Walk in the Alpes Maritimes, May 2016

At the end of May 2016 we followed a seven-day walk from La Brigue in the Alpes Maritimes to Menton on the coast. For the third time, we  used a route designed by On Foot Holidays who book the places to stay, provide detailed maps and route directions as well as transporting luggage between the stops. The map below outlines the route which is always close to the border with Italy. The route into Sospel did touch the border and many of the places we visited including La Brigue and Piène-Haute had been in Italy until they was transferred to France in 1947.

Continue reading →

Canal du Midi, May 2015

Introduction

Our week-long cruise on the Canal du Midi was the filling in a sandwich whose outside consisted of our first visit to Narbonne and a quick return to Montpellier. Our time in those two towns is mentioned at the end of this post.

Hiring a boat

Between 1982 and 2004, we owned a 40-foot narrowboat and cruised the UK canals; since selling our boat, we have sometimes felt we would like to have another go. On previous cycling trips, we had seen the Canal du Midi from the towpath and had the impression that all of the hire boats were white plastic cruisers (aka ‘gin palaces’).  But when we discovered that Minervois Cruisers were renting out traditional UK narrow boats, we felt inspired to renew our cruising experiences with a familiar type of boat. The Montpellier at 49 feet is a little bigger than ours was, but we were pleased to have the extra space – you need to be very tidy in a 2-berth boat.

Our choice proved a good one, the low-slung steel hull of Montpellier gave her total stability even in the heavy winds we experienced on several days and the tiller steering positioned on the rear deck – as found on virtually all UK canal boats – gave us more precise control than wheel steering. The downside was that you are always outside and exposed to the elements while travelling – we were used to that but the exposure to the sun might have been a problem had there been more of it!

Continue reading →

Provence with the Train des Pignes

Introduction

Click on any photo to get a quick blow-up.
A slideshow with 160 photos of our trip is available here.

September 16th – October 2nd 2014

We wanted to spend time walking in the French Alps, but to find something easier than the last two years’ refuge-to-refuge walks in the Vanoise.  With a late September visit we wanted an area fairly far south. The Alpes de Haute Provence looked promising with villages at 700-800m to stay in providing access to walks on paths going up to about 1300m. We had heard about a ‘little train’ that runs from Nice through this area to Digne and saw that it would provide access to these villages for places to stay and for getting to walk starting points.

Continue reading →

Walking in the Calanques of Marseille, March 2014

Introduction

Calanque de Port Pin

We like to plan a walking holiday in the spring so as to break away from the gloom of winter and to get out on the footpaths once more. We have wanted to see Marseille ever since seeing the film Marius et Jeannette and then hearing about it from people who live there. During our investigations, we read Philip Oltermann’s Guardian article A walk on the Cote d’Azur’s wild side about a stay in Cassis and walks to the Calenques.  So we decided to stay in Cassis, to walk round the Calenques on fine days and to go into Marseille when it rained.

We booked Studio Cassis for a week. This studio is adjacent to the house of the very friendly owner Josette Bert. It is a short walk to the centre for shops and shore. But to book you need to phone the Mme Bert as the internet booking seems not to work.

We bought the IGN walking map 3245 ET. Aubagne La Ciotat. 1:25000 which covered the two walks we planned on the Calenques and a wider area for the other two walks we did.
Continue reading →