The mainland again

Things quietened down overnight and the next morning it was almost as if nothing had happened. The campsite people were moving washed-out pebbles from the wrong places and the tree surgeons still had their chainsaws out as we drove to Bastia. The ferry line-up was more orderly than it had been at Nice and we were almost at the front of the queue even though we arrived just an hour before sailing time. For the first time on the island, we met and talked to another British couple who happened to be in our queue.

The vehicles are so tightly packed on the lower car deck that it proves quite hard to walk to the nearest door and stairs. It's a pure coincidence that it's the same ferry for this crossing to Toulon that we took to get to Bastia from Nice.

Leaving La Corse is really tough because it has been a great trip and we've been here for well over three weeks. Although it's easily said, we will be back. This scenery and hospitality is easily accessible and in Europe!

After an uneventful crossing which was twenty minutes late leaving Bastia and one hour late docking in Toulon, which Corsica-Sardinia ferries would later explain was due to yesterday's weather, we arrived into Toulon. Rather surprisingly, it is quite similar to Cape Town with the same sort of table mountain escarpments.

Docking took time as the berths were busy but somehow they squeezed another vessel in there.

Then we were off into Provence and using Park4night we went to a "motorhome parking" in a ravine at the back of a small village, Cuges-les-Pins. This is typical of France catering for its holidaymakers. Next to the sports ground in a non-descript place, they have cut some terraces, added a few shady trees and fitted a water tap and a concrete apron with a drain for grey water. For a payment of €4.50 in a machine (CB accepted), a six digit code is issued which opens the barrier to enter and exit. It was a peaceful night with a few other motorhomes and a camper van, nicely spread out. It's the toilet in the Landy that makes this sort of overnight stop possible.

Onwards to a previously visited site, La Source at St Pierre D'Argençon where we said hello to the English owner who has been building up the place with some glamping and a restaurant at which the locals eat. It was here in 2015 that we heard wolves somewhere in that lump of mountain behind.

The scenery here is stunning and a perfect lunch stop is easy to find.

The next night we used France Passion and headed to a farm within sight of the Jura. We were not prepared for the welcome we received from Andrè who is slightly eccentric in the most accommodating way. I used as much French as I could and he helped with his English and together we discussed silage, the size of his bulk milk tank, the frequency of milk tanker visits and hydraulic hose.

In its curious way, the informality of France Passion meant that we parked on the farmyard, next to a silage clamp and all the farm implements. I don't know what insurances Andrè needs but it doesn't seem to prevent this lovely simplicity.

He has a herd of mixed beef and milkers but it is only fifty five cows in total. How he can do this within the EU when it wouldn't be viable in the UK is something that our language skills wouldn't bridge. They were tested again later when we were invited by Andrè for an apéritif with the other two visiting couples (Germany and Belgium) and an octogenarian friend from Paris. 

The view from the elevated farm provided a super sunset. All too often, even with the clearest of skies, somehow the sun sets behind clouds on the horizon. Not tonight!