Van Gogh's famous cafe scene...

..and today it is much the same

Arles follows the curve of the Rhone, for Van Gogh's take on this scene click here

Roman amphitheatre in Arles

Back street in Arles

Van Gogh reproduction in the courtyard where he painted the original

Aix-en-Provence

South of France

Kath’s Dad was coming over for a conference and we went down to pick him up from Nice airport and then drop him off in Montpelier in the far south of France. Part of the deal included him lugging over most of our ski gear so we were probably the only car in the South of France with skis on the roof. We headed out of Milan straight from Italian class and picked him up around 3pm at Nice airport. We then drove around the coast for a while admiring the blue waters and pebbly beaches. Running short of time we then cut across directly to Aix-en-Provence. We found our hotel and then headed out for dinner. Parking proved a hassle but we were eventually wondering the streets on a warm evening. The town itself is great – there are many wide, tree lined boulevards and lots of people were out enjoying the evening.

The next morning we headed back into town to grab a post-breakfast snack and look around. It was a sunny morning and the streets were full of life as the regular Saturday morning market served up fresh produce as well as a street handicrafts and antiques. We stocked up on fruit, cheese and bread for lunch and then headed west through Provence.

We traveled towards Arles through a series of hilltop towns Bonnieaux, Lacostes and Menerbes – picturesque walled towns that overlooked the green valleys below. The area has many vineyards but while we had seen plenty of vines in other parts of France the olive groves, warm sun and dusty, white soil gave it a very different feel.

We arrived in Arles early afternoon and found our hotel to be well situated – just inside the city walls and right on the Rhone River. We headed off into town and found the tourist centre. We purchased the Van Gogh map and proceeded to spend a pleasant afternoon wandering the town looking at his paintings. The town had erected reproductions of his paintings at the spots were he had painted them in the 1880’s. I like his paintings and after having seen several of them in Musee d’Orsay in Paris it was great to see the scenes in real life. A lot has changed in some areas but in others there was much to recognise. Also Arles was an important Roman town and has several impressive ruins. These include an ampitheatre for 20 000 and a theatre for 10 000 both of which are still used today.

The next day we set off early and dropped John at his hotel in Montpellier. Kath and I then started the long drive home to Milan. It took us about 7 hours but the Clio is very comfortable to drive and it didn’t seem quite that long. Stopping for an excellent gelato in Turin helped break the drive also.

Bare mountains near the lentil village

Assisi back street

View from Gubbio

Cathedral at Gubbio

Gubbio Tower detail

Tower in Gubbio (these were built as a sign of wealth by familes)

Locals discuss the key issues over coffee in Urbino

Marche and Umbria

For our next trip in Italy we headed south to the provinces of Marche and Umbria. These both have many old hill towns and plenty of mountain scenery. We left Milan on Friday afternoon and by early evening we were in pulling up near the beautiful hill town of Urbino. Set on a ridge top it is a compact place that is well preserved within its original walls. We had dinner there on Friday night and wandered back into town for coffee on the Saturday morning. Having the whole central town area so well preserved gives a very strong sense of history.

We then headed further south and had lunch in Gubbio. This is a town set on a hillside and features an impressive cathedral that looks over the plains below. Next stop was Assisi, perhaps the most famous of the towns in the area. It was a rabbit warren of tiny streets and had plenty of visitors. We looked through the Basilica - it is beautifully decorated inside and despite the many normal tourists it still remains a place of pilgrimage and worship for many visitors. We wandered around town before setting off to find some where to stay for the night. On the way we passed through Montefalco and sampled (and bought) some of the famous Sagrantino wine. For many years this was apparently a favourite of the popes – we can only agree with their selection.

We stayed the night at Spoleto and then headed in a big loop back home. First stop was coffee in Norcia, a small town deep in the hills of Marche. Then we climbed up onto the ridge near Monte Sibilla. This is a remote and very bleak looking spot, but was very scenic. Up here is the village of Castellucio, a lentil growing village that holds an appellation (the European process that protects Champagne, Parma Ham etc.) protecting its centuries old lentil farms. They certainly don’t seem to make a lot of money from it as the village looks very run down – huddled on a small rise below the bare mountains.

We were soon on the highway north and were making good time sitting on around 160km/h along the autostrada. But then rain, roadworks and the end of holiday season crowds combined to create a series of monster traffic jams - in heavy rain it took us 6 hours to do 250kms. Luckily we had the Italian CDs and book in the car so I managed to get something done.

Vines near Barbaresco

Dusk in Barolo

Turin's porticoed walkways

Cafe San Carlo, open since 1822

Piedmont

With riding out of the question it was time to head out of Milan and sample some food, wine and culture around Italy. We choose Piedmont, the province just to the west of Milan that is famous for its gastronomy. First stop was Turin and we parked the car on the outskirts and caught a tram in. We liked it immediately – it has a very elegant feel with many fine old buildings and a gracious, relaxed air after the bustle of Milan. It also has some very famous old cafes – we had a drink called al bicerin. This is a hazelnut hot chocolate with cream and a rocket strength expresso shot. It's very thick and almost black in appearance and with the sugar and caffeine combined it packs quite a punch.

We also tried some excellent gelato from a famous shop in one of the porticoed streets. Caffe Fiorio has been open since 1780 and served up the best hazelnut I have ever had.

Afterwards we headed south to the red wine region of Barolo. We camped near the town and that night ate a fantastic restaurant in the Hotel Brezza. They served us a set menu based on us being vegetarian and it was great. Highlights were a spinach flan and a heavenly pannacotta desert. They also have quite a large winery and we tried several of the robust reds the village is famous for.

The next day we headed back to Milan via some more red wine regions, this time through Barbaresco. This tiny village is famous for its red wines also, these a little smother than the Barolos from just down the valley.

Heading through the Mt Blanc tunnel

Fireworks on the lake

Enjoying the double cream (calcium helps bones heal)

Bern's scenic river setting

Ged's Studio

Weekend Geneva

It looked like being Ged’s last weekend in Europe for a while so we decided to drop in on him for a visit. The timing was good as it was the last weekend of the annual Fete de Geneve. So on Friday night we drove up via the Mt Blanc tunnel, the drive isn’t too long but due to the recent accidents in the tunnel they now strictly enforce a 150m separation between vehicles. This causes a large traffic jam at the entrance during busy times and it took us an hour and a half to get into the tunnel. Once inside it was ok, well as fine as driving 10kms while a very long way underground can be.

Thanks to the wonders of mobile phones we managed to meet Ged in the middle of a free concert in a park near the lake. We were very late courtesy of getting lost finding the park and then finding a park for the car. We made it eventually and enjoyed the end of the concert along with some fine Spanish wine and pasta with bread and cheese courtesy of Ged. After the concert we had another parking struggle ending up with Ged walking back and moving the car before we could settle down for the night. Ged has a fantastic studio loft in the heart of Geneva’s old town. It is perfect for one and features lake views and a free clock thanks to the nearby cathedral bell.

The next morning we shopped at the fantastic farmers market nearby and then headed out for a drive to Bern. This is a beautiful Swiss German town that features colonnaded walkways as well as a very scenic location on the bend of a river. We lunched there and also met a friend of Ged’s Laurent. She happened to come from the nearby town of Gruyere, famous for its cheese, but also of the apparently very tasty, very rich double cream. We gave Laurent a lift back and she made sure we swung by Gruyere and tasted some of the cream. We had it with berries and it was very, very good.

That night we stayed in at Ged’s flat and watched the Fete fireworks with some friends. Ged cooked up a fantastic dinner including an absolutely delicious tiramisu for desert (which we got to about 3am). We chipped in some wine we had bought in Burgundy and we were glad to find it an excellent wine.

Next day we eventually got up and wondered down to the our favourite Genevois breakfast spot - Bains de Pacqui - for breakfast before starting back to Milan. We left Ged packing for planned trip to Washington for a 2 month contract. The run back was quite good and being earlier there was no queue at the tunnel entrance.

Windtrainer fun

My scafoid after the tangle with the fence post

On the ridge...

Running along the ridge

Goat herder singletrack

Kath cutting through the back lanes of a village on our ride around Miglieglia in the Swiss Alps

One of our nearby coffee chops in Milan - a church on the site was first built in the 5th century, not sure when the coffee shop got tacked on the side...

Milano and the Swiss Hospital System

Next day we headed into Milan. We managed to find our way through the city to our flat and the caretaker had our key ready. Even better, the flat was bright and pleasant inside and in an interesting and convenient spot. It had been hard to choose one via email so we were relieved to find it was a good place. The only catch is that it is on the fifth floor with no lift (very common in Europe). So we spent the next hour or two running up and down the stairs unloading all our stuff.Settled in we went off to try and solve where to park. Apparently resident parking permits are hard to come by so we couldn’t park in our street. Luckily the landlady told us about a nearby parking amnesty the next week. For the moment we purchased some scratch off parking tickets and eventually worked out what all the signs and road markings meant. We left the car that night out on a nearby road and were relieved to find it survived its first night alone in a big city.Next day we looked around town a little and then on Sunday headed north for a ride in the Swiss Alps. In an hour and half we were in the mountains and getting the bikes off the roof. Although expensive the motorways certainly let you get around quickly. The ride looped through some small villages, went up a monster bitumen climb and the rewarded us with some nice singletrack along a forested ridge. Dropping back into the town where we left the car I tried a jump off a road onto some singletrack and landed in a rut. The bike kicked left and I hit a chainlink fence, slid along it and collected the steel girder used as a fence post. After a few moments of reflection I struggled up and contemplated my sore jaw, wrists and shoulder. Everything still seemed to work so I rolled on to catch up to Kath. Back at the car my right wrist didn’t seem so good so we dropped into Lugarno hospital on our way out. They expertly diagnosed a sprain and sent me on my way.Tuesday on the phone I mentioned the crash to Martin and described where my wrist hurt. Alicia then said that was exactly where a scafoid break would hurt and that I needed an x-ray because untreated these breaks could cause part of the bone to die off. I headed off to the hospital and after an exciting 5 hour stay which tested both my patience and my Italian I got a cast on my broken wrist. It was the scafoid but fortunately it was a clean break and no immediate operation was required. So much for my stereotypes about the precise nature of Swiss people providing a competent hospital system.

View from our hotel on the shore of Lake Maggiore

Heading down...

Looking from the peak of Le Brevent across the valley to Mt Blanc

Clouds lift on our ride near Chamonix

Telecabine high over the valley

Kath outside a Meursault Chateau

Folly nesteld in a Burgundy vineyard

The bikes styling up the car in the vineyards of Champagne

France to Italy

From Belgium we headed into the northern part of France. We cut across above Paris and headed south towards the French Alps. On the way we stopped in at the memorial to Australian soldiers in WWI. Next was a brief stop in Champagne. The actual region is quite small and despite it being a local holiday we found a winery open and proceeded to have a long but stilted chat in French with the owner who was the 3^rd generation to farm the same land.

Next we headed down to Burgundy for some more wine tasting and a nice half day ride through the chateaux and vines. We also took a quick look at Dijon and got the gas struts for the rear hatch on the car fixed. It was all done quickly and promptly but it was a surprising thing to fail in a three week old car.

We camped that night in the beautiful old village of Meursault. Centuries of wine making had endowed it with a series of elegant Chateaux and we wandered through it in the evening before dinner.

Up early the next morning we headed for the mountains. We went through the pleasant lakeside town of Annecy and just made it to Chamonix by late afternoon. It wasn’t a promising looking place to stay as it was cold, windy and raining when we arrived. We got a weather forecast from the tourist office that promised better conditions tomorrow so we decided to stay. After putting up the tent the clouds started to break so we went for a spin on the bikes and watched as the veil lifted from the peaks around the town.

The next day dawned clear and bright so we headed for the gondola. We planned only to go part way up but as it was so clear we locked our bikes and talked our way onto the telecabine up to the peak. The views were magnificent – Mt Blanc was just across the valley and the surrounding peaks were sharp in the clear morning air. We got talking to the telecabine guy on the way down and contrary to what we had been told at the tourist office it was possible to take our bikes all the way up. So with his help we took the next cabin back up – this time with our bikes. A scenic fireroad descent followed and by the time we got back to the valley 1000 metres below our hands were cramping and I had toasted my front disc brake pads.

We jumped in the car (after a farewell croissant) and headed over to Switzerland and then over the Simplonpass in to Northern Italy. We started looking for a campground near Lake Maggiore but by now it was August and peak holiday season. We ended up in a pleasant hotel right on the lake and ate on our balcony enjoying the great views over the lake.