Sistron & Laragne-Montéglin

We were up at 7am and we’d had a great nights sleep. It was completely silent all night, no bells, no cars driving by, no barking dogs and no loud music.
I was in no hurry this morning as we were heading to a town and we know now that the shops don’t open until at least 10am and we only had a 30 minute drive so we packed the bed up later than usual and then had extra tea and coffee before deciding to finally make a move and leave our park up and head just 30 minutes down the road.
The medieval city of Sistron has been in my list of photography spots for a couple of years and now we were right on the doorstep. I’d found 2 places to park but headed straight to the furthest one which was right under the city walls. It’s a dedicated Motorhome car park for 6 motorhomes and to my amazement it was completely empty when we arrived and the parking machine was broken so we had free parking.
To top that off the viewpoint from where I wanted to photograph was also at the car park and within 10 minutes I had my photographs and we could have left but wanted to look around this medieval city.
The old Citadelle is high up on the top of the mountain and at its highest point is a church and you can only access the citadelle by negotiating a series of steep steps and narrow alleyways. As we made our way through the dark sidewalks and tunnels we really got a feel for what it must have been like in the medieval times. You could really imagine markets and street sellers being in the open parts. The old doorways leading to public houses and brothels and the dark allys with thieves and pickpockets.
We made our way to the top of the steps only to find that the citadelle itself was closed for the season. We were gutted but we had seen what we came to see.
We made our way back down to ground level and decided to look around the shops. This part of France is in the Provence region and shops selling lavender items were everywhere. There was the usual smellies of lavender bags to go in your knicker draw but they had some really unusual things like lavender wine liquor that was 41% proof, and lavender Patè.
It was a lovely town and I’d thought we’d be spending most of the day here but as most of the shops were still closed we both brought filled baguettes for brunch and sat in the high street with the French eating. We felt very French especially when they started talking to us.
Back at Wanda it was almost midday and our next stop was the Super U supermarket just 6 miles away. Here there 6 Motorhome spaces, a dump station, fresh water and even a laundrette. We did a big food shop filling the cupboards and fridge, filled up with diesel and then did the laundry. We’d had a productive day. Originally this was going to be our park up for the night but as it was early when we pulled up I’d managed to find a much nicer and quieter aire just 10 miles away.
At 3pm we arrived in the town of Laragne-Montéglin, here there is a huge car park big enough for 50 motorhomes, an artisanal electric point, free water and a dump station and to top it off we have beautiful Mountain View’s. Our first stop was the tap to check the water. It was still on so we filled up with fresh water. Then we emptied the grey water and the toilet and moved to a parking spot. There was only one other Motorhome here so we had plenty to choose from.
At 3:30pm, after a cup of tea we decided to head out and check out the town. We locked Wanda up, and headed out of the aire via a footpath that was lined with sculptures on one side and a river on the other. It was called the path of sculptures and gypsies. I take it we’re the gypsies.
At the top of the footpath we turned left and headed into a small high street that seemed to be full of hairdressers and bakeries. Then we headed out of the high street and onto a track stopping to cuddle a French bulldog on the way who wanted to come with us. After stopping to cuddle the dog we realised that the path didn’t go anywhere, but we didn’t want to look like we were lost or idiots so we continued onto a road, scrumped some apples from an orchard for which this town is famous for and then turned right onto a gravel track. This track looked like someone’s driveway but luckily at the top there was a main road onto which we turned left and started heading back into town.
Once again we’d forgotten to take water and we ended up walking 4 miles.
It was now 5pm and after FaceTiming my dad to check on the dog I decided to abuse the fresh water and have a shower. For November it’s unbelievably warm here. At 5:30pm it was a muggy 18°c outside and 28°c inside.
It felt so good to wash the days stickiness off and get my baggy clothes on. Then Ellie made dinner of cordon bleu and chips before we closed the blinds and settled in for the night.Read more