Pisa to Barca

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Lavender, Papes and the Pont by Mike



What a wonderful piece of the world the south of France is. The countryside is beautiful. I’m reminded of a lot of the colours and light of paintings like Monet. I don’t know if this is where he did his painting but when you are driving down tree lined roads and sunlight is reflecting from the leaves in multiple patterns it certainly is nature making its own art.



We travelled in the morning to Avignon – one of Tristin’s suggestions – and I can certainly see why. The history of the place goes back a millennia and you really felt a sense of history and historic change walking through. The historic part of the town is set within the walls of the old city so we started off at one end of the Rue de la Republique and with a hankering for a good old fashioned bacon and egg breakfast we found an Irish Pub who looked like they would be the closest to being able to deliver. Wandering further we came across some alleyways and stores of interest before ending up in the Plaza where people eating and drinking (beer and wine at 10.30am…please!) and then we came to the Palais de Papes. Avignon has been the home of no less than seven Popes apparently so they have been immortalised in a number of ways around town.



This was a quite a contrast to Pisa. The energy is not as apparent, and the people are polite, without being as engaging as the Italians. They were very nice and more laid back too. We like the vibe here. I would definitely come back for a couple of weeks for a chillax as Jacob would say.



We catch a ‘little train’ that whizzes us around the rest of the city in 40 mins so we see some lovely gardens, the remains of the fort, more lovely buildings, didn’t go into the Cathedral (you could spend your whole time in churches as Dave said before we left), and saw the Pont D’Avignon – the bridge of Avignon and ‘the front door to the city’ as the camp owner described it.



We found out that the finest Lavender in the world can only be grown her which is why they are big time into Lavender everything….and also about the good luck Cicada’s bring so walked into many a shop in which they were chirping away celebrating the arrival of good fortune and the tourist dollar.



Avignon, a bastion of history, religion, harvest and culture that leaves us thinking we might be back sooner than we think.



From grazie to gracias with a merci in between by Michelle



For the first part of our road trip we were actually on a tight deadline as we needed to arrive in Barcelona by Saturday 5^th October. Why you ask? The answer is simple, in order for Mike to place a tick on his bucket list by watching the best football team in the world (at the moment) play. The game was scheduled at home for 10pm Saturday night at their home ground of Camp Nou and the Thompsons would be there!



So the road trip began where we left off last in Pisa. It was late in the afternoon of Oct 2^nd when we headed off but we decided to call by La Spezia, a fishing town north of Pisa, on the recommendation of Jane and the beautiful pictures she showed us of the village. Unfortunately we hadn’t followed her directions correctly enough so a large detour (time wise) ended up in us not seeing her picture postcard location but having an average late, late lunch at an albeit nice marina filled with people getting ready for an upcoming three day festival. Never mind Genova, here we come! The trip from La Spezia to Genova was a combination of travelling over (very) high bridges and tunnels carved into the mountains. We finally found our campsite at around 8:30pm further south in the township of Cerival.



We left early Thursday and stocked up at the local supermarket and filled our tummies at the local café then spent much of the day driving the last of the Italian coastline before hitting the South of France coastline – bonjour! The coastline looks fantastic but will be explored in more detail on the way back given our looming deadline! I drove the last 100km today and surprisingly found I got the hang of driving a large RV and driving on the wrong side of the road quite quickly (but I guess you have to when everyone around you is driving at over 120km/hour). The last 20km or so involved windy narrow roads through the most beautiful, small villages until we arrived at our destination in Graveson, 15km from Avignon.



After we left Avignon we headed for the next destination, Sete. As an aside the ‘bromance’ between Mike and Billy came to a head today. Billy led us through a toll gate then said we had gone the wrong way and told us to take a ‘U’ turn back through them! Mike lost it and was ranting “you’re f$^#^ing taking the piss Billy, you’re an absolute w@%#er!” After I calmed him and reminded him Billy wasn’t really our fourth passenger on our road trip and out to get him but our completely neutral GPS system we also realised bizarrely this was the only way to go? Anyhoo back to Sete! Sete is a beautiful fishing village, buzzing and alive with street-front cafes and restaurants. It also has very narrow streets which we negotiated for the best part of an hour whilst enduring Billy’s sarcastic comments to “turn around, no not you the car,” and “if you had listened to me to begin with.” By this stage I was even telling Billy to f#%& off! We finally found our camp about 15 minutes south of Sete and settled into the ghost town. If you want to know where the saying “it doesn’t rain it pours” comes from be in Europe during a thunderstorm! Very impressive as those who have seen the video will know. Never mind, fresh wine and fresh gnocchi and we bunkered down for the night.



Left early for Barcelona on Saturday and it was clearly too early for the teenager. He slept for the first bit until we stopped for coffee and croissants. Jake spilt his hot chocolate so went to get a new one and using his nicest manners said “grazie” to the waitress. Cue reminder not to thank French people in Italian! Then Mike gives an impromptu Spanish lesson for our next language to be spoken. Out of the mouths of babes still sleepy teen enquires, “ is Spanish deprived from English?” Well they probably don’t think so we respond but do you mean derived….



Again I’m back behind the wheel for the last 80km of today’s journey and can suggest that driving through the middle of Barcelona in an RV is QUITE an experience! Staying 50km south of Barca in a park that back home we would call a resort!



Next instalment – Barcelona and back including the big game at Camp Nou!



Footnote – eleven days into the trip the teen is knackered and has been granted a leave pass from participating in this blog but will be re-joining us for the next one.

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Comments

[daddy]

blog
great stuff, fascinating reading,we guess driving in Ak will be a breeze

[ThompsonFamily]

Hope you and Mum are enjoying our travels x