Monday 28th March 2022 - Lake Trasimeno, Italy

Another frustrating start to a long day of driving on motorways with many stretches of roadworks and single lanes often with no indication of work being done. The Italians totally ignore the reduced speed limits, which is understandable given that they are often 40 kmph - a ridiculously slow limit. A huge queue delayed us by about 30 minutes but for the lorries, confined to the inside lane, the delay must have been more than an hour.

Things improved when we turned inland towards Lucca. The motorway was much quieter,  especially after Florence, and driving became more pleasant.

We drove much longer than we would have liked today, partly due to a lack of aires and open campsites, but mainly because we fancied staying by a lake. Camping Village Punta Navaccia is on Lake Trasimeno and we were lucky enough to get a pitch next to the water with lovely views over the lake and it's islands. Grebes dived looking for food and coots swam serenely chatting to each other. Very peaceful.

Photos: From the pitch at Lake Trasimeno.

Sunday 27th March 2022 - Ceriale, Italy

 Another day of compromise for driving. Many years ago we travelled from southern France into Italy avoiding the motorway but the route was urban all the way and took forever. So we knew that we would have to go on the motorway for most of the journey but took the opportunity to use smaller roads to start with.

The D973 from Cavaillon to Pertuis was wide, quiet and had lovely views of craggy hills and countryside. We then joined the A8/E80 motorway close to Aix-en-Provence. The good news was that, being a Sunday, there were hardly any lorries as France does not allow lorries (with a few exceptions) to travel between 22:00 Saturday and 22:00 Sunday. This made the driving a pleasant experience and the excellent French motorway aires meant that that we could choose a good stop for lunch.

Unfortunately, after we crossed the Italian border, we hit many sections reduced to single carriageway, often with contraflow and through tunnels. These sections all had 60 kpm speed limits, which slowed our progress considerably.

At this time of the year, the choice of campsites is very limited as many don't open until April or later. We really wanted to get close to Savona but had to stop earlier at one of the few open campsites.

Camping Bella vista is in the ACSI book and is in amongst many market gardens and nurseries. I wouldn't want to use this site with a long motorhome but at 5.99m we were able to negotiate the very restricted site, just.

Photo: Our pitch at Bellavista.

Saturday 26th March 2022 - St. Remy de Provence

 Our target today was the site of Glanum, which we decided was in walkable distance (30 minutes) from the campsite. It was another beautiful day and our jumpers were soon dispensed with and it was T-shirts for the rest of the day. The walk took us through the centre of St. Remy and on to the site of Les Antiques where there is an impressive Roman mausoleum and arch. Until the 20th century, these were the only Roman remains known in the area but other finds came to light and it became obvious that there must have been a substantial settlement in the area. Archaeologists uncovered Glanum in the nearby valley and established the history of the site. It was established in the 7th and 6th centuries BC by the Salluvians, a local Celtic tribe around a sacred spring. The site came under Greek influence and then Roman influence before becoming a Roman colony and finally abandoned in 260 AD.

Remains of all phases are visible with the Roman period dominating. It is very impressive, especially the area of the sacred spring. I always say that many archaeological sites would benefit from a viewing tower that would allow the visitor to more easily understand the layout of the buildings. Being built in a narrow gorge, there are natural viewpoints that give an excellent birds-eye view of the site. Steps have been built into the rock face and two panoramic viewpoints built that allow the site and surrounding countryside to be viewed.

There is a small restaurant on the site and we couldn't resist the option of 'Experience Romaine' on the menu.

We had time to stroll around the town on the way back clutching enormous and delicious home-made ice creams. Back then to Cara for relaxation and blog writing.

Photos: The mausoleum at Les Antiques; A Glanic statue from the Iron Age, Celtic period of Glanum; A model of the Roman period of the site with the sacred spring at the far end, in the gorge; A view of the sacred area with the sacred spring under the arch just above the man's head.

Friday 25th March 2022 - St. Remy de Provence, France

 The reason that we had chosen Yzeron was that it was close to the site of the longest acqueduct that the Romans built in France. The Gier Acqeduct was built in the first century AD to supply Lugdunum (Lyon) and is an incredible 53 miles (85km) long. There were overhead and underground sections together with tunnels and syphons - an amazing project, especially in Roman times. The engineering involved is quite mind boggling - an average drop of 0.1% (1 meter in every kilometer)! The remains are very well preserved and the best place to see a raised section is at Chaponost and we made our way there.

They are carrying out some preservation work on the acqueduct and are going to build a visitors centre. It didn't affect our access but they had, for an unknown reason, removed almost all of the information boards. It really is a fantastic site and well worth a visit.

The rest of the journey today was a compromise. We started going down the Rhone valley avoiding the motorway but quickly realised that it was all through built-up areas and was no fun. This was a case where it was much better to use the faster and busy motorway.

We headed for the ACSI site of Camping le Parc de la Bastide in St. Remy de Provence. We decided to spend two nights here, found a good pitch and sat in the sun enjoying mugs of tea.

Photos: The longest section of the acqueduct at Chaponost; A close-up showing the channel in which the water flowed.

Wednesday 23rd March 2022 - Les Bordes, France

 We like to explore the countryside and villages of France whilst travelling through and therefore always take our time, rarely driving for more than 4 or 5 hours each day. We achieve this by telling our satnav to avoid tolls and that takes us on a mixture of smaller motorways, major roads and minor roads. Most non-toll roads in France are wonderfully quiet and driving is a joy compared with Britain's congested motorways.

Setting off from Montreuil, we almost immediately hit one of the famous 'route barree' (road closed) signs that are so common in France. The diversion took us miles out of the way through pleasant countryside and we seemed to be the only vehicle following it - the locals obviously knew a better route.

We had intended to get to an aire in Briare but on route, south west of Orleans, we spotted a nice looking aire at Les Bordes and pulled in. Next to a small wood and lake, we had a short walk to investigate before settling in for the evening.

Photos: None

Tuesday 22nd March 2022 - Montreuil, France

Well, we made it! On Thursday, P&O announced that they were suspending all Dover - Calais crossings for "some days". After waiting for two years to be able to go to mainland Europe, we weren't prepared to find that we couldn't get to France, so we booked a crossing with Eurotunnel.

After visiting our son and family in Surrey for the weekend, we travelled to the Folkestone terminal this morning and we given the offer of an earlier train. We arrived in France an hour earlier than we expected and were in our campsite, La Fontaine des Clercs in Montreuil by early afternoon. The site has a lovely view over the river to what must have been a very large watermill with a number of mill wheels in the fast-flowing river.

We spent the evening enjoying a meal up in the town above the campsite. Le Cocquepot has a number of plat starters (smoked fish, cheese etc) and only a choice of three main courses - Marmites (casseroles) of fish, meat or vegetables. We both had the fish Marmite and it was excellent both in quality and price.

Photo: The mill at La Fontaine des Clercs.