{"id":10384,"date":"2024-10-05T21:53:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T20:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/?p=10384"},"modified":"2024-10-06T19:13:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T18:13:13","slug":"day-62-travel-from-lucca-to-avignon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/05\/day-62-travel-from-lucca-to-avignon\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 62 – Travel from Lucca to Avignon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Not much to report today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We set off from the yard at the back of the garage for Avignon after some breakfast and coffee\/tea, at about 8:30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The concept of using a back yard to house camper and with a minimal toilet and shower setup was quite appealing. We were right in the centre of things yet we felt we and the van were safe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We filled up with diesel in Lucca and headed for the autostrada. We had 603km to munch before Avignon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lucca to Avignon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Avignon is actually a few hundred km out of our way. Ideally we should be going home through Switzerland. But Sue really wants to see Avignon and this may be our only chance to do it in the relatively low heat of October \ud83e\udd37\u200d\u2642\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not much to report on the route though. Satnav took us on a bit of a detour around xxx as we came off the motorway and took the coast path. We guessed that nav thought it was quicker that way but the traffic was still really slow around Vado Ligure, south west of Savona, as there was a \u201cswim the island\u201d event going on on the beach. Perhaps the nav had got as bored as we were and took us to see the swimming!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the day was pretty much as yesterday, 4 chinks of 150-ish Km with the two of us taking turns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Three stops a lot like this<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sue called the Aquadis Loisirs campsite a couple of times to put a deposit down on an electric pitch, but I think there were probably a few spaces anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campsite is one of a chain that we\u2019d visited before, last year. So when Sue said what her surname was, they already had her details, which freaked us out a bit. Then we realized it was a chain of sites and we relaxed a bit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s some pictures of the rather boring blast\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Heading west from Lucca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Lots of tunnels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
And lots of Paeges <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We must have gone through 30 tunnels today. And I suspect getting close to \u20ac100 in paege fees!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And by about 5pm we landed in Avignon, which was the best site we could find on Park4Night. It\u2019s almost directly across the river from the Papal Palace but that tomorrow means we have a bit of a walk \/ ride to the nearest bridge and through the old city walls into the city. Even so, we\u2019re right next to the city and it\u2019s probably only a 10 minute cycle into the heart of the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Arriving at Aquadis Loisirs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I think we thought the same of the sister to this campsite in the chain. Tired. So far it\u2019s all been very clean, and the reception staff weee ultra friendly. But there are loo doors that have clearly been fixed many times and the Formica coverings on various loo and wash panels are faded and tatty. It\u2019s fine, but feels like it\u2019s was designed in an age where camping wasn\u2019t touring \ud83e\udd37\u200d\u2642\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a 10 am entry to the palace booked for the morning, so no need for an early start. However, it\u2019s forecast to rain for most of tomorrow, so we\u2019ll have to see exactly how much of that we are prepared to put up with before retreating to the van again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re both very much ready for home now. But we\u2019re in two minds (maybe even three) on how to get home. We\u2019ve had enough of epic views and fantastic history, but we\u2019re also both feeling, for want of a better term, sea sick, when we stop driving. We\u2019re both getting out of the van after a few hours driving and finding we\u2019re quite unstable on our feet. So, long hours in the saddle is probably not a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our options are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Blast back in one day (that\u2019s about 12 hours of driving and the Chunnel, so about 18 hours elapsed). Do-able, but neither of us are up for that sort of commitment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • One overnight stop somewhere around Lyon. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Or two overnight stops that we can\u2019t decide upon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    We\u2019ll have to see how we feel after \u201cdoing Avignon\u201d tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Unlike almost every other campsite on the trip, this one is almost pitch black at night. It\u2019s a relief to not have lamps blaring all night. But I suspect the owners are doing it to save money! However there is a plentiful supply of hot water, great for washing up. The loos are clean and have loo paper, but no seat or soap. Well you can\u2019t have everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There\u2019s 3492 miles on the odometer this evening. And 1350km to home on the Nav.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Not much to report today. We set off from the yard at the back of the garage for Avignon after some breakfast and coffee\/tea, at about 8:30. The concept of using a back yard to house camper and with a minimal toilet and shower setup was quite appealing. We were right in the centre of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241005_093422_0022a-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yl38-2Hu","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10361,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/04\/day-61-leaving-naples-and-a-bit-of-lucca\/","url_meta":{"origin":10384,"position":0},"title":"Day 61 – Leaving Naples and a bit of Lucca","author":"John Martin","date":"October 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"So, we\u2019re on the way home! We\u2019re heading north now, and going to be taking big chunks out of the 2,500km we have to get there. Today\u2019s Route We had a spectacular thunderstorm roll through the bay of Naples last night, from about 11 until 1 - sheet and fork\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8875.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8875.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8875.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8875.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8875.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8875.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10470,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/day-65-home-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":10384,"position":1},"title":"Day 65 – Home Again","author":"John Martin","date":"October 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"And so our mini adventure ends. There\u2019s not much to say about the day itself and I\u2019ll leave the conclusions to further posts where I hope to pull some more considered thoughts together about the trip. However, for today, we did manage to get off from our one night stop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10320,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/03\/day-69-naples\/","url_meta":{"origin":10384,"position":2},"title":"Day 60 – Naples","author":"John Martin","date":"October 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Not much to report today. We trained it into Naples, wandered around and did the Underground Naples tour. Our start wasn\u2019t too rushed this morning, we were hoping to get the 9:30 train from the Villa Regina train station so we walked the 15 minutes to the station rather than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9875,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/22\/day-49-igoumenitsa-and-the-parrot-sketch\/","url_meta":{"origin":10384,"position":3},"title":"Day 49 – Igoumenitsa and the Parrot Sketch","author":"John Martin","date":"September 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"End of the seventh week and it\u2019s another travel day. After 10 days on Corfu (thoughts on Corfu at the end), we\u2019re on the homeward stretch now. It was an early start for Phil and Linda with a 5:45 taxi to Corfu airport. They had two flights today, one to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7615.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7615.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7615.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7615.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7615.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7615.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10400,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/06\/day-63-avignon\/","url_meta":{"origin":10384,"position":4},"title":"Day 63 – Avignon","author":"John Martin","date":"October 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Nine weeks! So we\u2019d performed a bit of a \u201cleft turn Clyde\u201d to get to Avignon and away from the direct route home via Switzerland. We\u2019d visited Avignon last year in August but wilted in the sun and didn\u2019t do any of the sights or town. This detour now, in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1984-1-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1984-1-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1984-1-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1984-1-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1984-1-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1984-1-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10384"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10437,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384\/revisions\/10437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}