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Published: June 28th 2005
I'm well aware England is sweltering at the moment, but so are we - and we're sleeping in a van that sits in the sun all day. Plus the mosquitoes are huge and greedy here in Lake Maggiore, I have a nice set of red lumps running up the side of my face.
The Pyrenees were beautiful, we saw a local kite festival that was a lot of fun, drove through Lourdes which was a total dump - like Worthing only with more walking frames - and Carcassonne which is impressive, if totally fake and full of tourists. It's a huge castlewalled town with crenellations and moats and everything, but none of it is original, it was all rebuilt in the 19th century. And it was the first place we came across lots of dumb tourists all wearing their holiday clothes and using their travel brains (like their normal brains, but smaller and less powerful, like travel hairdryers). We even saw some badly-dressed French people - what a shock.
The Camargue is weird, the accent is different and they do bullfighting. Our campsite there was neighboured by wild horse, bulls and flamingoes, rice paddy fields and a lot of sky. Stayed there three days, then last Weds drove across the Camargue to Arles - very impressive, nice and shabby, huge bullfight arena in centre, lots of Americans on culture tour of Europe. Then drove a long way into the Verdon, up a scary twisty mountain road along a river gorge. Stayed at Castellane for three days, very pleasant little town, mountain lakes and walks through valleys. Fantastic scenery.
Then drove towards the Alps to Briancon, which reminded me of Jasper in the Canadian Rockies (showing off there). The Alps here looked knackered, all eroded and worn out. The rivers are swollen with gravel. Up over into Italy after one night in Briancon, across the flat plain of Piedmont past Torino (didn't see it) to Lake Maggiore. Went to visit the islands in the middle, all very posh and swanky - been owned by the same family for 400 years.
Internet is cheaper and faster in Italy, so I'll try and update more often. We're off to Venice tomorrow, a long drive.
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sam and nicky
non-member comment
just to say hi
hi guy's so glad your having a good time, the photos are brill. It seems so weird hearing other people in your garden. the only good thing thats happened here is nickys now potty trained. take care off yourseleves and can't wait until thye next diary