The
next morning was
still sunny but with the continuous cold north wind that had blown for
the last week or so. A short drive took us to Villecroze another small
village where we walked around the attractive botanical gardens
with palm trees and more streams cascading over the wooded
cliffs
and then to TourTour, a typical hilltop village on the tourist trail
with smart restaurants and artists' studios, and then a short drive to
Aups and Camping les Près on the edge of the town where we had stayed
years ago. Aups is the largest town in the area with interesting narrow
streets and a large market in the shady square on Saturdays which
fortunately was tomorrow. The wind had dropped the next morning so we
strolled around the market with few bargains then visited the small
Segal art gallery with a small room at the back with a
fascinating
display of the local resistance movement in WW2. At last it was warm
enough to sit outside for the afternoon and into the evening.
Colorado Provencal at Rustrel
Another warm sunny day so we drove north across barren scrub
(called garrigue) countryside to the turquoise Lac de Ste Croix and
down to the small rebuilt village of Ste Croix de Verdon where there
was a large free car park beside the lake (and a popular aire) so we
lazed around until mid afternoon watching the Sunday trippers enjoying
the usual lake activities of pedalos and sailing. We decided to head
west then realised that we needed fuel so drove up to Riez where there
wasn't a filling station open but luckily found an automatic one at a
Carrefour mini-market on the edge of Valensole (Every year I get caught
with low fuel on a Sunday!). We headed on the main road towards Apt
then turned off across hilly countryside to Viens and the Colorado
Provençal at Rustrel where we were able to park overnight before taking
one of the marked walks through the ochre cliffs. After a shopping top
up in Apt we drove to Gordes and the large parking area for the Village
des Borries about 1 km out of the town where several motorhomes were
parked including two more Adria Twins one British the other from Greece
so we had a good time comparing notes on the mostly plus and a few
minus points! We walked to the busy town centre the next
morning
with another expensive market with many stalls aimed at the
tourists.and then drove to the working town of Cavaillon where for the
first time we met a traffic jam with lots of lorries at the autoroute
junction and then took a minor road across the low wooded hills of the
Chaîne des Alpilles to reach the very crowded Les Baux de Provence
where the was an aire listed but we didn't find it and ended up for the
night on the small quiet CL type campsite, Camping Ancient Chemin
d'Arles near St Rémy de Provence.
Continuing
westwards and
bypassing Arles we headed towards the Camargue and
took the
minor road alongside the eastern edge of the Étang de Vaccarès to Salin
de Giraud and after stopping
to look at the saltworks on to the vast beach at the Plage de Piémanson
where there were about 30 motorhomes parked before the shanty town of
old caravans and the naturist beach. A friendly place with
motorhomers of all nationalities. Luckily we stayed on the firm sand
but one French van got stuck and our griptracks did the job - rewarded
by a bottle of wine! After a glorious sunset and a peaceful night we
drove back round the Étang and down to Stes Maries de
la Mer
where we pulled in to the ACSI Camping Le Clos du Rhone to catch up on
the washing and wifi before walking into the town centre where
"Vehicules habitable" are banned except at the aires but they were
extending the large parking area to the west of the town.
Camargue flamingoes
We
then drove inland to Aigues Mortes, very busy and the aire was full
with barrier access and €16/24 hours so we decided to continue inland rather
than along the coast which looked built up on the map. Avoiding the
suburbs of Montpellier we reached Sommières where after negotiating the
grid of narrow one way streets we eventually found the aire outside the
municipal campsite. It turned out to be a delightful old town with
narrow streets and shady squares behind the old gateway by the River Vidourle.
There was a large brocante (flea and antiques market) on the Saturday morning
with lots of expensive junk and a good street market with more
reasonable prices. Gerald Durrell spent his last few years here and
several artists have studios in the area.
Cotignac main square
Entrecasteaux château
Villacroze
cascade and botanical garden
Ste Croix du Verdon
Gordes market - tomatoes and colourful baskets
Sunset at Plage de Piémanson
Sommières square
Sommières gateway