FranceItaly

[Sylvia Want]

Hi,
We are going on a 10/7 rally to port Grimaud south of France in May. Looking at hopping over the border into Italy for another couple of weeks. Probably heading to Florence for a few days. Does anyone have any advice on routes, places to stay Must sees etc?
Also best route down to the south of France, don’t mind some tolls but not all toll roads as we are going to spend a few days getting there, so would be nice to see some places on the way down, preferably stopping at Aires. Any advice gratefully received Thank you.

 

[suavecarve]

How many days do you anticipate taking to get from Grimaud to Florence and dates (roughly)
Lakes, Waterfalls, Clues, Gorges, Beautiful villages? Cycling, walking ? Banon cheese festival is middle of May sometime and there will be several others. How far inland from the coast do you want to leave ?

 

[3 cabbages]

10/7 rally

What is a 10/7 rally?

 

[EdRedBird]

What is a 10/7 rally?

I presume its 10h a day for a week (but this is my find the thread back contribution)

BTW I only see baldy midlife aged men on bikes...would not mind being stuck behind that now

 

[suavecarve]

I presume its 10h a day for a week (but this is my find the thread back contribution)

Its 10 days 7 nights

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[EdRedBird]

Its 10 days 7 nights

So pulling one allnighter

 

[Sylvia Want]

How many days do you anticipate taking to get from Grimaud to Florence and dates (roughly)
Lakes, Waterfalls, Clues, Gorges, Beautiful villages? Cycling, walking ? Banon cheese festival is middle of May sometime and there will be several others. How far inland from the coast do you want to leave ?

Thank you
Leaving Grimaud on the 20th May. We will have 2 weeks including the time we spend in Florence. Looking to see some of the lovely countryside, lakes waterfalls etc sounds lovely. We will be taking bikes, but also tow a motorcycle so we can easily travel once sited.
10/7 refers to days (10) 2/52 would be 2 weeks Sorry it’s nursing/medical terms. I tend to forget and revert to it.

 

[suavecarve]

First up, check out Banon cheese festival and there will be numerous other festivals about in Provence around that time.
If hanging around Provence for 3/4 (thats 3 or 4 to you !) days then I have numerous swimming clues and gorges to go with Waterfalls and lakes.
The motorbike will be extremely useful for some of the clues and also using Pugets les theniers as a base for a couple of fantastic bike rides up the gorges du daluis and gorges d'esperron.
Normal favourites of gorges du verdon and lac de st croix will come up with sillans la cascade but it may depend upon which way you detour from the coast which will be heavy around Nice and round Italy.
I m on to my last glass of wine tonight so will bung some photos and ideas for this area tomorrow sometime which will easily keep you busy for those days
Can I assume aires for staying over ?

 

[EdRedBird]

suavecarve , how and where do you get over
I have a trip in the planning for Wexford- Italy France -(Dublin) -<or possible> Netherlands - Schotland - Belfast
And I like my waterfalls

 

[Lofty1]

While rare be advised that you can still get snow in may on some of The passes we got stuck 5 years ago and had to wait half a day for the local snow plough to be called

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[suavecarve]

suavecarve , how and where do you get over
I have a trip in the planning for Wexford- Italy France -(Dublin) -<or possible> Netherlands - Schotland - Belfast
And I like my waterfalls View attachment 573678

We go over via tunnel and if heading Provence we take the Paris Clermont route and shoot across the Ardeche.
The best advice I can give is to buy a book (preferably the second edition) called "Wild Swimming in France" by Daniel Start. It is an absolute bible of out of the way places that include some spots even the locals dont know about.
For example the clue de pierrefeu, we have been there 3 times and never met anyone there. You have the place all to yourself. They do allow gorging there but only on certain days of the year. A few pics on this thread https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/showcase/clue-de-pierrefeu.309/
Another well worthy trick is to go to google maps within the area you are or are heading to and then search for "cascade" (in france) and then hit the return button, this gives you all the cascades eg

Or search for clue (Clue is a gorge where it is generally possible to scramble (mostly without ropes) a sort of walkable gorge (or that is my definition)

NB some of these roads to these clues are best described as challenging for a motorhome Post number 23 of here for video of one of the access routes https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/video-of-the-day-thread.255302/

 

[chaser]

If you like markets, go through at the Menton border crossing on a Friday, and visit the ventamiglia market, fantastic ambiance, been loads and still want to go back.
Reputably the largest market in Europe but it's not the only one that claims this so might not be right but , hell it's big.

 

[peterc10]

I would recommend the Cinque Terre. 5 villages on the coast with train links between them. There is a Sosta (Aire) and campsite in Levanto, which is a nice small Italian seaside resort a few miles North of the villages. You can get a day ticket for the trains from there which is the best way to access the villages.

You can also walk the coastal path between the villages which is breathtaking (in more than one sense!). We walked from Monterosso to Vernazza, which was spectacular. That was about 6 years ago, but I am not sure we could do it now!

Fabulous coastline which is much better than the Amalfi coast in my opinion. But best to steer clear of weekends and public holidays as the villages and trains get very busy.