Day 92 – Friday 8th June 2018
Rained heavily last night and a bit of mixed morning weatherwise. Read my kindle under the awning and had a look at Germany on Google Maps to see which is the best route up to the Baltic. Can’t make my mind up. Think I’m unlikely to come back this way again so I might as well see as much as possible this time.
To Biot in the afternoon.
Biot, the French don’t like to see a good hilltop go to waste
Mick Jagger lived in Biot in 1971 as a tax exile. Of course nowadays if you have a good accountant you can do all your tax avoidance without leaving Kensington & Chelsea.
a new twist on fridge magnets
Later we rode Zippy along the coast to Cagnes sur Mer and had a stroll in the evening sunshine.
Antibes from Cagnes sur Mer
obsessed
My parcel still hasn’t arrived
Day 93 – Saturday 9th June 2018
Beautiful sunny morning but by 11am the heat was too much. Retreated inside Nelly and whacked the aircon on.
The parcel from home arrived so we’re setting off on our way up to Norway tomorrow. I’m excited about travelling all the way to Norway but I’ll be sorry to leave the French Riviera, it’s been fantastic.
Late in the afternoon we set off for Villefranche-sur-Mer but the police in Nice had shut the main coast road at the old port for a fête.
The police in Nice are obviously very security conscious nowadays and shut roads off for traffic at the drop of a hat.
I tried following the scooter in front of me to see if they knew a backstreet way around the old port but even though he took us along pavements and through a no entry sign we got precisely nowhere. When we had to ride through the old flower market it felt very much like the Italian Job but no one batted an eyelid, they expect scooters to do that kind of thing round here
Eventually we gave up and had a wander around the main shopping street.
Day 94 – Sunday 10th June 2018
Up early and packed everything away
Decided to take the toll road to Aix-en-Provence and then the local roads from there to Avignon.
These toll operators are cheeky sods, if you take a ticket from the top dispenser they automatically shove you on the highest tariff. You have to complain to get adjusted back down.
The trip was thankfully uneventful and it was great to get on the local roads again through the beautiful French countryside and the little towns.
Arrived in Avignon in the early afternoon and went for a walk around the town and a boat trip across the Rhone.
Avignon’s free ferry across the Rhone
Day 95 – Monday 11th June 2018
It rained heavily from about 5am so we were up early and on our way to Mâcon which is about an hour north of Lyon so a 6½ drive. Halfway to Germany.
The weather soon brightened up and we had another lovely day driving through the French countryside and the little towns.
Doris took up on a few dubious diversions but they were scenic too so all in all it was a good trip.
We stopped for lunch by the mighty river Rhone.
The campsite at Mâcon is okay. It’s a municipal site so it’s a bit expensive for what it is and there are bloody mosquitoes here.
Once we’d set up camp we shot into Mâcon to get the lay of the land. It’s a nice enough little town with some a few fancy buildings. Our visit was cut short by thunder and lightening and we got absolutely pissed on on the way home.
The rain was torrential till nearly midnight.
Day 96 – Tuesday 12th June 2018
I was a bit concerned about how waterlogged our pitch would be this morning but the campsite has drained well so we shouldn’t have any trouble getting off the pitch tomorrow.
Today is a rest day so an hour reading my kindle then off into Mâcon for a proper nose about.
Mâcon is a small city on the right bank of the Saône just south of Burgundy.
Mâcon
There are some impressive older buildings in the town…
The Wooden House from 1490
the bridge between Mâcon and Saint Laurent sur Saône
Mâcon being in France they just have to have something slightly arty
no idea what these umbrellas are all about
But it has to be said Mâcon has seen better days. You only have to look in an estate agent’s window to see you can buy a 3 bedroom detached house with a swimming pool 10 minutes outside of town for £200k. France is like that, very expensive in the popular parts dirt cheap elsewhere.
Julie is a Ninja with her new electric mosquito zapper
Day 97 – Wednesday 13th June 2018
Overcast start to the day. Up early and off to Germany!
Doris behaved herself for the first few hours of our trip and we had a lovely drive through the French countryside. As we got closer to Germany we started to see more and more Polish vans and their overtaking manoeuvres were easily worse than anything the French or the Italian drivers have.
The roads got busier as we neared the Germany border then suddenly Doris had us on a road through a small town, then going through a housing estate, then she tried to send us up a road that was closed for road works. The next thing we knew we were on a tiny country back road going round in a big circle. Julie was not happy at all. I thought it was funny; we were a few kilometres from Germany but Doris just wouldn’t direct us across the border!
the house styles got a little bizarre as we neared the German & Swiss borders
About half an hour later Doris relented and we were in Germany and soon settled into the campsite outside Freiburg. The humidly of southern France has gone and the climate here is much the same as the UK.
parked up at Camping Freiburg
I nipped into the town on Zippy to get the lay of the land. In France and Italy I soon learned you can do what the hell you like on a scooter; there are so many the police just seem to ignore what they get up to but here there aren’t too many scooters and I’m not too sure what behaviour is and what isn’t acceptable here.
Day 98 – Thursday 14th June 2018
A beautiful morning and off into Freiburg.
Freiburg is a provincial German town and the architecture is naturally Gothic.
how did Bomber Command miss something this big?
The town seems to have a large student population. So lots of pushbikes, lots of graffiti and bizarrely lots of stickers on every reachable piece of metal.
these students know how to have fun
Apart from the trams the Freiburg’s main drag felt quite like an English town – shops selling all kinds of stuff I wouldn’t give houseroom to. One small difference though, every so often there were small brass plaques set into the cobbles outside buildings detailing the people who’d been taken from them and deported to concentration camps during WWII.
The language is going to be a big problem here. I may not speak French and Italian too well but give me a few seconds and I can usually decode most signs but that’s not the case here.
Cfor types like this when he walks across my keyboard
Of course being Germany they have cuckoo clock shops
cuckoo
if you don’t fancy a real working cuckoo clock you can always have a cuckoo clock fridge magnet instead
When in Rome Germany
The World Cup starts tonight and Julie and I will be in Germany for its entirety. Let’s hope we stick it to the Jerrys again.