Pain (bread), Produce and (degree of) Permanence

So, here we are, bashing into blog post #10, and writing this the Tuesday after your bank holiday. Hitting your inboxes with this could have been timed better I imagine.

Today is a bank holiday in France, 8th May being commemorated as Victory day at the end of WW2. Being France of course, it is hard to tell whether it is actually a bank holiday, or just a regular lunch time, as so much stuff seems to be closed at will!

This post finds us now in one of our favoured spots, Vaison-La-Romaine in Provence and it is here we are resting the van (we can hardly need to rest ourselves!), for a couple of weeks. My mum and stepdad join us for a week next Monday 14th, bringing some longed for supplies, and hopefully the vacated space in their van will accommodate some stuff we no longer (hopefully) have need for, such as winter coats!

The last post was from Sixt-Fer-a-Cheval where we enjoyed a couple of lovely free nights in a brilliant Aire. The last afternoon saw us head out for a walk up the valley to see some spectacular scenery, and no less than 5 waterfalls. We never did find out what the reference to goats was though!

Tuesday morning was an early start as we need to get some miles covered off and get ourselves further south. The day dawned fairly cloudy and cooler so a good day to hit the road. The scenery throughout was pretty cool, and including plenty of wildlife, a fab aqueduct & this bit of road art.

We were also travelling on May Day, which is a public holiday in France - and throughout the journey, in each village we saw (and given our refusal to pay tolls, we saw a fair few in the 5hour trip), people selling small posies of flowers. To start with, we thought it was some kind of money making scam, but on doing a bit of research we found out that is actually the tradition to present lily-of-the-valley flowers to loved ones to show your
appreciation to them - the tradition started in 1561 by King Charles IX of France (validated fact by the good word of Google!). Quite a sweet tradition, but it also showed us where the money was as prices ranged from €1-5! *keen readers will note I have finally located the € key!!

As we'd been off-grid for a good few days, we'd decided to put down our wheels in a campsite, and picked a ACSI site not far from our route in Chateauneuf-sur-Isere, in the Drome. Arriving fairly early into the afternoon gave us time for some well needed laundry jobs.

Wednesday morning dawned fairly bright and dry, so having decided to stay a few nights, we took the bikes off and headed up the Voie Verte cycle route which took us a lovely 25miles many riverside to Romans-sur-Isere. A lovely, although quiet town where we enjoyed a bakery style lunch for next to nothing.

This area is well known for it's nuts - walnuts we think, with orchard style trees lining the roads.

This week's spend was just under the budget with €16 left to play with!

Thursday was cloudier and windier and with me feeling a bit under the weather, Jase headed out for a ride up the Col Tourinol - 1,300m of climbing and a white out up top, so no pictures to enjoy from that one!

Friday all was back on track and we headed from the Drome region and towards the Ardeches. We'd spotted a couple of Beau villages we wanted to see, and the first at Mirmande was simply beautiful. The views both in the village of the traditional French architecture and the surrounding hills made it a lovely place to have a wander around and enjoy our lunch.

From there we headed to Aigueze, another Beau village but also with an Aire overlooking the town. This one had shown in the book as a free site, but the local Mayor had decided to levy a small €5 charge which for the location wasn't out of the way at all. After picking a nice spot overlooking the vines, we headed down into the village for a lovely wander around and take in the views. We spent the evening watching the sky fill with stars - stunning.

Saturday was bright & warm again. As I am sure others have experienced, we've spent a lot of time seeing signs for a random but interesting event, happening in the days before our after our visit somewhere. Finally, in Aigueze, the stars had aligned and we were in town for the "Fete du Pain" or bread festival. It was a short and lovely walk through the vines from the Aire, and we found the site easily enough. We didn't know what to expect, but think part garden party, part village fete, with some French gastronomy thrown in.

The event seemed to centre around the recent renovation of the village oven which dated from 1887. The smell of the wood fired oven & baking bread were mouth-watering. Add to that local Rose wine at €1 a cup, bread for €2 and crepes at €1.50 and you've got yourself a marvellous afternoon in the sun. Of course, we indulged - it would be churlish not to!

One of our Christmas pressies before we left had been a couple of "treat boxes". Jase's mum filled one with bathroom goodies (all seeing a good bit of action already) and my mum and stepdad did a food one. We had our first dip in there this week too, and they'd also included lot of cards - we opened one at random which had some lovely well wishes, and also a bonus €10 note with instructions to by beer and chips - well, with a bit of artistic licence we used this to great effect at the Bread fete!

Back at Aigueze we walked down to the river's edge for a refreshing feet dip - we had talked about a full swim, but it was flipping freezing!

Sunday was another lovely start, and we headed from the Aigueze Aire with slightly heavy hearts, but pleased we'd been able to stay somewhere so lovely. Our plan was to drive a short while northwards and visit Pont D'arc - I say plan, as that's all it ended up being. We got to the Aire that we thought was the closest to find it was merely a jam packed expensive car park, and nowhere near the River to see the natural archway. We gave that up as bad job and headed towards Montclus which was another Beau village - yes it was lovely as the picture shows, but nowhere to park.

Onwards then to La Roque-sur-Ceze, another Beau village but this one had been taken over by CampingCarPark.com who wanted €11 for the night - with no other way into the village or the cascades we'd been hoping to see, we had to have another hasty replan. We decided to turn tail on the Ardeches and head over to Provence. Again, we knew of an Aire in Malaucene, but this one had also been taken over by the same company - looking at €11 a night there for a car park, when we knew we could get a full campsite for a little more seemed like a no brainer so we headed to Carpe Diem at Vaison where we were booked for the next two weeks.

Subsequent research on this NCP type outfit has confirmed that they have sites all over France, and seem to be growing. As an outsider, it looks as if the days of the free camping in France may well be numbered. That said, the charges range from €8-€15 depending on location and season, so when we get to July and August with sites looking more around the €45 a night, we might well be grateful for them! On arriving at Vaison, we were both hot and disappointed at the day we'd had. Jexit was always going to have ups and downs, and this was a definite down. Looking back, it was purely reactionary, and now sitting here a few days later, all seems well in world (as it did later that afternoon after a cooling dip & glass of something chilled!).

Monday was our first full day in Vaison and a lovely warm morning, so bikes off for a hilly 25mile local route to warm us up. Lovely scenery all the way around, and really nice to see Mount Ventoux with his head out although briefly! We enjoyed a lovely salad lunch in town, along with a nice chilled rose (which Jase ordered, no toilet of wine for me!).

Now we find ourselves on Tuesday already - apologies for the slightly late blog post. We had a short spin out this morning and then a lovely (if not rain soaked!) walk around the market. Vaison has one of the very best produce markets in Provence, with asparagus and early strawberries taking centre stage at the moment. Armed with a budget, we managed to get a considerable haul for just over €20.

And so to the question of the week, again from my sister. This week she has asked me which 5 items of clothing could I not do without, and what happens on laundry day. To take the first:

1. Hooded top - I bought one just before we left with a Next voucher one of my clients very kindly gave me, and it has been so useful in the cold and the rain.

2. Sun hat - it's not the coolest thing I own, but to save my head and to prove I do listen to the odd thing my dad says, I wouldn't be without it

3. Padded cycling shorts - no explanation needed there, and although sometimes I wonder whether they make any odds, I don't want to find out!

4. PJ pants - thinking back to those cold days in northern France and Belgium, I wouldn't be without my fleecy PJ pants, just in cases

5. Vaude 3/4 walking trousers - these are brilliant, not too hot, dry quick if it rains but with an adjustable waist - I know, how old am I?! Perfect though for all occasions, and especially after a big lunch!

What gets worn on laundry day - pretty much whatever is left, and that does include PJs! Wanting to get our monies worth for any laundry we do, I have made Jase pull everything off and go to the shower before I load the machine! No sense in filling that laundry bag straight away!

We now stay here until Monday 21st May, but hoping to see a lot of the local sites so there will be plenty to report on for blog #11 I am sure.

Til then, stay safe all, J&J