France Part 2 - Cote D´Azur & Provence

Week 18 – 1st to 7th October

As we crossed the border from Italy into France, if Andrew could have stopped I think he would have kissed the ground. Not that we did not enjoy Italy; we did very much, but we are thankful to come through the experience unscathed; that’s both the Lunar and us! The driving was challenging, nerve racking and crazy, and my hat sincerely goes off to Andrew for getting us through it safely.


Cote D’Azur

Originally we were going to head for the famous places such as Monaco and Cannes, but as we drove we decided there wouldn’t be that much to see, other than the wealthy and/or posers so we bypassed them and headed further along the coast, not far from St-Tropez, for a couple of beach days. Being out of season, both the campsite and beach were quiet so it was relaxing, with some trainee kite surfers to entertain us, oh and the naturists on the next section of beach…its great to be comfortable with ones body, but why is it always the fattest, hairiest men which feel it necessary to over-parade themselves!


Provence

Actually, we didn’t spend long on the coast and swiftly headed up into Provence. It was great to get back into the countryside and this region is just lovely; mountains, valleys, gorges and sweet little towns make for a really beautiful part of the country.


Les Gorges du Verdon

This is the largest canyon in Europe and apparently our answer to the Grand Canyon; not having being there we cant compare but it certainly provides some spectacular views and we loved it.

We approached over a vast area of military terrain; deserted heath and hills, the horizon becoming higher and higher as we approach the canyon.

The gorge itself is 21km long, carved by the River Verdon. From one particular vantage point you look straight down 250m to its base.

The entire circuit around the top of the gorge is some 130km; we didn’t drive it all but most of the road takes you right along the edge, affording some amazing views of the landscape.

Cotignac

Driving through Provence, there are many little towns/villages to stop off at and one that we particularly loved was Cotignac. The surrounding countryside is beautiful; houses tucked away in the hillside with magnificent views. The village itself has a good ‘feeling’, small and quaint but bustly enough to be interesting, with narrow streets and passageways, a couple of restaurants/cafes and an excellent patisserie!

There is also plenty of property and land for sale…we think we could build our holiday home here! The photo’s we took didn’t capture the essence of the place so we haven’t included them, will just have to wait until we have perhaps restored somewhere like this…

Avignon

We hadn’t planned on going to Avignon but it was time for the rugby world cup quarterfinals and the city was on route. We were glad that we did as it turned out as we bumped into Nick and Emily, old work colleagues of Andrews, who were at the same campsite! There was one Irish pub in town so we watched the England vs Australia game there (Nick’s an Aussie, poor thing, so we will say no more!) Later that evening we were back in the pub for France vs New Zealand; the English had returned from Marseille in high spirits and the French were on form; the end result obviously left the French jubilant and they were driving through the roads with horns honking and people cheering; sure there were some sore heads the next morning (ours included!) May be the only time we see the English and French embrace!

Avignon is a nice enough town, known mainly for being the former city of the popes; the citys most imposing monument is the Palais des Papes, built primarily as a fortress.