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Our first day saw us cross over into France from Italy via the town of Menton, which is part of the French Riviera. We travelled along the coast until we reached the road to Monarco. We were advised by a guard on the road that caravans are not permitted in the Principality, so we had to about face and ascend the hills.

We had not anticipated this and were somewhat concerned as to how steep the climb would be. Luckily, it all went well. Although we didn’t get to drive through Monaco, I could still see the enormous sailboats and motor boats moored off its coastline. I have to say I have not seen anything in the size and realm of their ostentatious presence, except maybe once on a Gold Coast waterway in Australia.

We set up camp for our first night in a town called Grasse. Grasse is famous for making perfumes, but we arrived too late to have any inclination to go and check out one of the perfume houses.

Grasse was a pleasant enough place but the next day we were keen to push on, so we drove until we reached the small town of Aups. We had planned to stay in Aups as it was reasonably close to Les Gorges du Verdon, which my brother had recommended we make the time to drive through. Les Gorges du Verdon is a grand canyon and as such we were unsure whether we would be able to drive along it with the caravan. Thus we arrived at Aups early enough in the day to pitch camp and headed for Canyon du Verdon in the car, sans caravan.

As were approached the gorge our eyes were captured by the pretty and enticing vibrant blue waters of the Lac de Sainte-Croix. This alone was a wonderful sight and we had no idea how much better the afternoon’s driving views would get! You can drive along both sides of the gorge, and we decided to take the southern side for our journey as it was the closest. The canyon is a gorgeous and majestic natural divide through the land that harbours the aqua blue waters of the Verdon river. It was so much more impressive than I had anticipated, and we stopped at several viewing points along the road to gingerly peer over the edge at the impressive depths below.

On our return journey we commented to each other what excellent advice it was to come here. It would have been very likely missed if not for the heads up from my brother Mat.

Once back at the campground we elected to walk into Aups, which was a pleasant 5 – 1o minute stroll. As we crossed the open and tree-covered market place, there were dozens of stalls. We remarked how we had hoped we would find a town where we could walk to the markets to buy fresh local produce that I could cook for our meals. We had hoped this would have been our experience in Italy, and now we had finally found a place in France. What a shame we had to press on the next day, we said to each other. Past the market place we walked further up the little laneway into the town where several cafes and restaurants had tables spilling out onto the pavement, and a lively assembly of patrons enjoying the balmy night air. Music filled the night. We meandered up and down the charming old streets and admired how pretty it all was. How good it would be to stay a while longer!

By the time we had finished our little inspection of the town and walked back to the campground (which we found very pleasing I might add) we had convinced ourselves that it would be a crime not to stay another day. We wanted to enjoy the town a bit more, and perhaps find a good walk to do in the local area.

The reason we did not immediately come to this decision was because of our planned travel schedule back to Graepel to return the car and caravan to Helga and Jean-Pierre. Our epic journey from Graepel to Plitvice Lakes had taught us that we should not aim for more than about 130 – 150 km a day, if we wanted to maintain our sanity and enjoy our holiday. With this in mind we had planned for two rest days each in Burgundy and Champagne, and another two “spare” rest days to use where we saw fit. So only being our second night into this three week return drive we worried whether it was a bit pre-emptive to be using up one of our spare days so soon. But we felt that Aups offered all we had been looking for in a little provincial town, and we knew we would have run the risk of doing those “Oh, what ifs” should we deny our overwhelming urge to stay put.

Sterling decision. So sterling in fact that it took us no time at the end of the following day to decide we should indeed use the other spare day and try and make up a “spare day” by driving longer somewhere down the track. And upon returning to mail a postcard on the day we were to leave I reported to Damien that he was lucky he did not see the Saturday morning market or he would want to stay yet another day. The market was teeming with tempting food stalls and others with interesting knick knacks to window shop. I had desperately tried  to conjure up some reason why we should stay and use up our yet to be made “spare” day, so we could go shopping in the market and I could cook up a storm in between cooling off at the excellent camp ground pool. But alas, I could not find a way to justify it. It came as no surprise to me that when I lamented to Damien about the fact there was an awesome market happening in Aups – and we could not use it – that he too said that he wished he could find a justification for staying one more day.

We resolved that we would have to be happy with what we had enjoyed, and glad we had not driven on after our first night there. In hindsight, with the knowledge of how much more quickly we were able to drive through France than when we first set out from Germany all those weeks before, it would have been no problem at all to stay a couple more days…. but we weren’t to know.

Nonetheless, we squeezed out all the goodness we could from the extra two days we enjoyed in this fantastic little slice of France. The first day we went for a walk through the town with the assistance of a local brochure that provided information about the relevant historical points of interest. This little town certainly had past worth learning about, with some dramatic and sometimes gruesome tales to tell. One such site being that which is commemorated by the small virgin statue set in the fascade of the old Church of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption. On 16 August 1574 the Huguenots from Allemagne-en-Provence entered the village and murdered many people. They gathered eighteen young men and women at the site where the statue now stands and slit their throats to set an example to the rest of the villagers. It was sad that there was so much blood that it flowed onto the street below. The shocked villagers gave this day the name of the Massacre and built the statue on the sight. They asked Henry III that a fair be organised in memory of this event. It still happens today, and we were only about a week shy of being there at the time of our visit.

From here we walked out of the town and commenced the walk through the hills to La Croix des Pins. The start of the hike wound its way past a curious chapel that had been built in one of the caves in the side of the hill. From here we continued on up and up the path. It was an extremely hot day and quite a strenuous hike. We took some respite for lunch, perched on two rocks as we looked out over the valley below. We enjoyed delicious sandwiches which we had made from baguettes we bought at the boulangerie and chunky slices fromage de tete (the rather unappealing French name of “head cheese” for this terrine I ate) and pate de campagne (for Damien) bought from the charcuterie. We pressed on and felt a sense of achievement when we finally reached the peak of the hills to take in the view. It was a nice enough view and a good walk but nothing compared to the hike we did the next day. If truth be told, I enjoyed the historical walk we did through Aups before La Croix des Pins and the walk back down through the outskirts of the town, more than I did the long ascent in the heat!

When we got back into town, dripping with sweat, we swung by the information centre to quiz the staff there some more about a map we had purchased on hikes in Les Gorges du Verdon. When we told them we had just got back from hiking up to La Croix des Pins, the woman looked at us as if we were a bit mad and exclaimed something to the effect of “you walked up there in this heat?”. Yes, I guess it was a bit full on but we made it.

We then made a bee line for the pool once back at the campground, and stayed there enjoying reading our books and a trashy French magazine in which we attempted to decipher the captions that accompanied the pictures.

The next day’s hike down into the gorge was an awesome bush walk, and so much more interesting than the one the day before. We were, yet again, so glad we had decided to stay another night as the views and walking terrain this hike afforded were excellent. We enjoyed the same sandwiches as the day before (because they were so lush the first time around), but this time we were treated to a far superior lunch spot by the crystal clear waters of the river that runs through the canyon. I did go for a paddle up to my knees but soon decided that you needed to be European to withstand the freezing cold water temperature! There were quite a few doing just that but I was content to just look on. This was also a challenging walk and we were both a little tired from the long walk the day before, but we both rated the experience highly. Damien said it is probably his favourite bushwalk ever.

What was also fantastic about going on this hike was that we got to drive along a large section of the northern road through the gorge, which as it turns out is very worthwhile. Both sides of the gorge afford you different and stunning perspectives on the canyon and it was lucky for us we got to experience both. After the hike we then checked out the local tourist village of Moustiers Sainte Marie. It is an extremely lovely town and a worthy tourist drawcard, but we both agreed that we were happy staying in our lesser known, but charming in its own way, little Aups.

I think for both of us, a return visit to Aups and further hikes in Les Gorges is on the cards in the future!

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1. The French took roundabout landscaping to the next level.  Most roundabouts (particularly in the south) are mini garden/art works that incorporate both plant and art installations. I have photos here from Champagne, they were not the best examples but at least it shows a little of what they do.
2. 4 pm is the hottest part of the day. This is really the case for all of Europe in summer, but it is interesting to me as it is not like this at all in Australia!
3. Summer seems to be the season of the French “Fete”. Numerous towns were having fetes: such as hay festivals, strawberry festivals and the most popular of all, the medieval festival. We actually tried to stay in one town that had a fete in action as we drove through but alas, we could not get accommodation at the local caravan park. This particular town had a jousting match on boats happening as we drove through. Quite unique and most intriguing!
4. McDonalds in France often have a green background, instead of red. At first I incorrectly thought that maybe they were trying to be “different” but after discovering they had free wifi and a desire to try the “Royale with Cheese” (Pulp Fiction) we discovered that green Maccas are actually ones that are fully powered by renewable energy. The majority are of this kind.
5. The main crops in France (at least those I could identify) are: sunflowers, lavender, corn, vines, apricots, apples and hay.
6. It seems no matter the size of the town, they will have a boulangerie (bakery)!
7. Road side rest areas are common (and you are forwarned of their existence), unlike the majority of Europe.
8. Like the Italians, they love the arvo siesta.
9. France was the first country with any livestock of note – cattle. My google searching seems to indicate they are Charolais.
10. The majority of towns are carefully maintained with planter boxes of brightly coloured flowers, hanging pots of flowers from light posts, colourfully painted wooden shutters and artworks painted on the walls of homes and shops.

1. You can enjoy consistently excellent coffee wherever you go.
2. Pretty much all businesses shut down from lunchtime until often three in the afternoon. This includes petrol stations. It is possible to still buy petrol via machines during this time. All businesses shut on Sundays also.
3. Petrol is the most expensive we found anywhere in Europe.
4. It is not uncommon to see garbage piled up on the side of the road where roadside bins have obviously not been cleared for a long time. In general there is a lot of rubbish left on the streets.
5. Italy is the most graffitied country I have ever been in. For example, in Rome, it was common to see the entire exterior of trains covered from top to bottom in graffitied.6 There was little or no landscaping or parks. Buildings often looked poorly maintained.
6. However, where we travelled in the north in Liguria was a notable exception to this general observation and of those mentioned in 4 and 5.
7. There were substantially larger numbers of scooter and motorbike riders in Italy than any other European country we have travelled in this trip.
8. The signs on the road indicating the distance to other towns changed randomly from one sign to the next. The most hilarious and frankly perplexing example was when we saw two signs in the space of about 500 m where one indicated our destination was now roughly 100 km less than the sign 500 m up the road. These contradicting road distances happened enough times for us to start joking about it to each other when another example was identified.
9. Driving on Italian roads is downright scary a lot of the time. It is a regular occurrence to have an oncoming vehicle overtake a line of cars in front of them and to not allow for the fact that you are travelling in the opposite direction. The only way of avoiding an accident is to heavily apply the brakes or drive as best as possible on the shoulder of the road so that they may pass, at speed, between you and the other oncoming vehicles. Another variation on this theme is of course the people behind you overtaking in the same manner and you having to see them in your rear vision mirror in sufficient time as to brake and allow them past you before they collide with the oncoming traffic. Motorists driving at excessive speed, overtaking on blind corners, reversing down a main road towards your oncoming vehicle are all things we experienced.
10. Given point 9 it near beggars belief that we only saw one accident the whole time we were in Italy. Though I will say that the sounds of sirens was a daily event and usually several times a day. So somewhere nearby each day something untoward happened.

In summary, at least Italy has awesome coffee.

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“And the password for the day is women’s underwear!”

Perhaps this is not what you would expect a high school teacher to be saying to his students as he commences the day’s lesson, but then ancient history lessons with Mr Raeburn were never dull or usual. I always went to each class eager to hear that day’s stories told through Mr Raeburn’s interpretation. The ancient texts we read such as Suetonius were brought to life in his classes. The lives of the Roman Emperors were dramatised through his teachings into the most fascinating tales. My memory is somewhat hazy as to which Roman Emperor Mr Raeburn was pretending to be on the occasion of the women’s underwear shenanigans, but if memory serves me right it was Caligula.

We studied a number of the early Roman Emporers: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Nero. If the ancient historians are to be believed they were indeed a colourful bunch! Their exploits were definitely sufficient to keep my history class thoroughly entertained. My fascination with ancient Rome has never left me and with this trip I finally got to walk through the ruins of where these legendary people of history walked before me. How wonderful!

We chose to fly into Rome and leave our little Eriba and Golf to have a sleepover in a campground not far from Genova. We were quite excited about the whole prospect of flying into Rome and staying at the Sheraton for the duration of our time there. It felt decidedly like a holiday within a holiday to us.

Driving around Europe leaving thousands of kilometres in our wake is a most excellent adventure. We have loved our cozy little home, somewhere to call our own for two whole months! No new beds or packing and unpacking of backpacks for us! Just us, our trusty little stead, the road ahead and the next destination. So this whole flying into Rome thing sounded quite exotic and decadent to us at the time. It was definitely out of character to the rest of our European summer trip.

Staying at the Sheraton was a nice little present to ourselves and I think a fitting way to spend our time in this grand city. We had a number of points accrued that allowed us to stay at the Sheraton for next to nothing. We had originally planned to spend four nights in a beautiful resort in Chang Rai, Thailand with our points but as fate would have it the tsunami evacuation and my accident put an end to that. Well, as it turns out, having somewhere a bit fancy to stay in Rome suited as very nicely, thank you!

To top it off when we arrived I was tinkering on the internet when Damien strolled over with the grin of a Cheshire cat on his face. “Guess what?”  he said, “We just got an upgrade and access to the Club Lounge!” Big grins ALL around 😀 Oh and they also gave us a complimentary bottle of Italian liqueor and chocolates. So all in all we were pretty happy with our digs on this occasion!

But enough of that and on to Rome!

I expected that I would be impressed with Rome but I had no idea how big an impact it would have on me. As we alighted from our bus from the hotel we were immediately greeted with the imposing white magnificence of the Museo Centrale Del Risorgimento (or at least we think it was that!). Welcome to Rome! Both Damien and I were unprepared for the grandeur of it all. What an introduction and it wasn’t even on our list of things to see!

As we had two and a half days in Rome we made a list of just a few places that were our “must sees” and stuck to our plan. We managed to fit in a few other things here and there but I am going to focus on just our highlights list.

Day 1

This was a ridiculously hot day. Searingly hot. In fact I would go as far to say it was the hottest day I have experienced this year anywhere, and this has been (with the exception of three weeks in Northern Europe) an endless summer for us. I don’t know if it was the relentless heat or not but the crowds did not seem as bad as I had feared. Before going on our trip to Europe in summer we were reasonably concerned about the crowds. Yet I am pleased to say that we really haven’t had any major concerns in this area.

Our first stop was the Roman Forum. This large area was apparently the civic and religious centre of ancient Rome. We purchased an audio headset and commenced our wander through the ruins. Some of the ruins were in better condition than others but taking the complex as a whole left an indelible impression on me. With a little bit of imagination I could conjure up an amazing picture of how impressive this ancient city once would have looked. What was somewhat disappointing however was that most of the ruins weren’t labelled and the audio wasn’t much help in pinpointing exactly which ruins it was referring to. Thus, we walked around quite a lot of the time guessing which building the audio was talking about.

The Curia, which was effectively their ancient parliament was still standing in all its glory. We went inside and received instant relief from the blazing heat outside. It was staggering how much cooler it was in there by comparison. It was also one of the few well labelled areas of the Forum. There was an impressive selection of ancient artefacts in there from frescoes to ornate glass bottles and dishes in a myriad of colours and designs to gorgeously delicate jewellery. Damien rightly commented on the frescoes saying that anywhere else you would think that they were replicas as they were in such great condition. But no, this was the real deal, just a couple of thousand years old is all!

Next we walked up to the Palatine which is directly adjacent to the Forum. This was apparently the district where the wealthy lived back in the day. We walked around to the site where Emperor Augustus’ home still stands. But alas, access to this is shut on Fridays so we couldn’t have a look through it. I have read that it was restored in 2008 and it contains excellent frescoes. I guess I will have to try and catch that should I return to Rome in the future.

Part of our reason for going to the Forum and Palatine first is that we had read that it is best to visit the Colosseum in the afternoon. Additionally, you can purchase a joint ticket for the Palatine and Colosseum at the gates to the Palatine. This is a cunning and most excellent move as you then just sail on into the Colosseum past the crowds lining up to buy their tickets at the gates of this gladiatorial slaughterhouse. Nice. High fives to us for our planning! Walking through the Colosseum was indeed a memorable and totally mind warping experience. Looking at the bowels where the animals and humans would wait to be hauled to the arena floor via pullies is amazing. Then you spin around and see the sheer size of the seating areas for the spectators. Then you try and imagine this whole thing with a floor and a roof of sails and then full of water (for the mock naval battles) and simply put, you’re bloody impressed! Excuse the pun.

Day one. You were magnificent. I believe the hype!

Day 2

Day two saw us in need of some further self congratulation due to our planning foresight. We had decided to purchase our tickets to the Vatican Museums on line prior to hitting Rome to avoid the queues of tourists who simply wait to buy them on the day. When we went to purchase the tickets we noticed that the Sunday we would be in Rome was the one day of the month that the Vatican allows visitors in for free. We reasoned that more people would try and go on the free day so we should definitely go on the day before and hopefully encounter less people.

We caught the train so we could arrive at the Vatican as soon as the museum was open to avoid crowds. Lucky for us, we just waltzed straight on in as there was no line for pre-purchased tickets. Gold. Not so for those who didn’t we noted. I really wanted to walk as fast as we could (without running!) to the Sistine Chapel so we could get there before it was packed with people. This seemed almost sacrilegious once we entered the Vatican though as we were both gob smacked at what we saw. I couldn’t believe we were burning through these halls at a ludicrious speed. As I blazed a path for Damien to duck, dodge and dive his way through the meandering horde I kept yelling over my shoulder that this was the right decision and that we could come back and take in all this amazing stuff upon our return. This is when being Carroll sized comes into its own as you can squeeze through the tinniest of passes and these little legs can get some speed on when they need to! I could tell by the look on Damien’s face that he wasn’t entirely convinced of the plan and I was yelling him my assurance in part to convince myself that not stopping to jawp and admire everything en route to the Sistine Chapel was the right thing to do.

Well, the proof of our high speed hike was in the result! When we arrived there were maybe thirty odd people in the Chapel! Success. We positioned ourselves on the side wall where there was seating and there we sat for about 40 minutes, our necks craned to the roof and we just admired this masterpiece of Michelangelo. And to think he viewed himself as a sculptor first and foremost! The most lovely part of all was that for a good 20 – 30 minutes of that time was spent without crowds and we had the opportunity to take in everything in almost complete silence and no jostling for space. After absorbing as much as we could from our seat we then spent another 20 minutes or so taking in the walls (which are painted by Michelangelo and several other masters such as Botticelli). By this time it was packed with people and not a pleasant experience nor how something so beautiful should be appreciated in my opinion. Several times the crowd was instructed to be quiet because the din was getting too loud for this chapel, which is afterall the Pope’s chapel and where the cardinals assemble to decide who should be the next man to hold this title. I find it hard to fathom that anyone could not be impressed with this Chapel. We did not opt to have a guide and I can definitely see merit in being part of a tour through the Vatican Museum for the additional information you would learn, but I found the detail provided in the audio tape we purchased to be fantastic and it added a lot to my experience as a whole.

As for the rest of the Vatican Museum all I can say is it is phenomenal. You could literally spend days in there looking at all the religious artefacts, ancient Etruscan, Roman and Egyptian collections and the list goes on. The sheer size and number priceless pieces of art is astounding and has to be seen to be comprehended. Even then, I don’t think I can fully understand the enormity of it. The rooms in which all these magnificent pieces are housed are in themselves so ornately beautiful that I can’t begin to think of the amount of power and wealth it takes to gather such a horde. Well, I guess I can, it takes religion to gather that. If one wants to, one can ponder those age old monologues about the tyranny of the church etc etc but seriously, when I was in the Vatican and I was trying to take it all in, the main thing I could focus on was how amazing it all was.

Then as if I hadn’t been wowed enough in one day, we then swung past the Pantheon. This building is just shy of 2000 years old. The outside of this astonishing building is impressive, for sure, but walking into its interior is when you marvel at the ingenuity and engineering mastery of ancient man. This building is the only one EVER built in the world to date of its size with an un-reinforced dome. So the Romans back in AD 120 engineered something that hasn’t bet topped since, and it’s still standing. Need I say more.

Day 3

We saved St Peters Basilica until the last day. To be honest I hadn’t given it much thought. I hadn’t pondered what it would look  like inside in the slightest. I had seen the outside the day we went to the Vatican Museum but that was it.

Like the previous days we got up to be there early. We caught the train in and were somewhat perturbed by the masses of people in the carriages with us, when the day before at the same time there were pretty much none. We were hoping like mad that they were all going to the Vatican Museum and not St Peters or we would have some serious lining up to do. We had barred going to St Peters the day before due to the lines in the afternoon, we had hoped that arriving early would circumvent this. Upon arrival at the Vatican our questions were answered. Everyone was lining up for the free day. Oh. My. God. Seriously, you would not want to do it unless you had to. The line must have been at least half a kilometre long. Not knowing if this would also translate into a similar line up outside St Peters we hot footed it to the Basilica.

I hallelujah was in order as everyone was clearly lining up for the museums and like the rest of our time in Rome and the Vatican we just walked on in. Well, not really, “just walked”, I think we actually stumbled in because we tripped over our jaws. Once again I was finding it hard to dig up sufficient superlatives to explain how I felt about what I was seeing. This was the Vaitcan piece de la resistence. If ever there was a shrine created to try and materially explain how much man wants to worship God than this is it. Or for the more cynical (some would say realist) out there, n’er was there a more decadent display of the immense power and wealth of the church in the creation of one building. Either way, it was truly magnificent. I think Damien summed it up best when he said, “I expected to be impressed but I didn’t expect to be stunned like a mullet”. Indeed. For Damien, visiting St Peters had an unexpected effect of moving him quite deeply as he reflected how much it would have meant to his father to have visited the Basilica. It’s simply that kind of a place.

In a post a while ago I said I would upload the last of my Pltivice Lakes photos to the photo gallery. I have managed to get them up today.

After numerous attempts at uploading the video of Damien and I in the cathedral in Verden, Germany I have finally given up. Unfortunately that will not be making it onto the blog anytime soon.

We are just in the process of packing up our caravan and car to leave Burgundy. We have had four wonderful days here. We scored an amazing spot in a campground that overlooks the vineyards and the town of Mersault. We have loved sitting back with a bottle of wine and some food from the local town each evening and watching the sun slowly go down. It has been our favourite campground so far!

Au revoir 🙂