Monday 24th September

The old adage... Be careful what you wish for never a truer word spoken.

I set off form Camping Gabriel after a good night’s sleep although there was some intermittent rain during the hours of darkness and as a result my car was covered in dusty rain residue.

The storm clouds were gathering and I actually hoped a little rain would fall so as to clean Cristine a little.

My first stop was Decathlon in Craivaille 25 km away to attempt to change the sleeping bag that took me half an hour to get back into its carry bag.

As I neared the town it started to spit and by the time I had arrived at the outskirts of the town, it was chucking it down so hard that many other drivers had already pulled over to the side of the road. Not me, I thought, if I did, Cristine may not start ever again so I pushed on, into the driving rain. Decathlon appeared out of nowhere and I pulled in and best of all there was a car jet wash right next door so I pulled up under the canopy and parked. Well, I thought no one’s going to be using the car wash for a while.

"If you think I'm going out in that....."

There was a small coffee shop right next door so I ran across the car park with my “Use once and throw away” umbrella that I got at a bar in Jerez for drinking Cruzcampo beer.

It was useless and it went straight into the bin outside the bar.

Inside the bar it was lovely and warm and people were coming in absolutely soaked.

After half an hour the rain abated and I was able to get in and change my sleeping bag. Well in fact I got a refund because my next plan was to drive to Ikea in Toulon and buy a duvet.

Bloody traffic

The sun was out now and it was onto Toulon and Ikea.  

Like

It wasn’t long that I had done my shopping and was off again on the road to Nice.

Like

I took a D road up over the mountains behind St Tropez that eventually took me down into Nice.

Whats the question?

This road was so windy that I started to feel sea sick after a while. Bloody Tom tom

I hit the traffic going to Nice at Km 12 and by that time it was 19:30 and I had, had enough so I took the first campsite sign I saw and headed for it.

First it was the Spirit of Ecstasy.....

Then it was the leaping Jaguar....

Now its the Ver de Vin

"Mind that tree!"

Campsite La Vielle Flere was a 4Star!!!  I managed to get in and, yes you guessed it, pitched my tent in the fading light. Opened a half-finished bottle of wine and got stuck into my pasta al pesto.

My neighbours were a young German couple who had arrived just before me and were in the process of putting up their tent.

The loin cloths took time to dry out

Mine was already up and I did think about asking if they needed a hand but then

I thought no, half the fun is trying to get the dam things up. So I sat back and listened to the familiar

“Tink…tink…tink…tink” sound of hammer on tent pegs.

After a feast of pasta and a Kit Kat I decided to take a walk around the campsite which was quite large and well organised. 

As I wandered back about half an hour later….

Tink…tink….tink I could hear from behind my German neighbours car.

They still at it!!!!!!?

I sat down to the rest of my wine and then out of the gloom appeared my neighbour. He was wearing pointy shoes, obviously a experienced camper.

“Allo …do you have a …….a……..a……?”

He was carrying a bottle of wine and making the pulling out of the cork gesture.

“Corkscrew” I cried

“Yes that’s it” he said

After half an hour we all sitting around my bamboo table getting stuck into the wine.

I had embarrassingly had run out of wine as Dirk and Maya went back to their tent for the third bottle of wine.

“Do you like Cheese?” I said

“Yes we do especially Cheddar and Parmesan” they said

“Well it’s your lucky day” I said.

We slugged our way through the Cotes du Rhone, and Cornish Cheddar until Maya leaned across to Dirk and said clandestinely something in German.

It sounded like ..”something…..eina….. something…tampon”.

Here we go! I thought, Maya has asked Dirk to get some weed out for a smoke.

“Ya…ya…ya…tampon” I joined in loudly….chanting in the night….

Dirk, nodded and leaned back and fiddled inside his jeans front pocket and pulled out a……..Tampon!

He leaned across and gave it to Maya and she ran off to the loo.

"Oops"