The drive from the bucolic
beauty of rural Provence led us steadily back towards the industrial sprawl of
Marseille. We’d skirted the city en route over to Aix and were uncertain about
the likelihood of a coastal strip adjacent to major shipping lanes delivering
on the beauty of the actual Calanques we had thought we were heading for. Undeterred
by the petrochemical refineries and their gas flares that we could see out of
the driver’s side window, we kept to a strict ‘eyes left’ policy and admired
instead the undulating and forested landscape that led us down to the coast
itself – at last!
We could tell by the very
large and recently built access road that had been carved out of the hills to
give easy access to the string of resorts along the coast, that we were
visiting the playground of the Marseillais. The densely packed but stylish and
low rise holiday settlements that started to hug the coastline reminded us of
other resort areas we had visited in France, many of which we had surprised
ourselves and enjoyed!
And as we turned off the
super-highway to La Couronne where our hopefully idyllic
not-quite-the-calanques campsite awaited, the houses gave way to a string of
campsites along the coastline. Spotting an encouraging ACSI flag outside a
campsite that was not our first choice, we pulled in to Camping Pascalounet to
see a note in the closed reception window – oh no – ‘Complet’… and just in case
that wasn’t clear, FULL in block letters underneath. Disheartened that we
wouldn’t get to sample the little piece of paradise that had been so
beguilingly conveyed to us in their site description, we took heart in that
ACSI flag blowing gently in the breeze just down the road.
Parking up alongside what
could be plan ‘C’ – a Pass’Étapes Aire opposite the tanatalisingly close but
out of reach Pascalounet, we went into the open reception office of the ACSI
flag bearing campsite to find out about vacancies and costs. Knowing that a
pitch would be a bit more than an ACSI ‘camping card’ discounted one, but
usually with at least a bit of discount, we were underwhelmed to be offered
just one choice in a parched and scruffy plot that shared boundaries with the
road, a rubbish point, and what could only be described as some sort of ‘work
in progress’ area – for €30 plus tax!
At that point, the Aire
across the road looked decidedly attractive – and we had said we wanted to try
out one of the new-to-us network of Pass’Étapes Aires, hadn’t we... At €13 a
night with electric and free WiFi, water and waste disposal, we decided to give
it a try for a night – especially as it shared the exact same beach as the
campsites!
These Aires are unlike any
we have stayed on previously, in that although they vary in their initial
attractiveness (this one with no shade and the one in Nantes in a lovely wooded
lane, for example) they all give a minimum demarcated pitch size, have free
WiFi, drinking water and waste disposal and many, like the one here at La Saulce,
electric hook-up too. With a maximum of 9 vans allowed at any one time at this
particular Aire, we decided that although it might just get cosy, it wouldn’t
be anything like some of the cheek-by-jowl regular Aires we have stopped at!
Entry is by a ‘smart
barrier’ that reads how much credit you have on the mandatory PE card (€4 for
life and printed while you wait!) which then won’t let you out until you have
loaded enough pre-payment to raise the barrier on departure. We also discovered
that although you can just turn up and, if the barrier lets you in, you can
stay for up to three nights, you can also pre-book a pitch at least 48hours in
advance. So if you turned up and liked a place, you could immediately pre-book
from night 4 if there are vacancies. And we were super-impressed with their
‘live’ website that gives an indication of the vacancy level at each Aire –
very clever!
The electric hook-up
clinched it for us, as it was the only way we could guarantee a hot indoor
shower each day, as our over-priced and unreliable diesel heater that would
normally be pressed into service, had given up the ghost before we left the UK.
(The option of our outdoor solar bag showers between the back doors of the van would
probably not be condoned by Pass’Étapes – nor the people passing along the
adjacent road!)
And the beach and coastline
of the not-calanques turned out to be very pleasant indeed, reminiscent of a
number of Atlantic beaches we’ve visited in northern Spain or even Cornwall.
We stayed for two nights
(quiet and peaceful) and with the temperature in the mid 20s, suffered no real
hardships for the absence of shade. And the WiFi was the fastest and most
reliable we have encountered on any campsite – no doubt helped by that maximum
of 9 campervans! We could have stayed a further night with the weather set fair
and more exploring to do, but we wanted to pace our trip west to meet up with
Dave and Jan near Béziers, so we could arrive in Sérignan early enough to stand
a chance of getting a pitch on a site near them. We had discovered (and were
reminded of our trip to Croatia when we encountered a similar high occupancy
period) that we had hit the two week period in June, when many of the southern
German states have a two week Pentecost holiday – something to remember on
subsequent trips!
With this in mind we opted
for an inland and quirky looking site in Fabrègues, given that the vast
majority of the German campers we had encountered in this holiday period were
young families who tended to favour coastal resorts. Even the sudden rainstorm
en route didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for a ‘proper’ campsite stop, and we took
the equally sudden clearing of the skies as we turned into camping Le Botanic
as a good omen…
Never assume they say, and
we shouldn’t have, as although we’d called the probable absence of young German
families right, they had simply been replaced by equally large numbers of older
(like us) Dutch couples, with, we soon discovered at reception, a large and
loyal following of repeat customers at this site! That’s the thing about
camping on the hoof, there’s always someone else on holiday! Listening in as
the Dutch couple in front of him were being turned away as yup – you guessed –
this site was also ‘complet’, Mr B turned on his best cod-gallic schoolboy
French charm and asked whether there might not, perhaps, may be a teeny-tiny
pitch for a campervan for only one night? Suddenly we (and the Dutch couple)
were offered a place in the adjacent field – with hook-up and use of all
facilities for the ACSI price – woohoo!
With temperatures rising now
the sun had shown itself, we quickly pitched-up and headed off to explore the
site and its ‘lagoon’. We soon worked out why the site was so popular, with
well shaded and thoughtfully planted pitches, a very tasteful amenity block
accessed over two small waterways, and, of course, that lagoon, complete with
sandy beach and palm trees…
. . . and with a small bar/resto
and swimming pool on site as well. Even though Le Botanic wouldn’t have tempted
us for much more than one or two nights, we could see why its quirky charm had
generated such a fan club! And we had the added bonus of our Scottish
registration plate starting a conversation from a lovely German couple who had
visited more of Scotland than we had. Undeterred by the fact that we weren’t
actually Scottish, and intrigued by our reason for adopting a Scottish flagged
plate as a response to the 2016 Brexit vote, we were amazed to discover that
the woman had been born and raised in Mönchengladbach, where Mr B’s brother was
born and he had lived for a brief period in the early 60s!
By the time we had swum and
settled down for supper, Mr B’s view that it was his intervention at reception
that had engineered our overnight stop was a little compromised by the half
dozen or so other campervans that had found their way to the field! We figured
in the end it was probably no more than making a clear distinction that there
were no ‘camping’ pitches available as per expectations of an ACSI site, but
that there was this overflow ‘aire’ if people were desperate enough!
And so with mounting
excitement at seeing our friends Dave and Jan, but with some trepidation about
occupancy levels at campsites, we set off for the relatively short hop over to
Sérignan Plage…
S&J
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