Early this year Jane found an entry on Friends Reunited from Steve Cutting. We were both at Weymouth Grammar School with Steve in the 70's but had not seen him since we left school in 1973. Steve's entry explained that he and his wife had taken over a campsite in Southern France and, given our plans for The Odyssey, we felt we should be able to visit them. We contacted Steve by email, exchanging brief synopses of our life stories and suggesting a reunion later in the year. This was a long time in the future as we were still working and we had only just bought our motorhome. However, now the time had arrived and as soon as we got into France we tried to contact Steve by phone, without success. We sent an email explaining that we were trying to contact him and yesterday Steve phoned us, explaining that he and Audrey had been in England for the last week. This was excellent timing for us as we were about to leave Avignon, so we arranged to see them today.
We plotted a route via Orange just north of Avignon so that we could visit the very large Roman theatre, the only one in Europe with an intact stage screen. Orange was once Dutch and this is where the Dutch King William of Orange came from and the current Dutch Royal Family come from the same line. The Dutch, being Protestants were eventually forced out of Orange, rejecting the option of conversion to Roman Catholicism is they stayed. The threats to the safety of the citizens of Orange was one of the reasons for the preservation of the theatre. The walls of the theatre provided defence for the population and a whole town was built within the walls. This has all been removed and the theatre restored so that it can hold performances again, especially a high-profile opera festival in the Summer.
We also visited the Roman Triumphal Arch, at the opposite side of the town, and admired the carvings high up on the arch, many of which are in very good condition.
Later than intended, we set off for Steve and Audrey's site, Le Ch'Ti Franoi just north of La Blachere. The satnav has been invaluable and travelling would have been much more difficult without it, however it does have its moments. The first problem was a roundabout that the mapping knew about but it did not know about the new exit that took us into the narrow village lanes before we could find a way of retracing our steps. The second problem was when it directed us down a small road in a town rather than the main road. I realised that this was incorrect as soon as I took the turning but could see from the satnav display that we would return to the main road, so I continued. I then came across a well-disguised sleeping policeman and although I was only going very slowly, the shock was big enough to send the contents of the cupboards to be re-arranged and objects on shelves took flight, landing on the floor. These speed humps are a nightmare for motorhomes when they are not well signed and some are very severe. I can understand the concerns of ambulance and fire-engine drivers where the effects must be much more serious. We then came to the point where the satnav told us to turn left only to discover a 2m height limit. So, we had to turn around and negotiate, very slowly, the sleeping policeman again.
The latter part of the journey took us up quite narrow, although thankfully quiet, windy roads in the dark. We were sure that the views would have been really good in the daylight! We arrived at Le Ch'Ti Franoi to find all of the lights on and it looked very welcoming. It was easy to recognise Steve, although he was a little greyer than the last time that we saw him, and it was great to meet Audrey. We were invited to dinner and, after parking up and plugging into the power, we made our way to the campsite bar. We had been in very quiet campsites but it was strange to be in a closed campsite eating a meal with the campsite owners. And what a meal it was – Audrey produced an excellent three-course meal and we were certainly not hungry at the end! It was a lovely relaxed meal and chat and great to catch up on 34 years of news and talk about the adventurous step that they had taken 18 months ago in buying the site. Things were even more relaxed due to the volume of the local Coteaux de l'Ardeche rouge that we drank, the smooth Merlot was lovely and went down far too easily.
Photos: Orange Roman Theatre; Artists view of the Theatre in Roman times; Cyclops mask from the Theatre; External view of the Theatre.
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