FRANCE TO UK

France -  Netherland  - UK

We leave Italy the land of the motor scooter 

And make our way back through France heading south following the coast. The motorway tunnels shorten the trip

soon we are travelling through Monaco with a good view of the city.

and a bit of a giggle at the beach at Monte Carlo, a pier full of sun lounges and a ladder down to the water.  SO different to our local beach.

Next stop Nice then onto Cannes. There are lots of lovely art deco buildings and of course the famous festival theatre. We are hoping our grandson has a film here one day.

We then drive south towards St Tropez. The coastline is a mixture of high rise on the beach, houses clinging to the rocky hillsides and pebbly beaches. We spent one memorable night camped right on the beach after getting bogged turning around.

Soon the beaches become sandier and the boats get bigger and we are in St Tropez. 

How’s this for colour co ordination,  a pink shirt to match my pink boat.

It was very interesting wandering along the port. The buildings along the front were the same as the pictures we saw in the 60’s but the boats were enormous.

From here we head west over the mountains passing cork tree plantations with newly cut bark.

Travelling through the mountains we drove through the Plateau of Valensole, one of the largest Lavender producing areas in Provence.

We  saw a postcard of  Lake St Croix which is famous for the turquoise colour of the waters, it is 12 k long and 2-4 k wide so we decided to go and see it.  The view is quite stunning as we come over the hill and make our way down to the lakeside.

We were lucky to get a patch in the caravan park right on the water’s edge and had a few days of swimming and resting.

We now have a Moose sticker for the Baltic and Scandinavian countries on the back to go with Our Bull for Spain and Portugal. 

The beach is so stoney we had to wear our crocs to swim. I can’t believe they can sit on those rocks all day and enjoy a day at the beach.

There is every type of water craft imaginable here.

One evening we walked up to the top of the hill to a great restaurant which looks out over the lake. A few wines  a lovely meal and a  wander back down in the dark made it an interesting night. 

Soon it was time to head back north. We travelled along the Rhone River calling into towns we had visited on the boat in 2002 when we went down to the Midi. Some typical French views, of famous vineyards, playing boules, visiting lovely old towns, enjoying the flowers in each village and town we went through and a colourful  tromp L’oeil. 

 We drove through the villages of Bresse where the chickens are sold with an AOC the same as champagne.

 I saw this in an article

"Bresse Poultry ...

The Queen of Poultry, the Poultry of Kings "

There are champagnes ... and Dom-Pérignon !

There are cars ... and Rolls Royces !

There is caviar ... and Beluga caviar !

In the same way, there are chickens, and there are "Bresse

Chickens" ...

Bresse Poultry is unique ...

It is the only poultry, in France, in Europe, throughout the

world, which, like all good wines dear to our hearts, has the

benefit of an A.O.C. (Guaranteed Origin Appellation). This law

on A.O.C. qualification defines, very precisely: the zone, the

breed and the rearing conditions which give right to this title of

"Bresse Poultry".

Then it was time to sample the wines of the Bourgogne.

We stayed in St Jean de Losne which bought back many happy memories as this was the town where we bought Courlis our canal boat in 2005. The church here has a traditional Burgundy style colourful tile roof.

The town port steps was lined with canal boats.

We stayed in the caravan park in St Jean de Losne with Marion and Monk who live in Fontenoy le Chateau on the Canal de Vosges. We first met them in 2005 when we passed through their village in our boat and have visited them most years since.  They have come down here with their caravan so we can spend some time with them on our way north.

Then on through Luxembourg and Belgium where we stayed in a free, very crowded motorhome stop

Crossing into the Netherlands we drove to Breda where we were to stay with Hannah and Henk who we met in Estonia. They live in an interesting housing complex where the roof on  all the houses are covered with living plants.

Our last stop was the Hook of Holland on the Rotterdam Harbour. Here we went to look at the Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier, another of the marvels of the Delta works which protect the Rotterdam Harbour from flooding.

The gates structure, in the background of this photo shows how big they are.

Now it is time to catch the Ferry and leave Europe and back to the United Kingdom.