From the Med to Provence

From Le Lavandou we wound our way along the coast towards Cassis and the Calanques, a series of natural harbours cut from the Limestone cliffs on the edge of the med coast. On our way we stopped for lunch at a place called Bandol another marina town similar to St Tropez. We soon came to appreciate that Marina towns are expensive – the price of the meal is related to the value of the boats in the marina. Nevertheless we had a delightful fish meal of local origin. Mark does not know exactly what the shellfish were in his meal but I had a fish called Loup which was very tasty.

Onwards to Cassis where we boarded a boat for a trip out to the Calanques, having first passed by the nude sunbathers lying on the limestone rocks the surround the bay at Cassis. It was pretty awesome seeing the pine trees that grow out of the rocks in the strong sea air with little or no soil to sustain them. It was interesting to see droves of walkers surveying the Calanques from the top down whilst we had chosen to view from the bottom up. The rock formations are quite unique and provide the perfect playing field for climbers from all over the country.

With the skies having decided to open up with a flash flood and thunder and lightening, we hit the road to Aix en Provence arriving about five o’clock desperate for a loo stop. We found a public automatic toilet that we didn’t have the right change for, so we decided to sit and enjoy a drink at bar and use their toilets. Where is this leading I hear you say.

For those of you who remember the old rhyme:
“Oh dear what can the matter be” you will know where this is leading. For those who don’t, Jocelyn was seriously traumatized by being unable to open the toilet door having thankfully relieved herself (no she wasn’t really traumatized but she was stuck). Luckily there was a Scots girl outside who heard her pleas for help (she spoke English and French) and went to get a bar man to assist. Somehow the lock mechanism had just sheared off. However getting the door to open proved a difficult task and between Mark, Suzanne and the barman they finally got the lock to open and released a relieved (in more than one way) Jocelyn.

The bar man then gave us our drinks for free and we sat down with Suzanne (the Scots lady) and had a good old chat about things and places to go in France. By this time it was after seven o’clock so we decided we should find somewhere to stay for the night. Well that turned out to be easier said than done. All the accommodation in Aix was booked because of conferences. So we hit the road with no real direction in mind but ended up going south about 10km until we stumbled upon an Accor hotel and finally found rest for the night after a very long and at times traumatic day.

We had heard that Marseille was a manic place and so had no intention of driving down to it. Rather we decided to catch a bus from Aix, a decision that proved to be the right one. Marseilles is a manic place and drivers are no where near as courteous as other places we have experience already. There were places in Marseilles that one could have been forgiven for thinking that they were in North Africa with street markets of meat, veges and spices. In others areas you realized you were in a Marina town as shop after shop with designer gear greeted you. Definitely a town of contrasts, from Street markets to posh shops within a block. We think that Marseilles caters very well for it’s population providing 24 hour window shopping in the trash as pictured below.

Also we had another climb up a hill to church and yes you guessed it, it was called Notre Dame. But once again the views were spectacular and made the walk worthwhile. The church was very different to others we had seen having a very colourful interior and was well preserved inside and out.

Then it was back to Aix to investigate what if had to offer. This is an orderly, touristy town but the old part was well worth spending time wandering the narrow streets. We tried some Turkish baking for afternoon tea and all I can say is that they must love their honey as the cakes were very sweet and dripping honey. Not something we will eat again but we had decided to try different foods whilst here. We had already tried an Egyptian curry roll at the Marseille market that was very tasty.

Knowing we couldn’t stay in Aix and having had a wonderfully hot day we headed for the hills again with the lure of tramping and mountain biking in Grieux Les Bain. With afternoon thunderstorms dogging the area we were not sure what we would be able to do. But we were able to hire a mountain bike and going biking in the hills, heading up, up and away and then down, down, down. There were unrideable parts of the downhill which were well signposted and we got there and back. Along the way, in the middle of nowhere, yes you guessed it, another chapel called Notre Dame overlooking the town. Mark and I have a running joke going over what the name of each new church we come across will be.

After the ride we stopped at this little café on the side of the river, away from town, that had only locals and the food was of a local nature and cheap. Here we met a funny French couple who run the place. They don’t have many English speaking people at their place so the chef decided to practice his English on us. This brought about many laughs as we tried to interpret what he was saying. Essentially he was telling us he had prepared our food with love of from the heart. I can tell you that it tasted like it as Mark and I had the tastiest Merguez sausages and I a Bruschetta with Aubergine, Mozzarella and herbs. That was a lovely encounter.

Grieux Les Bain is a Spa town so we decided to have a massage at the incredible spa complex built on top of the thermal spring (and yes Napoleon had been there -we seem to be following his path through the south of France). On the map you would pick this as a small tow of a couple of thousand residents but what greets you is hundreds of older French people who book into the spa for a week at a time and the place was literally overrun by elderly – a category which does not include us!

Avignon and Orange, the heart of Provence, provided a nice days wandering and once again these are old ramparted towns that have preserved their histories well. They are all living part of history here and it is amazing to see young people out and about sketching the beautiful old buildings. Here we have drive down km after km of tree lined roads, with vineyards or orchards flanking either side.

We are riding ourselves of the many “Mythconceptions” we had of France before we arrived.
Number 1 – the cheap wine is good ( not lousy as we were led to believe)
Number 2 – Flower boxes do not abound in Alsace but they do in Provence
Number 3- Provence in not littered with Lavender growing in fields – we haven’t seen any yet (however we have just read the season runs from July to August)
Number 4 – the French are warm and friendly, courteous and helpful not aloof like we had heard before we left – but the service can be SLOW.

We are in uncertain times as there are blockades at the ports where fuel comes into France and diesel has been stopped from being delivered. Our lack of sufficient French means we don’t understand the full extent of the shortages but have witnessed long queues at Fuel stations and panic buying. We have a full tank of diesel and can get to Spain if we need to. Will let you know where we are in the next update.