river. The guide books take great pains to point out that unlike the song, the people did not dance SUR (on) the bridge, but instead danced SOUS (under) the bridge, but the words were changed over time. In the evening Victor found us an open air restaurant right at the edge of the huge square directly underneath the walls of the Palais des Papes, and we were not only well fed and watered (well, wined actually), but we were entertained by French singers at the next restaurant, various groups of tourists who wandered into the square with their cameras at the ready, a beautiful puppy dog sitting at the next table, and an 18 month old curly headed French boy who toddled around confidently as his parents tried to enjoy their meal! All that and we were mesmerised by the powerful architecture and the stunning gold covered statue of the Virgin Mary, way up on top of a high tower. At dusk huge floodlights lit up the walls and the intricate carvings with the whole space awash with pinks and creams. Quite breathtaking! A wander around the atmospheric streets discovering tiny courtyards, dark alleys with stray cats, uplit churches and modern bars was the perfect end to our anniversary in Avignon. The hotel was comfortable and stylish, and a joy to sleep in a bed wider than four feet! The following day was unfortunately marred by my usual tummy problems – brought on no doubt by too much rich food and too many glasses of champagne – serves me right – and it did mean that any further tourism had to be curtailed and Victor drove me home to sleep off the problem. Never mind, there will be other towns....

And hopefully there will –the plan now is to check into another campsite just north of Cannes, enjoy their facilities and hopefully sunshine, and take out some days touring to Grasse, Cannes, Nice and possibly even Monaco. For now today is clearing up day and preparing for the off tomorrow morning. Let’s hope the Smart behaves herself this particular journey!

Sunday 12 June 2011

France is still just as beautiful!

Finally we made it into Provence on Friday afternoon, after four days of driving on the wrong side of the road, towing our Smart car (with resulting problems!) and no access to internet! We are now safely at our first Provence campsite and am able to report in. Tuesday’s ferry crossing was pretty stress free but escaping from the environs of Calais was another matter, with the little car taking a dislike to the cobbled streets, traffic calming and mini roundabouts, resulting in severe wheel wobble on a number of occasions, including coming off the ferry! It is most disconcerting as the rumble goes right through the van and up to our driving position! Victor is getting progressively better at dealing with it, either slowing right down and starting again, or alternatively pulling away at speed!

We decided to take three days to drive virtually the whole length of France, with our first night stop just outside Reims in the Champagne area, choosing a French Passion site on a vineyard! Nothing new there then! It had been cool and cloudy from Calais, and as soon as we pulled up at the night stop the heavens opened and we had one of the first cloudbursts the region had had in three months! Typical, especially as we had left Norwich in beautiful sunshine! We grabbed our raincoats and made it into his tasting studio, leaving an hour later with twelve bottles of champagne! It had to be done, especially as we will be celebrating our wedding anniversary next week and will need supplies! It was the following morning when we discovered to our horror that the battery was flat on the Smart! Had we done something wrong – or maybe not something we should? Decided to keep going and try and sort it out in Beaune, a major town in the Burgundy region where we planned our second night in the car park where they allow motor homes to park overnight.

Happily the roads were relatively quiet and the rain went away for most of the day and we eventually pulled up in Beaune, a city we very much enjoy. We had an anxious couple of hours while we tried to contact a garage in Norwich to ask advice about the Smart, having to unhook the car and push it into position in a different section of the car park. Eventually we used jump leads from the van to get the car going again, and then went into the city for a well earned drink in a little bar, where we were kept amused by a young baby who was drawing attention from everyone, including passers by! Reasonable night – the new foam mattress topper is proving an improvement over last year but the following morning the battery was flat again. Undeterred we made it out of the city and carried on south, through increasingly undulating countryside towards Montpelier and the entrance to Provence. I am not a good passenger as I feel very anxious at speed and in heavy traffic and there were moments when I think Victor wished I was sitting next to him! But we made it to our third night stop in a little hilltop village (although luckily the wine maker we were seeking had his home and showroom at the bottom of the hill) and we found ourselves, quite by chance, in another delightful French spot – parked down on the river bank, in between wheat, lavender and asparagus fields. We abandoned the Smart behind his barn, deciding to wait until we were settled in the campsite before trying to rectify the situation. We bought some of his wine (No!), and other bits and pieces from his lovely little shop also filling up with fruit and veg from a market stall run by a young mum with an ancient CV and her young son who was playing with his computer behind the lettuces!

Friday was about the supermarket for provisions – the quality and choice in French shops are incredible – and finding the campsite – just east of Apt. Up, up, up a hillside on a gravel single track road – imagine how the Smart felt about that – and finally into a gentle and restful paradise complete with an aviary of exotic birds, mountain views and an infinity pool. Then the fun really began as we were given a choice of camping spots and naively chose the highest one in pretty woodland, only to find that the 1 in 3 shale gravel road was too much for our heavy van. Without going into detail we struggled with both the van and the Smart, finally having to jump start the car while parked on this awesome slope, while fellow campers looked on with a mixture of concern and amusement. I did not deal with this well! Victor was his usual cool capable self and eventually we had a Smart that worked. He reversed the van down the slope and at this point we decided discretion was the better part of valour and reverted to the first site on offer, at the bottom of the hill in a flat field alongside lots of Dutch campers –did I mention this is a Dutch site! Everyone was very kind and once we had set up all our stuff, with the sun still warm, we enjoyed a French liqueur in the little bar area. We are here for ten days and I will report on how it goes towards the end of our stay here. Hope to visit Aix and Avignon – let’s pray the little car continues to behave! Take care all.

Postscript: It is now Sunday afternoon – hot – and last night we experienced an evening of live musical entertainment in the bar, and this morning we took the Smart out to the nearby village of Reillanne for their Sunday market – think of a good Farmer’s market and double it – spent a small fortune and came back to enjoy some of the stuff for lunch. Now we know why we brought the little car along – not just for the ride! Starting to chill out now.....
sorry about no photos. Signal not strong enough to upload right now.

Sunday 5 June 2011

We are on our way!

Left Norwich yesterday and are spending two nights with good friends in our old haunts of Farnham in Surrey. An hour later than planned, at 11 am, we set off with the Smart car trailing behind! We made 200 yards before we had to pull into the Town House Pub car park because of a dreadful juddering sensation caused by the Smart wheels rocking and rolling! This had never happened before! We scratched our heads and undid the coupling, then put it together again (this time following the instructions!), but when we tried again the same thing happened - most disconcerting and worrying! By now the pub owners were concerned that our huge rig would block their lunchtime parking spots, so Victor rang the maker of the towing mechanism as luckily his number was printed on the A-Frame! Thank goodness he was in (somewhere in Birmingham we think) for he could reassure us that this problem was fairly common with Smart cars, and caused by sudden changes of surface or a tight exit from a garage or somewhere. It would correct itself if we had the bottle to drive on. As Victor had insisted on coupling up the car to the van ontop of the cobble stones outside our house, we thought maybe this had not helped!! So we tried again, and at 12 noon finally took off to the All, M25 and Surrey! All was well. Touch wood it will continue more smoothly from now on. So, Tuesday we cross the channel. But first to Dover in the morning. Hope it is not raining this hard in France!