Goal of the trip: going up the iconic and for some infamous Mont Ventoux!
From our home this is a drive of about 1.000 km. When we arrived in the surroundings of the Mont Ventoux, we decided to stop at a nice little French village which was picture-perfect: Suzette. From this village it is a very short drive (or you could walk or bike) to the Dentelles de Montmirail. A small mountain chain, with strange peaks. There we found a quaint chapelle ‘Chapelle Saint Christophe de Lafare’, devoted to travellers. The next day we made our way the Mont Ventoux. If you have no idea why this mountain is worth the mention, take a look at the pictures. We spent almost the whole day here, starting at the weather observatory, going to the peak at 1.912 m, and watching cyclists crawling up the flanks. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, with perfect blue skies and a very nice temperature! In this region you can find a lot of lavender fields as well, but than you have to come a bit earlier in the year. We stayed at Le Nesq hotel, at the foot of the mountain at Sault. From there it was also just a short trip to the wonderful gorge ‘Gorges de la nesque’. Unfortunately we came on a Sunday, apparently the only day to ride a motorcycle, preferably the noisy kind … We’ll have to check it out again on a quiet day.
From the Vaucluse region we drove on the south coast, la côte bleue. There are a few nice stops, like Niolon, Carry le Rouet and Phare de Cap Couronne. You can take a train to stop at all the small villages along the coast (they are not all suitable for cars). Or you can base in Marseille and take a train here. There are some caravan parks as well. We picked one basically at the beach for two nights.
During the trip we had one rainy day, well timed on the day we had to drive a longer part. We decided to stop at Arles, and visited the (free!) museum of modern art Luma. There is no denying in it to be a Frank Gehry building! Arles itself is a beautiful medieval city along the Rhônes, where Vincent Van Gogh lived for nearly a year. From Arles it is only a short drive from the Camargue. We spent a few days here, to discover the salt planes, the flamingos and the beautiful beaches. Unfortunately we also had to use strong insect repellent to keep the mosquitoes away. It is a fantastic region to walk or cycle, but for us the mosquitoes were a real bummer.
Last stop of this trip: Toulouse. We didn’t visit the city (no time left), but we did visit the Musée Aeroscopia Toulouse (the Airbus Museum). We tried to get in to a tour in the Airbus manufacturing halls, with tickets we had from a two years back which we then couldn’t use because of the start of covid. Unfortunately there were no places available for the tours, so we only visited the museum, which was still impressive!
Have a look at the pictures here: