Today we ate breakfast to the surprising sound of 1940’s music echoing charmingly through the trees. Thinking it might be a funfair we walked over to find that, amazingly, it was a Victory Europe (VE) day celebration with loads of carefully looked after military vehicles – even including a period BMW motorbike. A memorial site had been set up around a landing craft in which colonel R. D. Parker landed with 190 men at 8 o’clock in the morning on 15 August 1944 on the beach which we can see from our camper. Today is apparently a national holiday in France, known as ‘Victoire 1945’ or ‘La Fête de la Victoire’.

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

Today we went to Château de la Napoule, the home of Henry Clews Jr. and the famously beautiful Elsie Whelan Goelet Clews, a rich couple dedicated to the arts. He was a sculptor.


 
What is it and I wonder what Henry and Marie would have thought of it?


 

 
Leaping recycled dogs just Gerhild’s taste.


 
What a profile!


 

Gerhild was very happy to see this sign!


 

The small island, l’isle d’or, behind Kim is a nice reddish colour (porphyry) and its tower is said to have been the inspiration for The Black Island in Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin.

In 1897 Léon Sergent bought the Isle of Gold from the French state in an auction for 280 francs. In 1905, Dr Auguste Lutaud won the island in a game of cards. He decided to build an 18m high tower. When it was finished in 1913, he proclaimed himself Auguste I, king of the Île d’Or and organized a sumptuous party. Stamps and coins were made, showing the Island. In 1961 the island was sold to François Bureau, a former naval officer, who renovated the tower and lived in it until his death in 1994 during one of his traditional early morning swims. The island still belongs to the same family and if a flag is flying, then the tower is inhabited, just like Buckingham Palace!🇬🇧

 

 
A nice round walk starting directly from the campsite.


 

Camping Campéole du Dramont €30 Location right next to the beach! Facilities

 
Peeling potatoes 🥔 for a salad.


 
As the sun slowly sets in the west…


 
Listen to the original rolling stones

Swimming our way, heading for Nice.


 
Sentier du littoral


 


 

Villa Ephrussi-Rothschild – the creation of one of the richest women on the planet, at the time.
Béatrice Ephrussi-Rothschild- 19 years old.


 


 
One little chair was for Beatrice’ dog, the other was for her mongoose! The lady in the pitch opposite to ours has one for her cat.


 


 


 

 
So much energy we did a second walk sentier du littoral.

Today we walked around the Antibes peninsula, in the footstep of the Rolling Stones, Sean Connery and from now on Kim and Gerhild.




 
London has millionaire’s row, Antibes has billionaires bay…


 

 
Some Russian oligarch’s weekend retreat?

Today we ate at Badaboom, which was delicious and not too extortionate. Charming American waitress. The straws came from Costa Rica and are some sort of bamboo!


 

 
More public French philosophy. No need for translation, I think.


 
A super cool French chocolate rabbit.


 


 

 
The garden of the Marc Chagal museum in Nice. Nice size and good audio guide (despite pesky 120 dB schoolchildren)


 
The creation of man 1958


 

Parc des Maurettes €30


On the way to Nizza, we stopped of at Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a picturesque mountain village visited by coachloads and one camper-van load of tourists.


 
Olga’s favourite angel!


 
All of the shopkeepers felt inspired to go all artistic (Fondation Maeght is just up the road.)


 
The village church shows the French approach to things on the cherubs/mermaids front.


 

 
Fantastic pizza served by a one-eyed cook who Gerhild thought looked like a real pirate.

 
Prince Charles feeling the pressure

Today we were up early enough to be practically first through the door at Fondation Maeght

 
Look carefully and you can see a bird nesting on her head.


 

 
Groovy architecture!


 

The Korean artist Lee Bae did some nice things with charcoal youtube link (French), which are almost impossible to photograph nicely.

On the way home we stopped off in Tourrettes-sur-loup, which is very pretty. We took a free book from their book-sharing cabinet – Cold Water by Gwendoline Riley.

In the evening, we enjoyed listening to Jazz Radio.

Camping la Camassade €23


Rain was forecast for today so we drove to Tourrettes-sur-loup, stopping for a picnic and a poke around Entrevaux. Had a nice chat with father & son bakers about bread and “brexshit” as the older man proudly showed off one of his important bits of English vocabulary.

 
After all of the bends in the mountain roads, Gerhild is happy to frolic around the meadow in the campsite Camping la Camassade €23 with borage casually growing by the wayside.

Today we visited Alexandra David-Néel’s home in Digne-les-Bains

But first of all we walked to a park with some Andy Goldsworthy cairns, a butterfly sanctuary and some water-based art installations.

Our camp site’s valley

Digne-les-Bains on quite a hot April day

Musée Promenade
A cool artwork with practical value.

An Asian artist made this which reminds us of a restaurant in Rosenthalerstr. in Berlin.

Alexandra David-Néel sang operas, was a feminist activist like Emily Pankhurst, was the first western woman to visit Lhasa in Tibet and drank tea with yak butter which I thought smelled quite yukky, not yakky (although none of the French sniffers in our guided tour group seemed put off).
wikipedia Alexandra David-Néel.
This portrait of the great lady is supposed to be made of yak butter.

More yak butter work. If it melts in the sun that’s fine, nothing is eternal in Buddhism.

Alexandra was quite a pretty teenager, dressed up here for some unspecified performance.

The simple house where she lived after returning from her travels, until an age of almost 101. Free guided tour in French.

Guardian article

The scholar and opera singer who sneaked into Tibet in the 1920s was also an anarchist, ran a casino and adopted a Buddhist monk

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/jun/14/explorer-alexandra-david-neel-first-western-woman-lhasa-tibet

Turn subtitles on and switch to English.

Camping les Eaux Chaudes €19.50


Musée Gassendi a veritable cabinet of curiosities.
The first two curiosities


 
A perpetual motion machine.


 
Old master meets a pile of jewel-lined digeridoos.


 
Two moths clinging to the window (made of banknotes).


 
Kim in French philosophical conversation with the master of the house.


 
A tame butterfly who will land on anyone’s hand


 
Part of the large collection of butterflies.


 
This museum has the only intact example worldwide of a fossil mermaid!

Camping-les-cedres €15


A song and dance on leaving Avignon

Apt cathedral – we never did find the entrance

Camping Bagatelle, €23 just across the bridge from Avignon
La Petite Pêche, 13 rue St. Etienne. Fantastic 3-course Dorade (whole fish each) lunch with a thyme jelly dessert. Incroyable €15,- each menu du midi.


Watch out Avignon, Gerhild’s coming.


 
Is it Gerhild or trompe l’oeil?


 
Now Conservatoire de Musique but used to be where the popes kept their spare change.


 
Horsing around in the papal garden.


 
What’s left of the famous pont d’Avignon and the papal palace


 

 
Beautiful 4km walk to Baux-de-Provence.


 


 


 
The coolest place to be when it‘s 26 degrees outside.
Carrières de Lumieres Baux-de-Provence

https://youtu.be/n0mDuLFdIi8

 
Interesting film about Jean Cocteau’s life and work.


 
The village has some nice restaurants for lunch.

Camping Municipale les Romarins €23
Really arrogant French policeman on motorbike. Incredibly loud TomTom GPS took us to wrong place. Several Michelin-approved restaurants in Maussane-les-Alpilles! Fantastic optician fixed Gerhild‘s sunglasses for „free“.


Fixed for free – formidable!


 
All of those provencale vegetables!


 
Time to extend the loft.


 
After a little rest of course


 
Supper on the square.

Camping le Vallond des Cigales €19


French people like to bring their pets to the camping site.


 

45 min. walk to Istres for lunch. Even the giraffes here have that particular French style.


 

Be yourself! What a motto for our holiday!

Our first BER flight? It all seems to be sagging a bit.