17-19 October 2009 After so much hot sunny weather, it was a bit of a shock to look through the curtains in the morning and see that it was snowing hard! The first fall of the winter in this area. As we lost altitude the snow soon stopped and for our journey home we followed a route which for the most part was different from the one we use in the winter. There were two reasons for this, firstly we wanted to pass through a different part of France and secondly we wanted to avoid the French motorway tolls. We went [View Full Entry]

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16 October 2009 We continued on our way through the Alps with beautiful autumn colours below the snow capped peaks of the Mont Blanc massive. Our overnight stop was at Chapelle d’Abondance where we ski in the winter. We stayed with Dick and Angie Anderson who own Chalet Arthur, the house we use for our January visits. It was great to see them and really put us in the mood for the forthcoming season. [View Full Entry]

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15 October 2009 Today was the start of the serious driving north to get us home and we chose to follow the Route Napoleon from Castellane to Grenoble which is the way the Emperor and his followers went after his escape from Elba. The road goes through stunning mountainous scenery but our trip was not without incident. For several days the front wheels of the van had been making a bit of a noise particularly during braking. Today it got worse and a Peugeot garage we passed quickly diagnosed the problem as worn out brake pads and got us back on [View Full Entry]

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14 October 2009 One of the places I particularly wanted to visit on our trip to Provence was the Grand Canyon du Verdon which is Europe’s widest and deepest gorge. We finally made it today and although after many days of sunshine the weather was dull it didn’t obscure the immensity and grandeur of the place. There are tortuous roads on both rims of the canyon and we drove along the north side. There is also a walk along by the river for a large potion of the bottom of the gorge and we were able to go along this for [View Full Entry]

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13 October 2009 After visiting some of Apt’s excellent shops we went to another area of disused ochre quarries called Le Colorado Provençal and enjoyed a two hour walk visiting the various areas. We then moved 60k east and spent the night at Greoux les Bains, a small spa town. [View Full Entry]

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12 October 2009 We had intended to move on but we were so impressed with the beauty of the countryside and villages in the Luberon we decided to stay another day. In the morning we had a walk around Apt which turned out to be a very attractive market town with an interesting Cathedral. It being Monday most of the shops were closed but we were able to purchase some of the sweets which are a local speciality. At the start of the afternoon we visited another village, Saignon, which was probably the prettiest we have been to around here. It [View Full Entry]

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11 October 2009 Most of the morning was taken up blogging and doing chores in the van. The rest of the day we spent visiting Luberon hill villages. Firstly Bonnieux with its sweeping views towards Mont Ventoux. Then Gordes which tumbles down the side of an almost vertical hill and has a lovely walk down to the bottom of the village. And finally Roussillon with buildings in various shades of ochre once quarried nearby. We stopped in Apt the only sizable town in the area. [View Full Entry]

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10 October 2009 A day of scenic driving and the start of our journey northwards and home (but we do still have over a week left). We started by going along the coast eastwards along a winding steep road called the Corniche des Cretes which goes above the red cliffs we had seen the previous day and gives great views back over Cassis and the Calanques. Then inland on one of the few bits of motorway we have used to the Aix-En- Provence area and a narrow road which passed beneath the cliffs of Mont Ste-Victore. Then further north through several [View Full Entry]

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9 October 2009 The coast between Marseille and Cassis is called Les Calanques, a wild area of many inlets surrounded by steep limestone cliffs. In returning fine weather we went for a spectacular but hard walk which climbed above the cliffs and went down to a remote beach in the En Vau Calanque. In the evening we rewarded ourselves with a fish dinner in a quayside restaurant. [View Full Entry]

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8 October 2009 It rained for the first time on the day we reached the Med! We had planned to visit Arles but we decided against it and instead drove through the Camargue, a drained low lying area on the Rhone Deltafamous for its white horses and bulls, which we saw, and flamingos which we didn’t. Our journey then turned eastwards along the coast, through Marseilles which turned out to be fairly straightforward to Cassis, a fishing port and resort 20 k east of the city. An evening stroll showed we had chosen a pleasant town for our stop. [View Full Entry]

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