Tuesday 13th October

Neither of us slept well last night as strong winds buffeted the roof tent continuously, the rocking of the Land Rover and strange noises had Anne convinced somebody was trying to break in under us (although she didn’t brave the weather and actually get out of the tent to investigate!), whilst I kept thinking that the fly sheet was about to depart company from the rest of the tent under the relentless onslaught. We emerged somewhat bleary eyed only to realise we didn’t have it so bad, the other campers were three pairs of cyclists who all took the wise decision to have a lie-in, no doubt hoping that the wind would die down.

Into Nîmes for a morning of sightseeing, having picked up an excellent free information guide from the campsite (finally a guide that lists the best things about the place we want to visit, provides a decent map and doesn’t patronise too much). We took advantage of the combination ticket, saving on the price of entering the three major Roman monuments; the Maison Carrée (an amazingly well preserved temple right in the centre of town, constructed in AD 5) SPOT,

Les Arénes (the 24 000 seat amphitheatre, built around AD 100)

and the 30m high Tour Magne (which is oldest at 15 BC and gives amazing views over the city).

I don’t think Anne’s attempt to order the discount pass in French impressed the guy at the Maison Carrée, who kindly enquired in perfect English if it was the combination ticket we were after. Still, we tried. Anne wasn’t impressed with the inside of the amphitheatre as they use it for events now (a good thing), but have installed rows of seating and suchlike which has generally wrecked the atmosphere of the place. It looks great from the outside though.

We retraced our route towards Avignon before diverting north to Orange and the D94, which gradually climbs through the vineyards into the Haute Alps. There was a slight holdup as workman cleared a rock fall (although it looked as though they had actually created it in the first place), before heading down into Gap and back to Bob’s for a few days. Bob is actually away in Germany but he kindly stocked the fridge and said we can abandon more stuff with him to take back to the UK. Not sure what we would have done without our two pit stops here. SPOT