Unseen Provence: between medieval towns and caves

from the Costa Brava to France

After 10 days of beach life it's time to go home, or rather, it's time to visit something: a bit of the Costa Brava, Spain, and then France. In the morning at 8 we set off from Playa de Aro (Costa Brava - north of Barcelona), visit Palamos: it's a fairly touristy little seaside town, with a beautiful and very long seafront promenade. The town develops on a hill, being of medieval origin, and the main street is lovely and full of little craft shops. In recent years it has decidedly devoted itself to tourism, and indeed we take the opportunity to do some last shopping (from clothing to liqueurs - Carlos III and Fundador). On the road to Girona we stop in the ceramics town par excellence: La Bisbal d'Empordà. I think that 99% of the shops along the main street are devoted to selling ceramics of every shape and colour produced in the area.

We buy a few little pots and continue on our way but we reach Girona at 12:30 and the shops are already closed, they'll reopen at 16:30! We decide, therefore, to continue on to France via the motorway as far as Carcassonne; towards Mezamet the road is scenically beautiful but winding and with long climbs: we pass through the dense forest of the Montagne Noire, in the rain, and on the descent before Mezamet we make a sudden stop in a lay-by: artisan pâté!!! Maybe because I adore pâté... but this area is really the right one. We arrive at Albi around 19:00, and we stop at a campsite on the outskirts of the city, the Camping Caravaning du Languedoc, 93 Ff, in a lovely wood of centuries-old trees. The park is connected to the indoor pools of Albi, a structure of glass, steel and wood immersed in the wood...

incredibly evocative! After dinner at the reception we pick up the city map and information about the road we'll have to tackle; the owners, kind, advise us to visit the little village of Cordes.

Cordes sur le Ciel and Rocamadour

Departure from the campsite at 8:00. In the centre, we find parking in the cathedral square. Paid parking until 14:00. We visit the Cathedral of Saint Cecilia. The statue of the Saint is beautiful and so are the 16th-century frescoes by Donella di Carpi. Visit to the Berbie Palace, a tour of the gardens and ramparts over the Tarn river, inside a visit to the Toulouse-Lautrec museum, very rich. Most of his posters for the Parisian can-can shows and more are exhibited. In the museum there is also an exhibition of contemporary painters and sculptors. Once outside, a visit to the town. It's the sales period and we browse the shops, we find lots of collectible postcards. Too bad that, despite what the guidebook says, the historic part with half-timbered houses is almost nonexistent. Back on the camper, we have lunch then set off again. A few kilometres later we visit Cordes sur le Ciel.

The little village is on a hill in the middle of the plain and the effect is really of being above the clouds, it definitely deserves a visit. You enter the village through a walk up its steep streets (comfortable shoes recommended), a visit to the medieval town and the museum of artistic constructions in sugar. Cordes is famous for its sweets "ossi da morti", truly fantastic. We resume the journey towards Figeac, Gramat and arrive at 19:00 in Rocamadour, campsite 101 Ff, Relais du Campeur, separated by a little wall as is customary in the mountains. While waiting for dinner we take a stroll to do the shopping. The campsite is connected to the old town by a balcony and an old pedestrian path, very romantic, complete with benches and little lamps over the valley and over illuminated Rocamadour.

After dinner, we walk down to the village and visit the shops that line the road crossing the village. The shops specialise in leather working (from simple cases and gauntlets to jackets) and pâté. We then visit the religious side of the town: the sanctuary dedicated to St Amadour while the castle, given the hour, could not be visited inside. The climb up and down was done using the lift that from the village leads to the sanctuary and then to the castle. Here during the day there are demonstrations of falconry and eagle hunting, which take flight over the valley and are called back by the trainer's whistle. The return at night to the campsite along the romantic road is quite busy with couples and families.

the caves

Departure from the campsite at 8:00; we have to go down into the valley. On the road we encounter several duck and goose farms: so that's where all those fantastic pâtés and terrines de canard come from. The caves begin, we put on comfortable shoes and less summery clothing to venture into the bowels of the earth. The first are the "grottes de La cave", (120 Ff), we are among the first visitors of the day. The descent is done with an electric train and lift. It's an immense cavern with little lakes and paths, stalactites shaped like animals: the elephant, the crocodile, the butterfly, the spider, there's also a cave illuminated by black light, which receives light from outside at sunset. The guide speaks in very difficult French. We return to Rocamadour to reach the "Guffre de Pedirac", arriving around midday, in the enormous squares where we have lunch with fries from the kiosk.

After the quick lunch we get in line, fortunately shorter than the previous one (140 Ff). To reach the cave you plunge into a 35 m diameter chasm covered with vegetation, descending by lift to a depth of 103 m: it's truly impressive. You reach the underground river and by boat you travel along the river, then continue on foot. You reach the salle du Grand-Dome, 91 m high. The cave truly deserves a visit. Unfortunately you cannot take photographs and at the exit we couldn't find any decent material. We resume the journey towards Brive-la-Gaillarde amid the traffic, very chaotic in the city. We make a few stops to refuel and for shopping along the road. We then continue towards Eygurande. We stop at a roadside campsite next to the golf course, horse riding and lake of the Dordogne river, VAL - Les Vacances Nature 123Ff.

the extinct volcanoes

Departure from the campsite at 9:00 towards 'le Mont Dore'. The landscape is very beautiful and relaxing. At Mont Dore we stock up and take the opportunity to ask the Tourist Office for information and documentation on the Puy de Sancy from which the famous French mineral water gushes. We decide not to go up the Puy as it is less characteristic than the Dome one. The volcanoes were then carved by glaciers, thus losing their characteristic conical shape. We continue through very beautiful mountain areas until the motorway, incomplete, that goes from Clermont-Ferrand towards Montpellier. At St-Germain-du-Teil we find long queues, and we decide to follow the road that crosses the Cévennes National Park. The road is terrible due to its winding nature, the steepness and the traffic, so much so that we arrive in Alès exhausted.

We take the motorway at Nîmes and stop on the motorway at the first service area to have dinner and sleep.

Nimes, Arles, Avignon

At the first motorway exit, Remoulins, we head back towards Nîmes on the main road, to visit the Pont-du-Gard, a fine example of Roman construction. In Nîmes, after parking downtown in a small square in the shade of the plane trees, we would like to visit the Roman amphitheatre Arènes, but due to a rock concert the night before it's off-limits for cleaning. We make up for it by visiting the Maison Carrée temple and the gardens of the Fontaine, with the Tour Magne, a watchtower from the time of Augustus, from where you can look out over the whole city. We visit the gardens, the pools and the Roman thermal baths. Back at the camper, we have lunch. In Arles we do an external visit of the theatre and amphitheatre; there's a bullfight in the afternoon. The portal and facade of St Trophime are beautiful.

We buy a few T-shirts with paintings by Van Gogh; indeed, many paintings were inspired by this region on the edge of the Camargue. We skip entering the Alyscamps gardens given how abandoned the place is; they were gardens that had inspired poets and painters. Then we set off for Avignon. Near the city, on the other bank of the Rhône, we stop at the municipal campsite, 110.80 Ff/day, Camping Municipal Saint Bénézet. After dinner we take a quick tour of the city; from the Palace of the Popes we follow the sunset.

Avignon

Visit to Avignon: Rocher des Doms gardens, stairways, little ponds, birds, panoramic terraces. Visit to the Palace of the Popes with an Italian-speaking guide. We buy souvenirs in the museum shop, in the city we wander through the little shops and make Provençal purchases.

Valance, Grenoble,Chambéry, Albertville, Megève, Chamonix

Stay at the campsite in the morning Valance, Grenoble, Chambéry, Albertville, Megève (very beautiful), Chamonix. We camp at Ile des Barrats, 152 Ff/day. In the evening, after dinner, we take a stroll around town and visit some shops. The glacier is illuminated. We're thinking of visiting the Mer de Glace but the weather is bad, it's drizzling and it keeps flashing and thundering.

Chamonix

Wandering around for a bit of shopping in Chamonix, we buy salami and cheeses.

Chamonix, Courmayeur, Torgnon

Departure from Chamonix, Mont Blanc Tunnel 175 Ff, we drive around Courmayeur, motorway before Aosta. We exit for the small village of Torgnon where we park at the Pique Nique area. We stay the night here.

Torgnon

On foot into town for groceries, walks and sunbathing around the football pitch

Torgnon

We go mushroom hunting; the ground is too dry and the moon is wrong, the mushrooms we find are very old

back to Piedmont

From Torgnon we go to visit the grandparents in Piedmont. And so the holidays come to an end