Creme d'Anglais

Friday 29th September 2017 - Beaurecueil. We did one thing today.  Climbed Mont Sainte Victoire to the Croix de Provence.  Just short of 1000m.  We cycled to the starting point of a footpath and headed up in glorious sunshine.  The man at the site had reassured us that we didn't need to check the weather ahead.   You can just see the cross on the top.  When we set off from the car park a French man told us to stick to the yellow marked path that was the easiest but from the moment we started we never saw a yellow marked path.  We stuck to the red path, which later became blue?  We don't understand any of it but the paths were marked with regular painted marks on rocks.  We thought the system could be used in the UK as it didn't need wooden posts or other signage.  Janice is usually keen to carry our bikes up crazy, steep, rocky paths but on this occasion I managed to talk her out of it! We worked up a good sweat up the mountain (over 300...

Thursday 28th September 2017 - Beaurecueil. The didn't intend to go near Marseille but the sat nav had different ideas.  We get some unusual routes because we set it to avoid toll roads, but even so, we didn't expect to go near Marseille.  It actually took us right into the city centre (by that time I had given up thinking of anything other than following the sat nav).  It probably isn't the most scenic city we have been through (understatement) but there was one lovely view as we crossed one of the main streets of some grand buildings and a monument on top of the hill, which I think is the belfry of Notre Dame de la Gard.  I think Marseille's best feature is the old port which we didn't see, so I shouldn't judge the place.  We just don't enjoy big cities too much with the camper van.  Our actual destination was a camp site about 8km outside of Aix en Provence at Beaurecueil. This is what met us on our arrival at the site.... That is Mont Sainte Victoire. ...

Wednesday 27th September 2017 - Cassis. A much better nights sleep with no mossie attacks, thank goodness. Today was a beach day.  We decided to have a holiday from our normal lifestyle.  It was lovely on the beach. The temperature was pleasant all day, even I managed it and I don't normally do hot beach days.  Lovely cooling swims and people watching. Sadly we didn't do much to tell up you about other than eat pastries, ice creams and then later on..... We had banana and 'creme anglaise' (custard to you and me)!  It was lovely. Before I forget this interesting fact about Cassis.  It is famous over the ages for its quarried stone.  Stone from here was used to build ports at Alexandria, Piraeus, Port Said and was reputed to have been used for the base of the Statue of Liberty! Our favourite place so far.  We could stay for a fortnight.  Good restaurants (although we didn't try any),  nice beaches, great scenery and walking in the hills (althou...

Tuesday 26th September 2017 - Cassis. After all the anti-mosquito precautions I still took a hit last night.  It wasn't the best night of sleep I've had.  I know I won't get any sympathy but it was hot, my phone beeped several times for no good reason, I needed the loo and half way through we had a tactical change by taking the duvet out of the cover and using the cover and a fleecy blanket instead.  The mossies had several more bites of me, they took so much blood that I thought I was a blood donor but without getting a free biscuit.  Janice got  quite a few new bites too.  That Jungle Formula hasn't done the trick.  No, I don't deserve sympathy because I'm in a nice warm climate doing things that I want to do whilst everyone else in England is getting cold and wet, sorry, I don't mean to complain. We were moving on today and at the last moment decided to stick to the coast a little longer.  Our objectives were the towns of Bandol (I have already...

Monday 25thSeptember 2017 - Le Lavandou. We are two weeks into our French trip, I'm starting to lose sense of time because I don't know if time is passing quickly or slowly? I mentioned the mossies yesterday.......I sadly must report that they struck in the dark of night and savagely sucked blood from Janice and myself, despite me using the Avon 'Skin so Soft' spray that is usually good at repelling insects (now you know the secret of eternal youth....I'm such a softy).  We both had multiple bites but hadn't noticed anything during the night.  We spent the first half hour of the morning mercilessly hunting down the culprits. Janice on guard. We had a lazy morning.  I popped to the Carrefour supermarket for bread and some other bits and pieces and found the solution to our cereal problem.  Whilst in France and having visited many supermarkets we have had a problem locating cereal that is roughly similar to our normal Fruit and Fibre with muesli option.  You see, ...

Sunday 24th September 2017 - Le Lavandou. Another lovely day of pleasant temperatures and blue skies.  I did the morning bread shop in town and we hung around the site and did some sunbathing till after morning coffee.  Then we put on our swimming costumes (Janice calls them 'dookers', she says it's a Scottish word and she says it's short for having a dunk and dookers are what you wear whilst have a dunk in???).  Then we cycled to the beach and had a 'dook'. The sea was lovely and clear.... but a little cold around the dookers until I was acclimatised.  We hung around in the sun for about an hour, had another swim and then headed back for a late lunch.   In the afternoon we again set off on bikes southwards to Cap Benat, only to be prevented by a security guard as we approached the tip of the peninsula.  It is apparently a private area, only for rich people.  We turned around and headed inland instead and found a hill to climb.  Up we went to the ...

Saturday 23rd September 2017 - Le Lavandou. We tore ourselves away from the fantastic Aire de Camp at Bargemon early...ish this morning.  We drove back through Draguignan to visit the Lidl for staple shopping. Staple shopping includes cereal, bread, fruit, wine and beer.  On this occasion it also included salmon steaks for our meal tonight and Toulouse sausage for tomorrow.  Brother David (who lives in France) has tipped us off about French industrial action to blockade fuel depots starting next Monday so we also filled up with diesel. We headed for the Côte d'Azur.  Janice came to Nice and St Tropez when she was a l'lle lass of 16 years with her brother and girlfriend (wife to be).  Back then she was propositioned to join an Arabic looking man on his expensive yacht.  She turned him down....and what a good thing she did.....she may never have been seen again!  We didn't intend to stay at St Tropez but I thought we must pay a visit, just to say I had b...

Friday 22nd September 2017 - Bargemon. I don't want you thinking we are having every day as a gorgeously sunny day.  Just to keep you right you will see that we had some grey cloud today. In the absence of David Beckham getting in touch we cycled along the road to the villages nearby.  The first obstacle was the Col de St Arnoux, a little hill between us and Seillans, about 9km of climbing before the drop into the village.  We kept our eyes open for Beckingham Palace but didn't spot it.  We thought we would make excellent house sitters if they needed someone reliable.   All the villages near here were on hills.  We didn't stop on our outward journey but called on the way back.  Our lunch stop was in Fayence. Like all the villages it was lots of narrow steep streets.  Usually with a clock tower on the top.....  And the views were wonderful. It feels rather like Tuscany, lots of hills, olive trees and terracotta roofed houses in hill villages. ...

Thursday 21st September 2017 - Bargemon. Our night was very comfortable of the garage car park.  We particularly enjoyed using the free garage wifi which still worked well from the locked gates but not from our vans parking position.  So, yesterday evening was taken up by us standing next to the gates doing our blog and emails etc.  I'm surprised that we weren't reported as suspicious characters to the local police. Well, all was good with the garage.  We were informed in the morning that the alternator was expected today and the repair would be completed by 5pm.  We made a little plan of attack for our cycling trip of the day.  It started by a trip to Trans-en- Provence which we had thought was probably a suburb of Draguignan but turned out to be better than expected (we love it when it happens like that).  The first thing we liked was the Decathlon store.  We love them.  We made several purchases including trousers and casual shirts for me ...