5 LA CÔTE D'AZUR AND LES GORGES DU VERDON

This eventful week began in Aix-en-Provence. Having said goodbye to the famous Hubert and Jennifer, Cam and I went into town to meet up with Dan once again, not only for his fantastic company but to pick up my ID that he had taken hostage since Barcelona. We also met his new girlfriend (who is lovely!) and chatted over an extremely overpriced glass of apple juice. From there, we drove south to a skatepark on the outskirts of Marseille. The park was good but the midday heat got to us slightly – Cam skated well regardless but I was too hot to do anything other than video his attempts (and successes of course…).

After a couple of hours, we continued driving to another skatepark in Marseille – Skatepark du Prado. Cam had told me it was quite a famous park, with Red Bull hosting an annual bowl competition there. I therefore assumed that I would sit on the side and do nothing but admire all the amazing skaters (and Cam of course). However, it was a lot quieter than we’d anticipated and thankfully there was a smaller bowl directly next to the big one, so I actually had the opportunity to skate which was so fun! We spent some time there, taking regular breaks to watch the local kids who made us both feel very humble.

To cool down after an unbelievably sweaty day, we went for a swim along some rocks not far from the skatepark. The sea was so refreshing and clear. We then headed back to Bert and left for the Calanques national park. Unfortunately, we ran into some problems exiting the carpark. Firstly, all of our cards were declined so we were unable to pay for the parking. So, I phoned the emergency number provided by the ticket machine to which an extremely rude French man answered saying that he did not understand me (although I believe he just couldn’t be bothered helping two Brits). Thankfully, two guys at a hotdog stand helped us speak to the guy on the phone who eventually turned up to the carpark and let us out reluctantly for free. Don’t worry guys, this story gets even better! The worst part came trying to exit the 1.9m height restriction barrier. As we’d had no problems entering under the barrier, we naively assumed we should be ok exiting it! Silly us. Cam was slowly exiting the carpark when we heard this extremely loud scraping noise against the roof. Unfortunately, the height restriction barrier had struck Bert and left him scarred.

Only briefly did we mourn as quite a queue had accumulated behind us. So, Cam drove us out of Marseille and towards the Calanques national park. I haven’t really discussed Cam’s driving much on the blog but all I’ll say is; it’s character building - for both of us. To be fair, Cam isn’t the most experienced driver and I don’t think the unpredictability of French driving has helped either (a combination of that and the fact I’m an awful backseat driver).

Anyway… we arrived at our camping spot for the night. It was on the outskirts of Cassis, and despite being on quite a slope and parked next to a man having full blown conversations with himself in an old battered van, we had a really nice night here.

In the morning, it was drizzling which was frustrating because we were intending on doing a long walk along the Calanques coast. Thankfully, after nosing around the town of Cassis, the clouds had cleared so we parked up at the starting point and began our walk. The path was a little challenging in the heat, but the coastal views were so amazing that the swim at our final destination - Calanque d’En-vau - was a huge motivator. Having taken a tiny detour (I took us the wrong way for an hour) we made it to the beach and went for a swim out to some rocks to do some jumps. Luckily, we met some brave Aussies who tested the jumps before us so we were certain an A&E visit wasn’t likely. The water was something out of the Caribbean – crystal clear. It was certainly one of the prettiest places I have been to. Thank you to Dan for the recommendation!

After relaxing and having the giggles on the beach, we headed back to Bert – this time the correct way which turned out to be significantly shorter. Now back at Bert, we continued along the coast to our camp stop for the evening which was just outside Toulon. The carpark looked out over the Med, making it undoubtedly the camping spot with the best view so far. The view also displayed the enormous thunderstorm heading our way. Whilst Cam facetimed his parents, I watched as this storm stumbled ever nearer. Whilst I generally enjoy thunderstorms, being on top of a hill in a large metal object was not an ideal situation in my mind. However, Cam reassured me that we would be fine and with other much larger campers around us, we decided to stay put.

Although I don’t regret staying, I can’t say I enjoyed it. The storm consumed us – for most of the time, we weren’t able to see more than 3 meters outside of the van. The lightning flashed so bright I was able to see it through the red blanket I was hiding under and the thunder was so loud the van was vibrating. After a very stressful hour for me and an entertaining hour watching me panic for Cam, the thunderstorm dwindled away and I was able to come out from underneath my blanket. We had survived and I had been so brave…

Following a surprisingly pleasant night’s sleep, we left the spot fairly early, narrowly avoiding our neighbour who, the night before, had handed us a leaflet advertising himself as a youtuber and spiritual coach. We were on our way to a MacDonalds to use their facilities when yet another DISASTER struck. Warning: the next part is quite grim but I believe it’s necessary to share all realities of van life, including something I haven’t really discussed on the blog which is: Bert’s toilet situation.

So, Bert did have a portable toilet, but I made the executive decision to scrap it because it was taking up a lot of room and I hadn’t needed to use it yet because Europe seems to be very good at providing public toilets. So, instead, I opted for the shewee. Now, for those of you who don’t know, this is what a shewee looks like:

It means that I can wee without always needing to hunt down public toilets or worse, awkwardly hide behind trees. It’s a very simple device; I wee and empty it wherever is convenient. It’s especially useful during the night, when the idea of going outside in often remote and/or public carparks isn’t the most pleasant idea.

However, this particular sunny Wednesday morning, shewee disaster struck. We had left the coastal spot when I was driving and suddenly smelt something quite strongly. I then paused and had a massive realisation. I had forgotten to empty my shewee during the stress of the thunderstorm. I told Cam to check that it hadn’t leaked and before we knew it, he had picked the plastic bag containing the shewee which proceeded to spill all over Bert’s floor. In other words, Bert’s carpet was now soaking up a significant amount of my wee. I immediately pulled over at a petrol station and used water and an entire kitchen role to help the situation. Unfortunately, it was too late. Bert’s carpet was like a sponge to my wee, like yin to yang. Cam and I laughed about it but just below surface level, I was mortally embarrassed. Nevertheless, he hasn’t caught a flight home yet so I think the incident proved more entertaining than disgusting and the multiple products we have used since to clean the carpet have worked.

Anyway, back to this car crash of a day. After sorting the wee out, we arrived at a skatepark both Cam and I had been looking forward to. Unfortunately, it was incredibly busy and between locals and children having lessons, there wasn’t much room for two tourists. We decided to leave and head towards the affluent town of St. Tropez, where we did possibly the opposite of what most people do whilst visiting St. Tropez. No, we didn’t treat ourselves to a luxury three course meal, nor did we go on a full day superyacht cruise with champagne included. Instead, we went to a laundrette and whilst the clothes washed and dried, we ate a rip-off Burger King (which was actually very tasty) called KING FOOD and watched all the billionaires lifting weights on the decks of their ridiculously sized boats.

We then left, had an argument about forgetting to go to Decathlon, and arrived at a campsite near the small village of l’Escalet because we couldn’t find anywhere reliable on Park4Night. I then went for a walk so that Cam and I could get some space, and ended up at the most amazing beach in l’Escalet. The water was so clear and I know I’ve said that about all the beaches so far, but Britain’s beaches are generally murky and slightly brown so to see completely transparent water will never be boring to me. I then returned to Cam and we became friends once again - it just wasn’t our day.

The next morning, we showered and headed back to the tiny village of l’Escalet where we parked to begin our walk to Cap Taillat. It had been on my list of things to do, not only because I’d read that it’s a beautiful walk, but because it’s where one of my favourite childhood films was shot: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. For those who care, it’s the beach scene where the family escape capture from Baron Bomburst! The walk to the beach was along the most amazing coastline - I feel like I’m simply repeating myself about how blue the sea was so I’ll just insert pictures instead.

We relaxed on the beach and went snorkelling a number of times as there was quite a bit to see! After a few hours, we reluctantly headed back to Bert. Keen to make progress however, we continued east along the Côte d'Azur to a skatepark Cam had tracked down around 30 minutes from Cannes. Unfortunately, by the time we parked up to go skating, we were in the midst of a thunder and lightning storm so instead, we went for a much-needed shop. Upon exiting Bert to go to the supermarket, we realised that the carpark was swamped in around 10cm of water (by realise I mean we got out and stood in the newly formed lake). Finally, after spending quite some time in the supermarket drying off and leaving the storm to dwindle, we made our way to Cannes and therefore to our camping spot for the evening: a public carpark just off the beach front. We chilled, had sandwiches for dinner and a little too much cider whilst watching ‘The Father.’

The carpark was surprisingly quiet for its location in central Cannes. Following a good night’s rest, we walked around the famous town and both acknowledged its prettiness, but ultimately concluded that apart from hosting the Cannes film festival and having a few nice restaurants, it wasn’t unique from most other coastal French towns. Therefore, after a couple of hours reading our books on the beach, we left to go to Nice.

Now, Nice was a bit of a tricky one in regards to camping spots, so we decided to stay at a campsite not far from Antibes (the city east of Nice), and catch the train in. We parked-up at the campsite and immediately left to catch the (double-decker!) train into Nice. I can now easily say that Nice is the nicest French city I have visited. Despite its relaxed atmosphere, it was also very lively and bustling without feeling overwhelming. Cam and I did a couple of museums including the contemporary art museum which as per, contained 15% talent and 85% rubbish with overcomplicated descriptions. We also had ice-creams and walked up to the waterfall on top of the hill (not quite sure of its name) with an amazing panoramic view of the city. After witnessing a very wholesome proposal at the viewpoint, we went to a restaurant/bar recommended to us by my uncle. Unfortunately, they were not serving food that evening (not sure why as he mumbled a long sentence in French that I could not understand) so we went to an Italian instead, which was mediocre at best. Fortunately, the setting (and probably the rosé) made up for the soggy pizza and bland carbonara.

Exhausted from the heat (and probably the wine), we caught the train back to the campsite and went to bed. The following day consisted of lounging on the beach until we finished our books, and driving to the Gorges du Verdon via a fun skatepark in Draguignan. It was a lovely day but there isn’t much more to report about it.

After resting well for the big day ahead, we drove to the Pont du Galetas on the main Lac de Sainte-Croix so that we could do what every poster picture of the Gorges du Verdon advertise: kayaking. We hired a two-person kayak and headed down the gorge. I’m not quite certain why the kayak kept veering to the right, but it did, which caused much entertainment as we hit every other pedalo, boat and kayaker within the gorge. It was super fun and unfortunately for everyone else, our giggles were echoed throughout the gorge. Leaving, mainly out of social embarrassment, we drove to our next water activity: rafting. It was an hour drive but because we stopped regularly for the beautiful scenery and to read our books, it took us around 3 hours.

The rafting itself was fun but not quite as thrilling as we were hoping for - it was more of a lazy river with a few rapids scattered throughout. The most thrilling part would probably have been guessing what our instructor was telling us to do, because not only did he not speak English, his French mainly consisted of mumbles and groans. Regardless, it was super fun and the views were spectacular. To finish the week, we camped along the Lac de Castillon and made an enormous portion of pasta - well deserved after the big day of paddling we’d had!

SUMMARY

Week 5 was full of highs and lows. Regardless, we had so many really good laughs surrounded by even better views. Apologies for the shewee story - but admittedly it did make for some good entertainment. Join us next week as we head to the Alpes to test our fitness levels in the mountains! Thanks for reading :)