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Harvey10 - Europe-bound

December 2023 - March 2024
A 91-day adventure by Pip & John Read more
  • 133footprints
  • 5countries
  • 91days
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  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    Day 10

    Windy ... the Mistral

    December 20, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    After encountering extremely strong gusts of wind and holding tight to hats, glasses and cameras as we crossed the large long bridge over the Rhone, we enjoyed pottering around Avignon and a sort of uninteresting craft fair with a 'bigged-up' by tourist-info, model of the region. It was Lilliput Lane type models with a crass display. E.g. blue plastic sheet to represent water. Both less than impressed. The same with an art gallery we went to. Paid €20 to see an exhibition on 3 floors, and it was pretty poor from our POV. Disappointing but good to do these things, if only to see what's out there and to help reinforce what you do and don't like. Not worth taking photos but John took one of the staircase, which we liked, and a tunnel maze exhibit involving chains and lots of masking tape.
    There a quite a few armed police trios roaming the streets, which is disconcerting. Always in threes, balaclavas, all clad with pistols, batons and one with a machine gun. The UK gov website states that France is on high alert since a terrorist event in October. So alertness required.

    We had some takeaway sandwich affairs and a humorous moment when I decided to rest my bum on a pillar type thing, whilst I ate said sandwich. Only to find the round post pillar type thing plus my bum slowly started sinking lower into the ground! I had to shout for John to rescue me! It's hard getting up again at my age!    Read more

  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    Day 11

    And on towards Nice

    December 21, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    Another driving day, starting out in search of LPG (confusingly called GPL in France) and trying to navigate our way around a supermarket car park to find the entrance of the fuel station. Nearly ended up being taken down a subway with a height limit and some 'tricky manoeuvring' followed!!
    The filling station was ludicrously laid out, and I had to get out to make sure none of the high curbs and steel rails made contact with the van. They had clearly been scraped by many other vehicles previously. Couldn't get away from there quickly enough and found a much better place to get deisel a bit further on. A fill-up with LPG only cost €10.70, which is very cheap, considering we use it for both cooking and heating.
    Tonight, we're on a large free place amongst trees, low hills and a large dried up reservoir. Only 2 other vans here.
    Has a feel of somewhere with former glory. John discovered it used to have tons of carp and catfish and was very popular with fishing enthusiasts. The dam needed maintenance, so everything had to be drained. It's unclear what happened to all the fish.
    Tomorrow we head for our campsite.    Read more

  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    Day 12–13

    Nous sommes arrivés!

    December 22, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    Yes, finally here. Staying in one place for a whole week. Did our food-for-Christmas shop at a Hyper-U on route.
    John was happy to secure himself some prawns. I'm fascinated to take photos of displays but can't bring myself to even THINK about eating any of those sea-insect creatures. 🥴
    The sat navigation took us high up over mountain bends and then the sea appeared.

    The roads become very busy and fast, with a roundabout every few minutes and motorbikes coming up at speed and undertaking, weaving in and out. We've clearly hit the French Riviera. St Tropez, Cannes etc.

    I must say it was nice to have to open windows when it reached 19° today. 🙂    Read more

  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    222
    Day 13

    At base camp

    December 23, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Lazy day, (apart from my exercises, I'm missing the classes from home) showers, sauntered to supermarket, only for grapes of course. Just grapes. ... Came back with cakes, bread, croissant, petit fours etc. Yum. They certainly know how to do presentation and visually persuade us to buy.
    Wandered down to the sea and the marina. There's a fair bit of money in these parts! A lot of the craft seem obscenely ostentatious to us.
    Late afternoon light got us going with our cameras.
    John spotted some really nice coats going for €26. I tried 2 on. Unfortunately they were for the French physique and didn't fit me. Too small of course. Shame, the style was just right, lightweight, hoods but fairly smart looking.    Read more

  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    Day 14

    A walk to the park

    December 24, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    The pool opened today! Was meant to be open all year, the website boasts the fact, which was one reason we chose here, but that's not quite true.

    It did however open this morning. By the time we'd got back from a walk, had a cuppa and got myself revved up for a swim, it had ## closed! No signs to tell you times.
    Harrumph! The site is completely full now so the pool will likely be busy too tomorrow.

    A walk around and about to the park gave us some exercise but the local architecture and busy roads are not too inspiring. The park had picnic benches and we had our packed lunch. It was more of an area of grass and woodland, really. No landscaping, artworks, or unusual plants.
    There was a street called Bridgitte Bardot Boulevard with a painting. My attempt at alluring pouting skills leave a lot to be desired.

    Found some scoobidoo, which I and sisters used to use about sixty years ago to make braid type things with plastic strips. A blast from the past.

    Saw an unusual tree on the way home. Took a screenshot of our route to date.    Read more

  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    Day 15

    The Big Day

    December 25, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We had breakfast, I checked to see the pool was empty ... it was! Stepped into action and got all togged up, ready for my Christmas dip. Paah! Closed again! Grrr.
    So we stepped out of our shady spot for a walk along the prom. It was warm and sunny, to me anyway. Locals wore furs and hats, and John felt slightly chilly, having forgotten his USB pocket handwarmer.
    There were a few people out and about promenading, skateboarding, on bikes, on rollarskates, doing wheelies, on scooters, in families on pedal-wagons and just generally taking in the air. Two adults and one child were swimming in the sea. Well, tolerating a dip more than swimming.
    Some were dining in lovely restaurants, like boxes set on stilts on the beach with one side open to the sea, looked like a lovely spot for a coffee but they were eating fine dining style I think, so we wouldn't fit in anyway.
    I went in one of those tardis toilet things. Convenient, but I'm never quite confident that they'll let me out again. Especially with foreign language signage. I simply turned the lever, so all was fine.
    We saw a store selling different types of lawns, in plastic grass. They even had 'scorchio' amongst the range. Going for realism. We liked the fish artworks, which echoed the palm trees.
    Once home, I set up our two Christmas cards on a ledge and a piece of driftwood to represent our tree (ok, I'm a saddo), and we had lunch, which was thoroughly enjoyed. Still stuffed.    Read more

  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    Day 16

    A riverside walk upstream

    December 26, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    Swimming pool was STILL closed this a.m., but when I asked why, it turns out it is open after all. Just we should have known that there's a button to press to open up the garage door type rollers. There were many others who also came and thought it was closed too.
    By the time I found out, I had just showered and didn't want to swim by then.
    Did laundry, lunched, and went out in warm sunshine to walk up alongside the river on a woodland path up to the old village of Villeneuve Loubet. Saw a place that John could have envisaged himself in as a summer or permanent residence. Not for me though. A little too ramshackled and hard maintenance for my liking. It was a 5.5 mile 'there and back' walk, over rivers and under railways or roads, returning in time before it got dark with a quiet bar stop for a coffee and a hot chocolate. For some reason, John's body is telling him it's not mad keen on tea at the moment. This is a new one for me.

    I thought the English were meant to be THE nation of dog lovers. There were tons of dogs on our walk, so France seems to be the same, if not more so.

    We saw a flamingo surrounded by ducks, swans, gulls etc and a bloke clad in a yellow jacket, trying to get up close with them, wading in amongst them all.

    This area was apparently a big growing area a while back. Carrots, garlic, artichokes, perfume plants, tobacco, potatoes, grapes, figs and more that I can't recall. A lot of signs told us all about it, in French. We understood enough to discover that there was a major weather event and floods in 1822.

    Today, whilst outside, John announced that he's warm! Think that's a first this holiday!    Read more

  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    Day 17

    A bit of culture - Nice

    December 27, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Armed with a map and instructions for buses etc, we stepped out for a trip to Nice. The bus part was fine, you speak to and pay the driver. Second lap of the journey involved a tram ride. Once on, we realised we couldn't get a ticket at the machine on the tram, so we asked someone who said in French that we needed to buy it before boarding. So we got off and bought from a machine, what we thought was OK but on asking a few others, two lovely kind chaps told us how to do it and got off the tram with us and showed us, then we all got on the next tram again. One spoke very good English as he works in the University Business School, so has English speaking students and was proud to tell us they had links with Imperial College, London. A friendly interlude, and we couldn't have found more eager people to help us.

    The crowded Nice streets hit us with a bit of a shock. People everywhere! Pleasant place though, with a large long strip of garden area leading up to Musee of Modern and Contemporary Art. MAMAC. Set on 4 floors and a rooftop area, it was an amazing building. Very peaceful and spacious with beautiful rooftop vistas. I even managed to walk around rooftop route without wobbly legs.
    Some good exhibits, my favourite being textiles by Marcel Alocco where he removed the weft from fabric but left some areas to make a shape and drew or stitched on the shapes (see picture of woman).

    Had a tasty panini type sandwich thing from a tiny food place, cooked by a happy business owner who told us he was from Albania. Negotiated our way around streets, some of which are being dug up and have red carpets along the footway. Sat munching in the park then had a look around the seafront and by 4pm it was cooling down as sun began to set by 5pm.

    We struggled a bit to find the station again for our return. That took a while. Lost for a while but AOK and back at base now.    Read more

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