1. Oct, 2022

SATURDAY 1-10-22

It was a nice quiet night and we were up in reasonable time. The Chef was away to the toilet block in good time and came back not too impressed again. There's no problem with the shower itself. There is full control of the temperature and flow rate with no silly buttons to push, but the cubicles are small and it's all a bit skanky. I don't remember it being like this the last time we were here, but time can play tricks with the mind. I instead went surfing t'internet until I judged that the rush was over and the cubicles free of Johnny Foreigners.

Once we were scrubbed up and fed we made our way in to Orange. It's a twenty minute walk if you walk in the right direction.

Interestingly up until now there had seemed to be no alternative to Camping Manon when visiting the town, but today walking past the Arc de Triomphe we spotted opposite, a car park (N44.142572° E4.806525°) with two entrances. One with a height restriction bar and one without (it's owned by an Irish company). There were a number of motorhomes in there and having taken a closer look there seemed to be no notices banning them being there, or banning overnight parking. So for those passing through who just want a look around the town before moving on then it is an option to consider.

Once in the town we made a point of getting our bearings so that we knew which road we wanted to get back to the campsite.

So a bit about Orange:

Roman Orange was founded in 35 BC by veterans of the second legion as Arausio (after the local Celtic water god), or Colonia Julia Firma Secundanorum Arausio in full, "the Julian colony of Arausio established by the soldiers of the second legion." The name was originally unrelated to that of the orange fruit, but was later conflated with it.

Arausio covered an area of some 70 ha (170 acres) and was well-endowed with civic monuments; in addition to the theatre and arch, it had a monumental temple complex and a forum.

It was the capital of a wide area of northern Provence, which was parcelled up into lots for the Roman colonists. "Orange of two thousand years ago was a miniature Rome, complete with many of the public buildings that would have been familiar to a citizen of the Roman Empire, except that the scale of the buildings had been reduced – a smaller theatre to accommodate a smaller population.

The town prospered, but was sacked by the Visigoths in 412. It had, by then, become largely Christianised, and from the end of the third century constituted the Ancient Dioceseof Orange.

The sovereign Carolingian counts of Orange had their origin in the eighth century; they passed into the family of the lords of Baux. From the 12th century, Orange was raised to a minor principality, the Principality of Orange, as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. During this period, the town and the principality of Orange belonged to the administration and province of  Dauphiné.

When William the Silent, count of Nassau, with estates in the Netherlands, inherited the title Prince of Orange in 1544 (known to his friends as 'Jaffa'), the principality was incorporated into the holdings of what became the House of Orange-Nassau. This pitched it into the Protestant side in the Wars of Religion, during which the town was badly damaged. In 1568, the ‘Eighty Years War’ began with William as stadtholder leading the bid for independence from Spain. William the Silent was assassinated in Delft in 1584. His son, Maurice of Nassau (Prince of Orange after his elder brother died in 1618), with the help of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, solidified the independence of the Dutch republic. The United Provinces survived to become the Netherlands, which is still ruled by the House of Orange-Nassau. William, Prince of Orange, ruled England as William III. Orange gave its name to other Dutch-influenced parts of the world, such as the Oranges (West Orange, South Orange, East Orange, Orange) in New Jersey and the Orange Free State in South Africa.

The city remained part of scattered Nassau holdings until it was repeatedly captured by the forces of Louis XIV during his wars of the late 17th century. The city was occupied by France in 1673, 1679, 1690, 1697 and 1702–1713 before it was finally ceded to France in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht. Following the French in 1789, Orange was absorbed into the French département of Drome, then Bouches-du-Rhone, then finally Vaucluse. However, the title remained with the Dutch princes of Orange.

First it was round to the Ancient Roman Theatre. We had been told by the young lady in the campsite Reception that a visit to it was free and we just needed to go up some steps, well that wasn't how we remembered it, but anyway we'd go in pay or not. So pay we did. I'd bought with me fifty Euros in cash as personal spending money for the odd whatever. At this late stage of the trip I still had forty-five of them left. Step forward Mr Generous who paid for the two ten Euro tickets with his hard-earned pension payments.

It was yet another enjoyable visit to this impressive structure, though a trife annoying that quite a bit at the back of the complex was prohibited to the public because of building work. naturally enough there was no discount on the ticket price to reflect this but it's the same everywhere.

We did make our way up the steep steps to the back of the seating area for a better view. Now I have mentioned in the past how my darling Chef doesn't really like heights, though she is often very brave about it. I remember in the early days of our relationship we went up to the Lake District for a little hiking holiday. One day we climbed Scafell Pike, but as we approached the top in pretty lousy weather The Chef said she wouldn't go any further, that she would wait for me to go to the top and return. I told her that we had come up together, and we would go down together. We either both go to the top of neither of us goes to the top. She took a deep breath and went for it. I was so proud of her and she was so pleased with herself.

...........I digress

So having reached the very top of the steep steps to the back of the theatre, she realised that had been the easy bit, she didn't have to look down, but to get down she would need to. The solution was for me to walk down in front of her and descend one step at a time with her resting a straight arm on my shoulder. That way she had some support and wouldn't see downwards.

On the way down I told her there were probably lots of other visitors looking at the pair of us and saying "Look at that blind lady, isn't she brave".

Having 'done' the complex we decided to have lunch, and found a nice little place across the road, where we dined and chatted for ages before setting off again.

We went around the back of the theatre to find the walk up to the park above it which we remembered doing before. When we found the start of it, there were the steps, and yes it was free, so she in Reception was only half right.

There were lovely views from the top including Mount Ventoux, (1909m), about twice as high as Scafell Pike. Once again we sat and chatted for ages whilst enjoying the lovely views. Then it was time to make our way down.Passing the local Roman Candle church we came across a wedding that was taking place, and so being cheeky we went and stood at the back of the church and watched probably about half of the ceremony.

Then it was round to the Theatre's museum (included in the ticket price) which we got to with only about half an hour to spare before it closed.

Then time for 'home' stopping off at the Aldi supermarket on the way for a few  bits and pieces.

Tomorrow we hit the road for home stopping off three times where all being well we'll take a look at other interesting things, but tomorrow is a busy day at the office when, all being well, we'll spend the night in yet another supermarket car park.

30. Sep, 2022

30. Sep, 2022

30. Sep, 2022

30. Sep, 2022

FRIDAY 30-09-22

It was a peaceful but windy night parked across the road from our 'wine supplier'. We've probably been here two or three times in the past and the Camperstop has been the busiest we'd ever seen it. Today was to be a bit of a nothing day because it was only a fifteen or twenty mile journey to Orange, and so we used the morning wisely by preparing for the  journey home. The Chef cleaned the bathroom while I checked the tyre pressures and ride height of the air assisted suspension, after that it was a bit of a joint effort in changing the king-size duvet from the summer 4.5tog to the 10.tog. Nights are getting cooler now and as we need to keep a roof vent partially open for ventilation, a warmer duvet should do the trick. I just hope it doesn't get so cold on the journey north that we have to join them both together to make a 15tog.

We were able to book in to Camping Manon www.camping-manon.com (N44.146878° E4.795682°) because they stay open an extra month, closing at the end of October which is much more convenient for campers. What we liked was that they were very grown up about our arrival. Departing campers must leave by 12:00 when the campsite Reception closes for a lie-down. If we arrived before they re-opened we could enter the campsite, pick our pitch get set up, then at 15:00 go up to Reception to tell them our pitch number and pay them. I wish more campsites did that because if you're travelling a long distance to your campsite it's not always possible to time your arrival to suit the campsite.

We arrived here about 13:00 and set about finding a pitch we were happy with. This being towards the end of the season there were plenty to choose from. We deliberately picked one that wasn't being shaded by pine trees because today has been very windy and we didn't want the vehicle roof to be bombarded with falling pine cones during the night.

We've been here once before but I'm darned if I can find it on the blog. We'll be heading in to town tomorrow, which is forecast to be a better day, and maybe, just maybe, we'll get to eat out.

So as it's a short posting today please allow me to bring you up to date on a couple of things. At the end of the last trip I was going to look at various options for having a data sim card whilst travelling. In the end because we only need such cards for a few weeks each year I concluded that I didn't want a contract paying regularly each month for the whole of the year. Instead I'm sticking with 3Mobile and buying their preloaded data sim cards which last for thirty days. It's the usual deal - can only use data abroad up to 12Gb under their 'fair use' policy, but a 25Gb card lasting 30 days costs £12.55. I'll have used three of them by the end of the trip so for about £37.00 I'm sorted, and on this trip it not only covered all the uploading on to the blog, morning viewing of the news etc but also highlights of the Queen's funeral on the day thanks to the BBC iPlayer.

Secondly, for those of you eagle-eyed enough to notice that our habitation door now has a black door lock, I shall explain. Please feel free to wipe a tear from your eye as the story unfolds.

I take our personal security seriously when we're travelling. We have secondary locks on the exterior cupboards and the habitation door, but I've always felt we were vulnerable to a forced entry through the two front cab doors. Then I came across the Milenco door locks and fitted them myself. Basically they are mounted to the sides of the door itself. When the door is in the closed position they can be unlocked and swung across the door pillar and locked again. This prevents them from being opened from the outside. After they were fitted I felt a lot more confident, especially while we were sleeping in some of the locations we've been to.

Whilst the motorhome is parked on the driveway down the side of the house those locks are in position and locked down. Well about a year ago I went to open the habitation door but couldn't get it to open. The secondary lock could be swung over but the main door, wouldn't open. I don't usually use the door's lock, relying only on the swing-across secondary lock. This had me puzzled. There was clearly a mechanical problem with the lock. No problem, I'll unlock the cab doors open up and climb in through them and sort the habitation lock. Oh dear..........of course the cab doors wouldn't open due to the secondary locks being in place. I was stuffed, so I drove down to the local garage who look after both the motorhome and car and asked if they had a knack of getting in to vehicles. They said they'd send somebody along, and sure enough they did. Craig the engineer took a good look at the problem and said the only way he could gain entry would be the same way as me and that would make a lot of mess, and mess equals expense. He suggested we have a go at drilling through the habitation door lock to see if we can dismantle it. Once he'd got the ball rolling I thanked him very much and told him I'd be ok to vandalise the rest. And so I did.

Once I had dismantled the lock I found that one of the sliding pieces of the mechanism had broken in half, now I had to get it replaced. What a game that was. In the end I found myself talking to ES Hartley, in Kendal, Cumbria. The guy there was so helpful and having established which way the lock was mounted and whether that was viewed from the inside or out he sent me the one remaining lock he had on the shelf, but it was black, he doubted he could get a buff coloured one from anywhere, so black it was.

Having mounted the new lock I then need to replace the outer section which I/we had damaged in order to gain entry. That proved more difficult, in fact it was impossible, and so I found myself weaving magic using fine wire mesh and Isopon P38 to sculpt a new piece in place. Just a tin of spray paint and the job was done. Looking back I think I had inadvertently locked the habitation door lock with the key, something that is normally never done, and that's why we couldn't gain entry. Anyhow, either way, I was so relieved to have found a solution to the problem. All in all it cost about £150 in parts and material, and I now make sure I don't ever lock that door with its key. So there you have it - black is the new beige.

Tomorrow we're off for a brisk walk in to Orange town for a look round, and maybe a meal out. If we have one it had better be a lot better that a McDonalds.