Cities in the Sky

We got up at 2pm and I finally had a cup of tea. We filled Ben’s mum in on our trip, then I came home to surprise my Mum.

All in all we had an amazing time. A trip of a lifetime. We had highs and lows, most of which were on the last day! It was a wonderful adventure which shall not be forgotten. I am looking forward to the slide show to tell everyone what happened.

This is the end of our holiday journal! Au revoir, Auf wiedersehen, Ciao and Goodbye!!

Well, our holiday has not ended on a high I am afraid to say! We lounged around in bed until 9:30ish as it was still raining and we knew we didn’t have all that far to travel. After getting up and packing our soggy tent away, we were off, only to stop 100m down the main road for Ben to put his rain covers on.

The journey this morning was wet, cold and slow as we were driving cautiously on the slippery roads. We stopped for lunch at a Champion, the inside of which was colder than being outside as they had their air conditioning on full blast!

After eating out sandwiches and some yummy caramel slice things we were on our way again. But not for long; Ben pulled over as his steering felt funny, and we found out he had a flat back tyre! We panicked a bit, not knowing what to do in the middle of nowhere in the drizzle. Then Ben remembered that my Dad kept an emergency tyre kit thingy under sit seat. This pumped foam into the tyre which re-inflated it and glued the hole shut. He definitely had a hole in the tyre as foam came bubbling out of it. We limped into the nearest town only to find the motorbike garage was closed for the holidays! After a quick phone call to Dad to see how far he thought we could drive, we decided to head for the nearest big town – Abbeville. It was 20km away and we stuck to 50km/h so it took a while. When we got there, Ben went into a pharmacy to ask for direction, and we found a garage! To our relief they said they could do it. Unfortunately it cost €195 but we couldn’t go any further and by this time is was 5:30ish so we had it changed.

With the shiny new wheel attached, we got on the non-toll motorway to Calais and arrived at 8ish. We were just looking for somewhere to eat dinner when disaster struck again. I was following Ben around, when he went through what I thought was a red light. I paused and was just about to radio to say what I thought when the crash happened. A car pulled out as his light went green and Ben drove into his bonnet. It was scary to watch, but no-one was hurt. The indicator broke off Ben’s bike but it was already only gaffer taped on. The car didn’t fare so well with a large dent in its bonnet. Luckily the owner of the car was very cool and collected. He phoned his parents who arrived on their motorbike, to advise which forms needed filling out. They spoke good English which was fortunate. We exchanged details then left with me leading as I think the crash had left Ben feeling a bit shaky.

After all this it was getting on for 9:30ish. I lead us around the seedier bits of Calais before finding the main restaurant area. We strolled around looking at the menus before deciding on an Italian place in our price range! We had a really yummy Parma ham starter and 2 cocktails “sans alcohol”. Then Ben had a steak and I had a chicken thing; all very lovely.

By the time we had eaten it was getting close to check in time so we hopped back onto the bikes and did the three minute journey over to the ferry port. We had a queue there as they only had one kiosk open for checking EU passports! Then we were into lane 86 behind a massive American house thing. It was a cold wait as we had no-where to shelter so we sat on the tarmac in the dark!

We were loaded first onto the ferry. I was much happier this time as we left the bikes on the side stands and strapped down to the boggles.

The ferry journey was brief and choppy. I felt sad as we watched the lights of France fade away; our holiday was ending.

The journey from Dover to Fareham was cold, wet and dark. I didn’t feel sleepy as I needed all my wits about me! It took 3 hours, and we were back at Ben’s at 4am. We hastily unloaded and dumped everything inside. Then, what luxury! We crawled into an already made-up bed which was so comfortable and warm, and were asleep within seconds.

I’m writing this a day late again, and if this entry has a slightly sour tone it’s because of day 30, not day 29!

The day started off raining, which we weren’t surprised about. After a moderate amount of lounging (to see if the weather would pass), we decided to just get on with it like we did in Belgium all those weeks ago – after all, it was our last outing so it didn’t matter what got wet, and it was to go to Paris!

We set off through the campsite (which had turned into quite a mud bath overnight, being a quarry and all) towards the town. The path wasn’t quite as… intact, as we had imagined, a single dirt track through a lot of rocks and overgrown bushes was all, and it seemed to emerge into someone’s driveway. We continued through St. Leu, which appeared totally deserted since it was a Sunday, to the train station. This too was devoid of life. There was only a notice (amongst graffiti on a urine-soaked wall) telling us to buy our tickets on the train. Great!

We made a stop at Persan Beaumont (or something like that) since there were no trains to Paris from St. Leu, and this appeared to be quite a dump too! Lots of drunks, odd people and ethnic minorities. Like Leamington, really, only Frencher.

We went and bought tickets, then headed off to the nearby L’eclerc to get some lunch, as it was already 1:30. Again, more odd people and a lot of chavs and many ethnic-types. It seems that the North of France is a lot more like Britain than we knew!

Anyway, once we were on the train things got a lot nicer. The station (Gare-du-Nord, or Paris Nord – we couldn’t figure out which) was particularly swish, like a more shiny Waterloo. We decided to go to Notre Dame Cathedral first, but didn’t feel like walking, so took the metro (for free, somehow!). This too was a lot like London underground, except wider , and without the logo.

Once on the island, we were approached by a strange Bosnian beggar, who asked if we speak English. I foolishly replied “yes”, and spent the next minute backing away and explaining how we had no money. Again, this reminded me a lot of London.

We wandered through the streets past some impressive government buildings (or something), and a bird market, and eventually arrived outside the cathedral. There was a huge queue to get in, so we just looked at the interesting carvings on the walls for a bit. Just before we moved on, another beggar asked if we speak English. I replied “nein”, which worked particularly well, then we were off.

A caramel crepe and a shirt walk later and we were strolling along the Seine towards the Louvre. The Seine is a lot like the Thames, only… French. It looks a bit cleaner, too. Also, it has some particularly odd shower-like things along some of the walkways, which were rather unwelcome since we were finding it difficult enough to stay dry.

The Louvre was impressive, as usual (he says, sounding like a Paris pro). We wandered outside, took some photos of the pyramid, and left. The queue for that was huge too, and we couldn’t really spare the time to look around anyway.

We walked on down the Seine, past the Place du Concorde (with its Cleopatra’s Needle, like the ones in London), to the Eiffel Tower. This doesn’t really have a London equivalent – it’s huge, and pretty awesome. Due to the awesomeness, the queue was quite ridiculous, so we again pressed on through the pouring rain, towards… the building with naked gold people on it, and an excellent view of the tower.

We continued up towards the Arc de Triomphe and Charles de Gaulle roundabout, which was considerably less crazy than usual, as it was now late on Sunday. We stopped for some food In George V on the Champs Elysee, which was interesting as we were both looking rather soggy, dirty and hairy (not Helen), and in a relatively posh café! Helen had a delicious Boeuf bourgignon and I had steak and chips.

We were getting pretty cold and damp by now (6pm-ish), so we headed down the Champs-Elysee to see if we could get some gifts and the like before we left. It turns out that we were on the wrong street though

A short metro journey later and we were back at the station, then a short train journey and we were in Creil (having figured it was a better place to change at). Unfortunately, this is where things stopped going so smoothly! We asked the ticket man if he spoke any English, and he replied “non” in a disgruntled manner, which was nice. We asked how to get back to St. Leu, and he said we couldn’t! We asked about buses, and he just made a walking motion with his fingers – great! In the end, we spoke to someone else and got hold of a taxi (the driver of which appeared to be psychic), which took us back to the campsite for a rather extortionate price.

We promptly fell asleep, wet and exhausted.

Today we managed to pack and leave the lovely campsite by 10am. This was mainly because Ben had left his bags on this bike overnight; they normally take a long time to put on!

We headed North again, towards Paris. The roads were very straight and in good condition with useful signs so we got along very fast. We were half way to the next campsite by lunchtime, where we stopped at a Champion. We both had a sandwich and an apple. We also bought a carbonara sauce for dinner, breakfast food and some sweeties all for €11. We are trying to live cheaply as possible!

After getting some petrol we carried on around the East side of Paris towards Senlis then Chantilly. We found our campsite by 4 pm. It is built on an old stone quarry so is on many layers with many different nooks and crannies.

We did some washing which was desperately needed as we had both run out of underwear, more of an issue for me than Ben it seems! The owner speaks good English and told us all about getting to Paris. He said it is best to drive in, but I think both us and the bikes could do with a break from driving. Plus Emily told me before we left; “whatever you do, don’t drive into Paris, don’t even drive on the ring road”. So I think we may go by train.

Anyway, we set-up, relaxed a bit then had dinner, then went on a wander to explore the crazy campsite. There are lots of English people here, probably because we are within reach of the ports. But it definitely feels like we are heading homewards now, which we both have mixed feelings about.

But for now - Paris tomorrow!

A bright and early start once again today. We had a long way to go, heading from Clermont Ferrand to a spot near Gien. Unfortunately the site was more expensive than the book said it would be – it seems prices have risen by half since last year!

We paid up and left, making our way back through Murol, and St. Nectare, back towards the motorway. I had time to stop and take photos of all the interesting chateauxs and other architecture we missed yesterday evening – this time in splendid sunshine!

At some point we stopped at an Auchan to get a sandwich, It turns out we were more than a little spoilt for choice – it was huge, and you could barely see from one end of the store to the other. They must have had every brand of ham under the sun available, so instead of try to make the perfect-value sandwich like usual, we had pre-made ones, which were pretty average.

Other than that, the trip was pretty unremarkable really- we arrived at a campsite near Gien at about 6. Rather than going to the one in the book (which I’m beginning to distrust…) we headed to one signed off the road we were on. I’m dead chuffed with it – there’s practically nobody here, so no hyperactive noisy screaming kids, it’s right on the bank of the Loire, it’s lovely and grassy and has many rabbits frolicking nearby, and best of all, it’s only €6.33 for the night, including tax! Sure beats €21 we paid for last night…

Anyway, on to Paris tomorrow! It’ll be nice to have a day not involving the bikes sometime soon!

Oh yes, dinner was a lovely €2 can of chilli con carne (mostly kidney beans) with pasta. Tasty and cheap, I like!

Helen: Ben forgot to say – we had a lovely walk along the Loire in the evening and explored a disused lock connecting the river to an old canal.

Today has been lots of travelling along scenic roads. We got up quite late as it was drizzling which doesn’t inspire you to get out of the tent! We packed up, gave our free grotto tickets to our English next door neighbours and were off! It wasn’t too hot today which was nice so the ride was more comfortable which allowed us to appreciate the views more.

First we stopped at a supermarche to buy brekkie, lunch and dinner! We had a do-it-yourself lunch with pain, sausage and emmental – v yummy. Then we continued on through some of the mountains of the Ardeche. The road was v windy and dual carriageway in places, although only the crazy French drivers were stupid enough to overtake. After we crossed the summit, the roads became very long and straight through never ending farm lands across rolling hills. Very nice travelling conditions. We had several breaks along the way for a bonbon or two and to rest my neck.

We did a small bit of a non toll motorway towards Claremont Ferrand then came off though St Nectare (famous for cheese apparently). Our campsite is right next to a lake. We got here and hastily set-up as it started to drizzle.

After cooking dinner of lardons and pasta, we went for a stroll along the lake as the rain had stopped. It is very pretty as there is forest along most of its edges. The small town is preparing for a festival we think so there are music and lights – all were lovely.

We are sadly only staying here this one night. Tomorrow, we head North!

It ended up being quite a late night, so I’m (yet again) writing this a day late.

We rocketed into action in the morning, and were ready much earlier than usual (i.e. before midday). We headed off on the bikes towards Vallon-Pont D’Arc, the location of the canoe trip company we tried to find the day before. There weren’t any signs to it, so we stopped at a random one – Alpha Bateaux – and had a chat with them. They were nice enough I guess, though I get the feeling the 100 or so companies are much the same! We paid up, got our kit and hopped in the minibus which took us to our kayaks at the start point. The man there was very brief – I said I could kayak already and could show Helen the ropes and he said OK and showed us to the water. You wouldn’t get that in England – too much lawsuit potential!

I was like a fish to water… well a fish that floats on the water. Like a duck to water, really. Helen got the hang of things very quickly too – much less spinning in circles than I was anticipating! We made our way down the river slowly, since we were only doing the 6km route and wanted it to last a long time! It was really quite crowded, unfortunately, which led to some collisions (not our fault – rude French people’s!) and a lot of upside-down boats in the rapids!

The views were excellent and I got several good photos, which I’m pleased about. The rapids were very fun, though Helen didn’t care much for them, and mucking about on the water was great too. All in all, lots of fun, well worth it!

We finished a lot earlier than we thought (about 1:30), so after stopping off for lunch in the town, we headed further south along the gorge. There were many, many beautiful photo spots, with many, many people crowding the place trying to photograph them. It’s a shame the Ardeche has become so tourist-y really – though I suppose saying that is more than a little hypocritical!

We ended up going to one of the many ‘grottes’ in the area – “Grotte de la Madeleine” – which proved very educational and insightful, and again a great photo opportunity (though I doubt my budget camera did it justice!). It was also very cheap, which was welcome!

We made our way back to the campsite and had dinner at the restaurant again – lasagne and carbonara this time – and then went to bed, ready for the journey the next day.

This morning, after getting showered and breakfasted and so on, we went and found out about kayaking and canoeing. It turns out there are far more than we had imagined, but we set off for one in particular we had the leaflet of, called Viking Bateaux.

Before that, we had to head off to a nearby L’Eclerc for some engine oil for Helen’s bike, which had been overheating a lot recently. We had lunch as well and were on our way.

The journey took us along a lot of winding roads through the upper part of the Ardeche gorge and several lovely looking towns and villages. I stopped to take photos a couple of times – much to the annoyance of Helen, since she was getting very hot and bothered due to the heat!

We got to the small town of Salvalas (?) alongside the Ardeche itself, but didn’t see Viking Bateaux anywhere, Apparently I misread the leaflet, and that’s only where the canoes leave from! We walked into one of the many other trip-organiser-y places there were in town to see if we could get on their river trips. After a long phone call, the lady in charge said there were 2 spaces available – perfect! I went and told Helen, but when I went back to the office to accept and pay, she said I was too late – another couple had arrived during those 5 minutes, ironically whilst we were moving our bikes out of the way of their equipment! I was very displeased, to say the least.

Helen was very hot and very bothered by this point, so we didn’t go to any of the other places, and instead walked down to the river to paddle a bit and spy on fish. We’re staying another night here, so we’ll go kayaking/canoeing tomorrow instead.

We came back to the campsite, had a dip in the pool (stealthily as I was breaking the “no Bermuda shorts” rule), then went to the restaurant. Helen had roast chicken, and I had “Carpaccio de boeuf” – which turned out to be a great big plate of raw beef! It was actually very nice.

Now we’re sat in the tent ready for bed (after a game of cards and a quick go on Mario). I’m quite looking forward to getting on the water again!

Today has been a day of much travelling in the heat again. We had a lie in till 9 as our tent was in the shade of a hedge so we were able to be in it without over-heating. We then got up and packed in record time as Ben’s panniers were already strapped onto his bike. We decided to take the toll roads today as we had some mountains to pass. So we set off on the motorways, first pass St. Tropez, then North past Avignon.

We came off the tolls into a small town to buy lunch and tomorrows’ brekkie from a supermarche. We found one and just as we were tucking into our apples, it began to pour! The heat had caused a massive thunderstorm with torrential rain, so we were stuck at the supermarche for an hour or so. The rain bought the temperature down to 28°C for a short while, but once we were back on our way the heat returned. It was so hot it was off the scale of our thermometers. I recon it was mid to high thirties today. Very hot for wearing a helmet and gloves and jacket and boots…

Anyway, after the storm had passed we carried on up to Montelimar with many breaks along the way. The journey was fast as the limit is 130km/h, but the breeze going past was so hot it bought no relief.

Once off the motorway, the scenery became greener. Along the motorway everywhere looked very arid, and some places were black and it looked like there had been fires. But once we entered the Ardeche region this changed to green forested hills and rivers. Our campsite is up a steep narrow road, it reminded me of the small bit of road down to Chenon. The site itself is lovely; we have a large pitch with shade and English next door neighbours! Also, it is very reasonably priced at €17 which pleased Ben muchly.

After hastily setting up we dashed off for dinner in the campsite restaurant. This turned out to be delicious! Ben had sausage and chips, and I had an amazing chicken on a stick with ‘legumes de jour’. Then we had crème brulee and chocolate fondant. And all for €8 including drinks. It was very good and just what we needed after our long hot journey.

We are now just relaxing and pondering what to do tomorrow. I get the impression that Ben would like to do some kayaking…

Today (!) was a little crazy to begin with. We woke up, got ready and packed very early, got back on the road and continued to the site we were supposed to have found last night. It’s considerably nicer here, but a lot more expensive than our book said it would be. We got the last pitch available, probably why it was so pricey! The staff aren’t too friendly though, they refused to charge our radios for us, something even the dingiest of other sites have done.

Anyway, we set up early enough to make a full day of it, so we caught the bus into Cannes (as it is very close, and Tim and Emsy seemed to like it!). We arrived and almost immediately got caught up in a lively market area. I’ve been in many a market before, but this particular one was somehow different - a lot more friendly and interesting for a start. We liked it, anyway.

We were quite hungry already, so headed through the narrow streets to the seafront, with its many splendid restaurants. We walked past the splendid ones and found a nice cheap one, offering a three course meal for €9.40, a deal we just couldn’t pass up! The salad was great as it was mostly ham and cheese, but my burger tasted of charcoal and Helen’s pizza was mostly made of mushrooms (not as advertised!). The ice cream was delicious though! Overall, a reasonable meal at a reasonable price.

More wandering led us to the port, which was certainly an eye-opener! There were some massive yachts moored there, and some even more extravagant ones out in the bay. The port is right next to the beach, which was like any other beach we’ve seen, albeit with more people.

We walked back through the town to the West side, and climbed up towards a lovely little church, tower and section of original wall- the old part of town. This provided some great views and a bit of a break from the hustle and bustle below.

After a quick beer stop and a hike to the internet café to put the contents of the camera on CD (cheaper than a new memory card), we made our way back to the bus station and came back to the campsite.

All in all, I liked Cannes a lot. We didn’t see any particularly impressive sights; it just seemed to feel like a good place to be. It’s a pity we have to leave tomorrow though, it would have been nice to see Nice, Monaco and St. Tropez! Oh well, Ardeche here we come!