Friday 2nd December

Thank goodness it was Clive Brooker’s birthday yesterday, he told me it was curry night in Spoons so I instantly knew it was Thursday. I have trouble remembering which day it is but Lucy has far more trouble remembering which year it is, she swore blind yesterday that she was 54.

To be fair to her it was freezing cold and it was still really early in the morning (10.30am). The site in Avignon isn’t really that bad but the trees planted to keep the sun off the happy campers in the summer keeps the sun off the freezing cod campers in the winter. We’re spending one more night here and are going south. We’ve been invited to a non stop drinking spree with Darren and Mandy who we met in Germany oh so long ago. In fact they are almost the last proper people we’ve spoken to since we left home in August. We’ve been guaranteed barrels of Federweisser but they’ve been keeping their blog a week behind just to make it harder to catch up with them. Something we’ll need to do once Clive Brooker starts touring 🙂

We promised you a trip to Villeneuve les Avignon last blog and this Airstream went past us on the way. To be really honest it was so cold it was all I could do to take my hand out of my pocket and take a photo for you – just feel honoured. All I want is a bit of sun so that I can hear Frankies joints clicking into place, (he can make quite a racket when the sun lands on him) and a bit of sun so that my joints stop creaking.

Into the village, the road started getting very narrow and picturesque…

… and we could see in the distance a castle but then we had a slight disagreement about the bakers and then we couldn’t be bothered to visit the castle or do anything except go back to Frankie and warm up a bit.

I had to take a photo for mother – poppies in bloom in December, this is what your garden could look like if you moved 1000 miles south!

We got away from the site Friday morning. I really don’t like staying on proper sites, they are expensive (€21 per night) and since we have our own toilet, shower and bar we really aren’t getting value for money. Tonight, as I write this we are in a six motorhome aire which might be €7 if anyone comes round to collect it and it might free. We are parked much closer than we brits are used to but that doesn’t really worry me too much, millions of people live in houses touching each other (semi detached, terraced, flats…) without raising an eyebrow.

So with Darren and Mandy’s unlimited drinking offer in mind we shoot off to Port du Gard, just 20 miles away. It’s been circled on our map, we have to visit it and we have to pay €18 for the parking. Seems a bit steep to me when it is very out of season and half of it is shut down but it is quite a sight. Built by the Romans in the 1st century to bring water from Uzes down to Nimes (a very long way) and this was the best route.

Spannig 200m and about 30m high it is very spectacular. Even though it isn’t a bridge, I do have a liking for bridge type structures. This is a Unesco World Heritage site and up by the museum were depictions of lots of other Unesco sites. It was very entertaining to tick them off but we noticed how many we have missed. Plenty of places to visit.

The bridge to the side was built in the 18th century, Napolean has been here of course, he gets a plaque, one day they will have a plaque for Frankie being here.

The sticky outer bits are left over from the construction. Imagine some of them as stair landings and they make more sense.

The aqueduct was in use for 600 years until the whole system fell into disrepair.

My art director noticed this shot of the aqueduct shadow falling on the river bed.

With federweisser calling we have turned south and are heading for the land of cheap gin and very cheap brandy. As we drove it got warmer and warmer and Darren and Mandy have been texting us photos of Mandy sunbathing and Darren showing off his white legs. For the very first time we have had to use the sun blinds and all the windows have been open to help us cool down. 

We landed up in a place called Sete, we are near to an inland lake and it looks very nice. We might stay a day or two, depending on how quickly Darren is drinking the federweisser.