Vence and the Gorge Du Verdon

12/4

Wil not too bad - simple cold. Large,very picturesque quiet campsite tucked into a mountainous valley & sympathetically set amongst pine forest - good opportunity to exercise up mountainous roads,do a few loads of washing,clean out Ed & The Shed, oil bikes,and smash some school with vigorous breaks whizzing about weaving campsite tracks on bikes. Kel finds a wee French friend who follows her about on her smaller bike, the pair sharing the language of giggles. Beautifully punctuated with reads in the sun,cups of tea,lyrical chats about cycling in the South of France,hanging out washing, kids playfully doing dishes and singing in warm showers. Uplifted by the delightful characters in the rest of Toy Story 3 and contentedly fell asleep smelling washing powder and apple freshener. Jeff & I still remembering the enchanting treasure-laden cobbled streets of St Paul de Vence....

13/4 Vence eastward through the Gorge du Verdon

Morning run for Jen, maths for the kids, poo out, drinking water in, grey water out, bikes on, table and chairs in, mat (soggy) in, and a slow getaway on this drizzly morning through the village of Vence and up via Tourettes, 

Tourettes

(no-one swearing that we saw) winding steeper and skinnier into the mountains, the views unfortunately a bit greyed out, but into the canyon, deepest in Europe, able to appreciate it’s sheer magnitude and splendour despite the rain getting heavier, many of the peaks shrouded in cloud, the aqua green torrent gushing and gouging deeper below us, through a few cute perched villages of agriculture, churches sitting aloft the most precipitous of bloomphs (must be devoted just to get up there!)

Church on a hill

Best part was approaching the narrowest, tiny dark tunnel through rock that required we turn off the radio,wind down the windows, honk the horn and turn lights up full in case we might meet someone else head on!? 

Point Sublime

Stopped at the aptly named “Point Sublime” where we wandered about taking in the 360 deg of sheer splendour, wishing for a splash of sunlight to enhance it further, then on above a huge lake and out of the gorge into Lavender country, not amped up purple yet but soon will be, eventually decided to pull over into a disused road not far from the village of Reillane where we watched the school bus pull up, about 30 primary school kids leapt off laughing, dropped their strides (boys and girls) in everyone’s full view, peed, then zipped up and jumped back in for the rest of the trip home. The French are lassez-faire about ablutions  - quite liberating really. Often, one walks through the men’s urinals to the closed toilet cubicles as loos and showers are unisex. Feels like home-we can all shower and pee together! We did some more school, had a  Spanish salad, and piled into bed for a read with the rain pattering on the roof.

Eddie night stop