The drive and the ferry home

We left Dijon early this morning to drive to Calais for the ferry back to Dover.  

All passed off without event and we got home later that evening after another pleasant meal in the ferry's smart restaurant.

A day exploring Dijon

We got up quite early today and had breakfast in our hotel.

After breakfast we did a walking tour of Dijon visiting the Cathedral Saint Benigne, then had a look at the Porte Guillaume archway.

Next up was the Jardins Darcy then we had a wander around a nice indoor market (Les Halles) and bought a few presents for people back home as well as some nice food for lunch.

We ate lunch near the Museé des Beaux Arts and then explored the museum itself – there were some fascinating pieces dating from the 19th Century right until the 20th.

After the art museum we stopped for a quick coffee and then went on the museum of scared art which was next door to the museum of Burgundy life.  The latter was really interesting and finished our exploring off nicely.

We went back to the hotel for a rest and to book dinner.

Leaving Provence and the drive to Dijon

We had a good breakfast and made some baguettes for lunch today then packed everything up and left Bedoin to do the 420km drive to Dijon.  We got there around 6pm and checked into our hotel, the Hotel du Palais and parked the car in a nearby secure car park.

We had a short explore around Dijon and then had a gorgeous dinner at a restaurant called La Theatre de Sens (The Theatre of Senses).  The meal and the service were both delicious.  We had a few drinks in a nearby bar afterwards.

Gordes, Village des Borries and Rousillon

We did a driving tour around the Luberon area today, starting with Gordes where we had a nice lunch at L’Artegale restaurant.

We saw some ancient cellars used for olive oil pressing and great views across the area.

Village des Borries is an old abandoned village with lots of amazing houses and other buildings made of drystone walls.


Rousillon is a pretty village and had near it some amazing natural stone formations containing lots of Ochre so showing really vibrant yellow, read and orange colours.

We came back to the campsite for our last evening, preceding dinner by a last hour by the pool.  We ate in the campsite restaurant where I had faux-filet of steak again because it’s very good there!

Back to Vaison la Romaine

We left the campsite fairly early this morning to go back to Vaison thinking we’d spent an hour or two there and then go on elsewhere.  It turned out the Roman museum was really interesting and came with an excellent audioguide that took us not only around the museum but around the extensive Roman remains in the town as well as across the Roman bridge over the Ouveze river and up into the Old Town.  We had a good explore around there and went up to the castle from where we saw great views of Vaison and the area.

We popped into Bedoin on the way back to see if we fancied a restaurant that was featured in Trip Advisor but its menu did not look enticing so we picked up a few bits at the small supermarket there and ate back at our tent.

The market at Bedoin and Vaison la Romaine

We drove into Bedoin this morning as Monday is market day there.  The market was much bigger than we expected and we had a really good explore, buying all sorts of tasting cheese, meats, olives, garlic and fig chutney.  We took all this back to the campsite and had a lovely relaxing lunch with some French soup that we had also bought.

Later in the afternoon we drove over to Vaison la Romaine to explore it – it’s only 20km from the campsite.  We got to the extensive Roman ruins and bought tickets but realised that we were not going to have enough time to do it justice so had a quick walk around and decided to return tomorrow (the tickets are valid for 24 hours).

Back at the campsite we had a rest and then ate in the campsite restaurant again.  I had delicious gambas and Gordon had dorade (bream).

Mont Ventoux and a special dinner

We spent today resting at the campsite again and then in the early evening we drove up to the peak of Mont Ventoux, which is near where we are staying.  We ascended about 2,000m in 15 km for a really spectacular view at the top.  It was extremely windy, as the name of the mountain suggests.  Ventoux is also a very famous stage of the Tour de France and we did indeed see lots of cyclists.

The descent of Mont Ventoux was fine and we stopped at a nice restaurant at the bottom of the descent called Le Mas des Vignes where we had a really wonderful meal.  The car’s brakes were clearly very hot as they were smoking gently at the front and the plastic wheel trims were feeling decidedly soft!  

The view of the sunset over the dentelles de montmirail was really gorgeous to see.

We came back to the campsite bar for a couple of drinks after our meal.

A day in Avignon

We got up a bit earlier this morning and after breakfast drove about 40kms to Avignon.  We had a good explore, doing one of the walking tours in a guide book we have.

We visited the Palais de Papes and saw some interesting history about when Avignon had been the seat of the Catholic Church in the 14th Century.  The buildings were interesting but the contents were somewhat less so.

We also visited the famous Pont d’Avignon and learned a bit about its history including the fact that it has been damaged too many times by the River Rhone and that eventually it was not repaired so doesn’t actually full cross the river any more.

We came back to the campsite and again had dinner in the restaurant there.

Carpentras, Fontaine de Vaucluse and L’Isle sur la Sorgue

Today was a day of  exploring and we visited three local towns.  

Carpentras has a market on Fridays so we explored that and had some nice market food for lunch with Gordon enjoying a stuffed tomato and me a merguez sandwich.  We visited the synagogue in Carpentras, which is quite an historic synagogue, and saw the former cathedral.  

Then we went on to Fontaine de Vacluse, which is a town with a huge spring – the biggest in France and the fifth biggest in the world.  It’s also a bit of a tourist trap so we didn’t spend ages there. 

We moved on to L’Isle sur la Sorgue and continued exploring, seeing a water wheel. 

After a rest at the campsite we went out to dinner, going to a restaurant in the next village, called Saint Colonne, and the restaurant was called La Colonne.  We enjoyed an excellent dinner and a good night’s sleep afterwards.

A lazy day and exploring Bedoin

We had a restful morning at the campsite and then drove into Bedoin for the afternoon for an explore.  We had nice ice creams and looked at the church there.  We came back to the campsite and had a laze by the pool before again having dinner in the campsite restaurant.

Camping at last!

After an unimpressive hotel breakfast yesterday we decided to have breakfast at the nearby market today – it was half the price and at least twice as nice.  We left the hotel at noon to start the drive to our campsite, Domaine de Bélézy, just a bit north of Avignon near a town called Bedoin.

We arrived around 4pm and got the tent put up and ourselves installed.  After a cup of tea we went to explore a bit more.  We had dinner at the campsite restaurant where I had a delicious faux filet of steak.

Exploring Lyon

We started our day with an over-priced and under-impressive breakfast at the hotel and then got a tram then bus into the old part of Lyon to explore.  We first visited the cathedral then walked through the old town, exploring some traboules (very ornate little passageways between residential blocks). We had a sushi lunch on the riverside and then popped back into the cathedral to see the treasury. We saw an impressive fresco then got the funicular up to Fourviere.  We saw the basilica at Fourviere and the Roman theatre up there.

After this we descended the funicular again and then got a boat that gave us a fascinating round the confluence of the Rhone and the Saune rivers.  There was a good commentary and there is clearly some impressive development going on on the piece of land that is bordered by the two rivers near the confluence.  We got a bus back to near our hotel and had a nice drink in a little bar in a market nearby then went back to clean up for dinner.

We went back into the Old Town for dinner and at at Restaurant a la Traboule.  The meal was ok but we’ve both had better and both seen far better service. We had a quick drink afterwards then returned to our hotel.

Driving on to Lyon

We had breakfast in the hotel then had a very brief wander into Arras for a look at a couple of churches, John the Baptist and the Cathedral that we unfortunately could not get into as it looked like major renovations were ongoing.  We left around 11am to start the 660km drive to Lyon.

The drive was fine and we stopped for lunch a bit over half way where I enjoyed an Andouillette.  We arrived at our second hotel, the Radisson Blu, around 6pm.  We parked the car and got into our room (on the 35th floor!) then went out for dinner and a couple of drinks.

Start of the Summer Holiday

We left home around 2pm for the drive to Dover, and missed our booked 1735 ferry because of M25 hold-ups but got the 1835.  We had dinner on Ferry then drove Arras where were we booked into The Hotel de l’Univers.  It was quite a quaint hotel but fine for a stopover.  We wandered into the main squares of Arras (Place des Heros and La Grande Place) and had a couple of beers before retiring around midnight.