861 – Tuesday 10th October 2017:  A Change of Plan

We stopped to change pilots en route to Castellane – K walked Oscar towards the town of Entrevaux – and lo and behold – roofs of motorhomes in a not too distant car park!  Well, we moseyed on down to find – an aire beside the Chemin de Fer rail line…  should we stay, we asked ourselves? Amazingly, we answered – ‘why not’?   Jez settled easily into the aire – and your faithful correspondents dragged themselves into town for a meander and forced down a glass of wine…sitting in the sun.  Another poetical piece (featured by K on this glob, sorry blog before):

“What is this life if full of care

we have no time to stop and stare”

We do.  We’ve seen many hill towns with Gated entrances and narrow streets – they never fail to impress…

Entrevaux.

The main gate….

The cathedral.

No cars and lots of small lanes.

862 – Wednesday 11th October:  Le Champ (Field – NOT), it was a Hill!

The intrepid team embarked on a 12k, 5-hour promenade from Entrevaux to La Champ, a nearby (?) hamlet. The uphills were rather steep (understatement of the day) and I developed a minor blister – pas de probleme…  Lunch in a squady share (you’re doing it again, James – behave s’il vous plait!)  We saw the lady post, heard someone gardening – and ’the sound of silence’.  Memorial to 3 who died in WW1 with two of the same surname.

Right then – pay attention, Class of 2015-17!  Hands up who knows about “Earworm”?  It’s not a wriggly thing wot gets in yer eardrum!  Have you ever experienced a song, saying, poem or wotsit that gets into your head – goes round and round and you cannot shift it?  It is an “Earworm”!!!  It happens to me a bit – and it must be the correct term – because I found it on ’t’internet’.   Remedy – wash behind your ears? No, get busy with summit else – and hey presto, it worms it’s way out.  You cannot say we don’t try to educate our 3 readers – that includes you, Amelia, Diane and Grahame – or is it 4?   No, it’s more – Mags and ShIrls, Edward and Frances, Stephen and Kay – goodness knows – we could get into double figures!  

Back along the upclines and declines to our aire – K called to see an Estate Agent – part of our putative 2018 Provence house purchase…    My be difficult to find someone to manage change overs for potential holiday lettings, but a lovely town.  The search will continue.

Vauban strengthened the citadel, and it has never been taken.  The old town has the gorge of the river on 3 sides.

You can just make out the steep walk up to the Citadel.

Our lunch stop at Le Champ.

We ran out of water, so J replenished the bottles.  Hope there was not a dead sheep further up stream!

863 – Thursday 12th October:  A Short Hop to Annot

The town small supermarche was closed for hols so we found an Intermarche 5 minutes upstream. A brief rec. to a campsite by the local lake – the staff thought we might be sneaking a quick camper services – reassured them and off we went.  Thinks – we cannot avoid Annot – oh dear, a minipun – another aire!  An airy aire, you say!  This punning Annot continue!  Or, canit? I could can it, perchance?  Agreed, all round, James!  Considerate it canned, not far from Cannes!!!  

Another lovely town walk (ending with wine!) – the TIC gave us a very comprehensive walking leaflet – the walk seemed vaguely familiar – more anon. 

One of our motorhome neighbours at the aire – chatting – an intrepid traveller, advertising his travel company – invited us to supper with another neighbouring couple from the Voges. Lively evening and good chats – nice vino, curry, pasta and cheese dishes – but it “grew wondrous cold” (Ancient Mariner, again) later.  Tres froi….

More narrow streets – Annot this time.

Built into the rocks.

 

864 – Friday 13th October:  Chambre du Roi Walk – It was not like this last time!!!

Ah, the walk – details from the TIC…  Back in 2012 ish, we took K’s daughter and friend Katharine for a week in Nice – we had a rented apartment on the 100th floor (ask K) in the Vieux Ville.  Train up into the hills for a promenade…. 18c in Nice – in the hills – cold and snow – it was January (Maddy thought we had arrived in Narnia). The walk (said to be suitable for baby strollers!) was slippery, hazardous with narrow paths and sheer drops, muddy – and some of us came down on our bottoms – very unfunny!   Today, it’s the self same walk!!!  How about that for coincidence?

This time, it was sunny, warm, firm underfoot – and bloody gorgeous!   The photos tell the tale better than I can…

News of the day?  After 7 months, I finally received my over-70 3.5 tonnes+ driving license from the good old DVLA – hurrah for the lads and lassies in Swansea!  Just need to lay my hands on it!

You can just make out the narrow path behind J – imagine this with ice and mud!  The rock here looks like folds of a lava flow.

In serval places, there are huge rocks and boulders forming arches.

And we got quite high .. according the walk leaflet, we climbed 350m.  Doesn’t seem a lot, but hard on the knees on coming down.

Surprisingly there is a chestnut and oak forest at the top.

Pretty sure this is the same lunch spot where we ate with Maddy and Katharine.

No chance of a nanny nap with Oscar nudging me to keep stroking him!