Global Gateway

We’re back from our trip to Southern France. The plan was to get a good impression of life in the Provence area of France combined with some relaxation on the beach. Henning, Sarah and I packed our rental car, Audi A4, with all you’d probably need. Tents, sleeping bags, food and drinks. Our first stop was Chauzon, a little town near the Ardèche river to go kayaking. We stayed at a camping site that offered fully equipped cabins named chalets for 40 Euros. However, rain hit us pretty badly so we spent almost two days with playing dice games and trying out local wines. Figuring out that the weather was not going to change soon we decided to drive down to the Southern coast.

We stopped at an awesome four-star camping site in Marseillan Plage by Montpellier (don’t be fouled by the name – it’s not by Marseille): Camping Nouvelle Floride. Again, they offered chalets holding up to four persons…this time for just 29 Euros. Because we didn’t hit high-season the beach was empty and we had a couple of nice, sunny days just to hang out. Note: There are several nudist sections of the beach that you might run into if you don’t know about it. One night we wanted to go out to a beach restaurant in a nice location. Unfortunately, this also was part of the nudist camping site so people actually ate completely naked. Seriously, I don’t have a problem with seeing naked people but I’m not interested in having dinner with just naked people around me. If you want to spend a day at a beautiful beach check out that area.

We continued our trip with a visit in Avignon. The Papal Palace and the legendary bridge, Pont d’Avignon, are definitely worth seeing. The city has a great charm with its narrow streets and medieval look. Make sure you eat in one of the restaurants away from the main street. It will give you a much better service and bang for the buck. It’s easy to find a place to stay. Just check with the tourist information center. They’ll be happy to provide you with the information you need to find the hotel in the price range you’re looking for. Personally, I found it interesting to see that man bags were part of the male fashion statement. To be honest I was always asking myself who would ever wear that but it’s reality in Avignon. No man in almost every age goes with out it.

The next day we had to drive back home again more than 1000 kilometers. BTW: Remember to calculate some money for toll roads when driving through France. Pretty much every highway collects some money from you. We spent about 100 Euros on just in toll.