Aiguines (‘twixt the Med and the Alps)

There was a dew on Monday morning and the awning was damp to the touch. Apart from when we had rain at Camiers on our first night in France, it has been bone dry ever since.  It was very warm when we got up and the dew soon dried off.

Blue skies and neighbours arrived at Messane

During the morning a German couple arrived and set up camp next to us and I saw their car had a fish symbol on the back; I think it’s the first time I’ve seen this on foreign fishermen’s cars.  The site seems to be full of Dutch and French people with us and the Germans tucked out of the way 😉

Karen went for a run whilst I set about planning the rest of our journey down to southern Tuscany.  

We are now at our sixth campsite of the trip and I reckon we will stay at four more, moving about 100 miles or so every other day; we have about 550 miles to go before we to get to our destination in Italy.  Remember that we are not going on motorways so that makes it easier to take things slowly.

Putting our French and Italian road maps together to get into planning mode

When Karen got back, she made a picnic lunch and we set off for Istres as we had found a walk around the salt lake there – Étang d’Olivier.  It was a walk of about 4 ½ miles and we thought that would be far enough in the heat of the day.  We drove to the lake and couldn’t find any access from the road for ages.  In fact, we circumnavigated the whole lake before we realised that the path on the guide was actually on the road itself – not a particularly inspiring walk.

We decided to go back to the campsite and go for a walk along the much larger lake where it is situated – Étang de Barre.

Strange cloud formation across the lake

It was a good walk as we were able to let Buddy off and a lot of it was in the shade of the pine trees that came down to the shore.  There was lots of birdlife and plenty of diving birds that seemed to be getting a good supply of fish.  One cormorant literally bit off more than it could chew; it just could not swallow the fish it had caught as it was so large.  We watched it toss the fish in the air a few times, spinning it over and catching it again, but to no avail.  On the final toss it missed the catch and the fish fell into the lake, with the cormorant diving after it, but it came up empty mouthed.

Our shady walk along the beach

When we were having a drink back at the tent before cooking dinner we independently rated the six campsites we have been to so far.  We both ranked them in the same order – I wonder if we’ll agree on the remaining ones?

On Tuesday it was time to continue our road trip.  It was another dewy morning and we wondered if it was because we were so close to water as the nights are warmer than we have had so far.  Anyway, it didn’t matter if we packed the tent away wet as it would quickly dry out as soon as we put it up again.  We were headed for Aups so we could spend time at Lac de Sainte-Croix and the Gorges du Verdon.

Sun rising on the villas on the hills above the campsite after our last night on the Camargue

Funnily enough, as we were heading out of the Camargue we saw a few wild horses, the only ones since we have been here.  It was a very hot day and we were glad we only had about 90 miles to travel.

As we left the Camargue we realised what a brilliant experience Mike & Aileen had had for the last month or so in the area cruising through it on their narrowboat - there would be nothing like it in the UK. 

We dropped in at the first campsite we found in Aups and soon left as it was over 30 euros a night – all sites have been between 14 and 20 euros so far.  We didn’t fancy the second site either so continued out of Aups towards the lake to a little area called Aiguines.  We finally found a site that was right up our street...

…it was so hot that we took ages setting up camp

We had glorious views over the wooded hills and the other way over butterfly meadows that seemed to be swarming so we will be spending time trying to identify the different species of clouded yellows and blues we could see.

Looking the other way at the meadows

In the late afternoon we went for a walk around part of the lake.  Lac de Sainte-Croix was man-made in the early 1970s for hydroelectricity in the valley of the Verdon.  It is now a beautiful spot with clear waters ideal for swimming and sailing and other water sports.  You wouldn’t know it now, but Sainte-Croix du Verdon was buried under the water.  Imagine how long it would take these days if you wanted to displace a whole village.  It reminded me of a French drama series we watched a few years ago, Les Revenants, that was set around a similar looking lake.  Karen wasn’t so keen about the thought at the drama was quite morbid.

Arriving at the lake – Buddy already investigating

Large expanses of water are now confusing to Buddy as, since the salt lakes of the Camargue, he is not sure if he can drink the water or not.  It took him quite a while before he realised it was fresh water.  He still doesn’t swim but we will probably go for a swim tomorrow so that may encourage him.

The closest he gets to swimming

It was nice and quiet with the odd couple sunbathing and/or swimming, so we found a spot where we could sit on a rock with our legs in the warm water an idled away an hour or so throwing the odd stick in the water for Buddy to fetch.

We were right at one end of the lake so the views we had didn’t do it justice.  Tomorrow we will drive round it, maybe stop for a swim somewhere and then have a walk at the Gorges du Verdon.

We don’t get any electricity at campsites, so we rely on our mobile solar panel to charge our phones.  The trouble is, is that it won’t charge a fridge, so we have to be careful how we keep our fresh fruit and vegetables and it means regular trips to a shop or market nearly every day.  We have been to a couple of places where we have been able to leave our car fridge plugged in to a socket in a laundry room or similar which helped but accept it is not the norm.

As I said, this latest campsite is up in the top of our list – rustic would be the way to describe it – no entertainment or swimming pool or lights at night and most pitches are taken by permanent residents or at least permanently taken if not lived in all year round.

It gets dark soon after 8 so we spend the last couple of hours or so sitting outside in candlelight.  All of the other sites we have been to have some sort of lighting around the place but as this one doesn’t it makes stargazing more romantic.  We even both saw the same shooting star at the same time – only the second time that has happened to us.

During the night the dog howling was more in evidence that recently as now we are in the hills, the howls echo around them. 

Getting up this morning to our first day at Aiguines, the tent is bone dry and there is not a drop of dew.  The last two dewy mornings must have been because we were camped so close to a large lake.