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Published: February 24th 2011
From Provence to Bavaria – January 13th to February 24th
What is it with the weather? We’re 320 miles away from Le Lavandou, a place we stopped at on the Cote D’Azur and it’s 25° C colder! Not that it’s stopping some barmy people here who are sitting outside on deckchairs, granted not in bikinis, but it is still -6.5°C!
The sun is blazing and it’s 9am. We’re 900m up in the Bavarian Alps, which with the plentiful snow decorating the landscape, glimmering in the sunshine makes for a beautiful setting. The snow has been coming down for the last few days which has it’s good points and bad. It’s good for the skiing but bad for almost everything else!
We started this leg of the journey on 13th January in Fonataine de Vaucluse, Provence, and spent a few days exploring a little further south within the region. One of the most amazing places we visited was , Les Baux-de-Provence. A now tiny village up in the Alpilles Mountains. The main tourist attraction is the fortress, Château des Baux built in the 10 century. This one however, was different from the majority of Chateau’s. Most of the castle
Les Baux-de-Provence
View over thee surrounding valleywas carved out of the mountain. Some parts were built on top, the top part of the main keep for instance, but the vast majority of it including many houses of noblemen were carved out. Unfortunately there are now mainly only ruins left, but walking around you can see how much of it must have been all those years ago. Spread out in the valleys beyond the fortress there are fields of olive trees and vines, which look stunning even in January. Quite a remarkable place.
From here we headed down to the Cote D’Azur. Obviously we are not yet at the peak of summer but the sun was trying to fool us. The weather for January was amazing. Every day it was over 15°C. Sometimes up to 20. Even so the drive across the ‘Route de Cretes’ between the towns of La Ciotat and Cassis was rather windy, but that is to be expected when driving along the mountain ridge I suppose. One side there was a near sheer drop to the rocks below, not even Scooby fancied a dip in the water when having to plunge from 300ft! Whether the towns you could see from this picturesque
Le Lavandou
Small bay on the Azur coast road were nice or not I’m not too sure as we didn’t have time to pay them a visit, but they look fantastic from the cliff tops! (And by all reports they are).
We stopped at Le Lavandou for a few days. Walking around the country side, along the coast in various patches, and out to the Massif des Maures mountain range. It’s a beautiful area. Supposedly where nearly all the French descend in the summer, but even then it’s not spoilt but many high rises that the traditional British holiday destination seems to have been. Some of the coastal walks were stunning. Small beaches you couldn’t get to by car would be ideal in the peak of the summer.
We then spent a couple of days in St Tropez. No celebs were spotted, but you can see what draws them to this fantastic town. All the restaurants and cafes look top notch, and the work being down getting the town up to scratch for the oncoming season was impressive. The town has not lost its charm so they say, and it’s hard to argue. It’s one of the few places I’ve been where you can’t really see
St Tropez Marina 1
Old houses surrounding the marina any old buildings in a state of disrepair. They are all immaculate. But I suppose when they are worth a small fortune it’s no surprise! The marina itself was full, and there were some rather impressive boats moored up. A huge amount from Guernsey which intrigued me although I’ve not been able to work out if this was coincidence or anything else. Mac Brew was the largest there, but at just 130ft it’s not going to putting the likes of Roman Abramovich to shame! I did a bit of research as I thought it might be nice to hire for a week, but at €105,000 for its low season rates I’m going to pass.
It was about this time when I decided that with planning on heading to the colder parts of Europe, it might be about time to get the heating sorted. So a few emails to the manufacturer, I found a French dealer who’d be able to repair it. And even my dodgy French skills (all that effort back in school must have paid off…..) didn’t fail me as I explained my problem. Talking slowly and loud always does the trick! That did mean having to wait
St Tropez Marina 3
The larger yachts including Mac Brew around for the part to be ordered and delivered. None of this next day service either, it’s not like back at home! So most of the hanging around was done on the other side of the bay from St Tropez in Sainte Maxime. Not quite as picturesque as Le Lavandou or St Tropez of course, but a nice town with the Massif des Maures a few miles away to give us some much needed exercise!
We didn’t get as far East as Nice or Monaco, but they are more suited to lavish hotels than campervans I’m led to believe, plus we want to leave some places to explore in the future!
It was now early February and the ski slopes were calling again, so the long drive up to La Plagne began, Something like 400km had to be covered, and in time to get there, get settled and get to a bar to watch England beat Wales in the 6 Nations opener. Fortunately all went to plan, even the rugby, and we spent the next week trying to find enough snow to ski on, drinking and eating far too much, and not getting anywhere near enough shut eye.
We managed to leave La Plagne on time, without a single bruise or broken bone, so I think that counts as a tremendous success!
In leaving La Plagne we were leaving France, heading over to Italy and off to Milan. There was an ulterior motive in heading to Milan, that of a small match between AC Milan and the mighty Tottenham Hotspur. However we did spend a day seeing the sights, by which I mean shopping malls and boutiques of course. Fortunately the day wandering around was dry, even quite pleasant. The next few were quite the opposite. Constant rain. Unstopping. Everything that could get wet did. We managed to procure some tickets for the match whilst spending the afternoon sampling the local beer in the away fans tented area in the town square. And whilst it wasn’t the most thrilling game I’ve ever witnessed, beating the Italians on their own soil is no mean feat.
The rain continued to fall, so the following day we headed from Italy, taking in the countries of Switzerland, Austria, and finally Germany. When I say taking in, I obviously mean driving swiftly through, as Bavaria was the next destination. Füssen to
be precise.
Füssen is famous for its nearby castles, Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle. Neuschwanstein is the castle that inspired the Disney Castle, so the rumor goes, personally I don’t think it looks anything like it, but hey, it’s was still amazing. Neither of these were fortresses, more country residences like many of the French Chateaus, more stately home than what we’d call a castle back home. Inside they were both stunning. Decorated as they were when built in the 1800’s, the amount of money spent on them must have been incredible. One of the beds took something like one and a half years for 30 people to make. They clearly never had an Ikea in Fussen in the 1800’s.
From Füssen we made a quick trip to Bad Waldsee to pick up a few bits for the van at the factory where it was built. And then have spent the last 24 hours in Nesselwang, at the bottom of the ski slopes.
I must say the quality of the German beer has been rather good so far, better than anything else we’ve had so far. Except the JHB brought along from back home of course!
The so called Romantic road is the next leg of the trip which leads north from here through various towns and cities to Würzburg. The good news is the Germans have heard of Wifi, so the blog may be a little more frequent than in the near Neanderthal nations of France, Spain and Portugal!
Auf Wiedersehen!
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Ben Williams
non-member comment
Jan-Feb
James. Wheres the pictures of you getting lashed up?!?! i dont wanna see churches and castles! will be in Holland around the 25th if your thinking of heading north anytime soon! Hope your having fun Ben x