7 October 2009 Our overnight stop was close to a range of hills called Chaine des Alpilles. On the ridge is a village called Les Baux-de-Provence with a ruined castle on a plateau above it. It’s a bit of a touristy place but it was fairly quiet and we enjoyed our morning there. Bauxite used to be quarried in the hills used and close by the village is an area called the Val d’Enfer which has been turned into a spectacular audiovisual experience with films projected on the floors wall and roofs of the mining chambers and music using the excellent [View Full Entry]

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6 October 2009 Across the Rhone from Avignon is a satellite town called Villeneuve-les-Avignon where the Cardinals used to go to escape the crowds and smells of Avignon. We spent a pleasant day in Villeneuve visiting its castle, Fort St-Andre, and a former Cartusian Monastery, la Chartreuse du Val du Benediction, found by Pope Innocent VI in the fourteenth century. The monastery reminded of one we had seen in northern Italy. We spent the evening at a superb Olive Oil farm. [View Full Entry]

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5 October 2009 Besides the Pont, the interesting thing about Avignon is that the papacy was moved from a feuding Rome to here between 1309 and the Great Schism of the Catholic church of 1377 when two Popes were elected one here and one in Rome. This situation lasted until 1403. During this period the Popes built a huge palace for their use and a city wall, both of which are still complete. We spent the day wandering the streets of the ancient city within the walls, visiting the impressive Palais des Papes and walking along what remains of the bridge. [View Full Entry]

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4 October 2009 We were going to have an easy day today but finished up by visiting Venasque, a village built on a spur of rock, and L’isle-sur-la-Sorgue, a town straggling five branches of the river Sorgue and claiming to be the Venice of Provence. We eventually arrived at our campsite in Avignon which we plan to visit tomorrow. It is a week now since we left home and as can be seen from the photos we have enjoyed warm and sunny weather the whole time. [View Full Entry]

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3 October 2009 We spent the morning doing a spectacular walk just below the line of the Dentelles which at times crested the ridge in gaps between the cliffs giving spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. Later we moved on to another delightful town in the area, Pernes-les-Fontains, which as the name suggests is famous for its 36 fountains. We were able to stay in an area reserved for campervans right next to the local river. The only downside of this was that the local youths used the street adjacent to where we were parked to ride their motor bikes up [View Full Entry]

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2 October 2009 We left Nyons and drove the few kilometres to Vaison-la-Romain, an attractive town on the River Ouveze. We explored the medieval Haute Ville and its castle and then visited the remains of two roman districts. Just south of Vaison is an interesting area of limestone pinnacles called the Dentelles and we spent the night at a vineyard in a spectacular position just below them. [View Full Entry]

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1 October 2009 On a warm sunny day we saw Nyons at its best and it gave us a great introduction to Provencal towns. It happened to be market day and we spent the morning wandering around the many stalls and buying vegetables, cheese and other delicious looking local produce. After a relaxing lunch at the van we went back into town, walked up to the view point across the river, inspected the municipal camper stop, bought some of the olive oil for which Nyons is famous, updated the blog in a lovely salon de the and spent the rest of [View Full Entry]

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30 September 2009 We drove the final 300k of our journey past St-Etienne, over the Col de la Repubilique in the Parc Naturel du Pilat, down the Rhone valley to Valance and finally over more passes and through steep gorges to arrive at Nyons in northern Provence. We are on a pleasant campsite next to the river just outside the town and plan to spend a couple of nights here. [View Full Entry]

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29 September 2009 We continued southward guided by the satnav along straight minor roads through endless rolling countryside and the odd small town until we went through the vineyards surrounding the town of Chablis. We bought a couple of bottles of the local produce and had our lunch in a pleasant spot by the river. Before moving on we picked out another France Passion site at a ferme auberge in a small village called Amanze west of Macon in the Saone and Loire region and spent the afternoon driving the 200k to get there. Amanze turned out to be a beautiful [View Full Entry]

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28 September 2009 We caught the 8.30 ferry without any trouble and arrived in Calais in continuing fine weather. For this trip we plan to travel around France without using the motorways. Although this will take us longer to make progress we hope to see more of the country. It will also save us the cost of the tolls! Consequently today we were guided by the satnav southwards via St Omar and St Quentin and stopped just south of Soissons between Paris and Reims. The roads went through many villages and were quite quiet. We covered about 280k but still have [View Full Entry]

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