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Wednesday 25 July 2018

An almost-rendezvous with some fellow travellers – and on to the mountains of the Haute-Loire in search of cooler weather!


Some of you may recall we met a couple of bikers, Catherine and Djamal  in Aléria when we were in Corsica, and we had promised each other to try and catch up when we were back on the French mainland. We’d swapped emails and our hopes were high that we’d be able to catch up with them north of Orange. Unfortunately, we were only able to make contact live by phone once we’d already passed where they lived and we were closing on Le Puy-en-Velay in the Haute-Loire. It’s great when you get to meet new people from other countries and we really hope to catch up with them when we are next in France, or they are in the UK!

We’d had to drive through Orange en route (the main road goes right through the centre) and we were reminded what a fascinating place it is - and how interesting it would be to spend time there (in cooler weather!) as we followed the road around the Roman triumphal arch, probably dated from the Augustan period of 27 BCE to AD14 – amazing!



The drive towards Le Puy-en-Velay was slow but extremely pretty as we wended our way through hills and valleys and started to slowly climb through the Parc Naturel Régional des Monts d’Ardèche. As we drove higher, we both commented on the sudden change in the quality of the air which was not only much cooler (hurrah!) but also seemed to ‘taste’ cleaner!

As is often the case with mountainous drives, it was taking us a little longer than we’d anticipated to cover the distance, so instead of aiming for Le Puy-en-Velay for a campsite that night, we had a look on the Campercontact app to see what was nearby – and that is what led us, rather fortuitously, to take a side road off to St Arcon de Barges, and a lovely campsite/auberge/restaurant run by a very friendly Dutch couple, Ed and Elvire.

Their business, (Le Marconnés) offers B&B, a small and intimate restaurant, and a fabulous little campsite with views across the hills – complete with its own pool. Set in a series of beautifully restored old stone buildings, the B&B and restaurant watch over the terraced camping ground where we enjoyed our first cool night in a very long time (940m above sea level), with amazing views and  plenty of peace and tranquillity.



After a very peaceful night’s sleep, we continued our route to Le Puy-en-Velay, stopping to restock and refuel at a supermarket that provided covered parking with its array of PV panels – very enterprising!



As we transited past Le Puy-en-Velay, we realised that here was yet another place we’d like to return to, with its impressive buildings and monuments perched on top of narrow volcanic outcrops – there’s just so much to see in France!

And having treated ourselves to a night of cool air, we decided it was time to get back in the groove with M. Perdu and his voyage from Paris to Sanary-sur-Mer, which is why we set our sights on the small village of Cuisery in the Saône-et-Loire department, the ‘book town’ where he moored up in search of a mysterious author…

S&J

Sunday 22 July 2018

Apt and ‘La Fête de la Lavande’ – or, 99 things to do with lavender!


Our visit to Apt is a good example of how we often just do stuff on the fly on these trips – sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. This time, it did, and after a short hop from our ‘night of two aires’ and musical mayhem, we drew up into the municipal campsite not far from the centre of Apt. Even as we drove through the town along the riverbank to the site, we could see signs of the festival in the town and the air was heavy with the scent of lavender.

The site was not overly busy (and very low key) and we were able to pick our pitch with the now familiar request of where to find the best ‘ombrage’ or shade, at reception. Unfortunately, Mr B had somehow got the points of the compass and the movement of the sun a bit confused, and just after we had finished setting up, it became clear we needed to swap pitches if we weren’t going to roast in the rising temperatures and virtually still air! He put it down to an interrupted night and being a bit tired… 



Luckily, after our second pitch passed muster, we still had time to have a quick explore of the town and its very idiosyncratic festival. It turned out to be a really interesting combination of an agricultural show, focussed on displaying just about everything you can do with lavender, and a quirky mix of vintage cars and tractors.



By the time we had been around the stalls, we had seen the wide variety of uses the locals could put lavender to in foods, including bread, salami, brioche, syrup, lemonade, wine, pizza, and ice-cream!

And of particular interest to Mrs B, were the stalls (and stills!) that were selling essential oils and distillates, along with a myriad of cosmetic products from soaps to face creams.



With our heads almost reeling with the scent of so much lavender (and Mrs B’s own bunch she had been given – for free – no cajoling itinerants here!) from one of the huge loads on the trailers, we decided we had enough time to walk back to the campsite and clean up, and then walk back into the town for some tucker…not before enjoying a musical interlude by a traditional Provençal ensemble of course!



Dinner was a in a lovely bistro restaurant Les P’tits Lilou that had a ‘menu du jour’ that also luckily ran in the evening. We quite like these fixed price affairs, where you can be reasonably sure that the food has been cooked on the day, and so we ended up with a good value three course meal with (you guessed it) tarte Provençal, a lamb main course (a souris of lamb – aka shank!), with a lavender scented dauphinoise, and apricot crumble with lavender ice-cream – complete with a half litre carafe of house wine of course!

By the time we waddled back to the site, the temperature had refused to even consider dropping, and as we sat out in what seemed like near sauna temperatures, we decided it was time to break out the overhead fan that fits into the skylight above our heads. It’s no more than a homemade frame that slots into the skylight with a powerful (and quiet) PC fan with a speed controller – and as it turned out, a real godsend that night as it managed to send a gentle breeze across our faces as we nodded off!

The next morning saw no let-up in the temperatures and so we set off on our way to Orange, hoping o visit new friends we’d met on Corsica, wondering what the temperatures were going to be like further inland!

S&J

Thursday 19 July 2018

To Bonnieux – where M. Perdu stays at a B&B and the wine served has a picture of his lost love, and we add in a trip to a château once owned by the Marquis de Sade… (7th to 8th July)



 The drive up to Bonnieux was a hot one, high 30s outside and touching 40 in the cab, so it was no surprise that before long we had pulled over to have a languid lunch in a shady bit of woodland – complete with nearby stream – which would have provided a great opportunity for a cooling dip – had there been any water in it!



As we arrived at the outskirts of Bonnieux, nestled between the Grand and the Petit Luberon like a layered cake, we were happy to see that it would be easy for us to park up close to the top of the village and walk into the picturesque old town, entering by one of the mediaeval gates.



Sitting with a commanding view over the plains that stretch out in front of the Luberon hills, we were grateful that some of the cedar trees that formed a nearby forest (having been imported in the Napoleonic era from north Africa) had found their way into the village and provided some much needed shade!



As we were enjoying the shade and views, a young guitarist started playing nearby and it was only too easy to imagine ourselves back in the day, serenaded by our very own minstrel. Not only is the village set on a hill, but much of the internal layout makes good use of the slopes, and as we wandered around, it was easy to see why M. Perdu had made reference to the ‘strong calves’ of the village girls!




The village had a number of quirky art/artisan shops and interesting places to eat and drink, and had we planned on staying longer, we would have been spoilt for choice. Mrs B also picked up a leaflet for a ‘lavender festival’ in the nearby town of Apt that we thought we might just squeeze into our route (see later entry!).



As it was, after we’d taken a stroll around the village cemetery with its interesting mausoleums and amazing views for the dead (as is customary), we decided to move on to the nearby village of Lacoste, where, not only would we find a château that once belonged to the Marquis de Sade, but according to our Campercontact app, we night also find a place to free camp for the night…



Lacoste was a very short drive indeed and before long we could see the château at the top of the village.



And the app hadn’t lied, there was indeed a place to park up for the night, in a lovely wooded car park just down the hill from the village – perfect!



Featuring in de Sade’s novel ‘The 120 days of Sodom’ (Château de Silling) he lived there for some of the late 1700s, with the château later vandalised and largely destroyed during the French revolution. With restoration started in the 1950s, it’s now owned by Pierre Cardin as his second residence, whilst he continues its restoration.

His ownership no doubt helps the village’s current main focus, which seems to be mainly high-end artisan shops and B&Bs. We arrived just as the shops were closing, but in time to see one of the local hat makers using the village’s picturesque backdrop to take a few promotional selfies!



The Château is well worth the climb up the slippery cobbles (there is even a railing, it's that steep!) with some interesting art installations and amazing views from the top. It’s possible to visit the Château, but not for us unfortunately as it was locked up – with who knows what going on inside…



And so we returned to our woodland glade as the sun was setting, deciding as it was so quiet and peaceful that we’d set up the chairs and table and have a relaxed dinner. And, as if to add to the vibe, from not far away, we were serenaded by a couple of singer/guitarists playing a selection of all our favourite US west coast tunes from the 70s! Feeling more than a little smug that we’d nabbed this perfect little spot for the night, we turned in and settled down to watch the stars shining in the clear sky through the skylight and the tree canopy…

Until, pretty much bang on midnight, the same venue that had provided our west-coast balladeers earlier, suddenly switched gear and we were treated to three hours of a series of live bands (of varying calibre and volume) knocking out a succession of our not-so-favourite tunes (AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and Plastic Bertrand’s ‘Ça plane pour moi’ being memorable examples!). So, by 0315, as the musicians got drunker and it was clear that the party would probably continue until dawn, we decided that everything was ‘not groovy’ as M. Bertrand had been singing, so we upped sticks and drove off to find another venue for what was left for the night – hopefully without disturbance!

Courtesy of Campercontact again, we drove about half an hour in the direction we knew we would be heading for the lavender festival, to the small hilltop village of Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt, where we had a very relaxed, and quiet, if short, rest-of-night!

We woke in the morning to stunning views from our window, and a quick trip into the village for bread and croissants (complete with Sunday morning queue!) quickly revealed that it would be worth an unplanned wander around.
With the site occupied since the times of the independent Gauls before the Roman occupation, the village now mainly comprises a small mix of mediaeval and mainly later buildings, managing to produce that classic Provençal charm we were beginning to love. And like many of these small villages in the south, it had its memorial to resistance fighters, in this case murdered by the Nazi SS in 1944 as they hunted resistance fighters and their supporters.



Following a quick breakfast (where we’d had to move the van to create some shade in the rising heat!) we headed off to the town of Apt and its ‘fête de la lavande’ that Mrs B had picked up a flyer for – and a stop over in the municipal campsite.

S&J

Sunday 15 July 2018

La Belle France and an homage to a summer read, part 1…. (30th June – 7th July)


As we were getting ready to leave Sardinia and we were starting to put together a plan for ‘how long where’ in mainland France, we both agreed that it would be good fun to stay south for a week or so to make the most of the amazing weather, and maybe explore a part of the Med that was new to us. We had also hoped to catch up with our old friends Dave and Jan who we’d met up with before in southern France in 2016, but unfortunately they’d headed north by the time we arrived from Sardinia - maybe next time!

And so it was that we hit on the idea of retracing the route taken by M. Perdu in his barge (a floating bookshop/apothecary called Lulu) where book titles are ‘prescribed’ to customers based on his assessment of their needs, in the fabulous book 'The Little Paris Bookshop' by the German author, Nina George.



The book reaches its climax in the little port town of Sanary-sur-Mer in the Var, where the conveniently located ACSI site of Camping Parc Mogador allowed us to set up camp for what turned out to be our longest stay of the trip at seven nights! We lucked out on arrival and were able to get a pitch with plenty of shade and within staggering distance of all key amenities – perfect for temperatures in the mid 30s!



The site had a very swish pool with jacuzzi and separate ‘zen’ area for adults only – and with the sea just a few hundred metres away, we were set fair for a lush laze-about!



M. Perdu had undertaken a lot of soul searching and swimming in a cove near to Sanary and the description in the book matched perfectly with the cove that also happened to be our nearest beach – where of course we had plenty of swimming, if not so much soul searching!



Very much in the style of rocky coves we had come to love in our trip to Croatia in 2017, we soon settled into a routine where a trip to the beach would feature at some point on most days.

As the site was also within a 30 minute walk of the town and port of Sanary, it didn’t take us long to explore the coastal walk, with its luxurious houses, well kept streets and relaxed vibe, and an initial exploration of the town and port.



The port is famous for its small fleet of original and restored (and very colourful!) small sailing boats (‘pointus’) that occupied a key part of the harbour, and at the end of our exploratory walk along the coast into the port, we got to see them as the sun started to set behind the hills above the town.



There is a daily market along the harbourside and once a week (on a Wednesday) the ‘best’ produce market (we had been told) in this part of France – so of course we had to make an expedition to put this to the test and see the port in full daylight!

The market lived up to expectations, with not only amazing food produce, but some very tasteful clothes that Mrs B would have loved to try on had it not been approaching 40c and just a bit too sticky to start swapping garments market-stylie!



Staying as long as we did also allowed us to do some research about places to eat and it didn’t take Mrs B too long to pick La Ptite Fabri’K where we enjoyed some amazing seafood at prices just a little bit higher than we had got used to in Sardinia! (Even Mr B’s second haircut of the trip reflected south of France prices compared to those on Corsica!)

And, as if we needed some other sort of link to Sardinia, the last day we spent at the beach was also one of rough seas and visiting seaweed! No longer the Posidonia we had come to know and love, but an equally abundant and keen to share-the-beach type that we were glad had waited until the end of our sojourn in the Med!


As with many of the sites, we could have stayed even longer, but with prices hiking almost three-fold as the site went off the ACSI discount period, it was clearly time for us to move on! And where to? Another of M. Perdu’s stopping off points of course, at the small town of Bonnieux in the Vaucluse department of the PACA region.

S&J