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France: Goudargues Provence

Friday and Saturday August 13 and 14, 2004: Departure to Goudargues

Today is finally the day; we’re leaving to ‘La Douce France’, to Goudargues to be more specific. First we have some things to do. There are workers, who come to install the bathroom door, we need to catch up some sleep and we still need to go to the service for Timo’s grandfather who died this week. We have long thought about leaving or staying home and in the end we decided to go. From about 7 till 10 Timo was at work and Eef a little bit longer, till 10:30. We first prepare the last thing we need to be able to leave tonight. Cartouche is going to Linda this afternoon, so we can get some sleep or at least some rest. We do everything we have to (make some food for under the road, load the last luggage and clean the house). We try to get it all done between 14 and 18. Then it’s time to take a shower and get all dressed. We then go to the ceremony for grandfather; this is really more like a cinema of the Catholic Church. After the service we drive to Eikenlaan. Linda has prepared scampi’s for us. We eat it all and then we’re ready to leave. So we leave and at 20:30 we get in the car and leave to the south of France; our vacation has officially started. We need to make sure we’re gone before 21:00, because the Death March in Bornem is leaving and the hikers did come by our mother’s house. We drive via A12 to Brussels and then up the E411 to Luxembourg. After about two hours driving we stop in the first gas station in Luxembourg (aire de Capellen) and make a short walk to get our legs stretched. Until now it is going well and the only delay we had was due to road works at Neufchâteau for over 50 kilometers. We still could continue at 70 kilometers per hour. On other places the number on the counter of the kilometer is 130. From Luxembourg we drive to the French border, direction Thionville, Metz and Nancy. Then there is the first toll: there are a lot of boxes without any people in it and you can get a ticket and only then the barrier opens. If this is the first time you’ve seen it, it looks pretty strange. Eef has been driven all the way to here and she’s doing fine. We haven’t really stopped (only gas and toll) and we’ve been driven for a few hours already. Timo tries to sleep, but he needs to be happy with only rest. In Dijon Eef is getting tired after driving for six hours. On this aire we stop and then Timo takes the wheel. In the meantime it is 2 AM. Timo drives on to Lyon (200 kilometers further). In Lyon we decide to take the highway straight through the city and not the ring way; that is 40 kilometers longer. It doesn’t look a lot, but it’s 40. We make it well, we only need to make sure we follow Marseille. Here we need to actually pay the toll a bit past Lyon (23 Euro). A few kilometers ahead we take another ticket that we need to use until we exit the highway at Bollène. It is now 3:30 AM. We drive following direction of Marseille, first pass Vienne and Valence. In Valence Timo needs to stop for a few moments. It still is night and the roads are busy. We now see it was a good decision to leave Friday evening. If we hadn’t done that we would be in traffic jams in a few hours. The last part is to Montélimar and then we take the exit Bollène, here we need to pay toll and we can drive to Goudargues. We should arrive at the camping within 30 minutes, if it all goes well. We now drive to Pont-St Esprit, then to Bagnols sur Cèze and then to Goudargues. Until now we have not driven one meter wrong, but actually we don’t have precise indications where we need to be. We send a message to let them know we’re coming and that Maurits will be coming to the entrance of the camping to direct us correctly. We enter the village at about 6:30 and find directly the way to the camping and guess who is waiting for us there: Maurits. Leave the car outside the camping for a while and go to drink a beer at the tents. Everybody is already awake and we are welcomed very good, tired, but ready to start vacation. We start to unload the car; we sit down with a beer, only perform the most important tasks and sleep in the caravan. We sleep about two hours, till 11:00. Everyone is already hungry now and we have something to eat. This afternoon we directly go to visit another village: Aiguèze. Roel had discovered this beautiful village by accident. Timo drives there through the mountains like he’s used to it. As opposed to Greece the roads in France are very well maintained and also now he can drive his own car and not an old thing that really should not be on the road anymore. Striking here are the vineyards. We’re in the region of the Côtes du Rhône. Aiguèze is a little village, but very beautiful. A nice church (from point of architecture) a nice view on the Ardèche and a beautiful terrace to have a beer under plane-trees. Cool; this is vacation. After this short visit we need to go shopping, so we can cook for tonight. We drive to Pont St Esprit and buy stuff at Champion. Timo stays outside with Cartouche and they both fall asleep. At four o’ clock we’re back at the camping place, we lie down in the hammock and in a chair and fall asleep again. At six we are back amongst the living and Timo goes to swim with Cartouche. The river Cèze is very close to the camping and that is perfect to cool down in the evening. Then we can start cooking. From the Maurits’ conservatory we brought some cucumbers, a couple of kilo tomatoes and now enjoy the barbecue: sausages, hamburger, chicken (for An) and then chicken wings. We eat all that with vegetables, like the carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers. After the food we have a glass of wine and at 10:30 we’re dead. We go to sleep after a long day and enjoy the sleep.

Sunday August 15, 2004: Enjoy rest, get to strength again and swim

We get up rather early, because we’re woken up by our beloved dog Cartouche. We slept very well and are now ready to start enjoying our vacation. At about 7 we walk to the centre (600 meters) to buy some bread and a newspaper. But today there is no paper, because it’s Sunday. Half an hour later we’re back on the camping, but no body is awake yet. An, Roel, Maurits, Betty and off course Balou too are still in bed. We go to the riverbank and Cartouche meets Milou, a little French dog of about a year old. They have fun and swim in the river Cèze. At nine life seems to start on the camping; everybody is waking up. We prepare a meal with the bread and croissants we brought. Vegetables, croissants and coffee: nothing special, but good. Then a big discussion starts. There are about two things Roel and An still need to do when they’re here in France, because the day after tomorrow they are leaving home. They want to visit Nîmes and want to do a ride on the Cèze with a canoe. They quickly check for further information at the centre and then decide to take the canoe today at 11. Eef, Timo, Baloe and Cartouche stay on the camping site. They only need to make sure they are at the right spot along the river when they sail along the site. We rest a little and a bit after noon we go to the Cèze to find a place where the dogs can enter the water. Strange, but true: on the small beach there are no dogs allowed in the water, so we walk further through and out the water and stop a bit further on another beach along the river. Just the moment we arrive there the canoe is also there. Just in time. There is immediately a big surprise, because Ann had spotted a pike and Roel has caught the fish out of the water. Betty and Timo return to the camping site to create fillets and put them in the fridge. That will taste good. We arrive back at the small beach and drink a cool beer. Cartouche cannot stay out of the water and Timo joins him. Then canoeing people can continue their journey for another two third. Eef and Timo stay here and enjoy the water and the sun. At 16:00 we’re back at the camper and rest some more. An hour later also the others arrive and remind us that it’s really worth to do it ourselves. And off course we will. Question is what we’re going to eat? Maurits, Eef, Timo and Roel go out to buy fries at the reception. An eats a big piece of pike with bread. While the others drink some beer and buy the fries, Betty starts to prepare the fish and the steak that could not be eaten yesterday. Now we eat the steak and also take a piece of fish. It can’t get better or fresher than this. After the meal we have some fun and pretty early we all go to sleep. Everyone is tired, some because of canoeing others are still tired of the trip to France.

Monday August 16, 2004: The last day; clean up camping area and visit small town

Like we did yesterday we woke up at 07:00 and walked to the centre of town to buy bread and croissants. The bread we brought with us yesterday was too big, but now we found the correct ones. Bread with ham and cheese or some salami and other stuff like marmalade and chocolate paste with fresh coffee. Today Roel and An are planning to go to Nîmes, Betty puts everything in place, because she’s leaving tomorrow. Eef needs to know some stuff how she needs to load the caravan and then Betty can leave in peace. At 11 everyone is ready to do their stuff. Betty cleans up, Roel and An are gone to Nîmes, Timo and Maurits take Cartouche to Goudargues to get some money and to make a reservation for the table tonight. They can’t pass along the terraces without drinking something, but what would you do. When they’re back at the camping site, Eef and Betty are done cleaning and we can go out still. We take it slowly today, because tomorrow Eef, Timo and Maurits have a busy schedule to visit all the important things in Provence. The four of us drive to Belvedere, Cornillon, a village nearby, but located a little bit higher/ very quiet with a fortress and a beautiful view on the plane of the Cèze. We just can’t see our camping, because that is located just over a small hill a bit further. It is nice to drive up here and check the village out. We walk around here for about an hour and then Maurits wants to go to Lussan. We did not bring a map with us, but we use our sense of direction. After about 30 minutes we need to go back and then Timo sees a beautiful panorama, an old bridge, an old fortress. What is this? We drive towards the village to find out. This is Monclus. The only things here are about 100 houses, a bridge, a fortress and an old entry gate, all from the Middle Ages. We look for something to drink, but the only pub here is closed. We walk in the village, along the river, over the bridge and then return to Goudargues. Because we’re very thirsty we stop there and drink a beer, or better all of us pints. We have had enough after 2 pints each and drive back t the camping. Then it’s time for An and Roel to pack all the last stuff and put it in the car. Everyone prepares to go out to dinner at 19:30. We need to be at the restaurant ‘La Cantonnade’. Roel and Maurits have ‘poulet rôti’, Eef and Betty ‘truites aux amandes’, Timo a bull steak and An salmon. Everything with a good white and red wine. It is all very good and only Betty and Timo take a desert. Betty café glace and Timo lemon sorbet with vodka. After dinner some things still need to be arranged and we drink the last beers. Roel and An go to bed early, because they’re tired of their trip to Nîmes. At 23:00 everyone is asleep.

Tuesday August 17, 2004: Departure of three people, the rest sees Pont du Gard and Uzès

Today is the day An, Roel and Betty are going back home. Betty had to start working already on Wednesday, An needs to start helping at school and also Roel needs to be at home then. Very early they have breakfast and they prepare a pick nick for the rest of the day on the route. The Peugeot of An is stowed to the roof with all their stuff, people and Baloe. Baloe also returns home. It will go from normal (4 people) over 6 (when Eef and Timo arrived), to very quiet with three people (Maurits, Eef and Timo). At 08:00 they leave and we start to make everything on the camping place in order. After an hour this is all done; do the dishes and prepare everything to go to Uzès. Maurits knows the way, we park a bit outside the center and walk 5 minutes to the Eglise St-Etienne, a big church with huge arches, not that impressive, but nice to visit. Through small alleys we arrive on the Place aux Herbes. This is a square in the center with a lot of terraces and shops, quite cozy to drink something and to walk around. We stop at a candy store there, they have everything made of candy, going from olives to strawberries and all other kinds of vegetables and fruit, really nice, but we don’t enter the shop for now. Maybe later. We look for the Tour Fenestrelle, but Maurits does not know the correct directions without the map from the Michelin guide. Then without the tour we leave to Pont du Gard. The road to the Pont du Gard is surrounded by vineyards, like the rest of the Provence. It’s quite impressive; to see all those grapes close to each other. We park the car on the big parking lot here; Timo is driving today and we walk to the tourist center of the Pont. Looking through the bushes we already sometimes can spot the bridge. It’s not a normal bridge over the Gard, but an incredible construction, that served as an aqueduct at the time of the Romans. It’s very high and unbelievably wide. You must have seen the Pont from the level of the river and only then you realize what the Romans ever did. We also walk up to check it out there. Also on this side we have a beautiful view. You see on the right side the Pont and on the left side the river, flowing away. Great. In the end we stayed there enjoying the views for more than an hour. Because we got up rather early today, we don’t stay around later than needed. We stop in Bagnols sur Cèze to shop. We buy mushrooms, eggplants, onions and some other things to make ratatouille with pasta. When we’re back at the camping we start cooking and we can eat soon. Cartouche also likes the food, we have done our best to prepare the food. Enjoy it all with a glass of French wine. We haven’t finished our food and we can start cleaning everything up. The rains starts to poor down like hell. The level of the water starts to rise and we need to clean it up before it reaches too high. It rains for about an hour and there’s thunder and lightning. Maurits and Timo go to the sanitary block to do the dishes. We’re only there for a few moments and it starts to rain again. Timo returns to the caravan to assist Eef clean up the water. This time it does not take that long, only 15 minutes. In the shelter of the caravan we decide what the itinerary will be for tomorrow, drink a beer and go to be early. It was a long day today, we only need to hope it does not rain too much tonight.

Wednesday August 18, 2004: Market in Goudargues and Orange

As always on vacation we don’t sleep long. We were not able to, because it has been raining a lot in the night. Eef only slept for a few hours, but Maurits and Timo and Cartouche have had a good night of rest. Timo is awake first and goes to Goudargues with Cartouche to get bread. He buys croissants and bread. By the time he returns to the tent, also Eef and Maurits are awake. The river Cèze is really swollen and has been transformed from a small river to a swirling stream. The beach was disappeared, and a lot of thick branches were torn from the trees. A brown mass of water was flooding by. We don’t care at this moment, because we slept on a dry place. We have breakfast, take a shower and prepare to go the market in the center. We walk there, because there would not have been any free parking space available anyway. We walk around, buy some herbs, oil, and olives and stop to have a beer. French people are not to keen on Dutch people, but they like Flemish people. Very nice isn’t it. It is very logical conclusion with the group of loud, noisy Dutch people on one of the terraces. A good thing they’re not all like that! After about two hours we’re back at the camping, have a snack and then drive off to visit Orange. Now Maurits takes us with the Citroen Berlingo to Orange. We pass along Bagnols sur Cèze, through Rocquemaure and then to Orange. During the trip our plans change a bit, because Timo wants to see Châteaneuf-du-Pape. There he wants to see the vineyards and it’s a small detour (7 kilometer). The place if full of wine cellars and they’re actually cellars there. Everywhere we can taste and buy wine, but we control ourselves and walk in the village without being tempted to buy wine. We walk in the village, check out the remains of a castle and wonder how many vines are growing her. They’re actually growing on rocks and not in the soil and that provides the typical Châteaneuf taste. After an hour we move on using a shortcut to Orange. We arrive in the centre of Orange at the backside of the amphitheater. This is our first visit in town. We can enter with Cartouche, receive a listener tape – in Dutch – that gives us more insight on the theatre and on the history of this place. It’s really worth the visit and we take our time. We visit the theatre for about two hours. The weather has turned to better and sunny in the meantime and here inside the building it is unbelievably hot. It really is big, unfortunately they’re preparing for an evening concert tonight and they’re setting up the podium with all the lights and PA. The stairs of the theatre and the walls surrounding it, almost everything is huge and so big a person feels very tiny within this. The last thing we take from the theatre is a beautiful view, the museum we don’t visit. Then it’s time for a drink. Timo feels too hot and has a cola, the others take a beer. Cartouche too is deadbeat and falls immediately asleep. He does that since yesterday lie down and sleep. We don’t have any trouble with him. We walk through Orange to the Arc de Triomphe, a famous triumphal arch just outside the centre. Orange is not very big; we are there in only 15 minutes. After this last visit it’s time to leave Orange; it will already be late, when arrive back home. Following the same route we return to the camping, get from the ‘Utile’ (supermarket) at Goudargues some stuff for dinner and are back at 19:00. Then it’s time to rest a bit from the trip and to prepare the food. We have fish sticks with tomatoes and potatoes and then do the dishes. At 20:30 everything is done and we’re ready to enjoy our evening. We’re all tired especially after a short night. We receive messages on our mobiles the river Ardèche is swollen with 7 meters. That’s what they said in Belgium on the news. Again we don’t go to bed too later after some talks about the past days.

Thursday August 19, 2004: Avignon, Fontaine de Vaucluse and Roussillon

Yesterday we thought about two possible scenarios to do today. When the weather is open, we would drive to Mont Ventoux, otherwise it would be Avignon, Fontaine de Vaucluse and Roussillion. When the weather is not good there is nothing to see on the Ventoux, so we need to go to Avignon. Eef has already made the trip to Goudargues to get bread. After breakfast we prepare to leave. It’s about 10:30 now. Timo drives today and starts rather fast towards Avignon. We drive towards the good weather, because on our camping site it was cloudy. After an hour, we arrive at the rempards of Avignon, where we look for a parking space. Then we walk to the Palais des Papes, the famous palace of the French popes. We follow a long boulevard and reach it straight from there. The square is fully taken by the huge palace. It is unbelievably big. We don’t enter the palace itself, because Maurits says it’s not worth it. We check out quickly the cathedral next to the palace: Notre Dame de Doms. Because dogs are not allowed in the gardens of the palace, we go up in two groups to check out the view on the Pont St Bènèzet, known by the song “Sur le Pont d’Avignon …”. The view is beautiful; first Maurits and Timo go and then Eef comes to take a look. So now we’ve seen the most important things here in the city; we could stroll here the whole day, but we need to see two other things too, so we must not dawdle. We return to the car, have a quick drink (it’s hot in the city) and drive on to Fontaine de Vaucluse. To get out of the city we drive to Isle sur la Sorge and we’re good in finding the right direction quickly. Along this route we take a break to eat and drink. Through Isla sur la Sorge we drive to Fontaine de Vaucluse. We drive through the village to find a parking space there and then return to the centre and the Sorgue. Cartouche feels hot already and needs to cool down in the cold, fresh water. Then we walk on the promenade along the Sorgue up to the actual source. All the time we enjoy the view on the river and the crystal clear water. When there wasn’t that much current you could use it as a mirror. We walk through the gallery, where they still make paper in the ancient way, it’s cool in there and you get to see and learn some stuff. After a walk of half an hour we arrive up. We can’t see the water very closely, because some people are doing speleology. We see it from a bit of a distance and take a moment of silence with the greatness of nature. When you look up a little bit, you feel very small; there is a mountain of over 100 meters above our heads. The source is higher than last week, when Maurits was here with Roel and An and that’s very logical because there was a lot of rain the last couple of days. We walk back to the centre, drink a bit and take the road to Roussillon. We follow the route touristique and arrive after an hour in Roussillon. We pass by Gordes; maybe we should return here later on to visit some other things here. We park the car outside the centre and walk up. We walk through the small streets to the entrance of the ochre mine. Here are ancient rock formations in a variety of colors, from yellow to ochre to dark red. We walk on the premises of the former ochre mine and we have a good impression of the site. It’s very beautiful for not much money (only 2 Euro entrance fee). Cartouche likes it a lot, to race through the sand. He comes out of the site with little red boots of running in the colored sand. We drink two beers on a terrace in the village and then take the same way back to the camping. We take the route back though Avignon and there direction Bagnols. We are about 90 kilometers from the camping and it almost takes 1.5 hours to reach it. When we arrive there it’s too late to cook ourselves. We even don’t have the ingredients for it. We drink an aperitif and order three steak hâchées with fries and a liter of red wine. We like it and then return to the camper. We want to have a shower and when we’re walking back it starts to rain, actually pouring down. It does only take about 15 minutes and then finishes. There are some beers and olives we drink and eat and go to bed at 23:30.

Friday August 20, 2004: Caves of Orgnac and a day of rest

We get up in the morning at about 08:00, like we’ve done here in France most of the time. Maurits takes the car to buy bread in the village: the only ones that have done this on foot are Eef and Timo. We have a sandwich and a croissant – also a tradition – and then we prepare for a visit to the caves of L’Aven Orgnac and then to go shopping and rest for the day. Timo takes the car to Orgnac. We can immediately start the tour (at 11:00) and Maurits stays outside. Cartouche can’t go with us, only when we carry him. We already did this in the Tour of Diksmuide and we did not really like it then. Now it would take a bit longer, so Maurits stays outside with Cartouche. We can immediately go in, on a lot of to a depth of about 125 meters. This is the first place we visit, with a lot of stalagmites: it looks like a lot of pancakes they’ve on top of each other. Beautiful. Here we receive some explanation from the guide about the time, when they entered the cave through a hole (50 meters higher). Because of the vertical entrance they call it an “aven”. The next stop contains a lot of curtains. Some of them are hanging down and measure several meters. This is really beautiful and the 9 Euro entrance fee has proven it’s worth it. The last room is the most spectacular. Here they give a light and music show. Now you can see other things more clearly, because you’re focused on them. In the back, the rocks look like a human face. Just great. After about an hour of touring we’re done and we take the elevator back up. Maurits and Cartouche are waiting above ground. We quickly have a drink and then we drive to Pont St Esprit to shop. We buy everything to have a BBQ today and then after a quick lunch it’s time to lie down and rest. The sun is not fully present, but it’s nice to rest and fall asleep. Until about 17:00 we stay here and then Timo has enough and goes for a swim together with Eef and Cartouche. The current is still very fast and even too fast for swimming. Cartouche wanted to get a little wet, so he went in the water, but rather fast got caught by the current. Even for us it’s almost impossible to stand in the middle of the river, let alone a small animal like that. We were able to cool down and that was the idea. Cartouche has lost the remains of Roussillon at the same time. We prepare everything for the barbecue and enjoy it a lot. We have hamburgers, sates, two kinds of sausages and at the end chicken wings. Very good and very cozy. When we’re done eating it starts to be a chilly and we sit in the caravan to have a drink. A day of doing nothing is perfect to gain strengths to take a longer trip tomorrow: at last the Mont Ventoux – if the weather permits. We sleep around midnight.

Saturday August 21, 2004: Mont Ventoux and Vaison La Romaine

We get up at about the same time as before, but now everything goes faster because we have a quick breakfast and prepare a pick nick. We must not slow down, because we want to see the Mont Ventoux today; the sky is crystal clear and the moment to drive up the Ventoux has arrived. When we finally see the mountain, a little bit after Bagnols, it does not look that good. We see a huge cloud hanging on the summit of the mountain. Actually at this moment the summit is not even visible. We don’t want any chances and we must have been on the top, even if the possibility exists it’s haunted up there (as Maurits has put it). We drive via Rocquemaure, Châteauneuf to Bédarrides. There we take the road to Monteux. Then to Carpentras and via Bedoin we start the climb of the Ventoux. In Monteux we see the cloud is still there, but the cloud could disappear by the time we get to the summit. Because of that we take some time at an altitude of 1000 meters for a pick nick. It still is a bit early (11:30), but otherwise it’s only at the top we can stop. After lunch we move on, together with a bunch of other people, who try to do the ascent on a bike. Actually Maurits and Timo should try this too, but then they should do dome additional training, with their current state they will not be able to. We drive up, take a lot of curves and then suddenly we arrive in a kind of moon landscape. There the real stuff is taking place for the daredevils and for men like Pantani. Until now the weather is still OK. There is a rough wind and temperature starts to drop. In the valley it was almost 30 and here on a higher point it feels like 10-15. We drive through the moon land, stop at the monument for Simpson and then take the last climb up. At the top we stop at the south side, because there is less wind here. We take the stairs up and go to the highest point of the Ventoux. Here it is almost freezing, at least it feels that cold and there is very hard wind; people are almost blown away. But it really is worth to defy the cold, because of the beautiful view. The moon land on the southern side, the first summits of the Alps in the northeast and all the valleys down below. It’s a beautiful sight. When I would ever fall in love with a mountain it would definitely be the Ventoux: Vive le Ventoux. Because of the cold and the wind we don’t stay up here long. Timo could stay here longer to enjoy, but then he will need to come back here. And now it’s time to drive to Vaison La Romaine. We just take the other side of the Ventoux and drive down to Malaucène and then to Vaison. This is an ancient city from the ages of the Romans. We walk through the streets; we can’t visit anything, because dogs are not allowed anywhere. We can quickly glance at the excavations from the side of the road and that’s enough. The most famous in this village is the ‘Pont Romain’, a bridge we can walk over and look at from all different sides. Another part of town is a part dated from the Middle Ages. That part is also worth to see, when you’re in the Provence. Meantime it’s rather late and we return via Orange back to Goudargues and the camping. Also today it’s calm in the evening as usual; it’s been a busy day. Tomorrow is another day and maybe we will be checking out the river Ardèche.

Sunday August 22, 2004: The Ardèche

Today we need to make sure Cartouche is very at ease, because we need to get in and out of the car. Today we do the descent of the Ardèche, by car, not in a canoe. We get up at the same time as other days. Timo takes Cartouche to buy bread, so he is already tired and is really good during the trip. He has been good all the way already, but that can change, right? We leave at 10:00 already to Vallon Pont d’Arc and there is the departure to the complete Gorges d’Ardèche until St-Martin d’Ardèche. We reach without much trouble to Vallon and there it starts. The first stop is the famous view of the Ardèche: the bridge at Vallon; that is a great view. We drive high above the river and get out of the car very often to enjoy the beautiful views. About 20 times out and back in the car, but we don’t mind, because it’s just magnificent. The most beautiful parts are where the river makes a twist and also the meanders. Also the limestone mountains that surround us look stunning. The rocks are high and steep; it’s better not to fall down here, because then you’re dead. It takes about two hours before we are back down at St Martin d’Ardèche and from there we drive back to the camping. We rest and enjoy the sun. It’s warm and we’re all a bit tired, so we can use a nap. After three hours it’s time to cool down. Eef and Timo go to the small beach with Cartouche to swim. The current is still very fast, so the swimming is limited to splashing, but temperature is back OK. Maurits left for a walk to ‘Les Concluses’, but he had to return without the walking, because there were some exercises from the military going on. Instead we walk to Goudargues and sit on a terrace. We have pastis and then a huge pint. By then it’s time to get back and to start cooking. We have gordon blue today with beans and steamed potatoes. After that we take a shower and do the dishes. We sit together and talk, drink some wine and then go to bed at 23:30.

Monday August 23, 2004: Tarascon, Les Baux de Provence, Moulin de Daudet

Today Maurits drives to the village for bread and after breakfast we leave soon. We have a lot on our schedule today. We leave already at 10:00 and out first stop is Tarascon. There has been built a great castle on the banks of the Rhone, it looks like a fortress that can never be conquered. We also pass along a beautiful church, the église Ste-Marthe. From here we move on to St Rémy de Provence, a small village, well known for the excavations of Glanum and also because Nostradamus was born here and Van Gogh lived here. We check out “Les Antiques”, which is a mausoleum and an ancient roman arc. We also have our pick nick here, but time to visit Glanum is not enough. We want to go to Les Baux too and there we especially need to take the time to visit the castle. So we move on to Les Baux. During the trip to Les Baux we stop at the side of the road. The small mountain range here is known as “Les Alpilles”. It’s great to hike here and with every step you take, you spread the scent of herbs in the air. We look around and immediately find a lot of different herbs. Then the trip goes further to Les Baux. The cars here are parked a few kilometers along the road; there will be a lot of people here. Les Baux has a beautiful location, it is built on top of a lonely rock and completely on top there are the ruins of a castle from the Middle Ages. We park a bit outside the centre, because you need to pay for a parking space there. Maurits knows the way and knows a place where we can park and don’t need to pay for it. Then we walk to the village itself, a labyrinth of small streets with many shops. We buy stuff here for ourselves and for Linda. We visit the castle; that’s really worth the visit, especially for the history and also the view. If you take an audio phone with you, you receive explanation of it all. After the visit of about an hour, we see Maurits back at the entrance. We drink something on a terrace, walk through the village and move on to the last stop of the day: Le Moulin de Daudet. We make a small detour to Fontvielle. The only thing to see here is a mill. This mill was the inspiration for Daudet to write “Lettres de Mon Moulin”. We go there, check it out and leave back to the camping. It’s already 17:00 and we need to drive for over an hour and stop in Bagnols for shopping. At about 19:30 we’re ready to eat. Timo had suggested eating something at the camping. We each have a steak hachée, 1 bowl of salad and a bottle of land wine. We talk a bit, drink a few glasses of wine and go to bed around midnight.

Tuesday August 24, 2004: A day of rest

Today normally was the last day for Maurits here in Provence and we would bee canoeing. And now the weather has decided differently. It has been raining all night and when we get up it still is. The weather gods have left us during this vacation. It has been raining heavily already, thunder and lightning, and temperature is good, but not really hot as it is supposed to be during this time of the year. We can’t do anything about it, so it has no use of complaining. We can’t go for the canoe trip today, so Maurits is leaving now for home already. Timo has drunk a bit too much yesterday and Eef and Maurits put all the stuff in the car, so he can leave for home. At about 11:00 he’s gone and we stay here the three of us. We move our stuff from the tent to the caravan and try to make the best of it. Eef has a bit trouble when Maurits leaves and the weather is just bad. We then make a decision: when we have two more days of bad weather, we leave too. Hope the weather feels this as a treat and the sun will appear, so we can still enjoy our three weeks here. We read the paper and write the diary till about 16:00. To that time it’s raining the whole time, but it starts to look better: the sun appears, very slowly and not all the time, but it’s something different from rain. We start to strike the tent at 17:00. We thought we could to this rather fast, but it takes us about 2 hours to complete it. It was done very thoroughly so they can be happy. Everything is clean except for the plastic under the tent. That was too much to do now. At about seven we start getting hungry. We don’t have anything to eat here and we don’t feel like cooking, so we go out. We walk to the centre and there in Café de France we have a piece of pizza. Eef has La Sicilienne and Timo Le Catalane. We share pieces and it tastes very well. It’s a good ending to a bad day. We feel better when we’re back at the camping. Take a shower, talk all over and we go to bed at 22:30; that’s early, but this day can’t take any longer. Sleep tight and hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

Wednesday August 25, 2004: Nîmes and La Rocque sur Cèze

Today the weather is already a lot better and we feel better too. We sleep until 09:00 and then decide to go to Nîmes. We have breakfast, wash up and put everything in the car and we leave at 10:30. Eef is now driving, straight to Bagnols and then the N86 right in the centre of Nîmes. In a garage under the ground we park the car, close to the arena. Cool. We step outside and see a whole group of soldiers passing by. Possibly they are guys going on or returning from a mission. We don’t really know, but they make a hell of a noise, with music chapel and all. Cartouche does not like this at all, but they’re gone rather fast. We walk around the arena, because the entrance is on the other side. We enter – no problem with the dog (Vive La France) – and immediately arrive in the lower part of the arena. We walk on this level, but also want to go higher, so we look for the way up. We need to take the outer ring of the arena to allow us to walk up using big, wide stairs. Cartouche really likes it a lot: when he sees stairs he immediately races up. It’s surprising the building is still very intact. We have already seen one arena in El Jem in Tunisia, but that one is nothing compared to the one here in Nîmes. After an hour we have seen it all and we go out to visit the next attraction of the city of Nîmes: Maison Carré. We follow the main boulevard from the arena to the other side of town. Half way we should see Maison Carré. Suddenly we find the building just around a corner. This time it is not only ruins, but a complete temple. Apparently this is one of the few that has been preserved that well. It’s just beautiful. We look at the temple from all different angles, quickly enter and then go back via the small streets straight through the centre of Nîmes. We arrive at the other end of the city at some kind of ring road. There is the Porte Augustinus, an ancient Romans entry gate to the city of Nîmes. Near the gate is a cathedral. Eef takes the time here to buy something to eat and we each have a sandwich with tuna close to the cathedral. We’ve seen the city now and want to drive back home. It’s only 14:00, but to see some more in Nîmes, we need to drive a while outside the centre and we don’t want to do that. So we return to Goudargues. Now Timo takes the wheel and after an hour we’ve passed Bagnols. We still have time to visit La Rocque sur Cèze and we take some time to do that. Over the old bridge to the parking and then further on foot to Les Cascades de Sautadet. A great sight of nature’s powers. It is a waterfall that starts very wide and floats very fast into the river a bit further. When you fall in at the top you’re dead, when you come out of it. Cartouche has found refreshment – off course he had to play in the water, also Eef. She had a bite on her foot and she bathed in the Cèze. We also need to see the village La Rocque itself and we return to the parking and walk up to the village. They want to preserve the authenticity, because apart from inhabitants nobody is allowed to enter La Rocque by car. So we walk up. It’s a nice, rustic village with an old church (1883), but not to stay for hours. We take the car back to Goudargues, shop in the ‘Utile’, post our last cards and return to the camping. The sun has disappeared, so the plans to swim have been thrown away. Maybe tomorrow or the day after. The clouds don’t stay because after an hour the evening sun is shining very warm. Today we cook for ourselves. Then we make the plans for tomorrow and go to bed. If the weather is fine, we will be in Aigues-Mortes and in the Camargue, a dream for T qua birds and wild animals. We’ll see tomorrow.

Thursday August 26, 2004: Aigues-Mortes and Camargue

Today we get up early because we have a bunch of kilometers to do. Even a lot more than we did yesterday to Nîmes. Now we will add another 50. At about 09:00 in the morning we leave already. Eef is driving because the decision has been made Timo will need to drive home with the caravan. So to avoid Timo has enough of the wheel, Eef is now driving. We go all the same way to Nîmes and there the route nationale to Montpellier and follow some smaller roads to Aigues-Mortes from there. We need to see this town for sure. Just outside the centre we find a space to park the car (without paying anything) and we go on foot to the rempards that surround the complete city. We walk through the centre and drink a coffee on a nice square. Apart from the coziness and the rempards there is nothing to this town, so after an hour we leave. We drive straight to the “Parc Ornithologique” to take a walk and to have lunch. There is a sign dogs are not allowed. We first go to the info centre where dogs can enter, then have a pick nick next to that building, because we’re hungry. There are plenty of mosquitoes and Eef doesn’t like it. We then dive off to Sainte Maries de la Mer, although we knew there was nothing to see. It’s very busy and there is nothing to see and there are too much mosquitoes, so we can’t go for a walk. We drive back north via some smaller departementale roads and set for a smaller sandy road. Here we get to see the real Camargue. We see huge rivers with flamingoes, cattle egrets and gulls (different species), kingfishers; a real paradise for Timo and his love for birds. After a few miles we need to turn back because it’s a dead end for cars at least. We enjoy the view here and we think it’s crazy how flat it is here and we can even see the Mont Ventoux far away. So we return home. We follow small roads all the way round the “Plaine de la Camargue” and arrive at the last sighting point of the reserve. On the way there we even saw some wild horses and bulls. This is what is typical Camargue, really beautiful. It’s already after three and we still need to drive for 1.5 hours, so we drive straight home, to Arles, Tarascon, Beaucaire, Remoulins, Begnols and then Goudargues. At about 17:00 we’re back at the camping site. We stopped at the ‘Utille’ to collect food for today and tomorrow. Today we’re having bacon with paste and cheese sauce. Tomorrow will be steak hachée, potatoes and carrots. We have the time to rinse off the fatigue (over 300 kilometers today) from our bodies in the river Cèze and then start to cook. After that we do the dishes take a shower and talk about the vacation until now with a beer in our hand, very cozy. Today was good; hopefully another good day will come?

Friday August 27, 2004: Les Concluses and rest at the camping

Today we stay in bed longer than normal; it’s 09:00 when we get up. Today we have two things on our busy schedule: A walk in “Les Concluses” and just do nothing. We leave for the walk at about ten thirty. Eef is driving in that direction and we’re there rather quickly. We take a path that leads up from the parking lot – so we can come down when we return. The path should bring us after a walk of +/- 1 kilometer to ‘Le Portail’. After about 2 kilometer we haven’t seen a portail. We take the first path to the right and go to the parking the normal way. We have already walked for 5 kilometer, but we haven’t seen any dry bed of a river. We had a nice quiet walk, but that was not the only purpose of use coming here. We then walk down the small steep path and arrive at the riverbed. The only thing there is a little pool of water with beetles, frogs and some fish. It’s a nice view to see how a river floats through and over and under the rocks. Cartouche wants a swim; otherwise he’s not happy. We go back up to the parking and carry our wet dog home into the car. Back at the camping we have a quick snack and read the newspaper in the sun. The sky is blue and the sun is burning very hard. That’s why we came here after all. That’s nice, because that way we forget the wet days of the past week. We try to get a tan; people need to see we were in the South for a couple of weeks. After and hour in the sun we seek some coolers spots. We find that on the other side of the river Cèze. Cartouche plays in the water and we do so too. We have found a place just behind a small hill, so we are not disturbed by other guests. There we stay (swim, dry, snorkel, swim, dry,…) until 17:00 and then return. Eef is a little bit sun burnt, so it’s time to get out of the sun. We walk to the village; Eef fancies an ice cream, exactly the same as the one Betty had last week. We arrive there and nothing is open at that time: they only serve starting from 19:00. We seek some info how we need to handle the canoeing with Cartouche and that’s no problem, so we will do this tomorrow. So without ice cream and without food we return to the camping. First a short stop at the ‘Utile’, buy salad and cucumber and today we have steamed potatoes with steak haché, salad, cucumber with delicious vinaigrette. It is very good. After that we need to do the dishes, it’s not a lot, so Eef does it by herself. Than we talk w bit and drink a beer and we go to bed rather early (around 23:00). There is no reason to return from vacation tired, isn’t’ there?

Saturday August 28, 2004: Canoe the river Cèze and do nothing

Today we’re going to take the big step. We already sacrificed to stay with the dogs, while the others we’re canoeing. Now it’s our turn. We’ve waited long enough. We get up early; Timo drives to the centre to get a newspaper, a baguette and two biscuits. We have breakfast en read the paper. Timo reads the sports pages from beginning to end and Eef reads the normal part. The news itself is nothing much, because only ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ has the paper of the day itself. Because tomorrow is Sunday and then all shops are closed, we need to buy some stuff still; food for today, tomorrow and a bit of cheese and things for the bread. Eef drives to Pont St Esprit and Timo walks Cartouche to Frigoulet. That is the other way than Goudargues when leaving the camping, nothing much to see. At 12:00 we’re ready to go to Cèze Canoeing, to leave for the descent of 7 kilometer. We walk there and can leave immediately. It seems Cartouche does not love it, because he’s already very tired from the long walk this morning. We buy a disposable camera, because we think it would be very annoying when the good camera would fall into the water or would get wet. So for only this canoeing trip we have bought this camera. And then with 1 canoe, 1 waterproof barrel to hold everything, 1 dog, 1 woman, 1 man, two life jackets and 2 paddles we leave. At first Cartouche is seated at the back with Timo, as there is the most space. He snaps at every drop of water and already after 15 minutes he falls into the water. He jumps from left to right and then falls into the Cèze. Then at the first rapid we get stuck, so that’s a small disaster and we’re only half an hour away. Then everything gets better: Eef takes Cartouche with her at the front of the canoe, so Cartouche won’t see the splashes and Timo needs to take care of the rowing and steering. Everything goes well now. On one of the rapids Timo reacted a little bit too late and we got stuck in tree branches, but without many problems. We stop three times and have a drink. A good thing we brought water with us, because it’s a very hot day today. After three hours we arrive at the end of the trip ‘Cazernau’. There someone is waiting for us and he brings us in a van back to Goudargues. There we take the time to clean ourselves and enjoy our ice cream (something Eef was already waiting for a long time), 2 Hoegaarden and a beer. Cartouche is exhausted and lies asleep on a ridge along the water. When we have enough of resting and enjoying we return to the camping. There we seem to be very very tired and fall asleep. Eef lies in the hammock, Timo on a mattress and Cartouche too. When we wake up it’s already 19:00 and time to eat. Timo boils the rice and lights the BBQ on gas. Today we have chicken (a whole one) with salad, cucumber (the rest from yesterday). It tastes so good, we eat the whole chicken and the 2 packs of rice too. The only meal we had was breakfast, during lunch almost nothing, except for 2 biscuits. Then we still have some time to do the dishes, to take a shower and to drink a beer en to fall asleep. Since Maurits left, we need to take showers separately, because always someone needs to sit with Cartouche. We write our diary and go to sleep early. Hopefully Eef does not feel too much pain due to her sun burnt shoulders and Timo’s arms don’t ache too much from the rowing and paddling. Sometimes ha had to work very hard today.

Sunday August 29, 2004: Villages des Bories, Gordes, Sénanque

Today we perform the same ritual as other mornings: we get up at 8:30, one person drives to the centre to get bread, the other one makes coffee and prepares breakfast. Again we have 2 baguettes, a croissant and a biscuit. To have with the bread we can choose between cheese (emmental), marmalade, milk (only for coffee), filet of a turkey, cucumber, tomatoes, mayonnaise and ketchup. There is enough choice, don’t you think. We also had chocolate paste, 2 different kinds, but Timo does not like this, he never eats paste like that, not even at home. The weather is good and we prepare for almost the last excursion. The long drives here in the south are becoming too much. When we drive 300 kilometer on a Greek island during the whole vacation that’s a lot already. Now we almost drive 200 kilometer and more every day. So we pass a serious amount of time in the car. Until now we already drove 2500 with the V40. I don’t count the kilometers that Maurits did with his car (about 400 km). At about 10:30 we leave. Our first stop will be Villages de Bories, an ancient village built out of rock without using any form of cement or mortar. The village is a few km in front of Gordes, where we will go later the day. We follow a small road (almost only a path); when someone comes from the opposite direction, we have trouble. It’s a good thing they have made this a one-way road. Villages des Bories. We pay the entrance fee (5.50 Euro), which is quite expensive, but it’s very nice to see the ancient buildings. Well, ancient, is actually only 150 years ago. We see houses, goat- and pig-stables, work houses, everything all together. The buildings are merely rocks placed an each other, nothing more. It’s very curious that everything remains built. We walk around there for about half an hour and then drive towards Gordes. Wed rive straight into the centre, it’s not that big. And again we can’t park here for free. I think French people have seen it as a sport to make sure all parking lots in the neighborhood of a monument are payable spaces. Everywhere you need to pay and sometimes quite a lot: here it’s 3 Euro. On the parking we take a blanket and sit down in the shade to have lunch. This morning we prepared 2 half baguettes with cheese, turkey and mayo. Add some water, lemonade and tonic and we enjoy a good lunch. In Flemish they say: hunger is the best sauce. We visit the village, there is a castle, a nice view over the fields and nice streets to walk. Gordes is on a mountain and a bit outside the centre is a place where you have a nice view on the city. Quite nice. Very good, but we don’t stay here longer than 1.5 hours. For Eef it’s too hot (today it’s about 80°) and it’s still a long way back. We also need to stop by the abbey of Sénanque. We leave from Gordes and take the road to the abbey. The road is very steep and you need to be aware for other users of the road. From time to time – every few 100 meters – they have constructed some kind of breakdown lanes, so you can get out of the way if there are oncoming cars. The abbey is located in a beautiful scenery between fields of lavender, vines and woods, in the center of the valley. This is a beautiful sight. This is an abbey of the order of the Cistercians, the same as the monks of Bornem. We are not allowed inside because we have a dog with us, so we walk on the premises for 10 minutes and then take the road back to Goudargues. At 17:00 we arrive back at the camping site, rather tired because we drove more than 200 km again today, we take a shower and we prepare to go out for eating. We have not done it often here and we’re starting to arrive at the end of the vacation, so we need to take this chance. This means today, at La Cantonnade, in the centre. We each take a salad as an entrée, salade nicoise (T) and salade mediteraine (E) and then we take truite aux amandes (T) and tagliatelli au saumon (E). We have a good bottle of red wine with it from a local winehouse. Château Nabor is located on the road from Goudargues to Bagnols. We like it a lot. It is already very dark when we return on foot to the camping and there drink some beers with candle light and go to bed around midnight.

Monday August 30, 2004: Wine tasting in Vacqueyras and Mont Ventoux

Timo especially wants to see the Mont Ventoux another time, since he’s here. The weather looks great today here in Goudargues, so we take our chance. We still did not taste any wines and we are here for over 2 weeks, this will be time then. Those two things at the same day, really exciting. We leave rather early and drive directly to Vacqueyras; like all other villages here in Provence also this has its typical view of vines, and grapes and more grapes. It really is very impressive how many vineyards there are here and how many grapes grow here. We walk through the village with no special features, and decide to enter the winehouse of “Arnoux & Fils”. There is also a Wallon guy tasting and he only comes there to get drunk, you can tell. We want to be really Flemish and behave. We taste about 5 different wines, sometimes the same one but from a different year. We stay here for an hour and time flies and we enjoy the wine that is really good. One of the wines is the best of all: “Cuvée Du Seigneur De Lauris”. Other Flemish people have tasted this (from the guestbook) and liked this one particularly. We buy 6 bottles of this one and another 6 of Cuvée Vieux Clocher. When we bought all this good stuff, we receive 1 bottle for free. And then time has come to move on. We load the wine into the car and then take the shortest way to Ventoux. We now come from the other side. This is fun, because we now saw the mountain from both ends. On the road we come I the neighborhood of “Les Dentelles de Montmirail” and have our pick nick there. An hour later we are on the top of the Ventoux. This time the weather is much better than the first time when we were here. It brings a special feeling, the Mont Ventoux. To Eef this is now also more pleasant, now the sun is shining and now even she thinks it’s worth a visit. Not the way Timo feels about it, but she loves to be here. Now we can stay for over an hour on the top and enjoy the lovely weather and view. Then it’s time to get back to Goudargues and after an hour we are there; we seem to get to know our way around here in Provence. We stop to shop in Bagnols and drive back to the camping to rest a bit and to prepare some food. Today we’re again tired of driving 300 km. This is not very much in France but for us this is a long end. We’re tired of everything we saw and we go to bed early.

Tuesday August 31, 2004: Uzès and rest at the camping site

The first time we arrived at Uzès, we were convinced we would return here to this very nice city. Well, this day has arrived now. We are going to make sure we will not be too tired these last days here. Within a few days we are facing a long journey from France to Belgium with a caravan from the South. This is the first time and we’re a bit nervous about it. We’re not going to anticipate this and relax in Uzès. We already know our way around and also where to find a free parking space. We drink something on the town square, have some kind of tapas with our dinks and watch people and see everyone passing by. We walk along the shops and 1 drags our attention; the Cure Gourmande. This is a shop where they sell all types of sweets, all the sweets have special shapes. You can buy all types of fruits from normal apples to figs and dates, all real candy, great to see this. We’re now also looking for a tower, because Maurits did not find it the previous time, but now we need to see it. And indeed, right around the corner where we were last time, we see the tower and we walk around there and visit places in the centre where we’ve never been before. The last thing we do in Uzès is visiting a Spar to buy some last groceries. Then we drive to the camping and we take some time to swim, rest and swim and do nothing else, before we start the last cleanup. It’s not late yet and the weather is great to swim. We wade to the other side where it’s much quieter than the side where the camping is. We lie there, read a book and play in the water. Timo and Cartouche are going for an exploration where the water is calmer and warmer. As usual we can’t spend a lot of time doing nothing and after about 2 hours we’ve had it and we go back to our place. We prepare for diner and after diner we go to Goudargues. We sit next to the water and have a big beer. We are pretty tired and go to bed early. The vacation is ending, but we’ve seen everything in this neighborhood and then only thing left for us to do is pack everything, clean the camping tomorrow and then be ready for the long journey back home on Thursday.

Wednesday September 1, 2004: Big cleaning day

Our last full day in Goudargues. We are not going to enjoy it a lot, because we need to clean everything. We want to leave early tomorrow morning so we are back home before dark. First we clean everything in the tent. What we can’t put in the car, we need to fold under the caravan table. We try to avoid loading to much weight in the car, so the Volvo is able to hold easily. We manage to wash the ten already before noon and put it away in the caravan. We are on schedule. Small break, a quick lunch and then we can start with the rest. We do everything very quickly and by 15:00 we’ve done it all, or the most. We think we deserved a break and go act as social beings with our neighbors. They are from the region of Mechelen. We chat a bit and drink a beer. These people actually know Jos, the neighbor of Betty and Maurits very well. What a small world. Then we only need to do some small things and at 19:00 we’re ready for our last evening in Goudargues. We have made a reservation in “La Cantonnade” close to the river in the centre. We enjoy in complete peace of our meal and can look back on a very good vacation, hopefully we can return well to Sint-Amands. We sit outside for a while on our last evening, but then it starts to rain. Only for a moment because soon we can sit outside again. This is our last thing here and tomorrow we drive back to Belgium.

Thursday September 2, 2004: Return to Belgium

We get up early in the morning, at about 07:00, we prepare and connect the caravan. We have put everything in place yesterday, we only need to have the caravan hooked up and we can leave. We have already paid everything yesterday afternoon, so we can go. Our neighbors come and wish us a nice journey back. We will manage, don’t worry. So off we go. We take the same route as the way we came. We do leave in pouring rain, we had to seek shelter for a moment before leaving. We drive to Goudargues and Bagnols back to the highway to Lyon. Everything is going smoothly. When we departed we had few trouble driving though the city of Lyon, so we try this again. But on this side of the lane they are working on the road and guess what. Timo is only one second too late to react and we drive into town. Shit! Just a little panic, but that disappears when we see ‘Toutes Directions’ at a roundabout. Good, because that would be a mess driving through town with a caravan. We found quickly the highway again. Damn, we need to pay toll again. No problem, we’re on the right track and it only costs us 1.25 Euro. Back on track and away from our first moment of stress. The rest of the journey is OK. We can drive at 110 kilometers an hour and we do this. There is no problem with the car, nor with the caravan, so we’re doing great. Then there is a second moment of stress, but also that one is soon forgotten. A car is driving on a merge lane next to us at 40 slower than us. We can’t drive at the left lane because there is another car. Timo keeps on driving then at the normal right lane, because the merge lane is another kilometer long. Very good, until that foolish person thinks it’s time to come onto the highway. Timo hits the break like hell and even the caravan is breaking. Timo uses the horn for half a minute, but in the end the car can merge half a meter before our car. The last bit of the trip is without trouble. One comment: you notice immediately when you enter Belgium. The car starts to shiver and shake because of the bad road conditions. We’re home rather quickly, at 19:30 we are having a meal at Maurits and Betty. A good end to a good vacation.