The grand tour of France in a motorhome 2022 September 16th - day eighteen

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Best bike ride ever! The campsite is on one of the largest river islands in Europe and we cycle miles to find its northern end. Through orchards of apricots, apples and cherries. The terrain is flat, soils thick fertile alluvium. Meandering lanes with hardly any traffic, the river is a constant companion on our eastern side. At the northern end we go off road along gravelly tracks through a nature reserve of lakes and woodlands. Google maps gives up and we get lost but its an island and so we can work out roughly where we are using the river channels either side of us.

We end up at a lovely town just outside Avignon (Villeneuve – les- Avignon) where we sit on benches in the town square munching on cheese and bacon topped pasties bought from the café across the road. Sounds gross – tastes sublime! This is clearly an uptown wealthy commuter area. Young professions, well dressed, well heeled. Think Cotswolds on steroids!

  

Later, we head back over the river bridges to the city ramparts and we follow around them to the south of the city where we discover trams! Modern, efficient, silent; they run on tracks which are grassed over – seriously the tram lines are running across grass areas all around the south of the city. Elegant, green, sustainable – perfect!

25 miles cycled in 27C. long but very fun day. The midges have taken their toll. On me not Maggie! I am clearly an all you can eat buffet as far as they are concerned!

Later, just before we go to bed, I spend a profitable thirty minutes with the hand held vac hoovering up every mosquito and midge I can find inside the motorhome. I am the midge whisperer – 20 caught and released unharmed the following morning. Clearly, we must take a look at our window and door mosquito netting. It doesn’t really seem up to the job!

Useful information:

Campsite website is: https://www.aquadis-loisirs.com/en/nature-campsite/camping-du-pont-davignon

Papal Palace website is: http://www.palais-des-papes.com/fr