Gorges Du Verdon

Today it was time for the Gorge du Verdon. We had to get up early and pack up the van and after coffee and croissants we set off. We spent the whole day meandering along the gorge, stopping frequently to admire the views.

We took a detour by the Point Sublime and went up to the high village of Rougins, a small settlement perched on the side of a jagged tor with a ruined chateau on top of it. We had refreshements in  a local creperie with a garden view to die for – even the loo had a great view!

The whole area was beautiful and totally unspoilt (except for the hoardes of people and motorhomes!). We finished the day at the village of Moustiers St Marie, where we found a lovely small campsite with terrific views of the village perched on the hillside. We found a pitch, marked it with some stuff and with directions of the site owner, set off to find supper. We hadn’t planned on staying here more than one night but once we’d seen the village we decided to stop 2 nights, as we’d underestimated what was on offer here. We cooked supper and drank local wine admiring the view.

The next morning we headed up into the village on the bikes. It was raining and bikes would enable us to retreat fast if we really got drenched. We walked up to the Church perched high in a ravine above the village. My French is not yet good enough to translate the information points but it had apparently been built by prisoners and dated back to the 9th Century.

We meandered through the streets and alleyways before getting a baguette and heading back to Valerie for lunch. A few spots of rain as we laid the table but we persevered and eventually the sun came out and we had a glorious afternoon in the sunshine.

Cote D'Azur

From the Cinque Terre we headed for the Cote D’Azur and a bit of sun and relaxation. We found a campsite from our book that was near Antibes and only about 1.5km from Biot, a favourite of ours. We wouldn’t normally pick a ‘holiday camp’ type of site but the one we stayed at for 5 nights was mostly small static mobile homes and bungalows, with just a few touring pitches. However, it was convenient to the places we wanted to get to, had a nice pool area, was spotlessly clean and had private bathrooms, toilets and outdoor kitchen area for the touring pitches. So we were able to really unpack for 5 whole days, and with extra storage elsewhere, the van was much tidier. We had a couple of days out exploring. We cycled to Biot for the day and had lunch of moules and frites. Biot is a village like the Italian borgo’s we like but all in stone. It has a beautiful old church and, like many of the old villages on the Cote, attracts artists and most famously here, glass blowers.

We also went to Tourettes Sur Loup and Chateauneuf which were along the same lines and then stopped at Valbonne for a drink and a walk as we had done a couple of years ago but he couldn’t remember.

We had two lazy days by the pool in the sunshine and it was only as we drove out of the campsite as we left, that we realised how close the beach was! Still, we have done the Cote and its beaches many times, so we didn’t miss anything really. One thing we were happy to say goodbye to were mosquito bites. The Cote D’Azur is always lovely but it has drawbacks.

Our next destination was the Gorges at Verdon in Haute Provence. We took the back roads to Castillion and saw some spectacular scenery, especially going over the Coll De Vence and the village of Coursegoules, where we stopped for a walk around and refreshments.

More dramatic scenery and we reached Castillion, where we had lunch. Another 10km after Castillion and we arrived at the campsite, a great location right on the river bank with mountains on either side. We found a nice quiet plot and set up. In the morning we took the bikes and headed for a tiny hamlet almost at the top of the mountain on one side of the campsite. It was served by what the map called a ‘road’ but after some dodgy directions we found ourselves forced to push the bikes up a tiny track. After a while, we could see the village – a long way away!! We persevered and sweated and got there in the end. A tiny place with just a handful of houses. Visitors can’t come often as us just cycling by had two locals coming out to see who was there. The views from up there were lovely but living all the way up there in isolation wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

With all the sweat to get up there, of course coming down was easy! About 5 km without having to press the pedals! A welcome dip in the pool to cool off and a snooze in the sun and we then finished off the day with white asparagus risotto, which has become a favourite of ours to make after we had it in a restaurant.

The Cinque Terre Liguria

We decided to do the Cinque Terre whilst relatively nearby, so we headed for the coast from Barolo and went via Alba, a city we had been told was good for a visit. We stopped but found Alba much like Aosta, some great architecture but much of the city quite scruffy. We had a nice coffee and walked round the old parts before heading down to Genova. We were going to stay on the outskirts of Genova but when we found the campsite we decided to move on! We went a further 2 hours to Deiva Marina, much more convenient for the Cinque Terre and we managed to get a pitch once we went to campsites away from the coast. One campsite wanted to charge us the full pitch rate for 3 feet by the side of an access road!

The Cinque Terre is a collection of 5 borgos on the Ligurian coast between La Spezia and Genova, that were built by and for peasants who took the steep slopes of the coastal mountains and terraced the land to make it productive. We took a day to explore them and they really are quite spectacular, with narrow roads with hairpin bends joining them together. We missed the first - Riomaggiore as we were turned away by the police, the parking having been exhausted. We had tried to park further away and walk but couldn’t find anywhere. We managed all the rest, although you do have to allow at least a 3km walk to/from each town, and of course half of that is uphill back to your vehicle. So, a day is somewhat pushing it. As you walk you see the workers on the steep slopes digging/toiling in the baking heat.

To France via Italy - Barolo

Well, off we went again, awning mourning over and refreshed after a few days in the mountains. The weather has been a bit pants but we enjoyed a few nice walks and a few beers at Les Collons. We also got to catch up with The Apprentice! (what a lot of cr*p that is thesedays – but go Tom!). We set off this morning – we always aim for early but never quite manage it! We headed for Barolo, where his nibs wanted to explore the wine etc. Our route took us over the Grand St Bernard Pass, the highest of our trip so far. We had done it before at the same time of year but we were better served by the weather this time, so the view was much better. Much less snow this time, but still enough!

We had intended to side step Turin on the motorway but missed a turn and ended up in the city, which is just about the scariest thing I have encountered in a long time. Practically every car in Turin has a dent (or two, or more) and it is no wonder when you consider the way the locals drive – they are much worse in the big cities than generally in Italy. I never want to be in a car in Milan that’s for sure!

We arrived at our chosen campsite late afternoon. It was the only campsite we could find on the net anywhere near Barolo, about 3km away. We set up our pitch and then did a quick tour on the bikes to see where we were. A very steep hill into Barolo, so we decided to save that for the next day. We found a little shop and bought some local wine and headed back to camp to fire up the outdoor cooker and rustle up a mushroom risotto with parmesan. The campsite is lovely, very small but clean facilities and away from the crowds etc…. just as we like. Some existing campers warned us of the steepness of the hill from Barolo, but that’s for tomorrow! For now the local wine is good!

The cycle down the hill first thing was lovely. Sunshine and a beautiful view, with virtually no pedalling! No pedalling down for 4 km means hard work back though! We spent the morning wandering through Barolo’s narrow streets and had cappachinos and coffee before the tour round the wine museum. Later we decided to cycle downhill to do some more wineries, but this meant cycling uphill some more! We did around 10km that day, with at least 6 of them up steep hills! Boy was I knackered after!  Once we returned a shower and we were ready for supper at the local trattoria. This was an interesting affair! No menu, just the waitress indicating at each course 5 in total) what was on offer. Veal was a special feature! Including veal tartare, which was described as veal cappaccio – which the old man chose. After a few minutes his ball of minced dead cow baby arrived, dressed with lemon oil, parmesan, olive oil etc (but it was still a dead baby!). He had more veal later but I had a nice dish of angel hair pasta with sage oil and another with asparagus and béchamel. Add desert, coffee and a couple of bottles of local wine and the evening went swimmingly! Barolo had been a lovely stop on our tour and we’d return here in a heartbeat.

Slovenia didn't go quite to plan!

Well, it was going so well..... 3am in the morning and a storm comes over, loud crash, van shakes, wind out awning ripped off the van. Me (drenched) holding torch in my mouth holding up whats left of it whilst he (also drenched) tries to wind it into the casing to prevent damage to the van. We manage to get it back in but its clear it's trashed, so we have to somehow organise its removal, assess whether it's repairable or dispose of it, rather than risk it fall out or off whilst we are away and cause further damage to anything. We spend the next day walking round the lake at Bled. Having not slept much the night before and a bit upset about the loss of our £500 awning, we were a little subdued but Bled is a very pretty place. The sun shone for some of the day but the forecast was for a lot more rain and thunderstorms, so we decided the best thing to do was to return to Switzerland the next day.

The following morning, we secured the awning packed up and set off. We (probably foolishly!) decided to do the whole trip in one go but we did a 2 hour driving rota and were fine. We took our own route and saw the most fantastic scenery along the roof of Italy. We went through the Trentino Alto Adige region, which includes the Dolomites, which, with their jagged tops give a quite different skyline from the Italian Alps.

We passed though lovely villages and mountain passes. We stopped for lunch just outside Forni Di Sopra at a restaurant serving typical mountain food. We had polenta and wild mixed mushrooms, with him having grilled cheese and some kind of meat with his. We pushed on and admired the scenery on the way. We went through beautiful villages and towns as we approached the Swiss border, including Glorenza.

Then we went over the Offen Pass at 2150 metres, which was lovely. We have done so many high passes in the Alps but this one is really pretty. We went over as the sun was going down, which added to the spendour.

We then progressed through Davos but missed a turning so missed Klosters. We hadn't realised that on this route we had to go over the Furka pass at 2500 metres, which in rain and late at night was a little scary! A little fog at the top but nothing too bad - didn't have to worry about anything coming the other way though! Once we neared Brig we were in familiar territory, finally arrived and climbed into bed.

The next morning we removed the awning and dismantled it. Too many bits were damaged to make it worth repairing but at least it was off. A dent in the van is a little disappointing but paint not broken so repair can wait. We'll stay here until the mass of thunderstorms over the Alpine regions moves on. Lots of rain without an awning would be a pain. The tour will continue, the the route will just change. We might not get to go to Croatia, as it's a long way back there but we have plenty of time, so we'll see.

To Slovenia

We departed Venice and headed North East. We’ve been using a book about driving the back roads of Italy, and have been incorporating as much of the drives in the book as we can were it fits in with our itinerary. We hadn’t realised that we were travelling on 2^nd June, Republic day in Italy and a public holiday, so everything was shut but we took the suggested route. Our destination for the day was Gemona Del Fruilli, a town nestled below the Julian Alps about 60 km from the Slovenian/Austrian border. The town was almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1972 and was rebuilt after the devastation. The quake memorial museum was open, so after cycling from the campsite into town, we visited it. The only thing memorable about the campsite at Gemona (apart from noisy Austrians arriving with dogs barking at midnight) was the price of a round of drinks – a glass of prosecco Euro @ 1.60 and 0.4litre of beer @ Euro 4.00!! If you had a glass of local white wine, which was perfectly acceptable, it was only 90 cents!!

We left the campsite early and drove to Bled in Slovenia. On the way we stopped at Tarvisio, just short of the Austrian/Slovenia to try and find a non existent food market – a guide book I had sad there was a market every day but all we could find was leather jackets and handbags!!  Never mind, we were treated when we stopped later at Laghi di Fusine, where 2 glacial lakes meet in lovely surroundings. We would have walked the lakes but the weather was not kind, so we had a somewhat restricted walk, given that we would have had to sit in the van with wet clothes on. If you like the mountains, as we do, you have to accept the weather that goes with them.

We arrived at Bled in Slovenia at midday, checked into the campsite and stuck our storage tent on a pitch. Good camping pitches are like sunbeds, you have to make it impossible for others to boot you off! So, we have a storage tent just for the purpose. We erect it, put the chairs and wheel chocks in it, and then we can bugger off in the van without worrying that someone will have stolen our spot. We went off to explore the area, find our bearings, a supermarket  for some provisions and a restaurant for lunch. We achieved all that, came back, actually changed our pitch! (we’re here for at least 4 days so it has to be right!) and set the van up. Then we went down to the lakeside and had a glass of wine.