Onwards to Geneva Switzerland, upon arrival we went to a takeaway shop to get a salad - 17 Euro! Can of Coke 4.5 Euro! Forget we'll eat out the van fridge. We went to the Red Cross museum, saw United Nations, the WHO and many other organisations but how can they afford those sandwiches and salads? Next stop campsite on the far side of Lake Geneva next to Montreux

After a day walking in the mountains the idea of cycling round a flat lake on a new cycle path sounded great. We made our way to Annecy, the French Venice apparently. The Lake was 40 km around and was once a time trial for the Tour de France, they did it in way under an hour, easy then, we have the whole day! Oh, but I have a little sun stroke from the mountains, Emma wore suncream, damn. The day started fine, flat cycle track round a lake then the lake disappeared? We cycled into the heat and realised the path didn't go around the lake, the Dutch people who told us this were wrong. We spent hours cycling in the heat, our water ran out, it was torture. Finally back into town, we ate at the best restaurant we could find as a treat before cycling up the hill to the campsite. Why is it always up a hill! 

We had camped in Argentiere, Chamonix so we were close to the large glacier, we made our way to the cable car station and went up the mountain. A days walking around the mountain and had some brilliant views. Back down for food and rest....

Well I did shower at the filthy campsite but Emma didn't, so we must go back to France for a shower. We passed through a valley full of castles in Italy stopping at the prettiest for a tour then through the mountain - the Chamonix tunnel into the town of the same name. We ended up on the old cog wheel train to a glacier, a quick cable cable and some steps then into the glacier for a tacky family ice carving experience. Back to Chamonix to the busy campsite............  

We drove up the winding roads high up into the mountains to Italy, cooked a meal in the van on the mountain then we ended up at a dirty campsite in Turin (Home of Juventus) run by a miserable lacklustre man. Cycled around the city for an hour and had an okay meal and drinks. Not a great city, very very straight roads with huge buildings, now back up that winding hill to the filthy site.

Today we headed to the Mercantour National Park in France. We stopped in the village of Belverdere on a hill for lunch, a very local place. Then towards the village of Saint Martin Vesubie up the mountain into a Wolf Sanctuary next to a lake. The journey was winding roads and a great waterfall. Back to Saint Martin-Vesubie to find a campsite, the first site we paid for was a strange concrete car park so we decided to change to another one. That evening was a torrential storm, luckily we were in a van and only our table blew away into someone's car scratching it - "you pay, you have storm insurance" he said, no chance mate - thought he was joking? Your car broke my table!  

The following day I don't know what we did at all. A vague memory of driving to Eze and Emma was asleep - somehow we stayed in the mountains near there in Emma's favourite campsite. The following day we went into Nice. A beautiful Old Town area where we had lunch and wandered. Following that we drove up many winding roads to Eze, a medieval village overlooking Monaco where a medieval festival was being held. Fantastic views across the coast. We ended up driving towards the mountains and camped in Sospel under 2 pear trees, bad idea, they kept dropping on the van in the night and waking us, swarms of flies eating the rotten ones on the floors. The campsite was very friendly though and we ended up having a good night in their quiet bar..... 

In the morning we headed down into the gorge and grabbed ourselves a kayak and headed upstream. It didn't feel as impressive in the gorge as it did looking down on it, especially surrounded by the masses of tourists paddling away. We did a couple of hours rowing and that was enough. Back on the road and this time we headed for St.Tropez, on arrival we had a baking hot stroll across the harbour and decided to find a campsite, COMPLET (full) , next bay along COMPLET, Cannes (COMPLET), Antibes (COMPLET) . Each time we tried the campsites were packed full of drinking loud French tourists - Antibes Centre was swarming, they will spilling out the bars onto the streets. We were stuck and tired, in the end we found a quiet car park and decided to camp there until the morning.  

The area was scenic and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie was the perfect village. We decided to firstly loop around the gorge on the mountain roads and take in the breathtaking scenery. There were so many birds of prey looping in the valleys. The day ended back in Moustiers, the local beer was made from the local lavender honey and spices. My favourite beer of the trip and Emma's favourite honey, we ate dinner and headed up the "Lord of the Rings" mountain steps to the chapel to watch the sunset........ 

We entered town to find it littered with posters and flyers for the arts festival, musicians and actors were street performing across Avignon. There was a very bohemian feel to the place, plenty of history and great buildings. Later that day after we had bought Emma some funky shoes we left and drove towards the Gorge du Verdon. Passing through Provence was amazing, the most beautiful part of France, fields of lavender, sunflowers and stunning views. We arrived at a small village perched in the mountain called Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, what a great place......