France to Italy Sept/ Oct 2023

20 - 29 Sept  2023

Wednesday 20 September.   wake up to the oh so familiar sound of rain on the roof which is not what we ordered for an  R & R week in the South of France ☹️.   Spend today doing nothing very much, but visit the campsite shop and buy some Camp du Domaine rosé and a baguette bag (and two baguettes).    

To the beach and go for a walk. Several signs to say 'no swimming (by law)', and lots of seaweed washed up on the beach.  I swear the beach has become much narrower than it was all those years ago when we holiday-ed here.  Walk to the end of the beach and then back through the campsite, passing pitch P7 (P for Plage) where my family camped for so many years. P7 now has a neighbour, P7B, so they're squeezing in the pitches.

The majority of visitors are German, with a smattering of Dutch and a small number of Swiss, Belgian, Brits.  The demographic (no surprise) is mainly more mature people, who no longer have to go on vacation in school holiday time, and some, like our nice Dutch neighbours, younger with a very small child.   

It's a camp site so I have made it a mission to find tents, but by the end of the week I think I have seen only four, and have walked quite a lot of the site.  Almost all of the 1,050 pitches have a campervan, motorhome (some of which are the size of a small bus) or caravan.  I think I missed the memo about the whole world switching from being under canvas to taking your home with you. Even though that's exactly what we've done.

Thursday  21 September. The rain hammers down in the night waking up both of us.  When we get up the ground is dry - ish but the drainage ditches, which were dry yesterday, are now mini rivers.  Another day of pottering, reading and drinking rosé.

Friday 22 September. Lovely day but breezy.  Check out the beach - there are flags flying at the 'poste de secours' (lifeguard station) advising against swimming on account of pollution. Ovehear a lifeguard explaining to an indignant French woman that it is not safe to swim today as so much 'pollutant' has been washed into the sea.   At least the pollutant is tree / vegetation related, as far as I can tell, unlike some of the beaches in the UK.

Walk along the beach into the village of La Faviere and visit a food fair - some Provencal items but also from other parts of France and from Spain.   In the village we buy a hat for John, some cough mixture for me (my cough's still hanging around) and go for a drink in a bar, then potter back.

My afternoon is largely spent walking back and forth to and from the nearby facilities where there is one washing machine….in fairly constant use, so the challenge is to be there before the cycle ends, and before anyone else gets their bag of washing 'in line'.  Did I mention that a lot of our co-campers are German?

Saturday 23 September. Have a light breakfast (ie bread but no croissants) as we're going out for lunch today.

Walk along the beach and stop at La Plage Meynial, a well reviewed restaurant on the beach.  Friendly waiter, tho' my French is better than his English, but service slows down as the number of customers builds up.   

I have the dish of the day, swordfish steak (or, as the waiter calls it, 'big nose fish') with curry sauce and pineapple rice,

and then chocolate mousse; John has steak brochette (skewer) with tomato-y bearnaise sauce, and chips, followed by creme brulee. With a bottle of local rose. And the opportunity to people watch and hang out on the beach.  Not the cheapest lunch ever, but fun.

Laundry 'bingo' afterwards, but I get some more washing done in the end, in between reading my book.

Sunday 24 September. Third day of laundry and second time lucky in terms of grabbing the machine 🙂

Walk to the beach in the afternoon for a paddle and sunbathe.  Weather definitely right now, with sunshine and no wind.  The sea is not very warm as I think there's been an off-shore breeze that's blown the warmer water towards North Africa.   

Monday 25 September last full day here - where did the week go?  I walk to La Favière to get some supplies and buy a scarf I'd seen the other day and liked. Only €7.   Wander back and we have lunch.  I go to the beach and have a proper swim and then a shower.

Start to tidy up for tomorrow's departure.

Later we go to the Camp du Domaine bar and have two large beers and a pastis for John.  €20 (£17.40) in total!

Tuesday 26 September up early and pack.  It always takes longer than we think, especially with outdoor things to put away.  Supposed to vacate at 10.00 am but we're still there at 10.15 when a German chap, who gets the pitch from 11.00 am, walks up to see when we're leaving.   Cheeky.

Drive east on the motorway, bypassing Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo.  Pretty route through the hills and with glimpses of the sea.

Into Italy with no pause, just drive past the sign saying 'Italia'.   

The road in Italy is a mix of tunnels through the hills and viaducts over the valleys - dark, light, dark, light.

We reach Pietra Ligure and find the mo-ho stopover under a motorway flyover, a mile out of town. Friendly dog, friendly owners who speak some English, and a place to sit in the shade for a drink. Facilities fairly basic but they work.   Strange to see the motorway so far above us but we can't really hear it (some reviews of the stopover complained about traffic noise).

Walk into town around 5.30 pm - it's still very hot. Each have a pizza and a beer, plus a bag of fugassin (fried potato bread) at Ercole restaurant which costs €27 (£24) .   Complete bargain compared to the bill for drinks last night!   Have a look at the beach

and walk back;  watch the movie of The Man from Uncle in memory of David McCallum (from the original TV series) who died today. The movie lacks the je ne sais quoi of the TV series.

Wednesday 27 September sleep fitfully because it's very warm.

Have a rapid shower - €1 for three minutes - and leave at 9.15. Beautiful drive of about 240 Kms through tunnels and over viaducts.  

 

Stop for diesel which is badly needed. Drive past Parma (of ham fame), Carrera (of marble quarry fame) 

and reach Pisa where we check in to Camping Village Torre Pendente.  Friendly staff at reception and the shop, shaded pitch . Spend the afternoon doing not very much - John makes a dinner using left over fugassin,  (which don't reheat as well as pasta).

Thursday 28 September after breakfast we walk into Pisa;  it's only about 1.3 Kms to the centre but we go via a very unattractive underpass, which I don't like.    Have a quick breakfast and go to the piazza with the tower, cathedral, museum etc.  Lots of tourists who keep stopping for the required picture of them holding up the tower etc.  I give up trying not to photo bomb other people's pictures!

We have bought tickets for a 10.30 am entry to the tower and of course are super early, even for the 10.15 am entry. So we queue twice.   

There are about 200 steps up to the top layer of the tower and then some more steps, even narrower, to the very top.  

Made more interesting as there are people coming down the stairs as we go up. And, funnily enough, it's all on a slope.

Great views of the piazza from the top of the tower, and hills beyond the city.  After our descent we go for a cold drink at a cafe nearby, and then walk through the university and over the river to a store in a shopping street, so that John can buy an Italian SIM.  

Walk back to the piazza, but I'm not feeling 100% at this point so we  go back to the camp site rather than visit the museum and cathedral. I sleep for over three hours when we get back after which I feel much better.

Friday 29 September pack and head south for about three hours to tonight's camp site at Sarteano in Tuscany.    Receptionist gives us maps and a brochure and lends me a swimming cap - there's a pool at the site but swimming caps Must Be Worn.    Find our pitch and go to the pool for a few gentle lengths.  The pool's water is thermal and mineral (aka warmish and out of the ground?).

Later we walk into town, which is very close, and have a look at the old centre. 

The All Blacks are playing Italy tonight (rugby) and we keep an eye out for a bar which looks like it might be showing the match. We may be a bit early as very few places are open.  Opt for a pizza in a pizzeria - very tough crust and IMHO not very good - and go back to the mo-ho to watch the match there.   The score is 96 (ABs) to 17 (Italy) so I think it was polite to keep John, in his AB shirt, out of sight. 😁