Barbecued snails?!

Back safely again last week from our latest camping adventure - 10 days in the deep south of France in the area known as the Ardeche.

After leaving home at 2.00am Friday morning and driving the 700km to Beaune (just south of Dijon) we arrived at our "passantencamping" (or otherwise known as an overnight campsite!) at about 10.00am, just in time for breakfast. Beaune turned out to be a lovely little cobblestoned village famous for Burgandy wine and beautiful mosaic tiled rooftops; and we eased our way in to France with a bottle of wine and pizza for dinner ;-)

Departing the following morning, at what we thought was the reasonably early hour of 8.00am, we only had 340km to drive to our campsite on the banks of the Ardeche river in Saint Martin d'Ardeche - about 3 1/2 hours relaxed driving. Huh, that's what we thought! Turns out we had picked one of THE busiest days of the year to head on south along the famous autoroute du soleil (literally, the road to the sun!) that stretches north-south from Paris to Marseille. Our 3 1/2 hour journey became almost 7 hours when, just south of Lyon, we got stuck in a traffic jam of about 250km :-( Not nice sitting in a motionless car in the hot sun, becoming more and more impatient just to GET there! On the upside, with the windows open, the sweet smell of lavender wafted in on the warm air - welcome to the south of France.

Saint Martin d'Ardeche is a charming little village of about 800 residents (which swells to almost 16,000 at the height of summer!) on the banks of the Ardeche river, and in a prime position to visit the 32km long spectacular Ardeche gorges. Almost a mini-Grand Canyon, and classified world heritage, the Ardeche river has been busy over the centuries carving the spectacular gorges out through the surrounding limestone; with some of the highest points towering 220m above the canoeists as they make their way down river from the Pont d'Arc, the beautiful natural stone archway that serves as the "entrance" to the gorges.

We visited Pont d'Arc one afternoon, after driving the breathtaking scenic route along the top of the gorges, and I must admit it is one of THE most spectacular places I have ever been swimming! Only problem was everyone else had the same idea, and at one point there was what can only be described as a traffic jam of canoes and swimmers out on the river LOL. Crowded yes, but still a piece of paradise. And speaking of canoes, after talking to a group of Dutch "professional" kayakers one afternoon at our campsite we decided against the whole 32km river trip and just hired a canoe for a couple of hours instead. Being the canoe experts that we are (not!!), we had had enough after only about 1 hour!!!! Already feeling it in our arm muscles and detecting the beginnings of blisters we were SO happy we had decided against the 32km trek!

We also seemed to luck out with our campsite. Not only was it in a prime location for the gorges, but our view across the river from a favourite morning coffee spot was awesome - looking straight out over the river to the medieval village of Aigueze. See here for a sample view (not bad huh!?). Walking through the village of Aigueze itself almost felt like being on a movie set, it is SO old and quaint looking it was almost difficult to imagine that it was real, and that real people still live there!

Our campsite was shady & relaxed, and our camping "neighbours" perfect - 3 charming, generous and hospitable young French-Belgian guys (Christophe, Irwin and Benjamin). They shared their wine, pastis, good humour and food with us :-)

With hot, sunny days (one day of 40C and the rest mostly between 32-35C) we spent most of our time swimming, sitting, BBQing (including snails on the BBQ one evening!), swimming, playing trivial pursuit, drinking wine & the incredibly popular pastis (the French aniseed flavoured aperitif of which, apparently, 130 million litres are consumed each year), BBQing and more swimming. We did, however, also manage some touristy stuff in between :-)

Apart from the spectacular natural scenery, the surrounding region is also riddled with ancient man made (mostly Roman) wonders. We paid a visit to Orange, a city famous for its ancient Roman theatre AND for being the warmest city in France! And I can certainly vouch for that - the day we were there was definately warm to say the least ! It also happens to be where Willem van Oranje (William I, Prince of Orange) comes from. William was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish which eventually lead to the creation of an independant group of states we now know as the Netherlands (!!) AND he was also the founding father of the House of Orange-Nassau, the Dutch royal family. The Roman theatre, according to the official website, is the best preserved Roman theatre in the western world and has been designated a world heritage site. Built by Emperor Augustus in the 1st century AD, you can still get a sense of what must have been its former glory and grandeur. Those Romans really knew how to build big things!

Not only did we visit the Roman theatre in Orange, but also the beautifully crafted, and yep also very BIG, ancient aqueduct of Pont du Gard (also designated world heritage, like just about everything we saw during our stay!!). Built around 50AD it was designed to transport water from the source at Uzes to Nimes, almost 50kms away. It certainly is an impressive piece of engineering and design, with 3 levels of magnificent arches all fitting snugly together without the aid of mortar - amazing!

We also spent a hot afternoon wandering through the history filled, cobblestoned streets of lovely Avignon. For some reason it has long been one of those cities I have romanticised in my head - probably from reading all those historical novels based in and around there. It is most famous as the seat of seven popes during the 14th century, in a time when the papacy moved, for political reasons, from Rome. The entire city seems to be built of lovely sand coloured stone, and looking back across the city from the bridge of that well loved French children's song, it almost looks like a giant sandcastle. The famous annual Avignon theatre festival was also in full swing whilst we were there, and the streets were full of bizarre theatrical acts - made even more bizarre because we couldn't understand a word they were saying. Those good ole' French persist on speaking French even when they realise you don't understand a single word! Avignon is also reknowned as one of the windiest cities in France, with the mistral constantly blowing its way across the river Rhone. And you thought I was just having a bad hair day ;-))

All in all we had a fabulous time :-) It was well worth the extra kilometres, with our original idea being to drive a maximum of about 700kms. We made the journey back home in one stint, with the plan of camping overnight in Luxembourg abandoned due to crappy weather. Leaving our campsite at 7.00am we were back home by 7.00pm, just in time for Jeroen to enjoy the second evening of the zomerfeesten (summer festival) here in Nijmegen !

Oh and as a last couple of photos, check these out ;-) On our walk back across the river from Aigueze one afternoon, we were forced into MacGyver-mode! When we had left for the village earlier in the day it was cool and overcast so we had neglected to put any sunblock on. By the time we started our walk back, the sun was out in full strength again, and you know what sun can do to a bald head! Anyway, we put the napkins from our lunchtime cafe to good use ;-))

And last but not least, we are now the proud owners of a new (second hand) tent :-) After crawling in and out of our trusty little 2 person igloo tent for 10 days, we decided that it is just way too small for anything more than a weekend away. We now have WAY more than enough room for our planned summer 2010 camping adventure to Italy/Croatia - it has 2 sleeping compartments AND a massive middle sitting area AND you can stand up in it. Fancy huh??!!!

Alli xxx

Photos from sunny southern France