Wow! How the weather has changed and this morning we woke up to snow!
So rewind to Friday when the weather was beautiful, warm and sunny in Nice. Then we saw that on Saturday heavy rains were forecast, so time to pack up and head off. And boy did it rain? All day, all evening and all night. It just didn’t stop! We drove along the coast and the cool orange landscape was cool but with a grey drizzly backdrop.
We drove as far as an aire in La Londe Les Mers and cooked tea sheltering from driving rain in the back of the van. But we decided to push on a bit further and later stopped at an aire on a vineyard in Hyeres. Apparently we were their first citizens visiting from the IOM! We fell asleep huddled under our duvets and sleeping bags listening to rain falling on the van roof. The next morning, as we were drying the condensation off the van ceiling, we agreed that we were going to stay in motels for the rest of our journey home. Van life was going to be limited to daytime use for the rest of our journey.
The next morning in between storms we looked out from the port at the islands we had considered visiting, Iles d’Hyeres.
With the forecast, and the persistent mosquitoes, we instead decided to visit the inland medieval town of Le Castellet. It is really cute and a little maze.
As we got back on the road the heavens opened and just didn’t stop. We drove to Salon de Provence (just south east of Avignon), checked into a motel and even ate out at a Buffalo Grill. Wow, how flash! Back in our room Pete watched a stuttering MotoGP with our wifi,while janet did her nails and read. We felt very luxurious and fortunate as the rain battered against the window.
The next morning we decided that rather than hang around down South, we should push on up North and maybe spend a day or two in Paris. As we drove in torrential rain and high winds (that kept trying to take the windscreen wiper off with it) we agreed to just push on and so drove to just outside Dijon.
We were slightly alarmed to see signs on the motorway advising that snow was forecast that night. Janet said “Surely it’s not cold enough to snow” – famous last words. We checked into our motel, surrounded by workmen with their boots outside their doors. In this company, we felt it was ok to take our Trangia cooker into the room to heat some soup for tea – a bit of van life still within us. Then settled down into a big comfy bed for the night.
And imagine our surprise the next morning to see the carpark and our van covered in snow! The wind was bitterly cold too. We were so glad we weren’t staying in the van!
