2018-03-31 Northern Italy and Southern France Istres to Fontvielle

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Northern Italy and Southern France Istres to Fontvielle

Northern Italy and Southern France by Hymer Motorhome

Istres to Fontvielle

Gill is up early, she is disturbed by a young couple in a VW Camper who have been trying to exit the aire for almost an hour. They can’t get the rising/falling bollards to go down and let them out. The payment terminal keeps telling them that their payment is declined, however, the real problem is nothing to do with payment. Their campervan needs to be moved forward so that it is above the sensor wires embedded in the tarmac just in front of the bollards. If you are not over the wires then the payment machine does not know that you are there. Simple but true. We have had the same experience elsewhere.

I pulled on some clothes and went out, the young woman spoke enough French to understand what I was saying and in a few minutes they were on their way. After an early breakfast we studied maps and decided to go to Plage Napoleon first to look for birds. We had no trouble getting out of the aire.

I drove the first section, across to Plage Napoleon, it’s a strange location, at the mouth of the rive Rhône, it looks like silt from the river has been deposited over millennia to form land that is only just above sea level. The road is straight and seems to go on for ever, like driving across a lake. Eventually you arrive at the end where there is a car park and miles of exposed sand and mud that looks flat. There is very little tidal rise and fall in the Mediterranean, at Plage Napoleon the difference between high and low water is only around 30 cm, about a foot. Compare that to the tides we get at Blackpool where I grew up, around 29 feet, that’s a huge amount of ebb and flow. The Mediterranean is more like a big lake. As far as birding went the journey was not good, a few birds about, but nothing at the Plage Napoleon. Very disappointing, some flamingoes and yellow legged gulls only.

Next stop with the Marais du Vigueirat nature reserve. France does not do nature reserves very well, they feel like an afterthought, a concession. As with all nature reserves it was a long way from a main road, along a poor road, we should expect that because it’s usually a marshy area that nobody would want to develop or build on by the coast. €3 each. entry fee. We set off and were surprised to discover that there are no signs, maps or interpretive panels to tell the casual visitor what they might see. No plans of where the bird hides are located, and worst of all, only one path, so once you set off you have to go all the way around.

Bird variety and numbers were disappointing, glossy ibis, grey herons, great egrets nothing else. No woodland birds, no warblers. I really expected more. Got back to the Hymer just in time, the strong wind was bring heavy rain clouds which burst over the motorhome just after we were inside.

Gill drove us on to the aire de camping cars at Fontvielle near Arles, at this aire you pay on entry, €6.70 (at the time we stayed), water is an additional €2 if required. There are toilets on site, but they did not open until 1st April. There are no marked pitches, it’s a free-for-all, so although we picked a good site, other motorhomes that arrived much later squashed into the spaces so we were sandwiched in far too tightly. 

Our Hymer motorhome trip to Northern Italy and Southern France

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Summary of motorhome journey – Istres to Fontvielle