Friday, May 3, 2013

The Rainy Riviera.

27th April


Set off for another long drive to the coast. Once we were out of Provence the land became very flat and all the towns industrial, not very inspiring. Came down into Marseille which was an absolute nightmare of roads and spaghetti junctions. Tried to do a u-turn on the coastal road and Pete stalled four times trying to do it! Very stressful. Ended up paying to use a tunnel that seemed to take us right under and out of the city- well worth the 3 euros. More driving along the coast, unable to find any campsites that were open. Found a lay-by in a small town on the way to St Tropez with another camper pulled in. We assumed that he was staying the night so thought it would be okay to stay too. There was a little path down to a rocky bit of beach so we had a wander down there and breathed in the sea air. It was also slightly sunny! Yay! We ate a disgusting dinner of tinned sausages with salad and ketchup and settled down to watch a movie. After the film we noticed that the other camper had gone. We decided that it was too isolated to be here on our own so we drove on and slept in a parking space on the side of the road that had houses and street lights. It was fun to think that no one knew we were there.


28th April

Got up and straight into the driving seat. Drove along the Riviera in on and off rain, stopping for toilets and breakfast in the van at what would be a beautiful view point if it wasn’t so wet outside. Cannes was very pretty- we didn’t spot any celebs- as was the rest of the coast. We were a bit nervous about coming into Nice after the Marseille experience but it had an amazing road that led right over the top of it and we could see down from the rooftops into the streets. Stopped at a lovely viewpoint over Nice for lunch (unfortunately it started to rain again) and further along gawped at all the very expensive cars in Monaco. We hadn’t found anywhere to stop so we carried straight on into Italy. Found a weird car park for campers to stop in in San Remo. It was still raining so we stayed there even though it wasn’t very picturesque and watched another movie. There was a big thunder storm in the night.










29th April

The car park for campers had a sign saying it was 10 euros (we wondered what for as there were no toilets or water or anything.) Anyway there wasn’t anyone there to pay so we drove away without paying. Pete was getting very tired of driving the wiggly roads so we decided to try and escape the rain faster by using the motorway. Got our monies worth by stopping at the service stations to have lunch and use the toilets! Bypassed Genova on the motorway too and came off just after. Back on the coastal roads but the Italian Riviera was starting and it was very pretty. After getting lost and angry in a town called Rapallo we satnaved a campsite in the town and ended up staying there. We realised that Italian camping is not exactly what we like; they apparently need swimming pools and shops and blah blah blah and to pay a lot of money. Although we payed a lot more than we wanted we did have free wifi so were able to put up our blog and apply to two Helpx people in farms further south in Italy. Went for a stroll into the town, which was actually very pretty and had a beer and free tapas in a local bar sitting next to a big group of rowdy Italians. Lovely evening.


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