The next morning was sunny as we set off towards the Canyon du Verdon
taking the wider northern road and frequently stopping to look over the
parapets into the deep gorge. Rounding a bend we avoided a large one metre sized piece
of rock that had fallen onto the road sometime earlier (luckily when empty we hoped).
Just after the small village of La Palud sur Verdon we took the
signposted Route des Crêtes to enjoy the expansive views
across hills on a beautiful clear morning, pausing at many
belvederes to peer down into the gorge. Luckily the narrowest part
through a couple of tunnels is one way. Looping back to La Palud we
stopped to look at some modern sculptures although the main exhibition
in the chateau was closed as it was a Tuesday (of course!). Continuing to the end of the canyon we turned
south to Comps sur Artuby and the vast desolate Grand Plan de Canjeurs with an
army training area to bypass Draguignan and then on much busier roads as
we approached the coast at Ste Maxime and the Camping des Mures, an ACSI
discount campsite just along from Port Grimaud, where we chose a shady
pitch away from the main road and beach.
St Tropez waterfront
We walked along the beach the next morning through another large
campsite to the modern but rather artificial old style marina of Port
Grimaud
and took the water taxi boat trip across to St Tropez. Despite the
crowds the Tourist Information Centre closed for a two hour lunch break
just as we arrived so we wandered along the quay not feeling at all
envious for the luxury yachts moored alongside (we prefer our much used
and
more mobile motorhome!) then around the narrow back streets with mostly
gift shops and one busy restaurant where the Plat de Jour was €54.
We treated ourselves to an icecream before finding probably the
most profitable enterprise - the privately run loo at 50 cents, all the
municipal ones being closed!
Returning on the water taxi we
walked back to the campsite noting that the two ACSI discount ones
were busy especially on the beachside pitches whereas the non ACSI
one was virtually empty. We decided to retrace our steps visiting
places we had found many years ago so drove along the coast road the
next morning to Le Lavendou, much busier than we remembered with a
large marina and
not camping-car friendly, then headed inland to Bormes les
Mimosas,
still as pretty as we remembered where we found a large but deserted
official aire with free 24 hour parking but no services down a
steep road behind the terraced main carpark (signposted P2). The old
town centre with its steep cobbled lanes wasn't very busy and was very
colourful with flowers everywhere.
As
the coastal strip was so busy we decided to drive inland for the
weekend and drove through Draguignan centre heading for the Gorges de
Chateaudouble which we discovered was closed due to the road being
washed away in 2010 so had to take a very winding and hilly diversion.
Our latest Michelin map showed the route coupée so should have looked
at that rather than the satnav! Back on our route we stopped near
Bargème, a restored hill village before reaching the aire in the busy
daytime carpark at Castellane. There was a fair in the town square with
a feu d'artifice advertised for 10pm followed by a dance. After hanging
around with a handful of people we gave up on the non existant
fireworks when the dance started with Roll out the Barrel playing over
the loudspeakers. After a walk around the rather expensive street
market the next morning we headed north to the lovely free aire at
Annot another attractive old town for a more peaceful night. The
next morning sunny but still the cold north wind blowing we took the
impressive circuit up into the hills on a good road through the Gorge
de Daluis and a minor road to the remote stone village of Péone turning
south to Valberg, an unexpectedly modern ski resort and back south
through the rocky Gorges du Cians with several tunnels with 3.1 metre
height limits. We spent the night at Entrevaux, another
attractive old walled town and climbed up the steep zigzag path to the
ruined citadel overlooking the Var valley. We had intended to take the
narrow gauge Train des Pignes to Nice but it had a replacement bus
service for much of the route due to landslips. However we managed to
see the steam hauled train which runs over part of the route at
weekends.
Antibes traditional cafe
The
drive to the coast got busier as we approached Nice the next morning so
we decided to head for an ACSI campsite we had picked out near Antibes.
Camping Rosignol was a small campsite on the outskirts and we were
given a pitch next to another GB Adria Twin but I think we must have
been invisible to them! It was about 2km walk to the harbour at Antibes
and after a stroll along the prom where there was a serious boules
tournament in progress with the teams in matching tops, we
walked by the ramparts and around the old town.