THE TRIP:
Before the trip:
The vision for this trip started 10 years ago and built up over time. The plan was to travel somehow to Italy, buy and eat on the road. Viareggio was the final destination, because a friend (we'll call him the "Italian Stallion"), romanticised it to such a large extent. The trip came to fruition this year and the first step came in the form of booking a ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Le Havre. We had planned initially, continuing with the romantic theme, to do the trip in an old T25 crew cab pickup called the "The JaegerBus". After spending a few shows in the cramped sleeping area, a fair few miles with the whistling roof rack and the heat of the black tin top, the appeal of the sun set photo opportunities faded. The T25 went and was replaced by a 2003 T4. We spend the few weeks before the trip adding our own touches, cooking facilities and storage. From there, we booked a Chalet in Florence for two nights, and decided to pick our first stop on Google Street View Rue Desiree Pallaprat - Google Street View.After that, we decided to see what we found when we got there.
Pre-holiday holiday: Devon to Portsmouth (131miles)
Day 0: Portsmouth to Le Havre
TRAVEL LOG (Him): " 14/09/14. Left Stu's after relaxing 24hrs. Hit ferry port at 8, straight through no hassle. Straight into cabin which was nice. Good crossing, up at 6 to see us come into Le Havre. First off the ferry! SatNav crap, just got out of the city."
Day 1: Le Havre to Marseille (650miles)
"15/09/14. 3 legs, last leg thunderstorms all the way for the last 1hr.Got to Marseille and ended up in city. Came out the other side to cliff road. Stopped in nice spot watched thunderstorms. Very tired but worth it, got off to sleep even though it was a ghetto"."
It was not a ghetto, but it was a really really long journey down. We made the mistake of thinking it would be a good idea to avoid the toll roads. This really wasn't worth the extra time and hassle of passing through towns, especially with aforementioned crappy SatNav. Tip 1: Use the toll road if you want to get somewhere quickly! We were exhausted by the time we reached Marseille and the city was busy even late at night, the area near where we stopped for the night looked a bit rough, but we did find the spot we had picked out on Google Street view. We chose a different spot in the end, near a tiny harbour and seafood restaurant. This was our first experience of wild camping abroad, and being so wired after such a long journey, it was an interesting experience. The were a few people in the layby, not camping. We were a bit worried at first as we didn't know anything about the area, but turns out, it was just locals watching the storms too, young couples snogging in cars and police waiting for a call. It really was worth the journey in the end to wake up by the sea, with such as amazing view. We wouldn't recommend it though, and wouldn't do it again, but for this first trip, we didn't want to waste a night stopping in central France.
Day 2 Marseille to Cassis (15miles)
This was probably the shortest and nicest journeys of the holiday. After such a monster trip the previous day, we went just a few miles along the coast and up the mountain to Cassis, a town just outside of Marseille. The road to Cassis was beautiful, a winding mountain road with views back over the Marseille coastline, and dense woodland. We camped at "Camping Les Cigales". This was a really pleasant campsite, but a bit of a trek for the beach, about 15minutes walking. The town of Cassis was really nice, with a harbour, a beach and lots of shops. Each of the pitches at Camping Les Cigales, was nicely separated by low hedges, and there were some nice pitches for tents too, which were almost completely enclosed. There was an onsite bar and small shop. €23 per night.
Cassis was worth a visit at night time. There is a castle/fort on the top of the hill by the beach. At night this is uplit, and the town itself was nice and quiet when we visited. In fact, we noticed about a lot of France that it was very quiet mid week, this late in the season. Some towns seemed deserted and many of the shops and restaurants shut down from September onwards. This isn't always great, but in terms of getting a spot on the beach, booking into campsites on the gate and finding parking spaces in towns, it was ideal. The weather was still great (for Brits anyway) so for us, September seemed like a great time to go.
TRAVEL LOG (Him): "Woke up on the coast, amazing. Made coffee and set off for Cigales campsite. Went up some amazing mountainside roads with great shops of town. Arrived at campsite in only 30mins, set up and went to beach/town. Went back in the evening."
Day 3 Cassis to Pietra Ligure, Italy (200miles)
From Cassis, we had bitten the bullet in terms of accepting that we were willing to pay the tolls, whatever the cost to get where we wanted with the least possible hassle and we weren't disappointed. The Autoroute from Cassis to the Italian border followed the coastal roads, so there were great views at times along the way. Absolutely loads of tunnels, and bridges. We had lots of views looking down at coastal towns and the sea from various bridges. Not great though for anyone who suffers with car sickness! We decided to stop off in Cannes, and stretch our legs here, this was very nice but also very built up. We parked in an underground car park, which offered us free parking for an hour. The sea here was the same turquoise blue of Marseille, and had some really nice beaches. We drove round the corner from here to a windier beach, parked at the side of the road and had lunch watching the wind surfers.
The most spectacular view on this leg however, we found by accident. Although we didn't need to stop, we saw a sign off the Autoroute for "Beausoleil - Le Dernier Aire en France (The last Aire in France)". From here, we parked up and walked to the edge of the car park. Knowing that we had climbed a fair way up the mountains we suspected we might get a nice view, but what we found was better than we could have imagined. A far cry from Reading services to say the least. From various view point and a lovely picnic area were panoramic view of the Cote D'Azure coastline including Monaco and Monte-Carlo. It was so nice in fact that we were tempted to stay the night in the Aire.
TRAVEL LOG (Her) "17/9/14. Up and away at 11. Stopped at Cannes. Very busy, lots of big yachts. Free parking, stretched our legs. Had lunch parked beside small beach. Next stop Beausoleil Aire, last stop before Italy, luckily found this by getting back on the toll roads rather than trying to stay on the busy coastal roads. (Him) "Overlooked Monte Carlo. Decided not to stay and push into Italy as it is only 5 O'Clock. Found a lovely site in Lagure, quiet but nice"
The campsite in Pietra Ligure was called Campeggio Dei Fiori. In the summer season it has a pool, but generally seemed like a fairly quiet place. There were permanent caravans with wooden huts or awning attached, fully kitted out with kitchen units and fridges etc, so it seem s that some people live there. The camping pitches were separated out into different sections, some a bit tricky to get into - someone might have scraped the side bars on his way in (oops). 15minute walk down to the town and sea front. Bit of a weird one. This was an overnight stopover for us, and we arrived late. It was dark by the time we got to town and nearly everything was shut, again closed for the season. We tried finding a proper beach, but there didn't seem to be one. A lot of the town was separated from the sea by a railway track. In the end, we came back to where we started and found the beach, by walking under the kind of railway tunnel that you're not sure you'll survive getting to the other side. There were no hobos or gangs, but the beach looked ok. We didn't go back the next day as we were keen to push on to Viareggio. Tip 2: Although the Garmin SatNav was awful in lots of ways, one great feature was the "near me" bit, which allowed us to see most local campsites, which is how we found this one. €23.50 per night.
Day 4 Pietra Ligure to Viareggio (137miles)
TRAVEL LOG (Him) "18/09/14. Seemed like a short journey to Viareggio. Stopped in car park and went to the beach. Viareggio was ok, would be busy in the summer, not our favourite place. Disturbed night, parked in a place which seemed to be the middle of a roundabout, crazy man tried breaking into parking meter."
There are loads of campsites around the Viareggo area,some close to the beach and others closer to the lake, some right in between. Most of the campsites are behind an area of woodland, and you have to walk through the trees to get to the beach. We decided to try wild camping again as the town was nearly dead, being so close to the end of the season. Found plenty of free and unrestricted parking along Viale Kennedy, and a car park at the beach end of this street where there were a few other campervans. In fact, there were really only campervans here. The beach was a nice place to spend the day. The corner of the car park leads to a free bit of the beach, and looking across, there were private sections which although deserted, were set up ready for the hundreds of visitors that must visit in the summer season. During the night, we started to regret our parking spot. We never quite figured out what had been happening, but dozens of single male drivers would drive round and round the car park in the middle of the night, up to 15 times. Stop, wait, move on, come back around. A gay dogging spot or a dogging spot where no women in the town were game perhaps. Also, the police/carabinieri came round at some point in the night to move on a crazy man trying to smash the parking meter. Another man was riding around on a moped, knocking on campervan doors to warn them not to open their doors, because it was dangerous, which kind of defies the point of knocking on someone's door. Tip 3: If wild camping, do not drink in the evening, so that you can move on if needed. Also, unless you're on a really really tight budget, wild camping isn't always the best or the best value option. Overnight parking may be free, but not during the day, so sometimes, it seems easier to pay €18 for camping rather that top up €8 on a parking meter, to be able to get a prime spot at night. If you don't have a porta-potty, also bear in mind the logistics of this.
Not that it bothered us much, Viareggio was not what we expected, and although part of his 10 year dream, it was far from the highlight of this trip. This isn't to say that it's not a lovely place, we just personally liked other areas much more. Though if we had visited in the summer, our opinion may well be different.
Day 5 Viareggio to Fiesole, Florence (62miles)
TRAVEL LOG (Him) "19/9/14. Drove 1.5hours to Florence, fun driving in the city (her not so much) Travelled in thunder and lightening again. Campsite nice, overlooks Florence. Nearly went to bed in the wrong cabin."
It really was a short journey to Fiesole. This was the only campsite we had pre-booked. We'd booked a cabin in fact, as we thought we might find it a luxury and a break from staying in the van. The cabin was really nice, however, we found that we missed the van and were looking forward to getting back to it. The campsite - "Camping Village Panoramico" is in Fiesole, a village overlooking Florence, well worth a visit, but worth noting that when we went, the cabins were only marginally more expensive than a camping pitch. There is a restaurant, small shop and a pool which overlooks Florence. What we did find odd was the amount of trees and hedges that obscured the views. Not a big problem, but just seemed odd. We made the mistake of not listening to the full instructions to find our cabin, so went to Hut 2 instead of Cabin 2, which incidentally were not 10 meters from each other, so an easy mistake to make. Unpacked and nearly settled in for a nap before we realised our mistake. Very glad we did, as our cabin was much nicer that the hut and the people who arrived to stay in the hut only about 30 minutes later would probably not be impressed by the Goldilocks and the three bears situation.
TRAVEL LOG (Her): 20/09/14. Went into Florence by bus, very nice church/Cathedral in the centre. Best meal so far - 3 course "Tuscany Menu" which lasted all afternoon. This made us very sleepy which made it hard to get the shopping in before getting back to Fiesole. Spent the afternoon by the pool overlooking the panoramic view which had cleared up a little bit. Feels like Florence is done for us already."
This campsite seemed to be really popular with cyclists as it was such a windy road down to Florence. The city was small and easy to get around, very traditional Tuscany. There were loads of historic buildings, bridges and the river. As well as plenty of places to eat and also supermarkets. There was also an exhibition of all ambulances going back several decades. This was the busiest place we'd been so far, which usually would seem like a pain, was actually quite reassuring, after the ghost towns we'd been through it was not hard to imagine that there had been some kind of apocalypse while we were crossing the channel up until now.
It's impossible to express how much Italians love their statues of naked dudes, in all sorts of homo-erotic poses, under the guise of "warfare". We always get a cheeky snap or two of these.
We stayed here for two nights. €60 per night (Chalet).
Day 7 Florence to Venice (162miles)
Getting out of Florence was slightly easier than getting in, mainly because we knew not to trust the SatNav and we knew that as soon as we got to the biggest and busiest junction, it would have a meltdown, so we were prepared and had been keeping an eye out for road signs out of the city and towards where we wanted to go.
We picked the next campsite from the SatNav, but they were also well signposted from the road. "Camping Rialto" was a really nice EuroCamping style site with camping pitches, canvas tents, shed like huts and chalets. It was really nice and friendly, easy to book in, and great facilities. There were a fair few backpackers here also. It was located really well, close to Vencice itself (you could very well cycle), it had a Lidl opposite and on a major bus route. We were blown away by Venice when we arrived there, which took 15minutes on the bus. We arrived there at about 4pm, but things were still going on. We walked around a bit but didn't see all of it, as we knew we would come back the following day. We had a bottle of wine, watching the world go by and went back to camp to cook. After thinking that Venice couldn't get any more amazing, the next day, we stumbled across a little area called San Marco's/St Mark's Square, which is one of the main attractions of Venice.
Venice was surprisingly affordable, and probably better value than anywhere else we had been. The food was about €12 for a set menu in many places, and there were some really nice souvenir shops. A storm came in while we were there, with dark clouds, followed by fork lightening over the beautiful skyline. This was shortly followed by torrential rain and hailstone. Unfortunately we had spent a few minutes too long watching the storm, and rushed to find shelter. We took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end leading to the canal. We took cover in a narrow doorway, which soon got blocked on the other side by a storm drain outlet, and the doorway did not quite protect us from the occasion stray hailstone which were the size of large marbles. It was fairly short lived however, so we managed to get to a restaurant when it cleared. We were planning to eat outside but had to come back in as the storm returned with a second wind. Started to worry when we remembered that we had left the awning up back at camp. The restaurant here was very friendly even though they had to spend most of the evening holding down their own awning against the wind. Battled back through the rain, relieved to the find the awning and van in one piece although the campsite had flooded. Hopefully the people in tents were ok. €25.50 per night
TRAVEL LOG (Her) "21/09/14. Packed up and left Fiesole just after 11. Made a stop for lunch and arrived at the Venice campsite (Camping Rialto) around 2pm. Got very excited about Lidl being opposite. Keen to see Venice so got the first bus in. Very easy to get there - Venice was amazing, better even than Rome. Stayed there until 7pm then came back for food. Campsite is nice and friendly and helpful."
Tip 4: We went with romantic ideas that it would be easy to find authentic small places to find food. However, we soon realised that Western Europe is not much different in economy than the UK, so what seems like a small cheap grocers is actually equivalent to an overpriced deli in the UK. Lidl however, is a great place to stock up on everything! Again your mostly annoying Garmin SatNav will point these out for you.
Tip 5: Public transport is great in europe. It was much easier to park up the van at camp and get the bus or train in. That way it cheaper and less hassle than parking, and also means you can stay out without worrying and drink if you want.
Tip 6: There are pros and cons to both Maps and SatNavs. If you are going to take a map, make sure the scale is detailed enough. Ours was a general European map, which gave us useful rough directions, but would be no use for smaller roads and towns. The SatNav was bearable, but if you relied on it 100%, and lacked road confidence, it could get you into trouble. We found a bit of both was useful.
TRAVEL LOG (Her): 22/09/14. Got up earlyish at Camping Rialto and had breakfast in the sun. Planned the rest of our trip. Went back to Venice in the late afternoon - it was absolutely mind blowing. We walked around and saw as much as we could. San Marco's square was unbelievable. Watched the cruise liners coming through. If we came again we'd stop to see the orchestras. Shopping was great, loads of supermarkets and trinket shops, as well as all the fancy shops, Rolex, Gucci etc."
Day 9 Venice to Lido Di Jesolo (23miles)
TRAVEL LOG (Her): 23/09/2014 - Rain nearly all dried up already. Dried everything off, headed to Lidl. Really good value here so stocked up including lots of alcohol. Heading to Lido di Jesolo beach today" (Him) Loved this place, it was a self contained complex with security, right on the beach with a gym, only €20!"
We arrived at Ca'Pasquali Village Campsite in no time from leaving Venice. It was a really nice drive, absolutely loads of campsites on the way, as well as some nice shops and a water park, really pretty area. Pulled into the car park while we checked in, and noticed that it would be a good wild camping spot. The car park was sandy and right on the beach. The sign describes in detail when and how a parked motor home is considered to be unauthorised camping - quoting: "The vehicle do not touch the ground, only with the wheels. Waste Discharges are not let out. The area of the ground it occupies is greater than the vehicle itself (pay careful attention to the stairs and windows, open doors or other attachments)." So essentially, it's absolutely fine to camp overnight as long as you don't leave anything open or out. The sign quotes section 185 of the highway code, but I know that there is some debate about whether this is the case everywhere or not.
Either way, we were keen to camp somewhere with a pool and shower so booked into the site. It was a massive place, with a huge modern reception, various pitches, euro tents and static caravans, pools, great toilet/shower facilities, a gym, shop and bar/restaurant. It also had access directly onto the beach with volley ball nets, life guards and they also seemed to have activities going on for the youths. We couldn't quite work out why they weren't in school, but there were several coach loads of German teenagers, maybe on a school trip. Like a lot of the site, it was very woody and at this time of the year, very tranquil. We were tempted to stay there longer but wanted to head across to the lakes. We found that the difficulty with doing this trip for the first time was that you sometimes have to make the decision to leave somewhere really nice, without knowing whether the next place will be any good. We were now essentially on our journey home, so we were limited in which direction we could head if we didn't like the lakes.€19 per night
Day 10 Lido Di Jesolo to Lago di Garda (141m)
TRAVEL LOG (Him): 24/09/2014 - Left Lido at 11 o'clocking, heading to the lakes, goodbye to the coast. (Her) Arrived at Lake Garda (Camping Village La Gardiola). Not much there, but right on the lake. Stony beach but very clear water, weird toilet/shower underground. Stayed here only one night as not much going on"
We got a glimpse of Lake Garda as we arrived, and it did look amazing. Made our way to the campsite, noted that there were plenty of shops on the way. Stopped at a EuroSpar, not impressed, not a touch on Lidl. It was a again a really nice drive there, driving along the lake most of the way. Very narrow road the site, would be worried if I had a caravan, but other people seemed to get in no problem. Friendly, but very small campsite, right on the lake front, the closest of the trip. There were about 16 camping pitches, all quite close together, behind these and slightly further up were some statics, and to the other side was the reception and "bar/restaurant". The toilet/shower block was a bit odd, it looked like a trolley shelter with steps going underground to a unisex block where not much worked and it was a bit "underground" and damp. It was stil a nice site though over all, but I don't think we could ever have stayed there for more than a couple of nights purely because it was such a quiet area. The lake was really clear and warm enough to swim and the views were amazing. €18 per night
Day 11 Lago di Garda to Lago di Maggiore (136miles)
This journey was a simple, straight forward one, quite short considering the whole trip. This was the first time we had encountered a problem with travelling at the end of the holiday season -we were really excited to be going to a campsite we'd seen online while we were at Rialto Camping: Camping Village Isolino. It was quite a long windy road down to the site, it looked great from the outside, very similar to Ca'Pasquale, and right on the lake. However, when we got to reception, we were told that they had closed for the season (except for long term/resident caravans). It was a real shame because it was so close to the lake and they had a pool, but we just tapped in nearest campsites into the SatNav and went on our way. There had been plenty of signposts to campsites on the way, so we weren't too worried.
The next campsite along was Camping Orchidea. We couldn't tell much from the outside but once we got in, it seemed like a really nice place. We had already decided that we should stay for a couple of nights as we had done a couple of one night stop overs and needed to catch up and relax. The site was on the lake, and we picked a spot one row back from the beach. The facilities were good and there was plenty of lakeside spots to choose from, from sandy to grassy areas. It was a really nice village around here, less than a minute walk from the site, with a small supermarket, bars and restaurants. The campsite also has an on site bar and pizzeria.
Day 13 Lago di Maggiore to Lac Leman/Lake Geneva, Via Switzerland (153miles)
We'd been looking forward to this journey, as it would involve crossing the Italian/Swiss alps and the Simplon Pass. It was a pretty simple journey just a bit slower as of course, being a mountain road, involved lots of climbs and declines. We had decided not to buy the Swiss motorway pass, not because it was too expensive but because you can only buy a yearly pass, and for some reason, in our heads, we had seen this as a waste, if we only used it for 30 minutes. It was easy to get to lake Geneva avoiding the motorway, all well signposted, and as long as you follow the blue road signs, rather than the green, you'll be ok. Unlike a lot of France, the a roads ran alongside the motorway, and were pretty quick to get through.
Driving through the Alps in the summer was beautiful, so green and traditionally Swiss, with the huge log cabins and and cows with bells.
We were a bit worried about getting past the Swiss border as we knew we were over our allowed limit of Alcohol, after having stocked up in Venice. However, they seemed satisfied with our vague shrug when they asked us how much alcohol we had. We were also aware of the different currently, we didn't stop, but at the very least, you could buy fuel in euros. We weren't in Switzerland for all that long before we slipped back into France, and saw its piece of the lake, which was equally beautiful. Evian particularly seemed like a really nice place to stay, although we only passed through.
TRAVEL LOG (Her): "29/09/14 - Did arrive at Lake Geneva/Leman on the 27th. First site we planned to stay at "St Distille" didn't look very appealing and quite far from the lake. He had a tantrum and refused to consider staying there. Went further down in the village to "Les Huttins". Much smaller family campsite with friendly very french owner. Little walk down to the lake. Very nice park with lawn leading down to pebbly beach. Super clear water! Unfortunately campsite closed for season the next day, so we couldn't stay longer. Evian was nice to drive through."
Day 14 Lake Geneve to Lac D'Orient, Troyes (290miles)
TRAVEL LOG (Her): 29/09/14 - Leaving was a nightmare - got stuck in Geneva because of sh*tty SatNav. Tried avoiding Swiss part of motorway as we didn't have pass. SatNav had bigger tantrum than Him at Campsite St Distille. Tried to pull over ended up in an underground car park barely big enough for the van. Luckily managed to get out without the palava of having to get Swiss Francs. There was a nice water feature. This was the highlight of Geneva. After we escaped, we headed through the alps, which was a nice drive - some mental drivers! Arrived at Campsite planned. It had shut a few days earleir than scheduled for the season. Assholes. This was a bit of a ball ache, especially after the Geneva experience. Drove round the lake to Camping L'Epine Aux Moines, which is open all year round. Went to go for a swim but changed our minds. Maybe we were spoilt by the big alpine lakes, or maybe we were scared of the disease mud. The waters edge was green and not the nice turquoise-y green, the algae one. I guess it might be nicer in the spring when there is more water. Nice campsite though - freshly baked bread to order also. Would still recommend it as a mid France stopover. In hindsight, we would have stayed the extra two nights in Venice or the lakes. Considered Disneyland, but don't want to rush the last few days so heading to Versailles, and will consider visiting Paris tomorrow to finish the trip off.
Day 15 Lac D'Orient to Versailles (133miles)
We had not planned at all to stay in or near Paris, or even visit during our trip. Even though it might seem like a natural stopping point before the ports, we had a picture in our heads that Paris was a big dirty city with a big metal tower in it. We only went there because we had been disappointed with the last lake and thought we'd give it a bash, and get some standard Eiffel Tower holiday photos. We were really glad that we did and it really finished off our trip nicely. Paris was great, much more than we expected. The buildings were beautiful with loads of history and the Eiffel Tower was more than just a photo op.
Huttopia was super relaxing (apart from the conkers, which is an unavoidable hazard of camping in the woods in autumn). It was so easy to get everywhere by train - you can buy tickets at the campsite and use it very similarly to the underground system in London.
We went to Paris early and spent the whole day there, the tower was actually the only money we spent on a tourist attraction, and it was well worth it. Although for someone who doesn't like heights it is a bit of a challenge. Great views from up there though. You could walk around Paris for days and probably still not see everything. The meal we had was great, pickled herrings, and escargots to start, then steak and Beuof Bourgingon, followed by an apple tart and Panacotta.
We decided to make the most of the day and continued right to the end of the railway line to Versailles (15mins on train) to the Palace of Versaille. It was 4pm when we got there so we had a quick look from the outside, very nice. our campsite was the next stop up. We cooked some food at the van and went back out to Paris once it got dark. Our train ticket was a daily pass so we wanted to make the most of it, and see the city at night. The Eiffel Tower is light up amazingly at night, so was well worth the trip back.
We would go back to Paris, and it actually, for us, comes higher than Florence on our list of favourite cities.
TRAVEL LOG (Her): "30/09/14 - Got up early-ish this morning and were on the train at 10 into Paris. Porchefontaine. We weren't quite sure where to get off but luckily, "Champ de Mars" was signposted as stop for Eiffel Tower. The top floor was closed, technical issues we think, so went to the second level. Amazing views but makes your legs wobble. Impossible to get a sense of the height from the bottom because of its shape and lack of reference point. Got back on the train to Notre Dame. Walked around the block and had some lunch. Very reasonable, 3 course meal from €12 only. Walked along the river to the Louvre. We were going to go to Sacre Couer but getting quite hot and tired and couldn't find a toilet anywhere. Decided to head back and go to the Palace of Versaille to end the day. Was late when we got there, so we didn't go in. Was very big and shiney on the outside but annoyingly asymmetrical. May well be worth a look inside if there on a day trip. Short train journey back to camping, followed by 15minute walk to camp. Forgot to mention the campsite - Huttopia. Very good stop. In the woods but very close to everything, and in Versaille. Quiet, friendly and clean. Great facilities, like hotel shower block and wood-burner effect boiler in corner. Would recommend this place for anyone not camping also, great little tents, cabins and Gypsy Caravans."
(Post Holiday Holiday)
Day 18 Portsmouth to Devon
As we arrived late, we stopped overnight again in Portsmouth, at our friend Stu's. It was a bit of a change from Italy, but driving slowly through France had helped us acclimatise. Some personal circumstances meant that we had to change our return plans, so we left here early the next day and went home for a catch up before finishing the holiday at Oktoberfest.
Day 19 Devon to Oktoberfest VW Show (River Dart Country Park)
The final stop on this holiday was the River Dart Country Park for Oktoberfest (a VW show). Pictured is Vee Dub La Vita, our club, unfortunately, only one of us could make it to this end of the holiday.
The End
Before the trip:
The vision for this trip started 10 years ago and built up over time. The plan was to travel somehow to Italy, buy and eat on the road. Viareggio was the final destination, because a friend (we'll call him the "Italian Stallion"), romanticised it to such a large extent. The trip came to fruition this year and the first step came in the form of booking a ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Le Havre. We had planned initially, continuing with the romantic theme, to do the trip in an old T25 crew cab pickup called the "The JaegerBus". After spending a few shows in the cramped sleeping area, a fair few miles with the whistling roof rack and the heat of the black tin top, the appeal of the sun set photo opportunities faded. The T25 went and was replaced by a 2003 T4. We spend the few weeks before the trip adding our own touches, cooking facilities and storage. From there, we booked a Chalet in Florence for two nights, and decided to pick our first stop on Google Street View Rue Desiree Pallaprat - Google Street View.After that, we decided to see what we found when we got there.Day 0: Portsmouth to Le Havre
TRAVEL LOG (Him): " 14/09/14. Left Stu's after relaxing 24hrs. Hit ferry port at 8, straight through no hassle. Straight into cabin which was nice. Good crossing, up at 6 to see us come into Le Havre. First off the ferry! SatNav crap, just got out of the city."
Day 1: Le Havre to Marseille (650miles)
"15/09/14. 3 legs, last leg thunderstorms all the way for the last 1hr.Got to Marseille and ended up in city. Came out the other side to cliff road. Stopped in nice spot watched thunderstorms. Very tired but worth it, got off to sleep even though it was a ghetto"."
It was not a ghetto, but it was a really really long journey down. We made the mistake of thinking it would be a good idea to avoid the toll roads. This really wasn't worth the extra time and hassle of passing through towns, especially with aforementioned crappy SatNav. Tip 1: Use the toll road if you want to get somewhere quickly! We were exhausted by the time we reached Marseille and the city was busy even late at night, the area near where we stopped for the night looked a bit rough, but we did find the spot we had picked out on Google Street view. We chose a different spot in the end, near a tiny harbour and seafood restaurant. This was our first experience of wild camping abroad, and being so wired after such a long journey, it was an interesting experience. The were a few people in the layby, not camping. We were a bit worried at first as we didn't know anything about the area, but turns out, it was just locals watching the storms too, young couples snogging in cars and police waiting for a call. It really was worth the journey in the end to wake up by the sea, with such as amazing view. We wouldn't recommend it though, and wouldn't do it again, but for this first trip, we didn't want to waste a night stopping in central France.Day 2 Marseille to Cassis (15miles)
This was probably the shortest and nicest journeys of the holiday. After such a monster trip the previous day, we went just a few miles along the coast and up the mountain to Cassis, a town just outside of Marseille. The road to Cassis was beautiful, a winding mountain road with views back over the Marseille coastline, and dense woodland. We camped at "Camping Les Cigales". This was a really pleasant campsite, but a bit of a trek for the beach, about 15minutes walking. The town of Cassis was really nice, with a harbour, a beach and lots of shops. Each of the pitches at Camping Les Cigales, was nicely separated by low hedges, and there were some nice pitches for tents too, which were almost completely enclosed. There was an onsite bar and small shop. €23 per night.Cassis was worth a visit at night time. There is a castle/fort on the top of the hill by the beach. At night this is uplit, and the town itself was nice and quiet when we visited. In fact, we noticed about a lot of France that it was very quiet mid week, this late in the season. Some towns seemed deserted and many of the shops and restaurants shut down from September onwards. This isn't always great, but in terms of getting a spot on the beach, booking into campsites on the gate and finding parking spaces in towns, it was ideal. The weather was still great (for Brits anyway) so for us, September seemed like a great time to go.
TRAVEL LOG (Him): "Woke up on the coast, amazing. Made coffee and set off for Cigales campsite. Went up some amazing mountainside roads with great shops of town. Arrived at campsite in only 30mins, set up and went to beach/town. Went back in the evening."
Day 3 Cassis to Pietra Ligure, Italy (200miles)
From Cassis, we had bitten the bullet in terms of accepting that we were willing to pay the tolls, whatever the cost to get where we wanted with the least possible hassle and we weren't disappointed. The Autoroute from Cassis to the Italian border followed the coastal roads, so there were great views at times along the way. Absolutely loads of tunnels, and bridges. We had lots of views looking down at coastal towns and the sea from various bridges. Not great though for anyone who suffers with car sickness! We decided to stop off in Cannes, and stretch our legs here, this was very nice but also very built up. We parked in an underground car park, which offered us free parking for an hour. The sea here was the same turquoise blue of Marseille, and had some really nice beaches. We drove round the corner from here to a windier beach, parked at the side of the road and had lunch watching the wind surfers.
The most spectacular view on this leg however, we found by accident. Although we didn't need to stop, we saw a sign off the Autoroute for "Beausoleil - Le Dernier Aire en France (The last Aire in France)". From here, we parked up and walked to the edge of the car park. Knowing that we had climbed a fair way up the mountains we suspected we might get a nice view, but what we found was better than we could have imagined. A far cry from Reading services to say the least. From various view point and a lovely picnic area were panoramic view of the Cote D'Azure coastline including Monaco and Monte-Carlo. It was so nice in fact that we were tempted to stay the night in the Aire.TRAVEL LOG (Her) "17/9/14. Up and away at 11. Stopped at Cannes. Very busy, lots of big yachts. Free parking, stretched our legs. Had lunch parked beside small beach. Next stop Beausoleil Aire, last stop before Italy, luckily found this by getting back on the toll roads rather than trying to stay on the busy coastal roads. (Him) "Overlooked Monte Carlo. Decided not to stay and push into Italy as it is only 5 O'Clock. Found a lovely site in Lagure, quiet but nice"
The campsite in Pietra Ligure was called Campeggio Dei Fiori. In the summer season it has a pool, but generally seemed like a fairly quiet place. There were permanent caravans with wooden huts or awning attached, fully kitted out with kitchen units and fridges etc, so it seem s that some people live there. The camping pitches were separated out into different sections, some a bit tricky to get into - someone might have scraped the side bars on his way in (oops). 15minute walk down to the town and sea front. Bit of a weird one. This was an overnight stopover for us, and we arrived late. It was dark by the time we got to town and nearly everything was shut, again closed for the season. We tried finding a proper beach, but there didn't seem to be one. A lot of the town was separated from the sea by a railway track. In the end, we came back to where we started and found the beach, by walking under the kind of railway tunnel that you're not sure you'll survive getting to the other side. There were no hobos or gangs, but the beach looked ok. We didn't go back the next day as we were keen to push on to Viareggio. Tip 2: Although the Garmin SatNav was awful in lots of ways, one great feature was the "near me" bit, which allowed us to see most local campsites, which is how we found this one. €23.50 per night.Day 4 Pietra Ligure to Viareggio (137miles)
TRAVEL LOG (Him) "18/09/14. Seemed like a short journey to Viareggio. Stopped in car park and went to the beach. Viareggio was ok, would be busy in the summer, not our favourite place. Disturbed night, parked in a place which seemed to be the middle of a roundabout, crazy man tried breaking into parking meter."
There are loads of campsites around the Viareggo area,some close to the beach and others closer to the lake, some right in between. Most of the campsites are behind an area of woodland, and you have to walk through the trees to get to the beach. We decided to try wild camping again as the town was nearly dead, being so close to the end of the season. Found plenty of free and unrestricted parking along Viale Kennedy, and a car park at the beach end of this street where there were a few other campervans. In fact, there were really only campervans here. The beach was a nice place to spend the day. The corner of the car park leads to a free bit of the beach, and looking across, there were private sections which although deserted, were set up ready for the hundreds of visitors that must visit in the summer season. During the night, we started to regret our parking spot. We never quite figured out what had been happening, but dozens of single male drivers would drive round and round the car park in the middle of the night, up to 15 times. Stop, wait, move on, come back around. A gay dogging spot or a dogging spot where no women in the town were game perhaps. Also, the police/carabinieri came round at some point in the night to move on a crazy man trying to smash the parking meter. Another man was riding around on a moped, knocking on campervan doors to warn them not to open their doors, because it was dangerous, which kind of defies the point of knocking on someone's door. Tip 3: If wild camping, do not drink in the evening, so that you can move on if needed. Also, unless you're on a really really tight budget, wild camping isn't always the best or the best value option. Overnight parking may be free, but not during the day, so sometimes, it seems easier to pay €18 for camping rather that top up €8 on a parking meter, to be able to get a prime spot at night. If you don't have a porta-potty, also bear in mind the logistics of this. Not that it bothered us much, Viareggio was not what we expected, and although part of his 10 year dream, it was far from the highlight of this trip. This isn't to say that it's not a lovely place, we just personally liked other areas much more. Though if we had visited in the summer, our opinion may well be different.
Day 5 Viareggio to Fiesole, Florence (62miles)
TRAVEL LOG (Him) "19/9/14. Drove 1.5hours to Florence, fun driving in the city (her not so much) Travelled in thunder and lightening again. Campsite nice, overlooks Florence. Nearly went to bed in the wrong cabin." It really was a short journey to Fiesole. This was the only campsite we had pre-booked. We'd booked a cabin in fact, as we thought we might find it a luxury and a break from staying in the van. The cabin was really nice, however, we found that we missed the van and were looking forward to getting back to it. The campsite - "Camping Village Panoramico" is in Fiesole, a village overlooking Florence, well worth a visit, but worth noting that when we went, the cabins were only marginally more expensive than a camping pitch. There is a restaurant, small shop and a pool which overlooks Florence. What we did find odd was the amount of trees and hedges that obscured the views. Not a big problem, but just seemed odd. We made the mistake of not listening to the full instructions to find our cabin, so went to Hut 2 instead of Cabin 2, which incidentally were not 10 meters from each other, so an easy mistake to make. Unpacked and nearly settled in for a nap before we realised our mistake. Very glad we did, as our cabin was much nicer that the hut and the people who arrived to stay in the hut only about 30 minutes later would probably not be impressed by the Goldilocks and the three bears situation.
TRAVEL LOG (Her): 20/09/14. Went into Florence by bus, very nice church/Cathedral in the centre. Best meal so far - 3 course "Tuscany Menu" which lasted all afternoon. This made us very sleepy which made it hard to get the shopping in before getting back to Fiesole. Spent the afternoon by the pool overlooking the panoramic view which had cleared up a little bit. Feels like Florence is done for us already."
This campsite seemed to be really popular with cyclists as it was such a windy road down to Florence. The city was small and easy to get around, very traditional Tuscany. There were loads of historic buildings, bridges and the river. As well as plenty of places to eat and also supermarkets. There was also an exhibition of all ambulances going back several decades. This was the busiest place we'd been so far, which usually would seem like a pain, was actually quite reassuring, after the ghost towns we'd been through it was not hard to imagine that there had been some kind of apocalypse while we were crossing the channel up until now.
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| "Not again, Maximus" |
It's impossible to express how much Italians love their statues of naked dudes, in all sorts of homo-erotic poses, under the guise of "warfare". We always get a cheeky snap or two of these.
We stayed here for two nights. €60 per night (Chalet).
Day 7 Florence to Venice (162miles)
Getting out of Florence was slightly easier than getting in, mainly because we knew not to trust the SatNav and we knew that as soon as we got to the biggest and busiest junction, it would have a meltdown, so we were prepared and had been keeping an eye out for road signs out of the city and towards where we wanted to go.We picked the next campsite from the SatNav, but they were also well signposted from the road. "Camping Rialto" was a really nice EuroCamping style site with camping pitches, canvas tents, shed like huts and chalets. It was really nice and friendly, easy to book in, and great facilities. There were a fair few backpackers here also. It was located really well, close to Vencice itself (you could very well cycle), it had a Lidl opposite and on a major bus route. We were blown away by Venice when we arrived there, which took 15minutes on the bus. We arrived there at about 4pm, but things were still going on. We walked around a bit but didn't see all of it, as we knew we would come back the following day. We had a bottle of wine, watching the world go by and went back to camp to cook. After thinking that Venice couldn't get any more amazing, the next day, we stumbled across a little area called San Marco's/St Mark's Square, which is one of the main attractions of Venice.Venice was surprisingly affordable, and probably better value than anywhere else we had been. The food was about €12 for a set menu in many places, and there were some really nice souvenir shops. A storm came in while we were there, with dark clouds, followed by fork lightening over the beautiful skyline. This was shortly followed by torrential rain and hailstone. Unfortunately we had spent a few minutes too long watching the storm, and rushed to find shelter. We took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end leading to the canal. We took cover in a narrow doorway, which soon got blocked on the other side by a storm drain outlet, and the doorway did not quite protect us from the occasion stray hailstone which were the size of large marbles. It was fairly short lived however, so we managed to get to a restaurant when it cleared. We were planning to eat outside but had to come back in as the storm returned with a second wind. Started to worry when we remembered that we had left the awning up back at camp. The restaurant here was very friendly even though they had to spend most of the evening holding down their own awning against the wind. Battled back through the rain, relieved to the find the awning and van in one piece although the campsite had flooded. Hopefully the people in tents were ok. €25.50 per nightTRAVEL LOG (Her) "21/09/14. Packed up and left Fiesole just after 11. Made a stop for lunch and arrived at the Venice campsite (Camping Rialto) around 2pm. Got very excited about Lidl being opposite. Keen to see Venice so got the first bus in. Very easy to get there - Venice was amazing, better even than Rome. Stayed there until 7pm then came back for food. Campsite is nice and friendly and helpful."
Tip 4: We went with romantic ideas that it would be easy to find authentic small places to find food. However, we soon realised that Western Europe is not much different in economy than the UK, so what seems like a small cheap grocers is actually equivalent to an overpriced deli in the UK. Lidl however, is a great place to stock up on everything! Again your mostly annoying Garmin SatNav will point these out for you.
Tip 5: Public transport is great in europe. It was much easier to park up the van at camp and get the bus or train in. That way it cheaper and less hassle than parking, and also means you can stay out without worrying and drink if you want.
Tip 6: There are pros and cons to both Maps and SatNavs. If you are going to take a map, make sure the scale is detailed enough. Ours was a general European map, which gave us useful rough directions, but would be no use for smaller roads and towns. The SatNav was bearable, but if you relied on it 100%, and lacked road confidence, it could get you into trouble. We found a bit of both was useful.
TRAVEL LOG (Her): 22/09/14. Got up earlyish at Camping Rialto and had breakfast in the sun. Planned the rest of our trip. Went back to Venice in the late afternoon - it was absolutely mind blowing. We walked around and saw as much as we could. San Marco's square was unbelievable. Watched the cruise liners coming through. If we came again we'd stop to see the orchestras. Shopping was great, loads of supermarkets and trinket shops, as well as all the fancy shops, Rolex, Gucci etc."Day 9 Venice to Lido Di Jesolo (23miles)
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| Free car park - Wild camping potential! |
We arrived at Ca'Pasquali Village Campsite in no time from leaving Venice. It was a really nice drive, absolutely loads of campsites on the way, as well as some nice shops and a water park, really pretty area. Pulled into the car park while we checked in, and noticed that it would be a good wild camping spot. The car park was sandy and right on the beach. The sign describes in detail when and how a parked motor home is considered to be unauthorised camping - quoting: "The vehicle do not touch the ground, only with the wheels. Waste Discharges are not let out. The area of the ground it occupies is greater than the vehicle itself (pay careful attention to the stairs and windows, open doors or other attachments)." So essentially, it's absolutely fine to camp overnight as long as you don't leave anything open or out. The sign quotes section 185 of the highway code, but I know that there is some debate about whether this is the case everywhere or not. |
| Camping pitch - Ca'Pasquale |
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| Beach front bar/restaurant |
TRAVEL LOG (Him): 24/09/2014 - Left Lido at 11 o'clocking, heading to the lakes, goodbye to the coast. (Her) Arrived at Lake Garda (Camping Village La Gardiola). Not much there, but right on the lake. Stony beach but very clear water, weird toilet/shower underground. Stayed here only one night as not much going on"We got a glimpse of Lake Garda as we arrived, and it did look amazing. Made our way to the campsite, noted that there were plenty of shops on the way. Stopped at a EuroSpar, not impressed, not a touch on Lidl. It was a again a really nice drive there, driving along the lake most of the way. Very narrow road the site, would be worried if I had a caravan, but other people seemed to get in no problem. Friendly, but very small campsite, right on the lake front, the closest of the trip. There were about 16 camping pitches, all quite close together, behind these and slightly further up were some statics, and to the other side was the reception and "bar/restaurant". The toilet/shower block was a bit odd, it looked like a trolley shelter with steps going underground to a unisex block where not much worked and it was a bit "underground" and damp. It was stil a nice site though over all, but I don't think we could ever have stayed there for more than a couple of nights purely because it was such a quiet area. The lake was really clear and warm enough to swim and the views were amazing. €18 per nightDay 11 Lago di Garda to Lago di Maggiore (136miles)
This journey was a simple, straight forward one, quite short considering the whole trip. This was the first time we had encountered a problem with travelling at the end of the holiday season -we were really excited to be going to a campsite we'd seen online while we were at Rialto Camping: Camping Village Isolino. It was quite a long windy road down to the site, it looked great from the outside, very similar to Ca'Pasquale, and right on the lake. However, when we got to reception, we were told that they had closed for the season (except for long term/resident caravans). It was a real shame because it was so close to the lake and they had a pool, but we just tapped in nearest campsites into the SatNav and went on our way. There had been plenty of signposts to campsites on the way, so we weren't too worried.The next campsite along was Camping Orchidea. We couldn't tell much from the outside but once we got in, it seemed like a really nice place. We had already decided that we should stay for a couple of nights as we had done a couple of one night stop overs and needed to catch up and relax. The site was on the lake, and we picked a spot one row back from the beach. The facilities were good and there was plenty of lakeside spots to choose from, from sandy to grassy areas. It was a really nice village around here, less than a minute walk from the site, with a small supermarket, bars and restaurants. The campsite also has an on site bar and pizzeria.
Day 13 Lago di Maggiore to Lac Leman/Lake Geneva, Via Switzerland (153miles)
We'd been looking forward to this journey, as it would involve crossing the Italian/Swiss alps and the Simplon Pass. It was a pretty simple journey just a bit slower as of course, being a mountain road, involved lots of climbs and declines. We had decided not to buy the Swiss motorway pass, not because it was too expensive but because you can only buy a yearly pass, and for some reason, in our heads, we had seen this as a waste, if we only used it for 30 minutes. It was easy to get to lake Geneva avoiding the motorway, all well signposted, and as long as you follow the blue road signs, rather than the green, you'll be ok. Unlike a lot of France, the a roads ran alongside the motorway, and were pretty quick to get through.Driving through the Alps in the summer was beautiful, so green and traditionally Swiss, with the huge log cabins and and cows with bells.
We were a bit worried about getting past the Swiss border as we knew we were over our allowed limit of Alcohol, after having stocked up in Venice. However, they seemed satisfied with our vague shrug when they asked us how much alcohol we had. We were also aware of the different currently, we didn't stop, but at the very least, you could buy fuel in euros. We weren't in Switzerland for all that long before we slipped back into France, and saw its piece of the lake, which was equally beautiful. Evian particularly seemed like a really nice place to stay, although we only passed through.
TRAVEL LOG (Her): "29/09/14 - Did arrive at Lake Geneva/Leman on the 27th. First site we planned to stay at "St Distille" didn't look very appealing and quite far from the lake. He had a tantrum and refused to consider staying there. Went further down in the village to "Les Huttins". Much smaller family campsite with friendly very french owner. Little walk down to the lake. Very nice park with lawn leading down to pebbly beach. Super clear water! Unfortunately campsite closed for season the next day, so we couldn't stay longer. Evian was nice to drive through."
Day 14 Lake Geneve to Lac D'Orient, Troyes (290miles)
Day 15 Lac D'Orient to Versailles (133miles)
We had not planned at all to stay in or near Paris, or even visit during our trip. Even though it might seem like a natural stopping point before the ports, we had a picture in our heads that Paris was a big dirty city with a big metal tower in it. We only went there because we had been disappointed with the last lake and thought we'd give it a bash, and get some standard Eiffel Tower holiday photos. We were really glad that we did and it really finished off our trip nicely. Paris was great, much more than we expected. The buildings were beautiful with loads of history and the Eiffel Tower was more than just a photo op.Huttopia was super relaxing (apart from the conkers, which is an unavoidable hazard of camping in the woods in autumn). It was so easy to get everywhere by train - you can buy tickets at the campsite and use it very similarly to the underground system in London.
We went to Paris early and spent the whole day there, the tower was actually the only money we spent on a tourist attraction, and it was well worth it. Although for someone who doesn't like heights it is a bit of a challenge. Great views from up there though. You could walk around Paris for days and probably still not see everything. The meal we had was great, pickled herrings, and escargots to start, then steak and Beuof Bourgingon, followed by an apple tart and Panacotta.
We would go back to Paris, and it actually, for us, comes higher than Florence on our list of favourite cities.
TRAVEL LOG (Her): "30/09/14 - Got up early-ish this morning and were on the train at 10 into Paris. Porchefontaine. We weren't quite sure where to get off but luckily, "Champ de Mars" was signposted as stop for Eiffel Tower. The top floor was closed, technical issues we think, so went to the second level. Amazing views but makes your legs wobble. Impossible to get a sense of the height from the bottom because of its shape and lack of reference point. Got back on the train to Notre Dame. Walked around the block and had some lunch. Very reasonable, 3 course meal from €12 only. Walked along the river to the Louvre. We were going to go to Sacre Couer but getting quite hot and tired and couldn't find a toilet anywhere. Decided to head back and go to the Palace of Versaille to end the day. Was late when we got there, so we didn't go in. Was very big and shiney on the outside but annoyingly asymmetrical. May well be worth a look inside if there on a day trip. Short train journey back to camping, followed by 15minute walk to camp. Forgot to mention the campsite - Huttopia. Very good stop. In the woods but very close to everything, and in Versaille. Quiet, friendly and clean. Great facilities, like hotel shower block and wood-burner effect boiler in corner. Would recommend this place for anyone not camping also, great little tents, cabins and Gypsy Caravans."
Day 17 Versailles to Le Havre, Le Havre to Portsmouth (118miles)
(Post Holiday Holiday)
Day 18 Portsmouth to Devon
Day 19 Devon to Oktoberfest VW Show (River Dart Country Park)
The End
