A bit of the French Coast...

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After the Gorges du Tarn we headed west towards Provence. The motorway drive was really quite boring so the ipods were out on this stretch. Our stop off point was the Pont du Gard which is an ancient Roman aquaduct. We learnt about it in Classics at school so it was quite good to see it for real. Funnily enough, it appears to be the teen hangout. There was a rock band playing and there were loads of teenagers sun bathing and jumping off the cliffs into the river. We were so hot that we swam in the first part of the river we came to. The water was shallow and a bit manky but we were beyond caring at this stage!

We planned to stay in Les-Baus-de-Provence but funnily enough every campsite we stopped at was full. We were eventually directed to a camp in a little place called Orgon. The site was in a quarry and it felt all a bit strange really. We arrived 15 minutes before the pool was due to shut at 8pm. We raced to the pool only to have the maintenance man shoo us out at 7.56pm on the dot. They have great respect for the rules in these French camp sites!

Despite the slightly strange reception, we did find the best showers in all of France. They had little sensors installed so there was no need to keep pressing… the… damn… button. They also had music playing. For the first time in my life, I showered to the sound of Bryan Adams! Ahh, its funny how you appreciate the little things after living in a van for awhile!

Our next stage of the journey was to drop Noogs and the Mule off at the train station before heading down to the coast. We were starting to get a bit nervous about how busy everything appeared to be getting so we decided on a dramatic change of plan. Instead of heading along the French Coastline and down through Italy, we decided to head down to the coast for a few days and then head back up towards the French Alps and across into Switzerland and Austria.

At Aix-en-Provence, we said farewell to our friends who are heading back to New Zealand. There must have been a terrible dust storm as the girls were overcome by floods of tears outside the train station. So now it was only Chris, myself and Brian heading down the road towards St Tropez.

As expected, the coast was absolutely packed with holidaymakers. It didn’t take us two minutes to realise that camping along the French coast was going to be nothing like our previous summer camping experiences in New Zealand. Despite getting there nice and early, every campground was packed. Unfortunately it was also a Saturday so that didn’t help much.

We finally found a site in La Croix Valmer which is a short drive from St Tropez. We waited until evening before heading down to the beach in trusty ol Brian. Picture Brian on the French Rivera! It was very, very funny.

Even in the evening the beaches were quite crowded but it was bearable enough for us. The water was a beautiful temperature and was that great shade of blue that the Med is known for. In terms of beach scenery, we Kiwis are quite hard to please! The Rivera made me appreciate the New Zealand coastline. I hope it doesn’t end like this! Upon leaving we heading out though St Tropez to have see what the fuss is all about. Oh la la, the boats and money… I can only imagine what it is like further along the coast. A place to see and be seen… we couldn’t get away quick enough!

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