Week 7

Day 43 – Friday 20^th April 2018

Julie’s birthday.

A very hot morning, I went for a walk but I really shouldn’t have as my arms got sunburnt yesterday in Cannes.

Lazed around reading in the shade until lunchtime then we headed off on Zippy to Antibes for Julie’s birthday lunch at a restaurant she likes the look of. I’d already checked out the menu to check there was something vegetarian on it. You can never be sure in France.

Julie really enjoyed her food.

My starter and desert were fine but my main course was the most boring bowl of linguini I have ever tasted. If it hadn’t have been Julie’s birthday I would have called the waiter over and told him exactly how boring it was.

Boring

I left it but this didn’t seem to concern the waiter so I didn’t leave him a tip. I did give the restaurant a stinker of a review on Google though but I wasn’t the first and I don’t think I’ll be the last. Did I mention the cutlery was dirty too.

Birthday girl

The main thing is Julie enjoyed herself.

Afterwards we wandered around for a while but it really is far too hot to be out and about between noon and 3pm so back to the van and back to relaxing in the shade. Think I am going to start having siestas on hot days.

Did I mention Julie is becoming addicted to the aircon?

Day 44 – Saturday 21^st April 2018

Boiling morning, we went to the Antibes Art Fair. There wasn’t half some crap there but at least it was cool inside and Julie enjoyed herself.

My Dad had loads of bales of steel in his Salford gallery. I can’t understand why he isn’t a multi-millionaire

You’ll get no argument from me

After lunch we set off for the beach at Juan-Les-Pins. I put up the beach tent so Julie could hide from the sun while I cooled off in the sea.

That’s me in the centre of the photo struggling to put the beach tent up so Julie could hide from the sun

The sea temp was 18°c, lovely.

Julie hiding from the sun

Day 45 – Sunday 22^nd April 2018

A lazy day spent reading in the shade.

Day 46 – Monday 23^rd April 2018

Leaving Camping La Vieille Ferme after 18 nights. We have eally enjoyed it here. The site is clean and the showers are great. We’ll be back towards the end of May.

Headed off to see if they have room for us at Camp Du Domaine. I was going to book a pitch there but they have a €27 booking fee which quite frankly I think is just a rip-off. If we can’t get in there then the plan is to travel to La Tour Fondue where we stayed on night No.9. If we can’t get in there then we’ll either wild camp or go on to the Camargue. I have emailed Camp Du Domaine and they say they can accommodate an 8m van so there shouldn’t be any drama. Also I have all the GPS co-ordinates on my pad so whatever happens we shouldn’t get lost.

Doris! I have no idea about what algorithm Doris used to pick our route but it needs fixing. There is a perfectly good coast road between Antibes and Camp Du Domaine instead Doris decided we should go via some mountains. Eventually we made it back to the coast and stopped for lunch of the sea wall at Ste. Maxime.

Paella and a mug of tea

A few miles later Doris showed 3 campsites that accept ACSI cards, they give you an off-peak reduction. I slowed down to see what the access was like to the first one and it was brill so I turned in and we have really dropped lucky. The site says it is a 4 star but it looks more 5 star to me. Have a pitch under a large shady pine. All for €20 a night including electric.

The only drawback is the toilets don’t have seats so it’s porcelain to cheek!

The only drama of the day was the incident at the petrol station; The lanes were narrow because of the roof supports and we had to swing in. We nearly lost the driver’s side wing mirror trying to shuffle out. Julie had to oversee Nelly’s extraction and had yet more kittens. I should have brought a swearbox.

That was fuckin’ tight (Julie’s words not mine)

Late in the afternoon we went to St Tropez on Zippy for a quick walk around. It wasn’t as commercialised as I expected.

Boats in the old port

The tower in St. Tropez

Day 47 – Tuesday 24th April 2018

Up and out early to Port Grimaud just a couple of miles down the road. The place was a swamp until 1966 when someone called Francois Spoerry decided to dig out some canals and build a town on the water. It’s a very very nice place. Bumped into Mr Bigglesworth’s owner Brett and his family from a few weeks back at Camping La Vieille Ferme. Small world.

Port Grimaud; 12km of quays, 2,500 canal side houses and room for 3,000 boats

After lunch we decided to check out Grimaud itself which is about 5 miles inland. It was a typical beautiful French hill village with a ruined castle at the top.

Grimaud from the ruined castle

Julie had to wait 5 minutes for some English tourists to get out of shot before she could get this photo. I am definitely going to look for a swearbox

Later we motored to Ste. Maxime for a wander about. It’s not been as hot today.

The harbour at Ste. Maxime. If I had a boat I’m pretty sure I’d be at sea on a day like today.

Ste. Maxime

Day 48 – Wednesday 25th April 2018

Sunny morning but thankfully the heat of last week isn’t there. Off to St Tropez to have a better look around.

Statue of Bridget Bardot

The Gendarmerie in the background is famous in France. It was featured in a 1964 comedy film – Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez. People queue up to have their pictures taken in front of it. Every town or village no matter how small you go to in France has a police station and they actually have police men and women, armed, walking the streets in twos and threes. The only time I’ve seen the police in Reigate is when they are buying their lunch in Morrisons. I wonder what they do when they are not eating.

St. Tropez has all the flash shops scattered around the town but it doesn’t ooze money like Cannes or Nice. Cannes and Nice are in a league of their own. We went for a walk up to the fort behind the town.

St Tropez from the castle

Julie tells me Joan Collins lives in St Tropez! A quick search of Google and I have found Joan’s guide to St Tropez. She recommends a little town inland called Ramatuelle so we hop back on Zippy and we are there in no time.

Ramatuelle

Ramatuelle is yet another pretty little French hilltop town. We had a stroll around, the views were beautiful. There’s something about the cool breeze and the quietness here, only broken by birdsong, that’s magical. The ride back was lovely too with the vines springing into life in the fields and the rolling hills. The people who live in the countryside round here, Joan included, are very lucky.

Day 49 – Thursday 26th April 2018

Bit of a sea mist in the camp this morning. We set off for Fréjus & Saint-Raphaël, a bit of hike but it was a pleasant enough ride. Not a lot to see in either town really, they just have some very big beaches.