Provence etc

Well this update is a little slow as usual. We have travelled around a fair bit since the last entry. 

After reluctantly leaving Annecy, we went to a camping ground in Jonquieres near Orange. While there, we thought Yana was going to make the jump and finally start walking because she took a few shuffling steps, but since then she has seemed rather disinclined to try it again. However she still loves pushing the pram around, and is getting more skilled at getting unstuck

 when she bumps into something. We are a little worried that she might just skip walking and just start driving everywhere. Fortunately she can't reach both the pedals and the steering wheel yet.

One interesting thing we have seen a lot in Provence, is vineyards where the vines are not tied to wires, but left to grow like little trees. We can assure you that they taste the same though (its not stealing when you're doing scientific experiments (e.g. do they taste good)).

Next we went to Carpentras to go to a farmers market (very friendly little town), and managed to take a wrong turn which took us down a maze of tiny little streets that we were seriously worried about needing to back out of with our campervan... fortunately we managed to find our way back out without knocking any bits off the campervan!

Next we went to Avignon, which while ok, was quite shady (lots of strange homeless people) and also a little boring - apart from the Pont d'Avignon (Avignon Bridge, which cost €4.50 just to walk onto! - we didn't bother...) and the Palais des Papes (old Papal palace), there wasn't much else to see - just living from its past.

€4.50 just to walk on half a bridge - the cheek of the french aye...

After Avignon we went to see Pont du Gard, an amazing old Aquaduct built by the romans in about 19BC and still in very good nick. The scale of it is pretty amazing and to think that the bridge was only one small part of the total Aquaduct going through hilly countryside (50 something kms)... We found a nice place to park only a couple of kms from the bridge and therefore managed to get there at about 8am before anybody else, and got some nice piccies.

Pont du Gard - those Romans sure knew how to build!

Big Yana against one of the 'little' arches on the top tier to get an idea of the size.

After Pont du Gard we went to Arles, where van Gogh spent quite a bit of time (including several hundred paintings and chopping off his ear).
Missing ear and all...

There happened to be a festival on with bull fighting (and running) etc and with its old roman amphitheatre etc it was a really nice place. We also got to experience the famous Mistral wind wistling down the Rhone valley - rocked us to sleep in the campervan ;-)

We are now on the Mediterranean coast with nice summery conditions. On Sunday we stopped off near Montpellier on a nice beach where I (and Yana) got to swim in the Mediterranean sea for the first time (I only dipped my toes in when we were in Rome a few years ago). We are planning on staying on various beaches along the coast as long as the weather holds out (is due to rain on Thursday) and then heading towards Spain/Pyrenees mountains.

As this was written on Monday and it is now Friday, it is a little out of date - we have now reached Spain - a little earlier than expected due to the weather packing it in on Wednesday instead... but that will all have to wait until the next post ;)

Lac d'Annecy

We have moved on to France now and we have spent four very nice days in the area around Lac d'Annecy (Lake Annecy). Annecy itself is a beautiful little town with canals, narrow alleyways, bridges with flowers on them, lots of playgrounds and a park right by the lake. An amazing two-way cycle 'road' runs along the entire western shore of the lake (and carries on south for another 10kms or so) and there are mountains with sheer rock faces towering over the eastern shore. There are also giant meringues to be sampled. It's a very nice area.

The first night we spent on a carpark together with lots of other campervans, despite a sign saying no camping. We couldn't quite understand the text of the sign, but were pretty sure camping wasn't allowed given the campervan picture with a cross through it. However, we thought that the town must tolerate campervans, otherwise there wouldn't be 15 or so campervans parked there. The carpark was right by the lake. In the morning I went for a run along the lake. For the rest of the day Lindsay went for a bike ride, while Yana and I explored the centre of the town. We did some sightseeing and went to two different playgounds. Afterwards we relaxed in the park.

The next couple of nights we spent in a legitimate parking spot, which wasn't as close to the lake though. Because the second day was rainy, we went out for lunch and then spent the rest of the day in an indoor swimming pool. Yana loved playing around in the water and Lindsay and I took turns swimming lengths. Lindsay had to buy some speedos from a vending machine, because shorts weren't allowed.

On the Sunday we went for a walk on the eastern side of the lake. We followed the markers to a mountain, but even though we were climbing up at a continuous rate, we were struggling to get a view. We knew there was an amazing view, but it was covered by all the trees. Finally we found a spot, from which we could see down to the lake. we didn't make it to the top of the mountain though, as we had no idea how long it would have taken us.

Because we liked Annecy so much, we decided to spend another day there, exploring the town centre and relaxing by the lake. We biked into town along the lake from where we were staying and then spent the day in town. It was beautiful and sunny, and we were almost tempted to stay on for another day.

Now we are on our way to the Provence, eager to find out what kinds of places we will discover here.