Three Weeks in Europe 2017

[kave]

Before we where sure we could make several days in a row in our Cali Beach we booked a house on the french riviera for two weeks this summer. The more we enjoyed our Cali this spring, the more we realised it will be no problem staying for multiple days. Backs will be used to the "comfort" madrass, our routine of packing etc will improve.
We started our journey a week before we should be at our house the 14th of July.
I have made some changes to the rear end of the van allowing us to hide away even more stuff on our journey and make sure the Comfort madrass in transport mode would not interfere with the boxes under it.

14th July
We started at 07.00 pointing the nose south, car fully packed, bicycles on the Thule 929. This setup allowed us 4 bikes and access to the boot and not be over 2m, no noticable increase in fuel consumption.
We headed for the best bakery on the south part of sweden, Fäldts Bröd in Halmstad

Next stop was Copenhagen. We stopped at a car park and took the bicycles for a spin. Copenhagen is probably on of the better bicycle cities of the world. Bicycles and pedestrians are usually separated.

We found a nice fridge but it was slightly too large for our cali:

After copenhagen we took the ferry Rödby-Puttgarten. Around 20.00 in the evening we started looking for a place to spend the night. The excellent park4night app served us with a place in Heiligenhafen. Clean and sterile:

15th of July
I have made some research and it seemed on of germanys larger bicycle web shops have a store in Bonn so we decided to go there next on our way south. It was huge, but still had no gloves fitting our 9 year old son. The 7 year old desperately liked to buy a downhill helmet though:

For the night we spent the night at Bonns excellent "Aire", free for campers:

The area was nice and had many bicycle paths with one leading into the city centre:

We had a good nights sleep and woke up refreshed.

16th of July
We started heading for Geneva on the Autobahn. Around lunch time the car mad a sound displaying "200km to Oil service". What a chock, being used to BMW which complains about service for a really long time before service I felt quite depressed. After some uplifting by the kids I decided we can just do one thing and that is drive. I have to try and make arrangements for service in germany or france.
We have found an interesting place near Val D'Isere at the crappy https://www.france-passion.com site and was heading that way. Finally we get the look of mountains on our way:

I called the site to see if we could have dinner there. The lady answered "Dinner served 19:30". Well, we are arriving 20.00 I said. Sorry, everyone eats at 19:30.
We decided we can at least use it to sleep so we did. Place offered a basic toilet and a parking space:

 

[kave]

17th of July
We woke up to a great morning.

The surroundings where fantastic. Clear air, dead silent:

A nice washing in the cold mountain water:

Our cali between the whites preparing breakfast:

The France Passion sites menu, maybe be where lucky to not eat there anyway, their speciality is snails:

Onward

It strike me many times how many footpaths there is in the french alps. Its seems endless.

Down to Val'D Isere for some MTB riding:

The lifts are free for anyone to use, you just need to visit the tourist centre to get a yellow band first.

Me and Leo (9yo) took the easiest downhill path. It was enough with normal XC bikes and no other protection than helmets.
Next stop, Grand Sassiere. I came over this video for two years ago and thought I must do the same trip with my MTB:

It was an even better place to stay then the night before:

We had a nice look of all the mountains around:

Kids playing with their bikes, no need for parks here:

 

[kave]

18th of July
Woke up to a fantastic morning:

Time for the big ride up the mountain ( I thought).
I started riding for 7 minutes, then it was walking, pushing, climbing with the bike on the back or in hands. I am glad my bike is not new and has its marks and dents already. It seems this path was difficult to even walk

I made it up to 3000m, then I turned around back again. I was too afraid to fall down in the strong wind:

On the way down I took a different shorter path visible on the map. My god, this was the worst I have ever experienced. At one time I was close to give up, I could not move forward or backwards.
Well, I somehow managed it in one piece. Clearly I am not made up of the same as this french MTB rider.
Down to Val'D Isere again:

We stayed at the excellent Val D'Isere camping. It was cheap (20€ for us four), close to the centre. If something it was a bit too close to the main road.

Val D'Isere was quite sleepy during the evening. Most restaurants where closed waiting for winter guests. I guess by making the lifts free in summer time tries to lure tourists and then start charging after a few years again.

After a good nights sleep we where off again:

 

[Hotel California]

Keep 'comming , pictures says it all ....fabulous vacation the way i like it ! Exept for me no biking but hiking

 

[kave]

19th of July
Onward again.

Time to go south. We went trough the town Briancon for some shopping. We noticed lots of bicycles everywhere as well as team buses. It seems Tour De France was in the area. We passed lots of fans making their camp a day before TDF passes them. We made camp at a good camp in the town Guillestre ready for an early departure.

Dinner time:

20th of July, stuck in a small french town
We started early. Packed everything and left the camp

The direction we liked to go was closed by the police. I tried to get out of them at what time the road should open and only got a laugh back.
We tried all exit roads from the village but all where closed by the police. I have now idea why, sure TDF passed through the city, but there where other roads that did't have anything to do with TDF.
Well, Police thought best to close down the city so we where stuck with walking to the village centre

In hindsight this was not bad, I like cycling and it would be cool to watch tour de france, probably a once in my life moment.
We went to town and saw all the police etc. We stand there watching and saw them coming. I thought, they are a bit small, even for a road cyclist. It seems the woman have their own race just ahead of TDF:

The village got a new church organist player:

Time for lunch, Cali style:

I made my research and noticed that between the woman race and TDF is something called the Caravan. Make lots of noise and you end up with freebies:

One size fits all:

Time for the TDF leader to pass. Sir Chris Froome:

For us in Sweden with mostly wooden buildings we like to see stone and concrete:

Time to go. Miss Kave have read about a small village called Saorge which was on our way.
On the way we passed the Tende pass, we didnt have time to pass over it but took the tunnel.
Saorge:

We first figured we should wild camp but decided not to. Some strange activity so we stayed at another 20€ camp:

 

[kave]

21th of July
We took our bicycles the 3km for the camping to the Saorge Village. I noticed the had a dedicated Caravan/motorhome park at the top of the village as well as a WC close by. The evening before I argumented there cant be any parking spaces free close to the village since it is so small and don't allow cars. I was wrong.

It is well worth a visit if you pass through:

We headed south again. Down to the town where our rented summer house where, the town of Agay.
We thought we should wild camp soemwhere. When swimming in the Ocean I saw motorhomes parked just by the ocean. I looked it up and called the camping. 20€ for us for you say? And a 2€ extra if you like to have a pitch 1cm from the Beach? We take it.
When we arrived 20 minutes later the 2€ extra pitch where already taken, but we got another one just 20m or so from the Ocean:

I can't believe how easy and cheap camping is in France. The prices and the campings are so much better than what we have in Sweden. I don't even know if we even have a camp this close to the water.
A 45 seconds walk from our Van:

 

[Teejay]

Some lovely scenery in there, I'd love to watch the tour up close and personal. I'm liking the journal style, small descriptions and lots of pictures.

 

[WelshGas]

There are Campsites on the water, lake and sea, in Sweden, stopped at 3 of them, all ASCI camps.
Keep the pictures coming.

 

[kave]

We got our house that we have rented for two weeks with two other families. The other families didnt rent any cars, so they where quite stuck in the house. I had my mtb with me so I did small trips in the area.
This is the view from our house:

The beds in the house where even worse than our bed in the Cali, so I put the comfort madress on top of the bed which made it better.

We even used our Weber