2024 - My Mediterranean Odsesey

Tuesday, before leaving Bandol, we checked out the market there.  There were lots of interesting items to tempt us but the only thing I bought was a bag of herbs de provence.    From Bandol, we headed inland mainly on busy highways. Our first stop was the visually stunning village of Roussillon, famous for the ochre-coloured rocks and buildings.  After a nice crepe lunch there, we drove to L'Isle sur la Sorgue where we would stay for two nights.    Wednesday, our destination was Avignon.  The woman at the hotel desk told Jeff and Jo about a P&R (Park and Ride) just outside the city where we could park the car all day for free and take a shuttle bus, also free, into the town centre.  That seemed to make a lot more sense than taking a bus or train and relying on their schedules.   Our first stop in Avignon was Les Halles t,he big market hall - not as big as the one in Lyon but certainly worth checking out.   From there, we wa...

With a shout out to one of my favourite Beatles' songs, it really is getting better all the time!  The weather is improving, we are all feeling much more energetic and positive, and today we spent 2 and a half hours on the water doing a trip along the coast, west from Bandol to see some of the amazing coastline which is part of the National Parc des Calanques (calanques are coves and there are many of them here).  We picked a shorter tour which involved seeing six of them; on previous tours I've 13.  The water was a bit choppy (okay, really choppy!) so I think we were all happy to have done the shorter trip.  Regardless, the scenery is stunning. It is our last night here before we move on to inland Provence.  We had our "happy hour" at the Dubney's apartment which had a different perspective on Bandol looking more to the west and north.   After that, we headed to a restaurant we'd all found independently called Auberge Provencale.  It was lovely t...