20th April
Wake up to more light snow and
don’t have any coffee or breakfast, just climb straight into the front and
start driving. Find our way on the correct road again and seem to be driving
even higher. The weather sets in. Visibility down to about 20 metres and the
snow is so thick on the ground it’s hard to make out the edge of the road. Even
the French are driving slowly! We creep down the mountain and it begins to
clear; looking behind us we can see we’ve just come out of a huge cloud. We
come out the other side into Provence where the weather is better (still not hot
hot hot) and Pete is very excited about all the wild thyme and rosemary
everywhere! We pass a few campsites but as it is still early we decide to drive
on see what we can find. It is about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and we want to
set up and have a long evening somewhere. After driving back and forth along
winding roads searching for campsites only to find that they are either closed
(we are out of season) or all singing all dancing 4 stars way out of our price
range. We are beginning to get tired of driving. We think about going to Granny’s
house but I lost my phone somewhere along to way and can’t call her to warn
her. More driving, it’s coming up to 6 o’clock now, and we’re at the end of our
tether. We end up giving in and heading to a big 18 euro campsite. On the way
we see another sign for a campsite next door, but it looks just like a house at
the moment (probably closed until season starts) but we drive in anyway. I give
my biggest smile and ask ‘Camping?’ to the lady that greets us and she is kind
enough to let us stay one night for free as long as we don’t need water or
toilets! Perfect! We are very happy and crack open our box of red instantly!
Have a lovely dinner in the setting sun and even find wild rocket growing right
outside our van. Couldn’t have worked out better.
Pete says do one Jon Woodfine for
saying there are cheap municipal campsites in every town!
21st – 24th April
Arrive at Granny’s early to find
that mum is on the phone freaking out because I lost my phone. A lady has
called from a tourist office somewhere we haven’t even been and said she will
send my phone to Granny’s house- isn’t that nice!
We have four days of eating lots
of cheese, drinking wine that was grown in the vineyards we can see whilst we're
drinking it and soaking up the 23 degree sunshine! All the food we eat is
amazing- and there was so much of it we nearly burst. We visit the Fountaine de
Vaucluse, a stunning town set on the side of a hill called Gordes and Senanque
Abbey with Granny and Francis. We have a lovely morning at the Vaison market
where we pick up some olives and sundried tomatoes and go up and down the food
area tasting the free testers of chorizo and cheese. Granny also takes us to
visit Avignon briefly and we see where the Pope lived for 100 years and visit a
fort with the most amazing smelling gardens we’ve ever seen. One afternoon me
and Pete drive to the Dentelle mountains and go for a great walk right up and
over; really fun, proper ramble over the rocks (I remember doing this when I
was little with Mum, Dad and Charley!) On the last night we go out for a lovely
meal with fois gras to start and I had pigeon and Pete had dorade for main.
Anyway, we were completely spoilt and don’t want to leave Granny’s, or Provence
as we have fallen in love with it!
River at Grannys. ^
Fountaine de Vaucluse. ^
Gordes. ^
Senanque Abby. ^
Vaison market. ^
Climbing the Dentelles. ^
Avignon and gardens. ^
25th April
Start getting ready to go and
drive into Sablet to get some bread and other provisions. My phone hasn’t
arrived yet and Granny is determined to find the postman to find out where it
is. We drive around chasing yellow vans and eventually we find the post lady
for the area. She is not the one who delivers to Granny’s but she says she has
seen the package and it will arrive today! Have another ridiculous lunch before
leaving, say goodbye and set off towards the Pont du Gard (with phone). The
drive is short but again we are confronted with expensive 4 star campsites.
Have a stressful couple of hours driving and driving. We spend a good half an
hour driving around the narrowest walled streets following signs that are there
and then not followed up at the next junction. (We have actually found that the
French are very good at starting to point you in a direction and then leaving
you in the lurch!) We give up and settle at a very nice, but pricey, campsite
just outside of Uzes. The weather is quite overcast but warm and we have a
lovely evening eating, drinking and playing cards.
26th April
Have a relaxed morning with fried
egg breakfast and enjoy the hot showers. We have put out the awning (as we saw
rain was expected) and Pete manages to secure it so we can roll it out from the
van when necessary. We set off towards the Pont du Gard (a Roman aqueduct over
the river Gard which I again remember from holidays in the past when I have
canoed underneath it and it was free to look at. Unfortunately today is not the
weather for canoeing.) As expected see that you have to pay a large amount to
park up and get a ticket to see and walk over it. All routes or views are
shielded unless you pay. Obviously we are not going to pay 18 euros to do this
so we find a free car park in Remoulins, the town next to the Pont du Gard,
where there is a market just shutting down. Walk the 2 kilometres to the
entrance of the tourist office where a little man runs over saying ‘it is not
free’. We tell him we just want to walk into the hills and he lets us up a path
that leads up the hill and into the forest. It starts going away from river but
we see a small track going up off the main path that appears to be going in the
right direction. Rambling along the path we come around a corner and there it is!
The Pont du Gard in all its glory! We keep going and find another part of the
Roman ruin, where the aqueduct must have continued, in the forest. Down another
track we suddenly find we are at one end of the top level of the aqueduct.
There are other people here too and we follow a sign to a ‘panorama’ and get an
incredible view from the other side. We wonder if the other people have also
got here for free but after following another track we end up underneath it and
able to walk onto it for free! There are no ticket people and we walk over it
without paying 18 euros! Walk back to the van and have cheese and bread lunch
in the car park. When trying to leave we realise the entrance we came through
is locked (must have only been open for the market) and the other entrance has
a barrier of 1 and a half metres. We are stuck. Very very luckily there is a
rubbish van just leaving at exactly the same time who let us out. Don’t know
what we would have done if not! Stop in a supermarket and for a wander around
Uzes on the way back to campsite. Uzes is a really old medieval town which is
beautiful with old churches and lovely squares. (Forgot to mention all the
amazing plain trees everywhere in France which they train to grow into overhead
canopies of green to provide shade in summer. Usually in squares in the towns
and along the roads.) We can’t afford to
get a drink anywhere though so we head back to camp and have dinner, drinks and
chill out.
