Monday 12th October 2009 – Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Italy

We said final goodbyes to our Italian friends at 08:30 and wished them a good journey. They were travelling to Alba, just a few kilometres away) and then going for a ride on their scooters (their common interest) before returning home, most to Turin but one couple going to the Venice region.
We were on the road by 09:30 having set a cross-country route to a valley west of La Spezia.
There was a breeze this morning for the first time for many days of our travels. It soon became clear that there hadn't been any wind in this part of Italy for a while. After passing huge numbers of vineyards for many kilometres we came to higher land and the chestnut tree areas. The road was strewn with chestnuts, falling as we passed, dislodged by the blustery wind. The views were fantastic – forested hills, hill-top villages and barren mountains in the distance. The wind got stronger and more blustery but did not affect the handling of the van. However it did bring down many branches from the trees. The police and council workers were out warning or clearing fallen boughs and we took evasive action to avoid large branches. On one occasion we had to stop the van, put on the hazard-warning lights and remove a small tree that we saw fall over the road.
We kept passing all of those fallen chestnuts and it was obvious from the many cars parked in obscure spots just off the road, that the locals were all collecting chestnuts. In the end I gave way to temptation and stopped Jane stayed firmly in her seat whilst I collected two kilograms of chestnuts in less than fifteen minutes. Because the wind had only just dislodged them, they were in excellent condition and very few had those tell-tale small holes that indicate invading creatures! Well, that is the Christmas chestnut stuffing sorted and we will probably have a few roasted chestnuts during the sojourn. For fellow chestnut enthusiasts (and to remind me) I can reveal that I collected them on a small road joining the S45 and P225. Travelling south from Laccio the turning left comes just after a tunnel and takes you immediately through a short tunnel. The route is marked in green on our Michelin map and is very pretty. There are also many places to stop and collect those lovely nuts.
The route that we had picked was much more tortuous than we had realised. My arms got lots of exercise with all of those mountain roads but, more importantly, it took longer than we (or the sat nav) estimated. We arrive at Castelnuovo di Garfagnana when it was virtually dark and struggled at first to find the aire. However when we did find it, it was very good with plenty of space.
Photos: Left on our own at Ai Cuivin after the Italian group had left; The village of Caprigiola above the river Magra near Aulla north of La Spezia.

Sunday 11th October 2009 - Ai Cuivin, Castiglione Tinella, Italy

We arose late and had a small, leisurely breakfast before going for a short walk along the local ridges. Last time we were here there was a mist hanging in the valley creating a beautiful scene but this time it was crystal clear. The mountains filled 180° of the horizon with several snow-capped peaks visible but most of the view was taken up by endless vineyards, hamlets and church towers.
The meal started at one o'clock and finished two and a half hours later. I won't bore you with the menu but the eight courses were excellent and finished with coffee. Unlimited water and wine were available but we tried to limit ourselves on the latter. We chatted to the daughter-in-law of the owner who is of Dutch extraction and was able to converse in English. As last time, she was able to tell us what each dish was but she also imparted much more information including the correct way to pronounce 'Ai Cuivin', which was 'I Choo-in' – nothing like we had been pronouncing it for the last two years!
Before the meal a large group of Italian motorhomers invited us to join them for something to eat but we politely declined knowing how big the meal was going to be. When we returned, I decided to go for a short walk and one of the ladies explained that at this time of year we could go into the vineyards and pick the grapes ourselves. Italian (probably EU) rules restrict the amount of wine that they can produce, so the excess grapes have to be thrown away. Apparently, some people come every year to pick these grapes to make their own wine. I picked a few bunches of white grapes from the vineyard on the opposite side of the road – they needed to be sorted and the bad grapes removed but the remaining grapes are very sweet with a lovely concentrated flavour. Perhaps another year we will time or trip to pick some on our return journey and then make some wine at home.
I left the grapes with Jane and set off again for a walk. I only got as far as the Italian group and was invited for a coffee. Having refused one invitation, it would have been churlish to turn down a second. After having collected Jane, we sat down to coffee and were soon offered some red wine that had been made by one of the group. It really was very good. Two of the ladies in the group spoke excellent English and translated for us whilst we answered many questions about England and ourselves. They jokingly said that they didn't want to visit England because of Swine Flu and so I told them that that was the reason we were in Italy! I eventually got my walk but only after I had promised that we would join them again in the evening.
Many of the group had left during the afternoon but there were still eight people, including the two translators, to greet us. We decided that we should fly the British flag so we took some typical products with us – Old Speckled Hen beer, Stilton cheese and Scottish Oatcake biscuits. The Stilton and biscuits went down very well but I'm not sure that the beer was such a hit. I did explain that it took me a great deal of effort and a large number of pints before I appreciated English beer! Meanwhile we were presented with some more homemade red wine this time made by the husband of our main translator. She explained that he wasn't happy with it as they had to stop the fermentation a little early resulting in a “sweet” wine. It was actually only just off-dry and was very good. They were determined to let this year's vintage ferment out so that got a true dry wine. We were also given a cooked salami (like a coarse paté) and a wonderfully tasty air-dried salami, both made by the same couple from the pig that they and their neighbours fattened. More delicacies followed – a chicken liver risotto and raw porcini mushrooms marinated with lots of parsley and a little garlic. Needless to say, they had collected the mushrooms themselves yesterday. We only had a very small amount of all of these dishes and the wine as we were very full after our enormous meal. If anything, they eat less than we did as they had a meal in the restaurant last night and then had a large meal with the group at lunchtime.
We asked our friends about other 'agroturismo' sites in Italy like Ai Cuivin. Was there a book that listed them? Someone produced a book given free with an Italian magazine in April and insisted that we kept it. They had finished with it this year and the magazine would provide another one next season. It really is excellent, listing other agroturism motorhome sites all over Italy (including Sicily) some of which are restaurants like Ai Cuivin. We will definitely be using it during the rest of the sojourn and probably for many years to come!
Photos: Two views over the vineyards from close to Ai Cuivin – the second photographs shows the snow-capped peaks of the Alps in the background; Two of our Ai Cuivin hosts – note who is doing all of the work!; Our Italian friends together with the owner of Ai Cuivin who has just delivered a bottle of Asti desert wine for us to try.

Saturday 10th October 2009 – Ai Cuivin, Castiglione Tinella, Italy

When Jane wasn't reading last night, we did some planning. We decided to forego the intended stop at La Spezia for the Cinque Terre and plotted an approximate route down through the centre of Italy. Kept from the original plan was a stop at Ai Cuivin in Castiglione Tinella. This was almost directly on route when we planned to cross into Italy over the Col de Montgenevre but now involved a small diversion north.
Our route into Italy took us a little further towards Briancon until we crossed the Lac de Serre-Poncon lake and turned off the main road at Savine-le-Lac taking a minor road towards Barcelonnette. I highly recommend this road to fellow travellers. The road climbs a little way giving wonderful views over the lake in both directions. Then we came across a totally unexpected sight, Les Demoiselle Coiffees. We had seen a photograph of this natural formation but didn't know where it was. White spires of rock rose from the mountainside topped with large dark rocks. My immediate thought was that is was a volcanic formation – white pumice and black 'bombs' that had been ejected during an eruption. The hard rocks would protect the soft pumice from erosion by rain, so my thinking went. Needless to say, I was totally wrong! The Ubaye glacier deposited clays, pebbles and large boulders and this was gradually eroded by rain and wind, the boulders protecting some of the underlying soils. The rain falling on the lower land between the boulders is absorbed and rises up the columns by capillary action where it evaporates from the sides of the columns. When this happens many different salts are deposited and this cements the clays and pebbles into a strong, often hollow, tubular structures capable of holding huge weights – the 'Grand Moron' boulder shown above weighs about 800 tonnes and has a volume of 300 cubic metres.
This area is well worth a visit and there are campsites, an aire in Savine-le-Lac (on the Barcelonnette road, not in our guide) and many wild camping opportunities.
We continued on the road, descending back to the lakeside and then following the Ubaye river through Barcelonnette to the Col de Lardeche and the Italian border. We found this an easy way into Italy, the road was not challenging, a relatively gentle incline to the pass at very nearly 2,000m. The other side of the pass, the Colle della Maddalena was steeper with quite a few hairpin bends but these are always easier when descending. We had made into Italy without any clutch problems, in fact the clutch was much better than it had been for a long time – probably since January 2008!
Fairly easy driving took us to Cuneo and then north-east round Bra and Alba before turning east into the heart of the wine country near Asti of Asti Spumante fame.
The Asti vineyards are quite spectacular – steep hills, covered with vines form long narrow ridges where medieval villages and scattered hamlets perch. All of the roads, narrow and often with grass growing up the middle, run along these ridges joining the dispersed houses. It was along such roads that we travelled and the sat nav delivered us to the entrance to Ai Cuivin.
Ai Cuivin is one of those rare motorhome locations – a privately-owned free aire complete with electricity, toilets and showers with a restaurant attached. We came here in November 2007, struggled to find the site but were so glad that we succeeded. We were greeted on arrival and booked a table for Sunday lunch.
It was 24°C when we arrived at 16:30 and we sat outside until sunset enjoying the views over those lovely vineyards.
The man from one of the motorhomes that arrived after us sat outside the van polishing his shoes. Having finished that, he got out the cleaning spray and proceeded to clean the windows that were already sparkling and he then inspected the remainder of the van to ensure that there wasn't a speck of dirt on it. So much for the alpha Italian male! If only I could speak Italian, I would have suggested that he continued on ours – that would have kept him happy for hours!
Photos: The amazing formations of Les Demoiselle Coiffees; 'Le Grand Morgon' – the block on the right weighs approx. 800 tonnes; A view clearly showing the columns supporting one of the blocks; Lac de Serre-Poncon; The village of Castiglione Tinella as seen from Ai Cuivin.

Friday 9th October 2009 – Chorges, France

A rather anxious day waiting for news of the repair to Henrietta – would they finish it today and how much was it going to cost? The AA had been excellent up to now but were a little disappointing today. Despite a call to them at 11:00 explaining that we would have to book out of the hotel by 12:00 and asking them to phone us back with an update, they didn't do so. We asked the hotel to phone the garage and they were told that they hoped that the repair would be finished late afternoon. So we checked out of the hotel and headed off to explore Gap again.
If we had known that we had the whole day, we would have gone on a long walk but as it was, we felt that we had to be able to get to the garage as soon as the call came. We did however manage to do a one of the shorter walks from the pack of 10 - an hour starting from the centre and taking us in the same direction as that on Tuesday but shorter and lower. Much of the walk was through woodland with good views over Gap and the mountains.
About half past four we finally got the news from the AA that the van was ready. They organised a taxi for us and we were soon at the garage. Fortunately, the balanced flywheel did not have to be replaced but replacing the clutch and hydraulic cylinder left us with a bill of €1,050. I can't blame Ford for the problem as I believe it stems back to an incident in Portugal in January 2008 when I nearly burnt the clutch out getting up a steep hill with no more than two inches clearance on either side of the van. I didn't scrape the bodywork but certainly damage the clutch.
Still, we had Henrietta back and we could continue the Sojourn. By the time that we had paid the bill, been told that the Ford clutch was too small for a 3.5t van, been told that Sicily wasn't good (it's Italian) and Corsica was fantastic (it's French!) but they don't like motohomes (motorhomers don't spend any money), bid farewell to the very friendly owner, time was getting on! In our new Italian aires book (Guida Camper – Aree di Sosta, published by Belletti, purchased from Vicarious Books http://www.vicariousbooks.co.uk/) we found an aire an Barcelonnette but on the route that the sat nav decided to take us Jane spotted another aire listed at Chorges just a few miles outside Gap. This was good news as it would have been dark by the time that we arrived at Barcelonnette and the journey was probably going to take us into the mountains. The journey to Chorges is very pretty, part of the same route (in reverse) that we took from Briancon to Gap in the breakdown truck.
The aire at Chorges was being renovated but there were six vans already there and more arrived after us. It looked as though they intended to asphalt the parking area but it is currently only an aggregate surface. There are some clean public toilets next to the aire but no motorhome service point (waste water disposal and fresh water tap) – they may well put these in as part of the renovation.
I had been very concerned about Jane as on Tuesday she had finished the only book that she had taken to the hotel. This is a disaster as far as Jane is concerned – no reading material – and she eventually resorted to buying a Sudoku at the local hypermarket! Back now with her supply, she was soon cuddling up with a new book.
Photos: View over Gap from the walk; A friendly goat that we met on the walk.

Thursday 8th October 2009 – Gap, France

Today dawned rather overcast although still reasonably warm. Our hotel booking finished today so we had to phone the AA to establish whether we needed to stay another night. They established that, all being well, Henrietta would be ready for us tomorrow morning so they booked us another night in the hotel.
The morning was spent catching up on emails and the blog but we took a picnic to the park. Unfortunately at that moment it decided to start raining – only gently but enough to get us damp. After investigating a couple of local shops (including a 'Decathlon' – nice looking waterproof walking boots for less than £15!) we returned to the hotel to catch up on the blog and watch snooker on Eurosport – decadent I know but we won't get any more television after this.
Photos: A dark quilted sky over the mountains; The weather improved late in the afternoon – here is a view of a mountain from the hotel bedroom window.

Wednesday 7th October 2009 – Gap, France

We enjoyed the walk so much yesterday that we decided to do another one today. Walk 2 'Le circuit de Charance' is shown as 2½ to 3 hours, 8km with 330m of climb. We decided to cut down on some of the climb and the urban walking by catching a bus part of the way. We had to try out these free buses after all and very good it was. A steep climb took us to a park centred on two lakes connected by a small stream. This was very popular with women and children, joggers and dog walkers. The area was very pretty and there were lots of benches and picnic tables. By the second lake is an 18th century chateau and a terraced garden added in the last few years. The views from the chateau terrace were lovely but the garden didn't open until 14:00 so we couldn't access it.
The descent from the 'Domaine de Charance' started on a road that was only open for traffic from Monday to Friday – on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays it was reserved for hunting! The path wound its way down through a wood following the course of a pretty stream. Here we heard woodpeckers, caught glimpses of unidentified birds of prey and watched a red squirrel. Still following the stream, we walked down the 'Chemin de Moulins' but there were no mills in sight.
We arrived back in the town and this time picked up two panninis and took them to the bouledrome. There wasn't a match on this time but a few people were playing and it provided excellent entertainment.
Photos: A view of the Alps in the Ecrin National Park fom close to the Chateau de Charance; The Chateau de Charance and its terraced garden.

Tuesday 6th October 2009 – Gap, France

A call from the AA confirmed that the clutch would have to be replaced. The parts may take up to 48 hours to obtain and therefore the work would probably not be completed until Friday. Fortunately the Saga European Assistance cover not only the breakdown truck costs but also up to 5 nights half-board in the hotel. However, it does not cover the cost of repair and that is going to be very high – more than I have ever paid for a vehicle repair and then very weak pound doesn't help. Still, c'est la vie and we will enjoy Gap whilst we are here.
We received that news whilst we were walking in the countryside around the town. Gap Tourist Information Office were extremely helpful and the pack of 10 local walks was particularly good. We chose walk 10 'Le circuit de Lareton' listed as 2 hours and 6.4km in length. Leaving from the centre of the town we were soon climbing the 'Colline de Saint-Mens', a small hill just to the south. Being about 200m higher than the town, it provided views over the town to the mountains of the Ecrins National Park in one direction and over field to other mountains in the opposite direction. A true panorama indeed but unfortunately it had clouded over on our way up, robbing the view of much of its glory. Needless to say, just a few minutes after starting our descent, the sun came out. The walk was a very pleasant mixture of woodland, farmland and small villages and took us back into the centre of Gap. Picking up two large slices of tart we walked back to the park close to the hotel to find somewhere to eat them. We were in luck. Gap has a large 'bouledrome' and there was a big boules match in progress. We spent a couple of hours watching the boules, comparing it to English bowls and trying to understand the finer points of the rules.
We were impressed by the three-course evening meal yesterday but today it was even better. The first course of quiche and salad was followed by 'biche'. The dictionary translated this as 'doe', which suggested that it was venison but we didn't believe that it would be given that is was a cheap menu. It was indeed venison, it was very good and it was followed by some very tasty profiteroles with chocolate sauce.
Photos: View south-east from the Colline de Saint-Mens; Player throw the boule to dislodge the one closest to the the jack ('cochonet' – little pig, in French) – this is a very common tactic in boules and they are surprising accurate with their throws.