The final entry 2105 Italy and France…

A few people have asked us for a map of the route we took and some (hopefully useful!) basic facts and figures that might help people planning a similar trip – so here you go. (Also, some pics and information about the van.)

About the van

The van is a self-build camper on a 2005 Iveco Daily 35c14, which has a 3 ltr diesel engine. It has been uprated from 3.5 to 4.2 tonnes and runs at 4 tonnes when in travel mode. It was designed to spend long periods away in and to be as self sufficient as possible, so it has a large battery bank (450 amp hours) and solar array (380 watts); mains hook up and charging for when we are on campsites; a 30 litre marine calorifier for making hot water from the engine cooling system; a 5kw diesel heater for making hot water and a separate heater matrix for central heating when parked up in cold weather; 14kg of butane for cooking indoors; a portable two burner hob and grill with two Campingaz 907 cylinders for outdoor cooking; 280 ltrs of fresh water; a dedicated filter unit and tap for drinking water; indoor and outdoor showers; 4 burner hob and oven; 111ltr fridge and 17ltr freezer; and last but by no means least, a 21ltr chemical toilet!

(If you are interested in building your own camper, see SBMCC who were an invaluable source of advice and support whilst we built ours.)

 A view from the cab via the kitchen to the permanent rear bed

The toilet and shower set up (not at the same time!)

The indoor seating area

The roof showing the solar panel set up and auxiliary fan in the rear skylight

Data from the trip

Repairs/casualties on this trip: new hydraulic kit for the clutch in France; new front brake discs and pads in Italy; a snapped stainless steel saddle strap for the boiler (a weld failure, probably caused by Italian roads!); a snapped plastic lock nut on the awning handle in Sicily (duff design); seized plastic window stays on two of the four Seitz side windows (probably grit/salt and heat – a duff design as the two metal ones were fine); unexpected de-frost of the fridge in very high ambient temperatures of 35c+ (operator ignorance as I’d let it get too iced up and then inadvertently activated a de-frost cycle!); failed seal on the main water tank lid (poor quality seal/sealant by manufacturer); and a broken wine glass (over enthusiastic washing up!).

Gas consumption was just over 7kg of butane, supplying indoor and outdoor cookers only. The cookers were in daily use and we only ate out in the evening on four occasions, as a large part of the fun of travelling for us is foraging for local ingredients and cooking unfamiliar food! (See Mrs B’s entry on the food in Italy.)

Campsites were mainly ACSI off-season rates (although we did upgrade once on Sicily for a better pitch by the beach!).

Ferry costs are two single tickets as we didn’t know when we would return at the point we left!

The map of our route:

https://secure.travellerspoint.com/member_map.cfm?user=Babbleybabble&tripid=773240

Note that we didn’t stop at every single one of the way-points on the map – I’ve added a few in so that the route more or less maps the roads we took. Also, the distances it gives are between the points and not the actual road mileage we clocked up, which we have given from the odometer in the van.

Note also that the trip to and from Mt Etna couldn’t be mapped by road with the software we’ve used, so you get a curved line instead, and the single lines between Dieppe and Chartres in northern France, and Cosenza and Reggio/Messina in southern Italy are because we took more or less the same route each way!

(Fuel was ¾ tank on leaving the UK and we filled at Dieppe.)

Total distance for trip            Miles                                    Kilometres

                                                 5135                                    8264

In France                                  2350                                    3782

In Italy+Sicily                             2785                                    4482

Fuel (total costs)                     GBP                                    Euros

                                                 £896                                    €1270

(in France)                                £403                                    €571

(in Italy+ Sicily)                         £493                                    €699                                               

                       

(average cost)                        £0.95 per litre                        €1.34 per litre

(in France)                                £0.84                                    €1.19           

(in Italy+Sicily))                         £1.05                                    €1.49

(average consumption)          MPG                                    Km per ltr

                                                   24.8                                    8.8

(in France)                                  22.6                                    7.9

(in Italy+Sicily))                           27.0                                    9.6

(fuel used)                                Gallons                        Litres

                                                  207                                    943

(in France)                                 104                                    476

(in Italy+Sicily)                           103                                    467

Motorway tolls                        Miles/GBP                        Km/€

France                                     122/£19.03                        196km/€26.90                                                                                   

(average cost)                         16p per mile                       14cents per km

Italy                                          509ml/£43.86                     818km/€62

(average cost)                         .09p per mile                      .07cents per km

Length of trip                         91 nights in total (all in the van)

(in France)                                    34

(in Italy, mainland)                        30

(in Sicily)                                       27

Nights on campsites                              Costs GBP                        Euros

Aires and Sostas

(in France)                                    23         £303                                   €429

average per night                                      £13.17                                €18.65

(in Italy, mainland)                        25         £287                                    €406

average per night                                      £11.48                                 €16.26                                   

(in Sicily)                                       25        £321                                    €454

average per night                                     £12.84                                 €18.19

Nights on paying                           3         £2.12 + £4.94x2                  €3 + €7 + €7

Aires in France                                        (£12 total)                            (€17 total)

Nights on paying                           2         £16.25, £9.89                      €23, €14

Sostas in Italy                                         (£26.14 total)                        (€37 total)

Free nights in                                8

France

Free nights in                                3

Italy (mainland)

Free nights in                                2

Sicily

Ferry to Dieppe                                          £119                                    €168

Ferry to Newhaven                                    £106                                    €151

Longest single drive was 531 miles (855km) in 14 hours, Manfredonia in Puglia (near Bari) to Fossano (north of Cuneo) in Piemonte, (near the Alps).

Highest drives were to the Rifugio Sapienza on Mt Etna at 1920m and crossing the Alps at Colle della Maddalena at 1996m.

Background reading:

For anyone that likes a bit of background reading before visiting a country, we found these four books were a brilliant insight into Italy and the Italians, all from very different perspectives. (Thanks to Caroline and Mark for the Leopard and Al Dente loans!)

The Leopard by Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Al Dente by William Black

The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples by David Gilmour

The Dark Heart of Italy by Tobias Jones

S & J

From Salies de Béarn to Lit-e-Mixe and on to Dieppe – the final leg!

After an enjoyable stay with Chris and Sue, we headed off to explore some of the surf locations we used to visit back in the 90s on the wild and windy Cote Sauvage in south west France. We’d enjoyed a good few stay-overs at Aires and campsites, as well as free camping in our old VW and Dodge campers back in the day, and fancied a trip down memory lane…

As we pulled into what used to be our favourite Aire at Contis-Plage, our jaws dropped and hearts sank as what used to be lovely pine woods either side of the Aire, had been bulldozed and new condos built, right up to the dunes behind the beach. OK – it was over 15 years ago and sometimes favourite spots are best left in the memory banks - but the Aire is still there, although now with an automated ticket barrier entrance, and much larger and marked out in neat rows for about 30 vans -  a big change from the orderly chaos of 15 odd vans and the guy that collected a small fee in the mornings in his satchel! 

We decided to pass on a stay there this time around and headed back down to Lit-et-Mixe to look at the municipal campsite there, another one from our camping history – and marvelled at not only how much bigger it seems now, but also at the excellent value Aire that is available at the front of the site where campervans can stay for €20 a night (high season prices now!) instead of the €33 fee for an emplacement in the site proper, and where the generous sized pitches are by far the more peaceful option.

The weather was perfect and the Aire so lovely and tranquil that we ended up staying for four nights – keen to max out what would probably be our last beach stop this trip. The beach at Lit is lovely but incredibly busy most of the day now that July is here…

and would only quieten down as the evening drew in…

It was a good lesson for us that any future trips should draw to a close a little earlier in the season.  By the time we left on the 12^th, the site was pretty much completely full with, at a guess, over 1500 happy campers.

We’d decided to get the ferry back on the 15^th, so on the morning after our 4^th night we set off for the yomp back to Dieppe – looking forward to seeing family and friends but also sad that the trip was coming to an end.

Although we had travelled a lot in this area in the past, the roads had been upgraded dramatically and after a very easy and fast drive via Bordeaux over to Tours, we pulled in to what is probably one of the best run Aires we have ever used, at Ste Maure de Touraine, just south of Tours. This was, unusually, a private Aire on farmland south of Tours, and at €4 a night with additional facilities such as electricity and showers payable on an a la carte basis, it was perfect for an en route stop, plus we were able to order bread and croissants for the morning, perfect!  Even though it’s only 800m from the main road, we had a peaceful night’s sleep and were ready to head off for the coast by 10:30.

We’d enjoyed the sight and sound of eve-of Bastille day fireworks when we’d had dinner in the Aire, but were not sure of what lay ahead on a national holiday, so wanted to get some miles in just in case we needed to hunt around for the final night stop-over.

We’d quite fancied the seafront Aire at Dieppe but were wary that we may be thwarted by the Bastille day celebrations. As it turned out, we seemed to have missed them and we got a space on the Aire easily, and then wandered into Dieppe for a last night dinner treat. We struck lucky at a ‘traditional’ Dieppoise eatery (Le Juquin) and after a full-on fishy feast, we ambled back to the van, pausing to admire what looked to be a WW2 Jeep that stopped to let us cross the road (it turned out to be a 1961 French Army Hotchkiss version). No sooner had we crossed the road than the Jeep pulled over and in a combination of French and English, the owner, Guidot (?) asked us if we fancied a ride up to the nearby chateau that has a panoramic view back over the beach. Well, why wouldn’t you? So after an exhilarating and hair-raising ride through Dieppe and up to the viewpoint (think big throaty engine, no seatbelts and wind in your hair!) we chatted to Guidot who turned out to be an historic vehicle buff who liked to give a bit of time to visitors to Dieppe – what a charming and lovely person! After admiring the view and chatting about the sacrifice of so many Allied troops in the failed attack on Dieppe in 1942 (mainly Canadian) Guidot dropped us off back at the Aire – literally at our door, which raised a good few eyebrows as we bid our farewells and thanks for an amazing way to bring our trip to a close!

The day broke with drizzle and low cloud – maybe a bit of advance prep on what to expect back in the UK!

The seafront Aire in Dieppe whilst good value at €7, was also pretty noisy with the ferries loading and unloading in the early hours – next time we’ll almost certainly stay further inland and get up early!

Our next upate will be the final entry on this blog and will include some stuff on stats like fuel and camping costs and distances, and a route mapper that will allow you to see the journey we took. We hope it will be of use to fellow travellers considering something similar – thanks for reading!

S.

A brief dally in Salies

We arrived at Chris and Sue’s house mid-afternoon, to be greeted by a cherry picker repairing the roof at their new place, an amazing old traditional farmhouse.  

In classic Chris style, the first part of our tour was to see his ‘giant’s workbench’ ready for action on the renovations, followed by a wander around the rest of this extraordinary old building and across the fields to the woods that were part of the purchase.

After the cherry picker had finished for the day, we popped the van in the courtyard for an overnight stay and headed into the village for dinner.  Chris and Sue are renting a cute little 3-storey townhouse in the picturesque spa town of Salies-de-Béarn, a couple of miles away from the farmhouse.  We ate at La Grignotine, a lovely little place tucked away in the centre of the village and a real treat of local Bearn cuisine.  We ate far too much, washed down with some delicious local red and slept like the dead in our private campground under the stars. And what a sky it was!  It’s been a while since we’ve seen such dark skies away from ambient light.  This place will be a real treat to live in – and revisit, with the Pyrenees as backdrop to some spectacular views.

Next day was market day – unplanned and lucky for us – I love local markets! We wandered around the market wishing that the van ‘fridge hadn’t just defrosted itself all over the floor and we could actually buy stuff to take with us.  That story had a happy ending though, and the ‘fridge was working again when we got back in the afternoon.  We found out that because we’d turned it down when it had become a bit frosted up from all the hard work in 35+degrees, we’d inadvertently activated the defrost cycle.  Luckily, the only casualty was a soggy doormat and half a bag of squidgy frozen peas! 

The market was lovely, with all sorts of goodies from olives to roast chickens, salamis, cheeses, fruit and veg and everything inbetween, including clothes, espadrilles – in amazing colours and patterns, and secondhand books.  We even spotted an accordion player getting ready to serenade the lunchtime diners!  

Before we left, our host kindly bought us some local kiwi juice – who’d have thought kiwis grew here too!

Next stop was Sauveterre, quite a contrast to the hustle and bustle of Salies, with its serene atmosphere and river.  

This is a rather beautiful spot, where you can canoe and swim in the river and drink in the peaceful atmosphere.  We had lunch at a little tearoom outdoors on the riverbank before heading back to the van and saying our goodbyes.

Then we were off on the next and almost final leg of our trip, along to the wild west coast and Lit-et-Mixe, in the hope of some breezy sunshine and not too much sand in my bikini bottoms from the rough seas!

J. 

Across the south west of France from Alés to Salies-de-Béarn

After just a short hop down to Nimes to get on the motorway, and a trip to a hypermarket to stock up on food and wine, we set off past loads of places on the Med coast that used to be regular stop-overs on our meandering trips to and from Spain. It was very odd just driving past – but good to be putting the miles away on the motorway so we could have more time on the Cote Sauvage – a part of France we used to visit with the kids in the 90s.

As we are not big lovers of motorway driving, we took the A9 to Narbonne and then the A61 to just west of Carcassonne where we then got off at Bram to use the excellent N and D roads, heading across the Ariégoise natural park.  The toll was €26.90 for approximately 122 miles – a lot more expensive than Italian autostradas! We’d been past this part of France before, but never driven across the park area on this route. It proved to be a real treat to drive through, with plenty of free camping opportunities and plenty of Aires should we need them.

We eventually stopped in Castelnau-Durban at a shady riverside Aire (free). This was a classic French Aire, with picnic benches, a full service area for water and waste, and even a toilet and regional produce store.  And of course, the morning’s necessities catered for with a boulangerie just across the road!

As we’d opted to stop early (compared to some recent drives!) we had a wander up the river and around the village, thinking we might try the restaurant that had been advertised as we entered the village, for a treat. Of course, this being France, it was only open on Saturday nights for dinner, doing most of its trade at lunchtimes!

The village was surprisingly interesting, with a renovated public weighbridge for crops and animals (last used in the 80s) and a memorial to Spanish fighters who had crossed the Pyrenees after their Civil War to fight against Nazism with the French Maquis.

After dinner under the trees and next to our very own babbling brook, we turned in, looking forward to a relaxing and cool night. And those church bells were bound to stop at midnight…weren’t they…?

…except they didn’t, and to add insult to injury, they not only repeated the time after the first bell ringing, but chimed on the half hour as well! Luckily, we’d had a nice bottle of Italian red we’d brought over, so we didn’t really appreciate the bells until we were woken by rain in the early hours and the need to get up and drop the skylights – a sound we’d not heard for ages!

The rain had stopped by morning so after a quick look round the regional produce store we were off, just as a large convoy of ‘gens de voyage’ descended on the Aire – en route to what looked like a major gathering of travellers a bit further on our route out to St Girons and west to Tarbes and Pau.

As we’d made good time on the motorway the day before, we took the N and D roads over to Salies. The route over was like so much of our driving in France – picturesque with lots of stop-offs for another day. By 16:00 we’d arrived at Salies and Chris and Sue’s new home – wow!

S.

A note on food in Italy

Before we leave Italy too far behind, some reflections on food there . . .

Buying local ingredients and cooking with them is one of the pleasures of any trip for me, and Italy was a country I'd been looking forward to, a lot, and it certainly didn't disappoint.  I've made some mention of new foodie discoveries in my blog entries (as well as a bit of surreptitious editing on Mr B's entries!) and here are some more thoughts for those interested :)

Shopping and eating in Italy seems firmly defined by its regions.  Each one has its own distinctive dishes, produce, fresh fruit and vegetables but unlike other countries, some of those won't be available in the next region, which threw our menu planning once or twice! In Liguria, pesto and fresh pasta were everywhere, along with pasta sauces, such as liver or artichoke.  There too, were mountains of amazing and unfamiliar greens, such as agretti (similar in appearance to a feathery samphire, tastes a bit like spinach) and a bitter leafy green, cicoria, which looks like dark green dandelion leaves and was delicious lightly boiled. I tried steaming the first batch but the taste was too bitter.  I guessed these two were early season veg as we only saw them a couple of times but was proved wrong on the latter, as much further south, in Puglia in July, cicoria surfaced again in a campsite shop and we discovered it's a speciality of the region, served with fava beans!

Back in Liguria in May, the staples were masses of chard and spinach, sold in big bunches fastened by raffia or elastic. In Tuscany, things changed again and we found the most difficult thing was buying good bread, but the porchetta was delicious, as were the fennel flavoured sausages, and the range of pulses and grains was vast, including one called farro dicocco, a type of spelt I think, delicious lightly boiled and served as a salad with tomatoes.  In Lazio, a favourite vegetable was a variety of courgette (a Roma?) with a pale green ridged surface and firm flavoursome flesh - we've not seen it since!  And we discovered the suppli, a round tomatoey cousin of Sicily's rice based snack, arancini. Driving into Campania we  hit the start of the tomato season in earnest, with delicious cherry tomatoes in the shape of tiny lemons plus crates and crates of fennel, which we saw being harvested from plots of land dotted around between the houses in the urban sprawl of Pompeii. Here too is the home of buffalo mozzarella, which is delicious and fresh tasting, unlike the long life versions we get back at home. There we also saw the huge thick skinned lemons famous in the region, and the unavoidable Limoncello liqueur!

As we drove on to Calabria and Basilicata, the weather began to heat up and roadside stalls were piled high with cherries and melons plus strings of elongated red onions and garlic alongside the tomatoes.  Here too we saw more citrus than anywhere else apart from the north. The aubergines here are quite different, either long and slim, or almost spherical, with violet skins and creamy white flesh with a firm texture.

The only thing we missed on our travels down the west coast was fresh fish, up until right down south at our last campsite, where we ate locally caught fish in the campsite restaurant.  Later, on Sicily, it seemed more readily available. Reading up on this later, it's because, as with fruit and vegetables, the Italians import very little fish.  On Sicily, we enjoyed locally caught bream, sold from a van on the campsite, which was delicious and the fish man visited several times a week too.  The food on the island is pretty amazing generally, all so fresh and the most fabulous fruit; when we were there in June there were cherries, peaches, huge apricots, early figs from Messina and melons. The island has some very fertile volcanic soil and intensive polytunnel farming, so I imagine it produces much of what it needs and food miles are low.  Palermo was a revelation, not only the produce available but the sheer freshness of everything, and the cost, so cheap!  We were there for the day so bought very little, but were inspired to try unfamiliar ingredients we'd seen, including salted ricotta whilst still on the island.  Even the nibbles were new, including lupines, a brined broad bean which I found highly addictive.

The majority of produce we've seen is Italian and here you buy with the seasons, which is the best way to shop.  There was probably no better province to leave from than Puglia, which produces some 75% of Italy's fresh produce and a great deal of olive oil. Here again the produce was fantastic, so loaded up with fruit, tomatoes and weird and wonderful cucumber varieties, we headed north to the border.

J.

Puglia to Provence – 7 regions, 531 miles, 14+ hours driving and 62 Euros in tolls in one leg!

Sunday 5^th of July and we’ve decided to make the transit back to France in as big a hop as possible, as we want to get over to the French Atlantic coast for a trip down memory lane - and to meet up with Chris and Sue who have just moved from Brighton, to Salies-de-Béarn in the Pyrenées-Atlantiques region.

After a quick swap of blog addresses with Chris and Wendy who we met at Lido Salpi en route for Greece, we headed off to Foggia and the Italian motorway network up the east coast of the mainland. This was our first go at using the Autostrada for a long distance trip and we had no idea of their standard, or cost, over such a big distance. The motorways we had used so far on the west coast had been variable in standard – and south of Naples and on Sicily, mostly free of charge.

So, just after 10:00 we set off – into a Sunday morning traffic jam as peeps headed to and from the coast. The Italians seem to be very organised at getting to the beach early and we had seen a steady stream heading to the beach past the campsite from about 08:00!

Once on the motorway though, we made good progress, stopping near Pescara for lunch and a view over the beaches. The motorway hugs the coast for much of this coast and is very picturesque, making driving very enjoyable.

We had largely clear roads until we skirted round Bologna, where we slowed to a crawl for about an hour. Once the other side, we made good progress again and stopped for a bite to eat near Piacenza, using the auxiliary fan for the first time to help keep Mrs B cool as she created yet another culinary treat to keep us going! The temperatures throughout the day had been mid to high 30s outside and low 40s in the cab - and they didn’t drop much as it got dark!

We left the motorway at Asti and were pleasantly surprised at the €61.90 cost. This seemed like very good value to us, given the very slow progress we would have made on the ordinary roads - and the quality of the road surface was every bit as good as France for the whole journey. Indeed, the Italian toll model of only charging at the point of exit (rather than intermediate toll booths as in France and Spain), made the journey faster and smoother.

It seems that the general neglect of the Italian south and west is evident in its motorway network, which although largely free and showing signs of major renovation in parts, is more akin to Spain and Portugal 20 years ago. It didn’t bother us unduly, as the van has a heavy duty truck chassis and suspension seats – but it clearly challenges some vehicles!

As it was still too hot to even think about sleeping, we pressed on into the night and eventually stopped to have a kip at Fossano, north of Cuneo, next to another campervan in a small carpark. It was still in the high twenties at 00:30 so we used the skylight fan – also for the first time this trip – the gentle breeze was just what we needed to help us off to sleep.

By 05:00 the noise of HGVs on the move woke me up and we decided that I’d put in a shift to get us over the French border and stop for breakfast whilst Mrs B had a lie in. By seven o’clock we were still in Italy heading up over the Alps, so we stopped for a quick cup of tea and breakfast and then headed off again into the mountains. As we neared the French border at Colle della Madalena, we pulled over to have a much needed coffee boost, overlooking a very picturesque valley and hills.

Not long after that we were across the French border and heading to Gap, where we treated ourselves to a French food shop and refuel at the much lower diesel prices (average in Italy about €1.50 and France about €1.20). There doesn’t seem to be a network of cheap supermarket fuel stations in Italy, unlike France and the UK – but it was still cheaper in Italy than the UK, so no moaning!

The scenery as we crossed the Alps was spectacular, with glassy reflections of mountains in lakes and even a beaver crossing the road at one point!

As we started to drive through small towns and villages, the general tidiness and absence of litter along the roadside and in lay-bys was a testament to the very different civic cultures in Italy and France.

The journey down the French side of the Alps was as hot as the trip on the Italian side and by mid afternoon we were so hot and sticky we pulled over by the river Aygues en route to Nyon and went for a dip in the cooling water.

Although not deep enough to swim in where we stopped, the effect was thoroughly therapeutic and we set off again feeling refreshed and ready for exploring the options for our stop over in France.

As France is just so much better provisioned than Italy for Aires-de-Camping Cars and good value municipal campsites (and we were out of our ACSI discount season) we opted to just drive and see what turned up – knowing we could easily free camp if we found nothing – but hoping to find a site all the same! By six o’clock we had spotted a sign for Camping les Dolmens near Méjannes-le-Clap, east of Alés, and managed to get a pitch for the night.

The shady pitch (with hedges and attendant privacy – a rare sight in Italy!), a swimming pool and hot showers, were just what we needed, and although we could have done without the cheesy (and at times, unintentionally hilarious) piano bar chanteur who serenaded the campsite until midnight, we had a lovely cool night and set off towards Salies next morning, looking forward to catching up with Chris and Sue in their new French home, after another overnight stop somewhere en route. We plan to use the Autoroutes from Nimes to somewhere near Pau (depending on journey times) – so it will be interesting to compare costs with Italy!

S.