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Friday 8th March – La Spezia to Bologna (via a breakdown near Campogalliano)

Up early with the hotel breakfast, we planned not to stop for lunch as we wanted to be in Bologna for 2pm. We went straight onto the toll roads, heading inland to the Tuscan countryside where it was gratifyingly less mountainous so no bridges or tunnels. We decided to have a quick break in Parma as we were making good time. We stretched our legs and enjoyed a drink sitting outside a restaurant in a little piazza not far from the Cathedral. The car park in Parma was a little way from the centre and so by the time we returned we were worried we would arrive in Bologna later than we intended. I sent a text the Air B&B owner in Bologna to say we expected to arrive at about 2.30. They replied with the instructions we needed to get the key, so it did not matter what time we arrived, which turned out to be very fortunate.

Parma

At a few minutes after two, just after joining the road to Bologna, we noticed a strange noise coming from the engine, followed almost immediately by a flapping sound. Al took the next available turn and we struggled off that Motorway onto another one losing power and issuing an increasing amount of smoke. We managed to make it onto the hatchings just after the junction before coming to a stop.

Uh oh! Yes, that’s diesel sprayed up into the hood, and everywhere else

We got out of the smoking car and were able to pop the hood, but not before I noticed that the engine bay around the catch was coated in something oily. I had been able to smell the diesel from inside the van. Al took the emergency pack and placed the break down triangle behind the van. I looked at the fuel explosion under the bonnet. It was still smoking slightly. We called the AA Euro recovery number and stepped over the barrier onto a grassy slope away from the traffic noise and fumes. The only buildings near us were some apparently abandoned farm buildings. Our phones batteries were half full and we had a small bottle of water. It was hot and the traffic was racing past at speed.

The AA said that the recovery vehicle would take between 1 and 2 hours to get to us. We were trying to see the brighter picture and hoped there was still a chance the engine could be repaired at the roadside and we could be on our way. A police car stopped to see what was happening and after hearing our pidgin Italian explanation they were satisfied and moved on. After a while a highways worker also stopped to see what we were doing. He looked under the bonnet and if we still had any hope, his expression put the dampeners on it. As he was leaving we heard a whistle from the slow traffic in the lane travelling in the other direction, it was our recovery truck. Once the driver managed to get off at the next junction and return to us he took a quick look at the engine. “Bad problem” he said. Without any further pre-amble he started getting the van ready to go onto his truck. Within 5 minutes we were on our way to Campogalliano, sitting up in the truck cab.

“Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course”

William Shakespeare

At the GMC garage we met the owner Massimo who spoke little English. We communicated with hand gestures, google translate, a smattering of French and Massimo patiently speaking very slowly. He explained that he thought the van could be fixed, possibly, but would not be able to look at it until Monday. We explained that the van was really full, that it contained our whole house. He valiantly took to the phone to find us a van to hire immediately and we checked the internet to see where the nearest car hire place was. He couldn’t get us a hire van and offered to rent us his own car. We had managed to get onto Avis in Moderna and booked a car online. The staff at GMC ordered us a taxi to Modena as we explained our plan to come back from Modena in the hire car and take what we could from the van, then to return on Saturday morning to get the rest. They were open until 7 that night so although it would be tight it was possible and they opened 8 until 12 the following morning. It was all agreed and our taxi arrived.

While in the taxi the AA called to check that the recovery had happened and confirmed to Al that the taxi and hire car would be covered, which was a relief. At Avis we were talked into upgrading to a Ford Kuga, especially as it was an automatic (no having to change gear with the “wrong” hand), and managed to get the whole thing done in about 5 minutes. We returned to Campogalliano and grabbed whatever we could fit into the car before finally setting off for Bologna. We drove past the spot where we had been stood forlornly alongside our smoking van only 4 hours earlier.

In Bologna our Air B&B had no onsite parking but we just pulled up out front, got the key from the key safe, and started unloading. The apartment was beautiful, and on the 1st floor, with lots of windows and an outside space. We piled everything in and took the car to the nearby carpark the Air B&B owners had recommended. We went straight from the car park into the centre of Bologna for something to eat as we were starving. We walked around the Piazza Maggiore reminding ourselves where things were from our last visit and ended up in the old market lanes. It was very busy because it was Friday night and we walked around a bit before feeling brave enough to approach a restaurant. We finally picked a place and wanted to eat outside (all the bars on this road have patio heaters outside) so we spoke to the waiter and took a table, sitting on high stools around a barrel. I looked up and saw that we were at Tamburini, the same place we had our first meal on our first visit.

  • Out of focus meats and cheeses

After everything we were finally here in Bologna, sitting at a restaurant, eating meats and cheeses followed by pasta and drinking good wine, while the people of Bologna went about their usual weekend activities, with families filling the streets and enjoying the evening. It was 10pm and the city was buzzing. We had made it, we were in our new home.

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Thursday 7th March – Bordighera to La Spezia

The morning view from the balcony in Bordighera was a real treat and we were able to see through the trees and houses down to the sea. We had not realised how close we were. The garden was filled with fruit laden citrus trees. We headed out on the coast road in the direction of La Spezia. We had thought we would stop for lunch in Genoa but the timings did not seem to work out and as we drove past the outskirts, of what is an undoubtedly industrial city, we did not see anything condusive to taking a break and enjoying the view.

  • View from our balcony

The coast road did not follow close enough for us to see Portafina except in outline. During the dash across the country we had used many toll roads and I had a very lovely bruise on the underside of my left arm from leaning on the rolled down window, stretching out of the passenger window to pick up tickets or insert the payment card. The journey around the coast had avoided the tolls and offered us fabulous scenery but was adding considerable time and physicality to our drive. We drove through Rappelo and then, after a quick calculation of how long it would take on the coast road vs the toll roads, we decided to go for the toll roads to save 2 hours and Al’s aching shoulders. The toll roads here, while less winding than the coast road, are either long tunnels down into and up out of mountains or they are valley spanning bridges. The views were fantastic, but you were afraid to take your eyes off the road. The barriers in some places seemed very insubstantial and there were large stretches of road works that meant traffic in both directions was running in the same tunnel or area of bridge at 110km with little to separate them but the lane markers.

We arrived in La Spezia, another town about which we knew nothing, as the sun was beginning to set. Our last coastal stop before heading in land. The hotel NH La Spezia was central and the most expensive of the trip. Our room was great and although it did not have a balcony it did have an enormous picture window over the harbour. As we were on the 6th floor and not overlooked we left the curtains open so we could wake up with natural light.

We went on our nightly sojourn for food and found a lovely bar called Odioilvino which did excellent aperitivo. We stayed there for a few drinks before going for dinner which meant that we were already quite full when we left.

Aperitivo

We ended up in an Irish themed pub, which had a massive restaurant on the corner showing sports and a really intimidating old man style more traditional pub to the side. It is worth noting that we have found at least one Irish pub in every single place we have stopped in both France and Italy. The restaurant was noisy but it was getting late so we ate there before retiring to the hotel to prepare for our final day of driving and our arrival in Bologna.

Yes, that is chips on a pizza!
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Wednesday 6th March – Saint Maxime to Bordighera

A beautiful morning saw us make a coffee stop in Cannes where we were planning on following the trail of celebrity handprints, but most of them were included in an area being set up surrounding the conference centre and were not accessible. We bought crepes to go with our coffee and ate them overlooking the marina. Then back into the van and to lunch in Nice.

Al found a couple of lunch options from “Where Chef’s eat” and although the first one was closed the 2nd did not disappoint. La Rossettisserie, Nice is a small restaurant (at this time of year, I believe there is a nearby dining room for peak times) where you pick 1 item from the 4 meat options and 1 option from the accompaniments. I had roast pork with ratatouille while Al had roast veal with mashed potato. The walls are covered in the comments of grateful customers. Al declared it one of the best meals he had ever eaten.

  • Roast Pork
  • Roast Veal

Next stop was Monaco, here we found a lot of renovation work to the extent that billboards with images of the sea blocked the view to the actual sea because there was building work on the shore. Even the world famous street racing circuit for the grand prix had been dug up, presumably to allow for resurfacing before the race later this year. We were able to recognise and photograph some of the iconic landmarks and to get into the marina to admire the yachts and superyachts. We had a drink in a marina facing bar before trekking back to the van and heading for Italy

From La Ciotat to Monte Carlo we had mostly followed the coast road (although the sat nav was fighting us on it) which meant that we hugged the cliffs and mountains, going up and down on winding roads to get into and out of each coastal resort. Al was doing all of this on the other side of the road in a right hand drive van. Crossing the border was less of a marker than we anticipated. I sat with passports in hand as we entered a tunnel in France and emerged in Italy, unsure of what checks, if any, there would be from one Schengen country to another and the answer, none at all.

We arrived in Bordighera as the sun was setting. We had booked our hotel, Astoria, during the Monte Carlo stop and we were pleased to find that once again, we had a balcony. The hotel was fairly central so we popped to a bar to consider our options and were pleased to have aperitivo* delivered with the drinks, ah Italy! Al had found the details of a restaurant up the hill and after a steep climb we found it in the back streets. Ristorante Magiarge specialised in wine, so we treated ourselves to a bottle and ate their tasting menu, the food was fantastic.

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Tuesday 5th March – Saint Etienne to Saint Maxime

As with the previous day we had decided not to pay the extra for breakfast and headed straight out. It was, thankfully, a much drier day so the drive was more beautiful as we drove across the massif towards an ever larger mountain range. We had agreed over last night’s burgers to push for the coast and our progress was going to determine the exact stop off point. We had considered St Tropez, but it is very expensive.

  • Massif Central
  • Driving through Massif Central
  • Coming into the mountains

Our initial coastal stop was at La Ciotat, but it was under considerable construction and, as we arrived after 2pm, nothing was open at all. We climbed back into the van and continued to Saint Tropez where we stretched our legs and admired the yachts, the beautiful people in the cafés and tried to avoid the renovation works before heading off for our overnight stop in Saint Maxime.

I had never heard of Saint Maxime before, but it is a lovely resort town. We found our hotel relatively easily and were pleased to discover we had been allocated a room with a balcony again and this one had sea glimpses, although not when we arrived as it was already getting dark. Saint Maxime reminds me of Giardini Naxos in Sicily; A long sea front with an parallel row of restaurants and bars. However we found a great bar in the side road close to our hotel where we enjoyed a pre-dinner drink and were provided with some generous snacks including a lovely slab of pate. From there we went out in search of the rest of dinner. The roads just in from the front were nearer our price range although a number were also closed on Tuesday. Sadly the dinner options were not promising and although it was our last night in France we ended up eating in a Pizzeria. Tomorrow Italy.

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Monday 4th March – Chartres to Saint Etienne

At the Chartres hotel we decided against breakfast, choosing instead to hit the road straight away and pick up coffee and sandwiches en route. Central France is in many ways like Central Australia, wide open and the farm equipment gets bigger the further you travel. The Central Massif is very flat and we watched the storms approach and pass over for hours.

We had pencilled in Lyon for 2nd stop but revised our plans when it occurred to us that Lyon is full of excellent restaurants, many of which would be quite expensive. We are travelling on a tight budget with our house in the van. We would not be able to properly immerse ourselves in the experience this time around, so we looked for an alternate stop. For a mad moment we considered Geneva as we could see how relatively close this was to Lyon. A quick check of booking.com brought us up sharply as we realised that the cheapest hotel would set us back a cool £500. So it was Saint Etienne, chosen both for the appropriateness of our route and the 90’s pop group of the same name.

Our hotel had been selected because it had parking, but on arrival the parking was not available, however we were directed to parking 2 minutes’ walk away. We are big fans of France’s underground parking. No matter how ancient the town or how significant the buildings, you can usually find and easily accessible car park underneath a city with reasonable parking charges. By the time we got back to the hotel with our overnight bags we discovered we had been upgraded to a junior suite on the top floor with a balcony, lucky us!

  • The First balcony…

  • Determined to use the balcony even though it is March

It turns out Monday night in Saint Etienne is not an easier place to get food than Chartres on a Sunday. Most places were closed and not opening until Tuesday or even Wednesday. There were some expensive Italian places open but we settled on a local fast food restaurant which sold fantastic burgers with beer and wine. There is something a little disconcerting about taking your burger out of it’s paper wrapping next to your long stemmed wine glass, but I managed.

Fast food French style
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Sunday 3rd March – Southampton to Chartres (via Newhaven to Dieppe)

  • Rough seas and a cold wind on our way out of the country!

Jennie, Al and a full Volkswagen caddy made their way from Hedge End to Newhaven for a ferry crossing to Dieppe. There was a storm brewing which made our initial departure a little uncomfortable, but we remained ahead of it, with the sailing smoothing out before our arrival. After landing at Dieppe we stopped only for petrol, mixte baguettes and water before heading straight to Chartres.

Chartres is a beautiful cathedral town. The hotel we found was central and the room was exactly what we required. We had a brief walk about before searching for dinner.  Looking for food on Sunday evenings is always a challenge and no less so here. There were a couple of expensive places open near to the Cathedral, but most of the restaurants were closed. We ended up in an odd American TV themed restaurant where Al enjoyed a burger and I was served a bucket of Caesar salad. Al found a new beer and bitters combo (Piconbiere) that made his evening.