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Published: June 25th 2009
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Having drunk as much champagne as we could in Epernay it was time to start our journey South....slowly!!! We have no specific route planned and were deciding on the day where to go where to stay and for how long....so long as we were heading south!!
We headed for Beaune just South of Dijon in the Burgundy region of wine production and enjoyed a great lunch in Macon overlooking the river. "Jimmy the van" was doing really well and so we decided to head for the French Alpes so turning slightly east we aimed for Annecy just south of Geneve. We found a great site by the side of the lake in St Jorioz....and stayed for four nights enjoying plenty of sun.
Annecy is a picture postcard town on the lake with canals and more geraniums than you can poke a stick at!....let alone the number of restaurants all offering moules frites!!
After a relaxing break in St Jorioz which finished with a massive thunder storm lasting most of the night we again pointed Jimmy south and headed for the hills!!! Well the "Parc Nat Reg Du Massif Des Bauges"....thats what the map said!!!.....Big hills covered with snow
with Mont Blanc in the back ground is what we called it!!!....it was also the land of many hairpins!!
Now Jimmy is not fast but he is solid and will get there in the end but even he was a bit dissapointed when cyclists were overtaking going up through the Col du Glandon a very steep pass at about 2500 mtrs!!!
We decided enough was enough and pulled in at a site in Le Bourg d'Oisans a quaint little town surrounded by snow capped moutains and hundreds of cyclists...as our neighbours from Bolton(!) said this is the Mecca for cyclists... Why not Norfolk where its flat???
Having decided not to take Jimmy up the Alpe d'Huez and obstruct the on coming Tour de France we headed South (I said slowly!) towards Gap then Digne Les Bains stopping in the Gorges Du Verdon in Castellane....The drive was amazing, fantastic views stunning scenery, luckily Jimmy has autopilot so I could take it all in... especially on the very windy roads on the side of the deep gorges!!!
Castellane is a market town in the beautiful Verdon gorges over looked by Notre Dame du Roc...a small church set high
up on a huge rock 180 mtrs up....well we picked a great weekend to be in town....it was the annual sheep festival!!!! Hundreds of sheep hearded through the village with local dancers and musicians entertaining the crowds. Folk bands, dancers and menus offering mouth watering lamb dishes what more could you want!!!
From Castellane we drove the gorges loop lunching in Moustiers Sainte Marie another quaint village set high in the moutains....teaming with tourists!!! We set the sat nav and headed South for our final hours drive before hitting the Med!!
We stopped at St Agulf half way between St Tropez and Cannes....(name dropper, qui moi?) a great campsite with direct access to a fab sandy beech...whilst the site was almost full it was calm and extremely friendly...Jimmy started to get more attention than me which was upsetting!! We had lots of people come and chat about him, the colour, the engine, the restoration, the value....and lots of photos where taken....on a day trip to Cannes and Nice he also had a video taken from someone on the back of a Harley!!! How famous!!!
The week on the beach was great after travelling for three weeks we
all needed a break!! The weather was great, the beach fab and my French cooking amazing!!!
Before leaving the sophisticated South coast we could not forgo lunch in St Tropez, parking was the biggest challenge but after a bare knuckle fight with a guy from Marseille (Sharron won!) we finally got a space and meandered along the quay of huge yachts....many of which were from London....and we though we had had a journey!!
St Tropez is the most enchanting place, it is as you would imagine Rue St honour, Paris...by the sea....Lots of swish boutiques, glamourous people, expensive restaurants and galeries...but it does have a HUGE amount of character, fabulous old buildings, small alleys, little markets, flowers everywhere.....we think we even saw Brigitte Bardot sipping a galss of champagne at one of the restaurants!!!
We enjoyed lunch, paid 7 Euros for the car par park and decided we couldn't quite afford to stay any longer....with the sat nav set for St Remy de Provence our next destination we left St Trop with expectations fully met!!
As we drove up the hills heading west the wind started to pick up, an hour later we were experiencing our
first Mistral....the gusty wind famous in Provence...blowing Jimmy sideways and clearing dead wood from the many trees lining the roads...not a fun drive!!!
After 3 hours we made it to St Remy de Provence...a typical Provence town, surrounded by fields of lavender and olive groves...the site we had chosen was great, just a short walk from town with a spacious pool, boules pitches and wifi internet!!!!!
The campsite and the town were so good we had to extend our stay to four nights...so much to see!!!
"The village of St. Rémy is pretty and picturesque, and the old Gallo-Roman interior is circled by the remnants of the circular 14th-century wall and the protective circle of buildings.
Located on the plains at the northern edge of the Alpilles, 20 km south of Avignon, this is where Van Gogh painted Starry Night, Nostradamus was born and Dr Albert Schweitzer was prisoner."
The hospital where Vince VG stayed during a particularly tough time was a short walk from the town...it still treats the mentally ill and you can visit the room where he was housed...great views from his room perfect for a bit of painting...it was here that
he painted his most famous works...
Fortunately after a couple of days the Mistral stopped and we were bathed in hot sun, perfect for the freezing swiming pool...The market was spectacular on Wednesday, stretching through the narrow streets of the old town; cheese, fish, fruit,vegetables, olive oil etc etc etc...I am sure you can picture it!!
Well as they say "Thats all folks" we leave St Remy deProvence tomorrow confident we will return and head to Albi and our friends John and Christine Smithers before our trip to Carcassonne and the Canal du Midi...
Mark & Sharron
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