A Google Earth kmz file showing our route and overnight stops, accurate to the specific pitch we used, is here:
https://sites.google.com/site/daburleigh/home/France2011AnnecyWProvence.kmz
Photos are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/DABurleigh/France2011Share
showing comments of Day number, site, etc. Sit back and fire up the slideshow or click on individual thumbnails as required.
A Google Blogger blog with this text and small photos interspersed is here:
http://daburleigh.blogspot.com/2011/08/france-2011-annecy-west-provence-draft1.html
Strategic planning for this trip was minimal, and it showed in due course in that some vague aspirations were not met. That said, I’d be happy to do exactly the same with the benefit of hindsight, and you can’t ask more than that. In part, the lack of planning was due to expecting to be able to use either MHF’s USB key or its Android app for choosing sites and aires on the fly. In the event these were not available when we left on Saturday 4th June, so we used some MMM site write-ups torn out of that mag, CampingCar.Info aire true offline mapping DVD and its latest TomTom POIs, and supplemented these on occasions with MHF’s online campsite database when we had internet use from either my faculty-X wifi extender or Vodafone Data Traveller at £2 per day for 25Mb.
We had wanted to visit Provence for a few years, but never got around to it. With just 2 weeks at our disposal we don’t want to spend it searching for shade and lolling in it, so it has to be at the shoulders of the Summer, which hadn’t worked for us until this year. I only had one other “must”, which was to visit Annecy on the way down. I must confess I thought we’d also get around to spending 2/3 days swimming in the Med, people watching on the Cote d’Azur and visiting the Gorges du Verdon, but these aspirations were not achieved. Those little bumps down that way mean it can take a LONG driving time to get along there and back.
We had convenient Eurotunnel train times, courtesy of Tesco vouchers at 4-to-1 (with a final lot at 4-to-1 already booked for next Spring), so after a normal morning breakfast routine we trundled from home in Basingstoke to a 10:20am Folkestone to Calais train.
Our first night stop was at the Lac D’Orient aire:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=2060
which was a first time there for us, but as a review states, it is a very handy overnight stop on the way down or back near the A26/A5, so we’ll use it again. Anywhere I can overnight for free with the security of fellow campers and mere steps from a beach of a large lake in natural parkland gets my vote
We encountered a major Triathlon in the environs of the aire and lake, so by the time I got to park up I had had my fill of excited, gesticulating French marshalls giving conflicting instructions. I think we encountered a couple of more Triathlons over the next 2/3 days, too. Disgustingly healthy and enthusiastic, these French.
Onwards to Annecy, via toll roads it is difficult to avoid and sight of the Geneva fountain because in gassing away we ignored the satnav, to Le Lac Bleu Camping International at the south end of the lake:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=353
(4 nights, Sun-Wed)
We cycled on our Bromptons some 20 miles to Annecy and back, along a quality, dedicated cycle route.
Boat trip around lake, stopping off in Annecy and a delightful lunch.
Total chilling. It was too long since I’d got comfy and immersed myself in a good book. I felt supremely relaxed and thoughts of work were well behind me. We also, at long last, took some time planning what made sense to do further south, and decided to forego spending time on the Cote d’Azur.
Day 6
With a stop on the outskirts of Grenoble to stock up at a LeClerc, we drove through western Provence to the aire at Vaison La Romaine:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=2026
a handy aire in a lovely Roman town with views to Mont Ventoux.
We bought a couple of signed prints to display in the lounge and kitchen at home, to add to our holidaying objets d’art that keep us sane while awaiting the next holiday. After lunch we moved a few miles down the road to Malaucene, recommended by Annie of geraldandannie, and stayed 3 nights at Camping Le Bosquet:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=10854
which had recently been reviewed in MMM. The weather was a lot warmer than that we had left behind in Annecy, so the pool was especially refreshing.
Annie had also suggested taking the scooter up to the top of Mont Ventoux, so that I dutifully did. Tommy Simpson died near its summit in the Tour de France of 1967, the year Ali and I met (how time flies ...). The mountain seemed a cycling pilgrimage, with the large numbers I saw, though given the empty champagne bottles at the summit, maybe rite of passage is more apt! It struck me that one needed to be hopelessly addicted to endorphins to climb that mountain on two wheels without the aid of an engine. Watching their kamikaze descents was just as much fun on the way down.
It was hot. Not too hot, but it was a reIief having the scooter to get the air flowing over my skin. And as I enjoyed Mont Ventoux so much yesterday, I cooled off by going up there again, coming back down by another route (mistakenly, it must be admitted).
We headed further south to L’Isle sur la Sorgue, staying 2 nights at Camping la Sorguette:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=10855
This was clearly a popular site, but it didn’t particularly appeal to us. It certainly didn’t make the most of its adjacent river. We visited by scooter the source of the river Sorgue river at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse and enjoyed a rock/ Harley meet in the centre of Isle de la Sorgue. The photos say more than I can; I couldn’t see it happening in the UK, which made it all the more appealing!
This was a glorious day out to Les Baux de Provence:
http://www.lesbauxdeprovence.com/
which is interesting, beautiful and with some glorious vistas from high up on the fortifications. At one point I couldn’t tear myself away from the view, daydreaming about a lifestyle in one of the villas in the olive farms below, surrounded by the end of the Alpilles range. I’ll keep on doing the numbers each week!
Onto Avignon to take in the key sights, stroll through the centre and lunch, before stopping at Camping La Sousta, also culled from MMM:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=4795
Ken (gaspode) clearly didn’t like that site, but we both thought it idyllic! Forget satellite among the pine trees, but other than that it was great. A natural setting, not at all packed in, and we had a cracking pitch to top it off. It had the feel of being very well managed. See the photos. The Pont du Rean was just a 5 minute walk.
I had thought come the Thursday (tomorrow) I had better start heading back north, given work on the Monday, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave, so we stayed another day and accepted a bit more daily driving over the weekend. Ali preferred the pool, whereas I preferred positioning myself in the middle of the river, wedging my feet on the bottom stones to defeat the strength of the current.
A memorable, though not particularly relaxing, drive on the glorious N106 through the Cevennes, to pick up the A75 and finishing the day at Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule aire, also recommended by Annie:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=4337
Ali visited the Saturday market while I pottered in the van, before we sped North once again, lunching in the forests of Fountainbleu south of Paris, and ending up at one of our favourite haunts at Saint Valery sur Somme aire:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=683
It was blowing a hooley along the Channel, but that didn’t put us off moules et frites and a bottle of rose in a waterside restaurant.
Day 16
A lazy morning for our last day in France, before the last short leg to Calais and a 1520 Eurotunnel to Folkestone and home.
It had been another lovely fortnight in France, leaving us feeling good and happy. Provence is a cracking destination on the shoulders of our Summer, but it needs a dedicated couple of weeks as a minimum, and three would be better still. For next time, if going directly, I’ll need to think more about route options to juggle travel time and tolls.
Dave
