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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.