1. Venice port to the Ligurian coast - 265 miles of autostrada on a Saturday - starting early. All quite civilised really, but it started to rain whilst we were on the due south run towards Genoa. Then a night in the small resort of Varazze - selected because of a cheap hotel with parking (such things don't exist in either Genoa or Ventimiglia!) This worked well :- a very run-down but comfortable place close to a pleasant promenade. Unfortunately we could not linger in exploring as it rained torrents, and we had to run into a randomly chosen ristorante just as lunch service was ending, and stay there with cheap pizza and frizzante for most of the afternoon! 2. By the morning it was dry again, and rejoined the coastal autostrada, which again - being a Sunday morning - was not too hairy traffic-wise, but is of course a long succession of tunnels and viaducts - total distance for the day @ 265 miles! The weather got better as we approached the French border, and by the time we arrived in Avignon it was gloriously sunny, making sightseeing etc a real pleasure (see last post!) A temporary feature outside the Palais des Papes is a statue of an elephant balancing on its trunk. Next day - as forecast - it poured with rain all day!
3.After bidding farewell to A and J in Carpentras stay we set off for the Mediterranean coast - objective Agde (a new venture but based on some attractive descriptions). The campsite we had our eye on was closing in a couple of days, but we found another with a real bargain of a new mobile home, plenty of space and some feline visitors. More on Agde (including the Cap and the Grau) follows, but after a couple of very pleasant days, we had two days of - yes - torrential rain! A soggy trip overall - but some sunshine too, and some delightful places!
