Yes of course. After all the first thing she does when going out for a walk is to find a nice grey dust pile.
It's actually Mrs R's cozzie.
Randa

Roger, "gorillas in the dust" aside, when I look into those last two photos I see a story of relaxation and abandonment. The pair of you are now totally in your chill zone, books out, sun hats, wine bottles, surrounded by camping tut. Oh happy days.

Colin

Thanks mate. Don't wish to speak too soon but I think they may have got the message (fingers crossed). It is a lovely campsite except for that issue.

The nearest large town of Valreas boasts a Lidl, right next door to an Aldi and just down the road from a large E.Leclerc that is currently selling diesel at below £1.60 a litre.

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Valreas looks to be a very interesting place to sight see as well but it was too hot this afternoon to stop for long. It's only about 7 miles away.

Earlier today we took a drive to Nyons, about 15 miles east of us. What a lovely town. it's been around since Roman times and has a lovely tall Roman bridge spanning the river. It was also once a Celtic settlement.

The narrow streets and large squares that lead to the bridge crossing are a delight to walk around or take a meal.

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One unusual fact about this area is that the Valreas and Visan enclave is l'enclave des Papes and is part of the Valcluse but it is surrounded by the department of the Drone. This is because in 1317 Pope John XXII bought Valreas for the Papacy of Avignon. Feeling unwell during a trip to the area he was given some wine and he liked it so much he bought the area.

Randa

Saturday 21st May and it's 32 degrees.

We drove down to Vaison-La-Romaine today. Managed to get a sheltered parking spot near the town centre so had a walk around for a short while. We didn't pay to go and see the remains of the Roman architecture as much of it can be seen from the roadside. It somehow didn't look as impressive as the first time we visited about 13 years ago.

Also we didn't cross the old Roman bridge a hike up to the medieval town. The weather is too hot to go clambering around but it was nice to see the place again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaison-la-Romaine

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While we were in the area we popped up to revisit the campsite we had stayed at in 2010.Camping/Caravanning Le Soleil de Provence is still looking good and the elderly lady running the show hasn't changed at all and still doesn't speak a word of English. We had a brief look around the campsite again and shared a few memories. It's not an ACSI site :-

https://www.camping-soleil-de-provence.f...ar-in-provence/

Then it was a drive to and up Mont Ventoux with a picnic lunch half way up. Sheer madness that so many cyclists were attempting the climb with many doing well whereas others had decided to get off and push when only half way up. As it's a 15 km ascent some folk have many hot hours of walking ahead.
The road got steeper and steeper and the last 5 km was very steep indeed. The temperature fell to about 22 degrees though so it was very refreshing and the views were spectacular and the top of the mountain looks like a moonscape. This area of France is so beautiful.

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Randa

Monday 23rd May. A little cooler today and we are supposed to get some rain. Nothing yet however.

Today we drove the 20 miles or so into Orange. Been there before but it was nice to revisit the place.

The greater attraction is the Roman Theatre built in the first century AD. 10euros entry charge each but it also includes the museum across the road. The theatre is still used for performances. It's an amazing place to visit and by using the audio guide there were many interesting facts about the theatre and the Roman occupation of the South of France.

If I've got it right then the Greeks established the port of Marseilles in around 600BC but by about 100BC they were having a spot of bother with the Celts so invited the Romans in to help. Once the Celts were moved on the Romans stayed and developed the whole of SE France with Narbonne as its HQ.

A couple of funny but true facts we picked up on today.
1) The Romans liked to erect statues of their current Emperors but they had removable heads so it was easier to change over when the time was due.
2) There are cool covered arched galleries behind the seating in most Roman theatres and arenas which are not only entrances and exits to the seats but were also used for Romans to cool off, have a beer and a fag or a chat and a pee. They are called Vomitoriums.

Also there is still a strong association between the Dutch Princes of Orange and the city going back to the 12th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Orange

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Randa

Monday evening we went up to the village about 800 metres away and had a lovely meal sitting out on the terrace. This campsite does food but not until June.

Tuesday 24th May and the weather is changing. We had some rain last night and although still warm, the temperature has gone down to about 25 degrees.

After a short trip to the nearest town Valreas, for some food shopping (lots of choices for large supermarkets), we had a look around the town which is preparing itself for Ascension Day on Thursday, before returning to the campsite.

Mid afternoon and look who's turned up to visit us for a couple of days? Eriba Ted, Eriba Bunny and Eribanaut

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They've spent the past two days travelling from the NW of France to camp with us for a couple of days before shooting off to Spain. Both rather tired after such a long journey but we had a nice evening together chatting with an occasional drink thrown in .

It was not a complete surprise because we have been in touch with one another since last weekend so we were aware of their intentions although they arrived a day earlier than planned. Quite a large detour for them. Eriba folk pop up everywhere.

The weather has turned for the worse but still very little rain but the wind was gusting all through the night.

Randa

Bye bye Team Bunny who left today on a long journey south west into Spain.

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Hello new arrivals from the Netherlands.

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We are off tomorrow about 3 hours north.

Randa

Friday 27th May and a three hour drive north for about 98 miles to St Clair du Rhone which is a little south of Vienne, which in turn is a little south of Lyon.



We didn’t bother with peage motorways so only used a free motorway around Valence. The first part of the journey took us through some beautiful scenery and some spectacular views from the road over the mountains before dropping down to Valence before driving alongside the Rhone for many miles.

One large town looked very interesting, Tain-I’Hermitage. Very busy and right alongside the Rhone.

The campsite we are on is Camping Le Daxia ACSI 1828, 18euros a night. Nice pool, small simple menu restaurant, large emplacements and very nice toilet facilities.

Three Eribas on site, a Future, a Puck L and us and, as I post this another arrives the same colour as ours. A triton I think. All are Dutch. There are quite a few other on site, predominantly Dutch.

a

Friday 27th May and a three hour drive north for about 98 miles to St Clair du Rhone which is a little south of Vienne, which in turn is a little south of Lyon.

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We didn’t bother with peage motorways so only used a free motorway around Valence. The first part of the journey took us through some beautiful scenery and some spectacular views from the road over the mountains before dropping down to Valence before driving alongside the Rhone for many miles.

One large town looked very interesting, Tain-I’Hermitage. Very busy and right alongside the Rhone.

The campsite we are on is Camping Le Daxia ACSI 1828, 18euros a night. Nice pool, small simple menu restaurant, large emplacements and very nice toilet facilities.

Three Eribas on site, a Future, a Puck L and us and, as I post this another arrives the same colour as ours. A triton I think. All are Dutch. There are quite a few other on site, predominantly Dutch.

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The free internet at the reception is absolute crap. It won't even upload tiny photos.

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Super Small IMG_3118.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) Near St Clair du Rhone

OK folks, as you know we've been suffering from no wifi for the past 5 days. As my snaps are tken on camera, no w2ifi means no pics although I reduced them as small as I dared.

The pics above show the area between St Clair du Rhone and Vienne. We are a little disappointed as although the River Rhone runs through the area there are no attractive bits as the area is totally industrialised. Even Vienne, as many travellers will know, looks very beautiful when viewed from the motorway, is, in fact, very run down. Some very historic buildings to see though.

If anyone has been to Lyon to see the spectacular wall art, then it is starting to spread to this area with several very clever "murials" on display.

We have moved on today so although the Wifi here is also not great, I've been able to send you this stuff by sitting in the car and pointing the computer at the nearest Wifi mast.

I'll let you know where we are later.

Randa

Wednesday 1st June

We left Camping Le Daxia ACSI 1828 this morning after a 5 day stay. It was a very nice campsite with very friendly staff but the fact that there was no Wifi to speak of rather let it down. There was plenty of 4G signal on our phones but I rely on a camera and lap top to keep in touch by.

The campsite is very much a stop over for people heading south or north on the A7 and they advertise the fact that it’s not far of two junctions of the motorway. I suppose that’s the only way they can survive during low seasons and judging by the amount of things of interest to kids there are on site, it’s probably a busy place in the summer. Perhaps they feel that they don’t need to supply wifi as most one nighters will use their phones. I wouldn’t have minded paying for the option but it would appear it’s no longer in place although there are plenty of masts around the site.

Over the past two days the weather has changed and yesterday particularly, we had showers. It was gloomy when we left this morning and it was threatening to rain during our journey of 2 hours to the east and north a bit. Approximately 90 miles and completely unplanned previously, we have found ourselves in the village of Murs-et-Gelignieux, to the north of Aoste in the Rhone Alps region.

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We are at Camping Ile de la Comtesse ACSI 1795 (16 euros a night). 69 emplacements and many cabins. We were given the choice of a pitch right alongside the River Rhone which loops around the village on route to Lyon to the west of us. Evidently it’s going to be a packed weekend here as it’s Whitsun Weekend coming up.

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The toilet block is super and the pitches are quite large. A very friendly welcome but again, no contract wifi so it’s a number of wifi points. We are sometimes able to pick up a signal near the van as the toilet block is one of the hot spots and isn’t too far from us.

As soon as we pitched up it started to rain quite heavily but this afternoon has turned into a very hot sunny one.

Randa

Roger, the weather is definitely on the turn, as we are on our way out very early Monday am. Looks like we will arrive to 3 days of rain in Buzancy whilst the sun shines in the UK. I'm sure we will find something to eat and drink to take our minds off things though.

Colin

Buzancy in the Ardennes Colin? Do you have a fallen hero there?
I thought you were doing the Netherlands?
Randa

Originally we planned to start off in Belgium but our chosen site does not open until mid June. We looked around and decided Buzancy for 5 [wet] days then up to Gulpen for Aachen/Maastricht, next stop Emst near the Veluwe National Park then across to Delfte.
Also we've had to put Europe trip No 2 at end of August and all of Sept on hold for 2023. Our house move looks like it could be mid Sept. Brittany Ferries, DFDS and Carnac campsite have all been flexible, Euro 20 charge with each to re-schedule.

Colin

Some really interesting places in the Ardennes which is of course Battle of the Bulge territory. In the Netherlands we don't recognise some of the names Colin but I'm sure we've been through there. Maastricht and Delft are fabulous places come rain or shine so enjoy.
Randa