Compared to our
hiking and biking exploits in Switzerland throughout September, the
first week of October has been relatively uneventful in comparison as
we have taken some time to relax let our bodies recover a little.
That said, it's hard to say where the week has gone as the days seem
to be passing faster and faster as the weeks go by. After dropping
Esther off at Geneva airport last Tuesday evening I retired to a
lovely peaceful campsite just across the border in France close to
Divonne-les-Bains where I enjoyed 2 days alternating between giving
the motorhome a much needed autumn clean and reading all of the
English language books in the campsite book collection.
Before I knew it
Friday morning had arrived and I was back at the airport collecting a
very tired Esther who had been burning the candle at both ends in
Holland with her family and not helped by the unwelcome plane delays.
In fact, Esther was so tired that any worries about where we were
heading to over the next few weeks were put on hold until at least
the next day. Choosing a relatively nearby aire in the beautiful town
of Annecy, which had been recommended to us more than 3 months ago by
Graham and Freya who we had met in Martigny, we were able to get
parked up by mid-afternoon and just put our feet up in the afternoon
sunshine. It was a refreshing change to be lounging around in a warm
motorhome after some of the bitter nights we had endured in the Alps,
although the snow capped peaks were markedly absent. We even enjoyed
meeting a fellow British traveller, Elaine, who popped in for a cup
of tea which was another nice experience after so long alone in the
mountains.
Following a
peaceful stroll around beautiful Annecy on Saturday morning, with the
lake set against tree covered mountains in brilliant sunshine and the
narrow old streets decorated with brightly coloured flowers, we hit
the road again heading south. Our next destination we had decided was
Mont Ventoux, in the heart of Provence, and the location of another
famous Tour de France climb. Provence is also region we had wanted
to visit back in summer but had decided it was too far to detour from
the heart of the Alps. Now we were chasing the warmer weather south
and Mont Ventoux lay directly between us and the Mediterranean coast.
A perfect opportunity.
Although Mont
Ventoux lay less than 200 miles driving to the south which we would
have thought nothing of covering back in the UK, after meandering so
gently through Switzerland and covering less than 400 miles in the
whole of September we elected to break the journey into at least 2
stages as it felt like a very long way. Plus after such late start on
Saturday from Annecy combined with a long stop at a handy camping
store to replenish some motorhome essentials and have an extra lock
fitted to our back door (something we'd been thinking about since
leaving the UK and they had a special offer on) we didn't make it
very far at all on Saturday. This was also not helped by spending a good half an hour following hundreds of sheep through a tiny hamlet! What a mess they made.
Resuming our
journey on Sunday morning we realised, looking at the map, that in
completing our journey to Provence we would spend a large part of the
day tracking the Rhone on it's way to join the sea close to
Marseille. Having stood looking down on the source of this mighty
river at the Rhone glacier just weeks before it was exciting to now
be gazing over this vast expanse of slow moving water that the icy
stream had become. In fact, our route had tracked much of the water
course along the Rhone valley, around Lac Leman and south from
Geneva. It felt good to now be completing the journey and imagining
that some of the water that we were driving along had melted from
that mighty glacier, perhaps as we had stood looking at it.
Arriving tired
from our relatively long drive on Sunday afternoon we settled into
the large but busy aire in Malaucene at the foot of the climb to the
summit of Mont Ventoux, which was shrouded in cloud, and reflected on
how much had changed in just a few days. From some of the highest
mountains in Europe to the rolling Mediterranean orchards and
vineyards of Provence. What would the next few weeks have in store
for us?
During our stay at the Aire in Annecy - we lent our water hose to an Australian family so that they could fill up their motorhome with water as theirs had gone missing. Unexpectedly and very kindly, they returned it along with a little thank you pressie -a keyring with a small kola bear in a red 'Australia' shirt. We have named her 'Kylie the Kola' (obviously!) and she has settled in nicely, joining our other travelling buddies! We were really touched. The family are travelling around Europe and their motorhome had their blog address on the back, you can read about their travels here: www.eurotrip2014.com.au. We wish them a very happy and safe onward travels.
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