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We were sad to leave Switzerland behind but looking forward to a bit warmer nights in the tent.
Our route south took us through the very picturesque French Alps, Vanessa was navigating and she took us over some windy, hilly roads to Chamonix. it was a beautiful sunny warm day but Mont Blanc was not quite clear. Chamonix seemed to have grown immensely since we were last there - very like Queenstown without the lake.
We carried on our windy, hilly course until we came out at Lac d’Annecy which is very beautiful and surrounded by mountains that look like huge cliffs - ideal for parapenters and there were lots of them. The worst thing about Annecy was we struck our first traffic jam in Europe and it took us over an hour just to get to the other side of Annecy.
We spent the next two nights on the shores of Lac du Bourget in the town of Aixs - les - Bains ( or Aches and Pains as the kids called it! ) It is a thermal resort with lots of thermal pools to soak away your aches and pains! The kids didn’t like the camp much they said it was full of old people and I guess it was.
It was a lovely town though with a great waterfront area along the lake and a great swimming pool complex that we tried to go for a swim in only to be told that boys and men can’t swim in shorts they must have speedos!
Our route south from Grenoble took us on a road named Napoleans Route which is the actual route Napolean and 700 soldiers took on return from exile on Elba in 1815. They walked 350km in 6 days through fairly rugged terrain to seize power. 100 days later he lost at the battle of Waterloo and was permanently jailed on the island of St Helena.
The road took us onto a highish plateau and onto Sisteron - the mountain gateway to Provence and famous for it’s lamb but I don’t know where they were because we never saw any sheep anywhere.
South of here there were lots of fruit orchards but they slowly gave way to scrubby hillsides.
Castellane was a village we stopped in for a while - it was a medieval village overlooked by a huge rock with a chapel Notre Dame Du Roc on top. We walked the steep path to the top for great views, wild honeysuckle grew everywhere. We decided people had to be fit in that town to go to church.
Another village we looked around called Mons was perched on a cliff edge and it’s streets were only about 2 metres wide. We had got here by accident as we had been looking for somewhere nice for lunch and headed off down a side road that got narrower and narrower but went through some stunning scenery with strange rock formations and steep gullies. The area was forested with pines and further south cork oaks.
We finally emerged from the hills to get stunning views of the Mediterranean and we left our relative scarcity of people to the crowds of humanity that is the Cote d’Azure.
We had decided the kids deserved a week of sun and games, so we had seen a special deal on the net for a 2 bedroom unit at a Eurocamp near St Tropez. Again it was cheaper to stay in luxury than it was to pitch our tents. Because of the weak pound the poms arent travelling to Europe as much and therefore Camps that are normally booked well in advance are only 30% full, good for us Kiwis.
We had a great week here and we will all remember the Hilarious Turkish entertainment guy , Merti, and his helpers Marteen from Bulgaria, and Rico from Tunisia, not to mention Oliver the freindly French Lifegaurd.
We also did some sightseeing here, visiting the very interesting Pipe factories in Cogolin, who export their fine pipes to smokers all over the world. The pipes are made from the root of the Briar plant, which are boiled for 4 hours and sun dried for 2 years. 4 people can make a 100 a day and the sell for upto 200 euros each!!, there is an opening their for the South Island Hill country!!!
Vanessa also went horse riding in the local hills, and we explored the local coastline.
After a very relaxing week, it was time to move on , so we packed up Vladimir, who has already clocked up 10000km on this trip, and headed off to drive the length of the Riviera, taking in the brilliant views as we passed through places like Cannes, Monaco and Nice.
The road after Nice was particularly ,spectacular, winding its way along sheer cliffs, scene of many James Bond car chases , and across the Border into Italy.
It was a welcome swim that night after an exhausting 10hr drive in 30 degree heat, we are starting to miss the Airconditioning.
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