Luxury, Money and Lifestyle

The French Riveria - and think we've now seen it all ..........................


St Tropez

We stayed at a beachside park in Grimaud which was a rather large and noisy place with heaps of cabins, a cafe, supermarket, restaurants, retail shop and a DJ set up which initially appeared to be at a reasonable level until the wind changed to an on-shore and then it was rather loud. The area set aside for the motorhome and caravans was reasonably tight which didn't leave too much space but apart from that quite good and a perfect spot to visit St Tropez.

Out table ..........

Same table ..............

 
Initially we thought a bus was the best option but after waiting for a while decided to take our bikes on the 12km return trip. It was a great ride and included an area running along the foreshore and into the marina area. We didn't see any 'stars' but many who thought they should be!  Even the guys on the boat were smooth operators and some enjoyed 'hamming it up' for the on-lookers.

Very slick

Each barrel was full of sweets ......

The restaurants and shops literally snake their way around the marina so people just sit and watch activity around and the harbour.  No body appeared to be worried about the cost of anything - although the Smiths did a coin count for an ice-cream !! and then headed back for a swim in the warm Mediteranean Sea.



Antibes
This was an amazing place with an old stone wall separating the beauty of the boats and buzz of retail shops and restaurants.The boats were awesome - rather large including one called Lady Dahlia and we both thought of Dahlia, our cute little neice. Helena had unfortunately left the camera behind so any photo opportunity will need to be left to another day.  The small cobbled stone roads handled the crowds reasonably well with people enjoying a wide range of products available.

Leaving Antibes and driving through Nice and Canne, we drove along the coastal road enjoying the beauty of the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. It was just awesome.     

Canne
High rise buildings similar to those on the the Gold Coast in Australia are spread along this coast line with busy main roads running along the beachside.  Beach umbrellas and raked sand can be seen as can tanned bodies on those enjoying the beach. The beauty of this area could be easily seen from the hillside as we left the area and headed to Monaco. 

Spread along the foreshore

 

Orange juice anyone ............

In case you want to buy some art

Time to reflect....

Monte-Carlo Monaco
Amazing place. Very clean. Flashy. Very organised. Expensive 


Didn't realise that it was the Formula One weekend until we arrived so took advantage of the opportunity, parked the van and rode our bikes. We were surprised to find a perfect little spot to hear and tiny little spot to see the odd 'flash' of a car. We stayed for a while mingled with the crowd, looked at the shops and had a drink before riding our bikes up a long and winding road back to the van. It was great although the difference in the size of our beer glasses wasn't!   

We made it

Clean streets and good roads

Entry to Monaco - second smallest country in the world

Boats in town for the Formula One Grand Prix

Most shops closed and streets quiet

Popular Europa Hotel across the street

He was a friendly dog ....

HIS and HERS !!!!

The coast from France to Italy was breathtakingly beautiful. The sky was incredibly blue and the sea was sparkling. We almost ran out of petrol and quite surprised how far the van went with the low diesel light on .. 

Looking back towards Monaco

Look at the size of some of the boats

The sky and the sea were so blue

We're both impressed and realise that you don't need a lot of money to enjoy it the beauty of this place - just a camera so you never forget it.

Life on the Road

It took us a little time to settle down after three years of illness in Adelaide and the rush to make sure all was in order before we downsized, sorted out finance, got rid of all furniture, rented the house and headed off.

However, having now been away for a while we've had the chance to talk about many things and have some ideas which will make life in the future more pleasant for all of us.

'Life on the Road' has been an adventure. One of meeting many new people, of living closely with each other, of seeing new things and being able to quickly able to adapt to changing surroundings.   One thing for certain, 
we like our little Motor Home, being in the same place each night rather than moving around and wondering who had been there before us. !!! If you know what I mean.

The process of 'setting up' is quite easy and it's always enjoyable seeing others arrive and just noting how long it takes some. Caravans in Europe are incredibly light with motors to move the body around at the push of a button. The trend is certainly for Motor Homes and all sites have facilities for you to unload your grey water and the 'other stuff'. We always ensure that we have topped up our water tanks and 'ready' for the next adventure but sometimes you do find yourself a little short or unable to find a suitable place to offload. Caravaners tend to have 'capsules' which are then wheeled away. We find that most people save on 'grey water' by using communal facilities at the parks and this then becomes a social way to clean up. We generally stay quite compact,and find it works well for us.

Owning a Caravan and 4WD in Australia and now a MotorHome in Europe for our travels helps us clearly see the difference and I must say it's quite enjoyable to be able to quickly move around with the MotorHome. Ours is not the best one on the patch but it's a great little van and everything works really well.

Yeah - right ! ...

 
Driving - well that deserves a chapter of it's own!  and can at times be quite hair raising for us. Grant copes extremely well driving on the wrong side of the road and has got us out of some quite tight spots. Helena on the other hand has often found herself gripping the handrail on the passenger side rather tightly as we negotiate some roads. As in most countries, some of the roads are good and some are bad. We've found ourselves on very bumpy connecting roads and we've also found ourselves on tight city back streets with barely enough room on either side. After one particularily difficult 'very tight' street drive, a local came up and shook Grants' hand and in French with waving hands was clearly telling him what a good job he did. The 'other' locals raised their glasses in our direction and jeered. Glad to see us go or happy we made it !!  Either will do.

The practicality of life on the road necessitates regular trips to the supermarket. Easy - you've got to be joking!!!  You try reading in another language the simple word for butter, honey, marmalade, sugar, etc.... we've certainly made some mistakes and opened cans to put in our freshly made Pasta of 'stuff' which didn't look like it was for human consumption - let alone smell like it was. Yuk!  Can be quite dodgy especially for milk. Milk in NZ and Australia is sensational. Almost fresh from the farm, it's normal, low fat, organic etc... but over here you might find one bottle or two in the fridge but it's mainly UHT milk so we've done the European thing and have boxes stored in the van for future use. Not bad idea really, because you know you're never going to run out. Same goes for juice. No freshly squeezed juice (i.e. straight from the tree') it's 'jus sans sucres ajoutes ne contient que de' ......... I fortunately get most of that but sometimes it's a struggle. Canned foods and contents (with a fridge that can flutuate in temperature depending on how many kilometres you do during the day!) can be a mystery so EATING OUT is the best option. 

Our Garmin GPS with updated Europe maps has been a 'godsend'. It has sent us through some amazing countryside and we've been able to clearly give directions as to where we want to go.  Grant has also linked our cheaper ACSI sites onto the GPS so we can have a full range of accommodation options.  We've also turned it off and made our own way to places we want to see. Just followed our nose(s) to see what we'd find without the pressure of time. Helena in particular has had years of having to be at a certain place at a certain time and it's rather nice not to have to check a diary for details of numerous daily appointments which needed to be kept. It's a relief and one that has made a big difference to our daily quality of life.

To wake up and being able to enjoy the beauty of the day is a special thing and one which is definitely not taken for granted.

Helena 25-5-11 

One happy camper

Two happy campers

Back in France

Leaving Spain we headed to Perpignan to look at the Walled City. Unfortunately it was under renovation but it was still a lovely site and will look fabulous when finished. Enjoyed a beer in the sun and then headed for Carcassonne which is a place our friends Jeff and Jan have visited and told us about.  We also love France, especially Southern France.

Doing it in style

Carcassonne
A magnificant castle with examples of medieval defences and exemplary architecture. It really was quite stuning and is a good example of exemplary restoration. We enjoyed a tour with the help of an audio guide and because it was late in the day we were able to stroll around quite easily and stop to observe different points of interest.

Did a little retail shopping,  had a meal and cold beer overlooking one of the courtyards. We also enjoyed the company of a dear little dog who had an uncanny ability to sense when food arrived and when food was likely to be available. Not overly friendly but very cute all the same.

  

Avignon
Left Carcassonne and drove inland to Avignon staying a couple of nights at Pont du Gard which had a swimming pool, sites under trees and alongside the river. We hired a double kayake and enjoyed 2.5 hours floating down the river followed by a lazy afternoon at the pool, reading and enjoying the water which was quite lovely on a day with temp. approx. 34 degrees.

We enjoyed the company of a Kiwi couple Peter and Elaine who have travelled extensively through Europe for the past seven years and who live fairly close to my sister Trudi on the Coromandel Peninsular. What a small world this is? It was great to share stories and be familiar with the places we both know in the country we all love. It was nice and it will be good to see them when we next travel to NZ.

Vaucluse Provence
Places to see and things to do often come from the most unexpected sources. We try to take in information given to us by locals and others and then do research of our own to determine where each area is and if we will be able to visit. In this case, the beauty of the Vacluse area was given to us by the young lady who
rented us the Kayake at Pont du Gard. She lived in this region and knew how lovely it was.

First place we visited was Isle sur la Sorgue which was a quaint little village with a Sunday market. Vendors were selling leather goods, food, clothing and all sorts of things etc...

 Markets are always enjoyable but this one was rather special because it straddled a beautiful spring river which ran through the centre of the village. We could see people sitting on the river bank enjoying the sound of the water trickling over rocks and tumbling through the water mill as they had their lunch or watched children play.  We had a cold drink (again !!) because it was rather warm and then found a great camping place at Fontaine de Vaucluse. Our site overlooked the pool with the sound of the fresh spring river and under the cover of large trees. Quite lovely.

 










We stayed Camping La Couteliere for a couple of days, relaxing by the river, enjoying a canoe trip, swimming in the pool and walking arournd the village centre. Found the 'Fountain of Youth' as Grant called it which was the source of the spring water and we could see it seeping out of the ground. Just magic. It was a shame to leave.

The man, the conqueror ......

Enjoying lunch - again !

Gordes
Parking our van we got onto our bikes and rode 2 or so kilometers 'uphill' to Gordes which is a cute little village in Provence region. Arriving quite red faced we enjoyed an ale or two under a tree and then walked around the cobbled streets which are so 'French'. Avoided any more 'retail' shopping.

 
Signage is right and we're heading to the coast ...............................................