2018-04-01 Northern Italy and Southern France around Fontvielle

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Northern Italy and Southern France around Fontvielle

Northern Italy and Southern France by Hymer Motorhome

Fontvielle and surrounding area

A cold night at Fontvielle; after breakfast I checked birdwatching reports for this area and we decided that we would go to Le Destet des Alpilles, where the reports suggested that there were Bee Eaters and Rollers. We’ve seen Bee Eaters a lot in Spain, but not Rollers.

At Le Destet des Alpilles there is an old autocross track, which we found without any difficulty, parked beside a local irrigation canal that had a vast amount of water flowing along it. We hiked into the hills, searching around for birds but were not rewarded with anything, in fact it was a very disappointing area as far as birds were concerned. A pleasant walk, but definitely not what we expected. We decided that we were here at the wrong time, birds are very sensitive to the time of day and season, so we would head off to Les Beaux, a nearby town with a hill fort.

Bad choice! Well before we arrived at Les Beaux the narrow road was clogged with cars, parked cars on both sides, a veritable tourist nightmare. We stopped and decided that everyone was out enjoying a sunny Easter Day, so we should not be surprised by the crowds. We abandoned the visit to Les Beaux and took a round-about route back to Fontvielle,  paid for another night on the aire and carefully selected a pitch in a position that meant nobody could park up close to us.

We sat outside in the sun, temperature around 16°C and drank a bottle of Provence Rosé, €6.21 from the Spar supermarket in Couges Les Pins. We know why we don’t drink rosé wines, it was nondescript, a pleasant colour, but nothing distinctive about it. We ate spaghetti bolognaise that had been stored in the Hymer’s freezer since we left home nearly two weeks ago, delicious.

Not a satisfying day.

Our Hymer motorhome trip to Northern Italy and Southern France

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Summary of motorhome journey – around Fontvielle