Do Scooters bounce?

Our next hit along the south coast of France was Cagnes sur Mer and a
pleasant site inland a mile or so, a nice base for a couple of days. The
drive along past Cannes and Antibes was very scenic up in the hills looking
down on the towns on the coast. At times it proved a bit slow going as there
were many a cyclist out and about and poor old Noddy needs a nice little bit
of clear road to get past going up a hill much to the annoyance of some very
impatient motorists behind at times but I am sure the cyclists appreciated
us not cutting it fine and running them into a ditch or off the side of the
hill. Although we left St Aygulf in good time aiming to arrive and check in
before lunch, we ended up arriving at the new site during lunch and the
office was shut and did not open until 16h00 so we had a bite to eat in the
van and had a doze for an hour or so.
On Monday we took a cycle into town and to the seafront. It is not the
prettiest stretch of town coast that can be found around, but there were
several large marinas full of rather nice yachts, and the weather was still
hot and sunny so we ended up having a relaxing stroll along the promenade
taking in all the sights and the smells of the restaurants. After a nice sit
on the pebbly beach we thought it would be best to head back to camp as the
clouds seemed to be massing in preparation for some non hot and sunny
weather, but luckily it all seemed to break up and dissipate.
I don't know what it is about European camp sites but they seem to have a
strange idea on what should and should not be made available in the toilet
block. For example, toilets will either be the old Turkish style hole in the
ground which is fine, or they put in new 'English' style toilets but don't
seem to bother with any toilet seats, or in several places any toilet paper.
Not terribly civilised. Mind you perhaps they are worried about things going
missing. Sue mistakenly left her shower gel and shampoo behind one morning
in the shower and it was nowhere to be seen when she went back to find it.
On Tuesday we headed for Italy. We decided to go along the coast road, Nice
Monaco Menton etc. What a mistake. It was a nice drive as far as what could
be seen, but it took ages to do as the roads were solid with traffic in
places, and the odd road works here and there did not aid the journey.
Eventually once over the border things started to progress a bit until we
hit Ventmiglia, the first town in Italy. What a crazy place and a pretty
quick introduction to the madness that is driving in Italy. It is bad enough
trying to make your way through the cars and trucks, but the scooters and
motorbikes they are something else. They just go, be it on their side or
your side of the road and don't really seem to have any concept of scooter
hits car it hurts.
Eventually after many a mile of playing 'avoid the idiot' we arrived in San
Remo where we were looking to stay the night, but the campsite we had picked
out was looking to charge us 44€ for the night plus 2€ for electricity.
Funnily enough we thought better of it and headed for the hills, well the
Autostrada to be precise, as we could not face any more town driving for the
time being. The A10 is quite an amazing road once you have climbed the hills
to get to it as it calves its way in and out of the tops of the hills either
by huge bridges spanning the valleys or tunnel after tunnel through the tops
of the hills. After a nice peaceful cruise looking down on the towns and all
the madness within we arrive at Albenga where we hoped to find a cheaper
site to stay at. And we certainly did just that, one of our ASCI sites for
14€ a night, can't complain, and they even have toilet seats!! One strange
thing that this site and others we have seen in the town have is static
caravans, normal road towing caravans. Nothing strange there, except that
these have had little shacks built around them turning them into little
villas, very quaint.
Today we mounted the bikes and made our way into Albenga town to have a look
around, especially at the old town where the cathedral dates back to the 4th
or 5th century. We only had one problem to start with, where to leave the
bikes. I asked a nice friendly policewomen in my best Italian, but she only
seemed to give the impression that despite there being loads of bikes
chained to lampposts and signs, that it was not the done thing and did not
recommend it. So eventually we managed to find a bike rack a little way from
the old town and duly chained them up.
The town was very nice, especially the pizzeria where we had lunch and a
nice litre of local wine. Well I think the waitress misunderstood me when I
asked for a half litre, would have been rude to send it back, hic.
After a wobbly ride back to the site, we kind of crashed out in the
sunshine. Life isn't that bad really.

Non mi dispiace guardare ma preferisco non partecipare.

Ciao

M&S