Adventures With Harvey

It’s not every day you meet a pop star!

When one thinks of the Côte d’Azur two things that might spring to mind are super yachts and celebrities. We’ve spent an amazing week or two pottering our way along France’s Mediterranean coast through the likes of Saint Tropez, Cannes and Nice, seen plenty of enormous watercraft and met a famous singer. But as usual, I need to correct the chronology - there’s quite a bit to report so grab a cuppa and prepare for the latest exciting instalment of Adventures with Harvey…

First stop after leaving the town of Condom (giggle snigger chortle) was the little hamlet of La Romieu which is home to a not-so-well-known abbey. One of our favourite things this trip is to meander off the beaten track to find little hidden gems such as this. The Lonely Planet is brilliant in this regard, often there is a box labelled ‘worth a trip’ or ‘don’t miss’ and we have rarely regretted making these detours. The abbey was founded by a couple of German pilgrims in the 14^th century and, like many others in this part of the world, has been fought over, partially destroyed, rebuilt, had the monks or nuns kicked out etc. After paying the modest entry fee we found the abbey was deserted with us being the only visitors, the views from up the tower were spectacular with the French countryside bursting into spring. The town was so small there was hardly room for Harvey to park, however he’s getting good at wriggling into little spots, this one just near to a boulangerie which was the source of a delicious baguette for lunch after our visit.

Prior to visiting Toulouse, we didn’t really know much about the town, but it turns out there is one predominant industry there - aerospace! The seeds of this industry were planted during WWI when it was discovered that, although they were rather rudimentary biplanes, aircraft were quite useful on the battlefield. And because Toulouse was so far away from the front lines, there was little prospect of production interruption due to the conflict. These days Airbus is located there with design HQ, some hi-tech component manufacture, and a couple of assembly lines located in the area surrounding the airport. For those interested, assembly of the A350 (so far around 550 have rolled off the production line) happens in Toulouse, along with the now discontinued monster of the skies, the A380. This assembly line is currently being repurposed for manufacture of the A321, the current output of the Hamburg plant being insufficient to keep up with demand.

The day we arrived (a Thursday afternoon as it turned out) and began our research, your rather enthusiastic correspondent was straight onto the Airbus website to see if there was an English language guided tour available. Yes, on Saturday, but non-EU passport holders needed to book a full 2 working days prior and as there were no tours available at all next week (probably one of the numerous French public holidays). There seemed to be no way this traveller was going to get on that tour he coveted so badly. Excitement turned into a greater measure of grumpiness – what to do… what to do. The museum and ticket sales reception was around 10km away and there was just enough time to cycle there before closing time so off went Mr Grumpy to see if he could make friends and talk his way into a spot on that Saturday tour. Sure enough, a couple of extremely helpful young French ladies were most sympathetic to my plight and said that yes, although their booking system was closed for the day, if I returned at opening time the next morning, they would be able to override the EU citizenship requirement (it seems that some others are allowed, it’s just easier on-line to make it a blanket ban). In the end all was well and, despite cycling the 20km round trip 3 times for one tour, your author has now had a guided coach visit of the Airbus Toulouse facility which included some time viewing the A350 assembly line from an elevated platform. It’s not every day you get to see jet aircraft being made!!! Also on site is an aviation museum including a Concord to walk through along with many other aeronautic treasures on which to feast one’s eyes and increase one’s knowledge! Sadly the lovely Anita was laid low with the flu so didn’t get to see much of Toulouse, luckily aircraft museums and manufacturing plants are near the bottom of her list of interests. We also got both the bikes in for a much-needed service, mine has now done almost 2000km!

Not far from Toulouse is the medieval walled city of Carcassonne parked imposingly on the top of a craggy outcrop. The afternoon we arrived was rainy, blustery and generally inclement (your author even got caught in a hailstorm and was totally drenched) and still being unwell, Anita needed to stay in a nice snug Harvey and get herself better. Your intrepid correspondent popped out for a short explore on his bicycle to check out a kids’ rugby league tournament we passed on the way into town (the outing may have included a short stop at the pub to watch a game of football) before heading home to look after the patient. The next morning, we rugged up warmly and walked up the hill for an explore inside the walls of Carcassonne, but mainly because there was a local delicacy to be tried – yes, we’re talking about cassoulet, a hearty delicious slow-cooked stew made from confit duck, Toulouse sausage and white beans. The perfect antidote for a poorly traveller in need of a fillip!

Our next destination was Montpellier where we found the most perfect overnight Harvey parking spot, right on a vineyard where we made friends with our fellow travellers (German & Dutch) and enjoyed a tasting at the winery. The next day we rode our bikes the 7km or so into town (the pink team becoming ever more confident on her bike) and discovered that it was protest day. There’s a heap of unrest in France at the moment, mainly over proposals to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64(?!?) and this protest included much chanting and flag waving, the odd flare, plenty of megaphones but participants seemed to be generally of good cheer. Other groups and placards (best we could decipher with our limited French) seemed to be protesting climate change, the establishment and various other loosely related grievances. All in all it was an interesting occurrence to stumble across and nice to see an actual protest rather than just reading about them in the paper. The only problems we’ve noticed because of the civil unrest was the cancellation of some train services (one day we ended up at home around 3 hours later than anticipated and by bus rather than train) and one gas station told us that LPG was rationed to 30 litres per customer because of a delivery drivers strike. Harvey takes more than 200 litres and was pretty much right on empty however fortunately the nice man was sympathetic to my entreaties and allowed us to completely fill the tanks. We've also heard that LPG may be hard to come by in Italy because it was previously supplied by Russia - time will tell I guess.

Next was Aix-en-Provence where we spent several hours with Anita in market heaven, stocking up on cheese, meat, vegetables, pastries and a beautiful big bunch of anemones (for a fraction of the price at home) for our wedding anniversary.

Our next night was another of those ‘off the beaten track’ places I mentioned earlier. In order to make sure that Adventures With Harvey isn’t just city hopping, we need to check out some random little villages and out-of-the-way places less frequented by tourists. Saint Mandrier-sur-Mer was one such place, just across the water from Toulon it was a quiet little seaside town with the most beautiful beach waterfront. Your intrepid correspondent went for a bike ride making it almost all the way to Toulon however certainly close enough to get a couple of good photographs of a French aircraft carrier (Toulon is the headquarters of the French Navy) before reconvening with his still-recovering travelling companion who had explored in a different direction and had found the perfect spot for a refreshment or two before returning for our usual dinner in Harvey and a perfect end to a wonderful day.

The Côte d’Azur has been the most difficult place so far to find Harvey parking – there are paying options in most places however previously on this trip the Travelling Woodies have managed to free-camp an average of 5-6 nights per week. Not to worry, if we have a couple of weeks paying €15-20/night for accommodation the sky won’t fall. The next place we wanted to visit was Saint Tropez however that town is so fancy that there wasn’t even a paying option for a couple of humble visitors travelling by Camping Car (the French word for motorhome). Again, not to worry, just across the water is a little town called Saint-Maxime which is somewhat more welcoming, also very lovely and has a regular ferry sailing the 20 minutes or so across to the famous resort town. Saint Tropez was where we got our first dose of superyachts… and also met our pop star – let me tell you the story. We’d done most of our exploring for the day and were sitting down for a quiet refreshment at a little seaside bar, discussing some of our favourite memories from the trip. Your author proffered an opinion that our drive down the Rhine had been particularly memorable and, overhearing us, our neighbour (who happened to be wearing a python-skin jacket) on the adjacent bar leaner enquired if we had been to the Mur River in Austria where he was from? And from there we struck up a conversation. While our new friend wasn’t exactly as famous as say Elton John, Haddaway (or Haddy to his mates) certainly seemed to be part of the celebrity set in this part of the world. He had a #1 hit in the 90’s (Baby don’t hurt me / What is love?) which now has more than 500 million views on Spotify) along with several other songs most people of our generation would know. He had a very fancy Harley-Davidson parked on the road and seemed to be friends with everyone from Vladimir & Vitali Klitschko to Kylie and Danni Minogue and Gerhard Berger (former F1 motor racing driver) and still be heavily involved in the music industry. It was a thoroughly enjoyable hour or 2 and included some excellent tips for if we make it back to his home country of Austria. Cheers Haddy, it was a pleasure meeting you and thanks for the drink!

That evening was our 11^th wedding anniversary so we caught the ferry back to Saint-Maxime and enjoyed a lovely meal out to celebrate. Adventures with Harvey commenced around a week or so before our 10^th anniversary which means we’ve now been on the road and living the dream for just over a year. Wow, where did that time go?!

If Saint Tropez has a couple of dozen superyachts, Cannes must have more than 100! Again, it was a bike ride of around 7km from our camp ground into town to park up and wander the waterfront and old town. Many of these places seem to have a hilltop stronghold/fortress/cathedral and Cannes is no exception. On this trip we often refer to ‘policy’, e.g. if there is a toll road option we take it because it’s always much quicker, easier on Harvey and cheaper on gas. No need to discuss each toll road, it’s just policy. Another pre-approved decision is that if there is a thing to be climbed we climb it. This might be as described at Cannes but it might be a rampart, a belfry or anything of the type. Although we often can’t really be bothered with the walk you soon forget the sore feet but never regret the view, the photo, or the knowledge that your laziness hasn’t got the better of you and you’re out there getting amongst it! So, climb to the top we did and were rewarded with a beautiful view over the marina and town. We raced to the market just in time to collect a few delicacies for lunch, eaten on a park bench next to a couple of superyachts. We get a few strange looks doing this as the French wouldn’t dream of dining in such a way, but it was fun and keeps us on budget.

The remaining two stops were similarly afflicted as Saint Tropez with a lack of suitable Harvey parks so we decided to get a little creative. About half an hour’s drive inland was the little town of Peillon with one of our favourite campgrounds so far. The owners were super helpful and accommodating, even running us to the train station when time was short. From there it was only around 20 minutes by train to Nice (which we explored on the first day) followed by a little over an hour by train to Monte Carlo the following day. Nice was one of your authors favourite towns for this edition, although the beach is stony it’s actually quite comfortable to sit on (which we did for half an hour or so), the waterfront and promenade are just stunning, and the view from the fortress at the end of the beach is breath taking! Often it only takes us a few hours to explore towns like this, there is usually a museum or three and several churches however we’ve seen more than enough of both at this stage so will only visit if something particularly piques our interest. Otherwise we’re more than happy strolling the streets and alleyways, browsing a few shops, maybe stopping to sample a local culinary specialty or two, and generally finishing up with a refreshment and some people watching to conclude the day before heading back to Harvey for dinner. On this occasion that’s exactly how the afternoon panned out, in fact our last hour or 2 was spent soaking up the warm afternoon sunshine, chatting with our neighbours and listening to an excellent jazz quartet do their thing while the several couples turned the pavement into a dance floor.

Both your author and his lovely travelling companion had been to Monaco before, both around 20 years ago but not together. It just seemed so close that it would be criminal not to jump on a train and go and reacquaint ourselves. In fact just the train journey itself was money well spent because most of the way you are choofing along the most beautiful coastline, passing such cute little settlements as Villefranche-sur-Mer and Saint Laurent. On arrival the longsuffering Anita was kind enough to accompany your author for a visit to La Collection Automobiles de S.A.S. le Prince de Monaco, the car collection of the late Prince Ranier who acquired this amazing collection over some 30 years from the early 1950’s. Many unique and interesting examples could be found however the one I’ll tell you about was a little light blue convertible Sunbeam Alpine. Although not the actual car used, the prince purchased and restored this car to exactly resemble the one famously driven around the Monaco hills by Grace Kelly in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, To Catch a Thief. Of course, shortly thereafter Miss Kelly and the Prince famously met, fell in love and got married and the rest is history.

Next morning before leaving Peillon your author was obliged to ride his bike the 3.5km or so up a very steep hill (thank goodness the bikes are electric) in keeping with the policy described earlier. To say it was worth the ride is an understatement, this little town was unique in your author’s experience. Perched atop a rocky crag since the 12^th century, the town would have been almost impenetrable to potential attackers. The houses are tightly packed together, mainly 3-4 stories tall with narrow cobbled alleyways and curved overbridges giving access to the upper levels - so narrow and winding you couldn't even have ridden a horse! As always there was a little church right at the top, and a stroll around this delightful hamlet was an absolute treat. Apparently these days it is home to as few as 25 permanent residents, mainly due to its inaccessibility, but has plenty of visitors over the summer holidays and sports a Michelin star restaurant.

The day before yesterday we crossed the border into Italy and have paused to take a deep breath. Our plan has always been to arrive in Italy about now and spend a good couple of months exploring the land of pizza, pasta and chianti however exactly which direction or in which order that would happen was yet to be determined. Also, admin tasks seem to build up, and so every week or 2 we need to spend some time attending to the odd issue from home, write a blog, do a GST return or whatever. We did a fair bit of this yesterday and also this morning and now have a pretty good idea what the next few weeks will hold. Let’s just say that by Monday we’ll have visited Genoa and will be heading to one of the most anticipated destinations of the whole trip… Cinque Terra!

That’s it for another edition, thanks for sticking with us and I hope your cuppa didn’t go cold! Happy Easter and much love to you all!

Dave & Anita

greetings from the Côte d’Azur

strolling the river front at Condom :-)

the Abbey at La Romieu

French countryside blooming in spring - from the top of the abbey

Concord at the Airbus museum

aircraft of all shapes and sizes to see at the museum

'Super Guppy' the transport aircraft Airbus reluctantly bought off the Americans because they had nothing with which to transport their aircraft components to their assembly lines. To replace this, Airbus built the fleet of 'Beluga" transporters