The year of our next big
adventure. We decided to take a 4 month trip around France and really get
to know the country well. We had visited France many times before on
shorter breaks but now, armed with our France Passion and Aires books we set
off at the beginning of May with the plan to return at the end of August.
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| A France Passion in Burgundy |
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| Free Aire beside the Dordogne |
We decided we would circumnavigate France in a clockwise direction staying at the above and also some smaller Municipal Campsites on the way.
Here are some photo's which I hope are in the correct order, giving a flavour of the areas we visited from the Alsace and Jura (with their surprisingly nice wine) and on to Provence and the Mediterranean coast.
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| Typical bread shop |
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| Riquewhir bar |
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| Aire at Baume-les-Messieurs |
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| Mont Ventoux |
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| Now for Moules Frites! |
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| The Med at last ! |
What joy to arrive at the med at last at a small place called St Mandrier sur mer near Toulon. We tracked the coast east diverting once or twice inland until reaching Collioure near to the Spanish border.
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| St Marie de la Mer - Camargue |
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| Lac Salagou |
All was going pretty well until Les decided to trip over a step in a restaurant in Collioure resulting in a visit to Perpignan hospital. Later with seven stitches in his toe I wondered how on earth we would get on with me doing the driving for the rest of the trip! The man that he is, (not to mention the stress that I would have caused him) he soldiered on to Toulouse, via the mountains at Bagneres-de-Louchon, where we returned home by plane for two weeks to attend a wedding.
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| Collioure |
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| Not our van! we parked in town. |
As we flew into Toulouse airport we could see the van in the car-park and couldn't wait to continue; through the Dordogne up the west coast and home, calling in to see our friends in Casteljaloux on the way.
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| Chateau in Charante |
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| Along the Lot |
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| Dordogne |
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| Brittany |
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| L'Ile Madame causeway |
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| St Gilles-Croix-de-Vie |
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| Etretat |
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| A clear road ahead! |
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| Last sunset |
and...........just a couple of pics I couldn't resist including.
