A drive in warmer weather

Today we did not hear French voices above our heads at 4 am.  And we managed to get up early due to an uninterrupted sleep.  Bliss.  Walter left the radio on, but turned the sound down.   He then took the front of the radio off for extra security.  Our ghostly radio switcher on, was silenced, for good.  

Walter reversed the car directly to the right spot in front of the caravan, and hitched the caravan onto the tow bar straight away.  Two days in a row!  We were feeling very pleased with ourselves.  Of course it always happens when there is no one looking, unlike in the Netherlands when a Danish man came over and watched us struggle to hitch up.  The man never said a word, just watched.  Caravanners are sometimes very strange people.

As we travelled south we watched the temperature rise, from 10 degrees to a dizzy 19 degrees.  We left the airconditioner off in order to feel the warmth of the sun.

Before I continue with todays blog I must give a bit of information about Route Napoleon.  The route, with its picturesque scenery and its twisting, winding mountain road, runs though valleys, a plateau,  woodland, pastures and villages.   It is 325 kms long and runs from Golf-Juan, close to Cannes, and goes to Grenoble.  We drove only on part of the road, from Grenoble to Gap.

It is the route taken by Napoleon in 1815 after he escaped from his exile on the island of Elba.   He had to avoid Provence as he was not popular there. During Napoleon's march to Grenoble, many people joined him, and in Grenoble many army regiments also joined him.  And to cut a long story short he lost the Battle of Waterloo and was exiled to the island of St Helena and died there.

I am sure everyone will want to know about the following piece of information which Walter found on Wikipedia.  Apparently Napoleon suffered badly from hemorrhoids and found it painful to sit on his horse for long periods of time. During the Battle of Waterloo, because of his inability to sit on his horse, he found it difficult to oversee his troops, and this may have lead to his defeat.  An interesting story.  'Ouch' is my only comment.

Now I must return to our journey south.   A very easy journey, and mostly on the motorway.  

The view as we left our campsite, and drove down the hill into Gap.   There was a large old fort on the hill in the distance.

 After leaving Gap we drove througn this village,

 and onto the start of the motorway, where we drove down an ever widening valley.   The rock formations were fascinating.

The motorway was nearly empty of vehicles.  And no trucks, which we left on the N85 due to it being a free road.

We joined the Autoroute du Soleil (A7) at Aix en Provence, and continued on to Toulon, Hyeres and finally arrived at Camping Manjastre by early afternoon.  It was great to be here.

A quiet swimming pool, with very cold water.

 Currently there are only a few people here.  It had been busy during the last couple of weeks, during the French school holidays.

We have no one camping around us.    So peaceful.

 A coffee in the sunshine.

Tomorrow we meet up with Andreena, John, Lindsay, Trudy, Di, Mike and Jenny.  All here from Australia and New Zealand, in order to celebrate Andreena's birthday.  They will be staying in a villa, high up on a hill overlooking Le Lavandou.

We are looking forward to it, and hearing all about the Macedonian adventures (Andreena and John) and the Paris adventures (Lindsay, Trudy, Di, Mike) and meeting Jenny, who hails from New Zealand and currently lives in the UK.