Dolomite Drive – 18 July 2010

After a torrential storm in the night, we were pleasantly surprised to find the sun shining brightly in the morning. We set out on our Dolomites exploration using some information we had gleaned from the Internet where there was mention of a Grande Strada delle Dolomiti so, given a start and end point and a couple of hints along the way, we set off. Clearly the route can be tackled in either direction but, as we had come far enough south the previous day, it made sense to head for Belluno and then onto Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Their Roman forebears taught the Italians to build straight roads and the modern Italians have perfected this technique when it comes to mountain areas by drilling tunnels straight through the mountains, often for considerable distances. While this makes getting to one's destination much quicker, the vistas within the tunnels are distinctly, if you will pardon the pun, boring. Our aim was, thus, to avoid tunnels wherever possible and find the forgotten “back” roads to combine two pleasures: the views and the driving.

Cortina d'Ampezzo was worth a stop and stroll around, then we were off to the Pordoi Passo. This has great views from the top, but the temptation to stop too long was not appealing because of the cold temperature and the risk of the tedious slow drivers getting in front again. At the bottom of the pass, we headed for the Passa Sella This is not so dramatic, but still great mountain terrain. The close-up views of the Dolomites on both passes, were every bit as good a we had expected. Once at the bottom we decided to take a back route to Bolzano (our expected destination), but discovered Castlerotto over another small pass, and just past this small town, was a campsite sign, the first we had seen for a very long time. This seemed a good time to stop for the night, and leave Bolzano for tomorrow. We were very glad we did, as the facilities at Camping Alpe Di Siusi would have to rate as 5 star plus, in the camping world. The facilities block is underground (no danger of an unasthetically pleasing camp ablution block design marring the landscape), with a circular stairway descending to a central foyer with large fountain. Soap and toilet paper supplied (basic one would think, but not normal in Europe), deluxe toilets and showers (no token purchase necessary here!), beautifully tiled throughout, separate children's facilities, and in the women's wing, a 'marble' lined beauty room surrounded by mirrors and hair-dryers, with a water feature in the centre! Sheer camping heaven.

Off through the Alps – 17 July 2010

The beauty of our campsite was marred by the all night revellers nearby. Probably they were unable to sleep, because of the extremely hot night, so decided not to bother. We, however, slept with our tent open, and only our mosquito screen between us and the outside world. Our sleep was, thus, regularly interrupted until 5.30am when, just as the lads had quietened down, the thunder took over. We reluctantly dragged ourselves out of bed and had just got the last item in the boot when the large heavy drops of rain started.

Feeling rather pleased with ourselves, we then found the camp office was closed until 8am, so drove to the nearest town for coffee. It was a pleasant town to fill in time and after finally paying our camping fees, we set off for the Stelvio Pass. This had been one of the high-lights last year on our Alps tour, and as we were passing by that corner of Italy again, we couldn't resist a repeat of this amazing road; this time travelling in the opposite direction. Before reaching the turnoff to Stelvio, we passed through Tirano. It turned out to be a great coffee break, as the Bernina Express leaves from here, trundling along the street near our cafe, and the church is amazing, making the town well worth a visit. We were privileged to hear the organist practising for a wedding and thus enjoyed both the look and sound of the magnificent organ.

The weather was fine for the pass, we left all the bad weather behind in Como. We were amazed at the higher level of traffic on the road over the pass, then realised it was Saturday, which probably accounted for it.



After the Stelvio, we planned another mountain pass to reach the Trento area, on our way to the Dolomites. The road was empty and the mountains passes great fun to be on without the traffic. We headed for a campsite on our map, only to find it was full, as was the second camp; finally at the third camp, we were able to squeeze into a small site, unfortunately the car had to be left at the other end of camp. Rather inconvenient carrying all our stuff to and fro as we are very used to parking the car beside the tent and only unpacking the bare minimum.

On to Italy – 16 July 2010

The Montgenevre pass was just up the road from the fortified town of Briancon, which has guarded the pass for centuries. The old town is delightful to walk around, and have a coffee, and we were entertained with a re-enactment by a brigade of soldiers, who patrolled the town in full 18th century kit and gave a rifle firing demonstration.



The drive over the pass and down through the mountains on the Italian side, was the highlight of the day. The Fort Exille was the Italian counterpart of Briancon. But sadly, after leaving here, the drive settled down to very hot tedium, as we crossed the top of Italy,

Turin was wrapped in heat haze, pollution and traffic fumes so we shrugged of that Turin shroud, and moved on to Milan which unfortunately was mired in motorway madness and men and machines making more, creating mayhem and monotony as we moved maddeningly slowly around the metropolis. It was all compounded by the fact that every Italian in the city seemed to be heading north for the weekend, but eventually we reached our destination – Lake Como. We had no idea what the camping situation was like here, and after getting stuck in the continuous tunnel system above the lake, we were finally able to exit that, and found a campsite right on the water's edge, and were allocated a spot right beside the water. Life seemed to have taken a turn for the better! We were happy to be well away from Milan and it's pollution and heat; temperature gauges we passed during the day had hit the low 40s

From lavender towards the Alps – 15 July 2010

We left our delightful campsite, near a fragrant field of lavender, and visited several other towns on the lavender tour. The best coloured lavender was at Ferrassieres. Workers were out in the field of the richest colour, cutting and bundling lavender to leave it to dry in the sun, one day later and we would have missed this stunning sight.





Photographing lavender is very addictive, but we finally dragged ourselves away, and bought a picnic lunch, which we ate at a at a picnic site overlooking the really stunning hilltop town of Lurs. This town had been abandoned, but since WWII it has been restored, and is a delight to visit, quiet and calm, the tourist throng seem to have bypassed it. As our last taste of lavender, literally, we sat on a terrace in Lurs enjoying the view and a lavender ice cream.

Setting our sat-nav to take us to the border crossing with Italy, at a town called Montgenevre we had no idea what type of road we would be on, but it turned out to be wonderful gorge, with dozens of old stone bridges to cross.

A mountain pass took us over a range to wonderful views over Lac de Serre-Pancon. We unfortunately got stuck behind two logging trucks, as a result of stopping to take photos, but after winding down the mountain to nearly lake level, the sat-nav turned us off the main road (which we assume wound around the lake shore) and instead of the easy road, we had fun winding over the hills to the far end of the lake. Imagine our surprise that, when we reached the main road again, we had to give way to the first of the two logging trucks!

The lake was tempting to camp beside, but we decided to press on further, and eventually camped by a very small lake at Roche de Rame, the temperature of this lake was perfect for swimming, so a good decision.

Start of the Lavender trail – 14 July 2010

While our tent dried out from the heavy dew, we toured south of Avignon to Les Baux. This hilltop town is built among wonderfully shaped rocky outcrops, in an area like a lunar landscape.




The town is cute, clean and quite worth a detour. On the way back to Avignon, we called by St Remy, where Van Gogh spent time in a mental ward, after slicing off his ear.

After packing our now super hot/super dry tent, we headed north-east through wonderful villages like Gordes and Roussillon to Sault, the heart of one of the lavender areas.

Gordes tumbles down a hillside, and we enjoyed our best lunch yet, of strawberry custard pie – delicious, and just outside town, we found our first lavender at the Abbey de Senanque.

Roussillon must be paradise to an artist. The town is built of rich red to vermilion coloured clay, the whole experience was like walking through an impossibly over-the-top film set. We loved it and were reluctant to move on.



The road from there to Sault is fairly uninteresting, but once we drove to the edge of town and looked out, the view of lavender fields is great. We drove through the fields to Mount Ventoux. At 1900m the air is fresh and cold, and the 360 degree view was great, despite the heat haze.

At Sault we picked up a brochure with a selection of lavender tours, but shortly into the drive, we decided to finish tomorrow, and spend the night at a campsite at Montbrun les Bains.

Sur le Pont – 13 July 2010

Today's theme was bridges: Starting with the town we camped in – Le Malene – we drove through the spectacular Tarn Gorge, with many rock arches for the road to wind through, to morning coffee at another bridge town – Les Vignes. The itinerary was planned simply to take us to Millau, but the route itself proved to be a major scenic attraction.



In Millau, we were able to get printed instructions from the Tourist office (no doubt in high demand), to take a trip over the new bridge, which broke a number of records when it was built. A specially built viewpoint has a display about the making of the bridge, and then the drive over the 2.5km length goes all too soon.

Our fourth bridge was Pont du Gard. This section is the most impressive section that remains of the 50km Roman aqueduct, designed to provide water for Nimes. The sun was baking hot by now, and the well presented history of the bridge, construction, and water in Roman times, was a very cool respite from the heat.

Our final destination of the day was Avignon, and of course the Pont, made famous in the nursery rhyme we had learnt in French lessons.

We enjoyed walking around the town in the early evening, watching the performers there for the annual festival of arts, and generally enjoying the atmosphere of a lively buzzing town, before returning to our tranquil campsite and an excellent 3 course meal, the main was duck cooked in a local Provencial way - absolutely delicious.

A Postman's “Castle” - 12 July 2010

Hauterives is the location of the Palais Ideal du Facteur Cheval, our first stop of the day. This creative folly is the work of a postman who collected rocks on his 32km postal round, and over a period of 33 years, built a whimsical folly. Stairways lead up to turrets and vantage points, over the “castle”. All manner of building styles are involved, from Egyptian, Roman & Aztec. The locals considered him slightly mad, but he persevered, and when the local authorities changed their minds about allowing part of his construction to be a mausoleum for himself and his wife he started again, at age 78, and built his own tomb in the local cemetery, using the same type of building style.

Our intended destination was Millau, so we took the scenic route along the Ardeche, and over the mountains. The road was full of hairpin bends, gorges and stunning scenery. Every vehicle (except one) was extremely courteous, and made it easy for us to pass, and we had a brilliant time enjoying various mountain roads.

We were very tempted to stop for the night at at picturesque gorge village of Pont de Mont Verte, but decided it was too far from Millau. So carried on to Florac, over a high mountain switch back road, across a plateau to La Malene. By this time we were only 35 minutes from Millau, so decided we should stop at this very appealing town. The combination of arch bridge and medieval town rising out of the surrounding cliffs, was irresistible. But just as we paid for the campsite, the thunder and lightening moved in, and we put up the outer shell of the tent in an almighty deluge. The extremely heavy rain lasted for at least 30 minutes, and as soon as it stopped, we decided to explore the town for dinner, while the world dried out.

After spending most of the day with pharmacy thermometers registering 36 – 37 deg, we now found ourselves in a muggy 31 degrees, which was not totally adequate to dry everything out. But by the time we had a salad in a local restaurant (while our neighbouring table dined on the most enormous platters of steaks and frittes we have ever seen), the campground had returned to a much drier appearance and we looked forward to seeing it in the morning sunshine.