Campervan Therapy

Biguglia – Dian’Arte On our way to St. Florent, we detour – just because we can – to the Dian’Arte sculpture museum, showcasing the work of Gabriel Diana. We stroll around bronzes of Corsica’s emblematic moor’s head, men and women, stretched as if elastic, a rusting globe topped with a tree of human figures, a…

We struggle to find a campsite with an available pitch near Genoa where we’re getting the ferry to Corsica’s Bastia – it’s August after all. La Vesima Campsite, Arenzano This ramshackle campsite is sandwiched between Liguria’s SS1 coast road and the railway line. Rugged cliffs hem in the small shingle beach, making it claustrophobic. The…

Local Producers – Valsar Butchers MAPS.ME tells us there’s a walking trail opposite the campsite, running parallel with Sarre’s hectic SS26. Here there’s no sirens, no beeping cars, no speeding motorbikes, but a peaceful path by flower filled gardens, vines, orchards and vegetable gardens. And so we find Valsar, butchers. We load up with spicy…

The Piccolo San Bernardo Pass Fran the Van climbs up to the Alpine pass, the Col Petit St. Bernard, on the French side, and the Piccolo San Bernardo on the Italian. Jagged mountains, heathland and indigo lake leaves me silent – and, for those who know me, that is a rare occurrence. It’s only 14…

Two days’ drive takes us from the Lot’s mellow country roads to the hairpin 10% slopes of the Cévennes Mountains and the mighty gorges of the Tarn and Ardèche. Aveyron’s Recoules Prévinquières The N88 passes Laissac, famous as a cattle market. You can watch the auctioneers at work and have a slap-up steak for breakfast.…

Luzech I love how water goes with the flow and I’m happiest doing that too, so it’s no surprise that we find ourselves by yet another river, the green and verdant Lot. We’re visiting friends, Jonathan and Clare, who’ve moved to the village of Luzech. We lunch and chat under the wisteria, looking out on…