We found the sea after a superbly scenic drive through the Drôme‎ and then the Haute-Alpes de Provence.

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We had a choice of route today. Tank it down to the coast via toll roads or use the N road alternatives or… go the long way round via a scenic route we hadn’t used before.

Scenery won and it was such a good decision. We have had a wonderful drive today.

Instead of immediately heading due south, we went East direction of Die. A gorgeous morning. As we were going due East towards the Haute-Alpes we had wonderful views of the folds of the mountains, slightly hazy in the morning mist.

First place we came to was Crest, this is on the river Drôme, from which the region gets its name and it has a high towering dungeon overlooking the river.

We were really lucky with our next village, Pontaix, as there was just one parking spot big enough for us and we got it. A wonderful little village on the river and now a very well photographed village. I spoke to a local and said how pretty it was and he directed us up, through some old buildings to a little waterfall. Would have had no idea it was there if he hadn’t told us.

Heading east along the Drome valley, we drove through some lovely villages and towns and were very well pleased with our choice of route. The road was excellent, wide and not busy and the drive really enjoyable with some wonderful scenic views . We went to Die but bypassed the centre and came out of the other side, still alive.

At some point on the way we changed to the Hautes-Alpes de Provence region. So many lovely places to drive through though we didn’t have time to stop in many. We turned south before Gap and started to see the more typical Provencal landscape and buildings.

Luc-en-Diois was pretty though I have still to work out how to pronounce it. And then to Sisteron on the river Durance. Would have loved to have been able to make a proper stop here but we couldn’t find an easy parking spot in the centre, though Bob pulled up just long enough for me to grab a few photos. We stopped at the other side of town for lunch and have decided that next trip we will do some exploration of this lovely area. The Durance river area looks fantastic for scooter trips.

After Sisteron we continued south on the N roads for a while but eventually started to pick up slower traffic and decided we needed to go a little faster if we were to get to the coast in reasonable time. We switched to the toll road and took this right down through Aix-en-Provence to the sea. It proved to be a surprisingly scenic road.

Our planned campsite was at St. Cyr-sur-Mer. Finding it was a bit of a nightmare especially after a long drive. We drove through the town twice, no make that 3 times, before picking up the sign to the campsite and then found it was 5 km up a very busy and very steep road. I just didn’t fancy going up and down that road on the scooter and the idea of staying there was so we could get to Bandol and Cassis easily and easy it was not going to be so change of plan.

We drove back down the hill, looked and rejected out of hand the other dusty looking St Cyr campsite even though that was actually by the sea, and decided to return to the campsite in Sanary-Sur-Mer we have used for the last 2 years. We know that it is an excellent site even if too far to scooter to Cassis.

Funnily enough when we eventually found the right road to Sanary-sur-mer, almost an hour later, it went past the first campsite. Nearly 6pm by the time we got to the campsite, checked in and found ourselves once again with a pitch with our own sanitary building. Ended a lovely day with a swim in the excellent pool and had dinner of barbecued English sausages with frites from the campsite.





Campsite is Campasun Mas de Pierredon at Sanary-Sur-Mer.

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