Drive and stops

It's time to leave the peace and quiet of nature, the tranquility of the Pre-Alps, and head back into civilization. It's been a nice reprieve, a welcome break after the crush of people in both Nice and Monaco, and all the cars while driving along both the Grande and Moyenne Corniches...but first we get to enjoy a little more driving along all of those twisty, turny roads that Mario is enjoying so much.

Today's big stops:

Riez - it seems promising, especially when we spy parking lots WITHOUT height restrictions, which has been our nemesis for most of this trip. Why does Southern France hate campervans so much?! 

Riez has a nice, old Provence hill town vibe, combined with a tower and ramparts on one end, and the ruins of a Roman settlement on the other, with a forum, a temple complete with still-standing columns, and TWO baths! It's a nice stop to walk a round for a bit, but we can't find a shop in which to buy milk.

Gréaux-les-Bains - not actually a stop, but definitely a place we take notice of as we drive through it. It seems to be the site of even MORE Roman baths, maybe even an existing mineral spring, as the town is dotted with thermal spas, and even a CASINO! The crowd is very strongly a retired French one...

(View of the colourful fields of Provence as we leave Gréaux-les-Bains behind)

Vinon-sur-Verdon - this place held the promise of a very nice picnic area on the shore of the Verdon river, but also held the disappointment of height-restricted access to said area. Luckily, we are persistent, and found some spots just outside a laboratory on the far end of the park. So we still got our picnic in by the river, we just had to work a little more for it. Have sandwiches, will travel - right to a picnic table where we could watch the ducks foraging for their own meal in the shallows of the river.

(This tower, just past Vinon-sur-Verdon, is a ruin from an old suspension bridge across the river. The new bridge now runs diagonally between the old towers)

Meyrargues - a community that seems strongly Portuguese, given the sheer amount of Portuguese flags present, and the shops we pass. It has a giant E. Leclerc grocery store with an equally large - and accessible - parking lot. It's the perfect place to pick up milk, and stop for a bathroom break. This store has EVERYTHING. It reminds me of the variety at a Walmart back home, but it doesn't seem to have the Fleur de Sel I have been looking to buy more of since we left the Camargue.

Being that this is our last night in the campervan, and the clean-up that it entails, there was much calculating as to where we should spend it. We opt for the Salins-de-Giraud, the salt flats where we spent out first night, because of its proximity to the campervan rental office. We forgo campgrounds nearby, opting to save our money, but also skip out on the free Aire de camping in town. Arriving there, it looks basically like a parking lot, with a dump station to one side, and garbage cans on the other. There is no electricity, and the toilets are closed for the season. If we are going to stay somewhere with no services, it might as well be on the shore of a salt pond, where we can watch the sun set and listen to the squawk of the flamingos. And so we do.

The ponds are now PINK!!	Piles of salt waiting to be processed
Flamingos trying to stay still in the wind	Fighting flamingos!

So on this cold, Mistral-wind blustery night, we sip the last of our Rosé from the co-op in Rousset while watching the flamingos trying to fly against the wind, or even manage to stand still in the lagoons. We eat a fridge-clearing Niçoise salad, made all the better with the addition of the marinated anchovies that travelled with us all the way from Italy. We even managed to finish off the LAST of the CHEESE.

And we spent another quiet evening lounging in the back of the campervan, watching videos I saved on my laptop for the trip, and trying our best to ignore the pounding of the wind that was desperately trying to knock us over.