Pisa and a mad dash to the sun in France

We woke, Thursday morning, to the most glorious sunny day in Pisa and after giving the dogs a brief walk and breakfast we set off to find the famous leaning tower - a 30+ minute walk away.

The walk took us through the outskirts of Pisa and then through the city walls, not that interesting, and no sight of the tower.  Then all of a sudden we rounded a corner and there it was - a bit smaller than I expected - but shining brightly in the sun.  The tower is situated in the Piazza del Duomo a beautifully kept square of grass which also contains Pisa Cathedral, what is known as the Pisa Baptistry (what I did not know is that there could be a whole building dedicated to a font and baptisms) and the Compostanto Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery).  All in all the whole complex is stunning and we were lucky to see it at its best. We enjoyed wandering around the area with the dogs (and all the tourists taking 'holding up Pisa' photos) and then took it in turns to look round the Duomo.

We returned to Vincent for lunch having not found a cafe we wanted to stop at on the walk back!  We decided to head off out of the Pisa Camping Car carpark - quite unattractive even if functional (typical of most of these sites in Italy we have found) - and headed off to Lucca, another walled town which we had heard was nice and not too far away.

We got to Lucca and found the 'camping car' carpark and got our ticket for the night as we drove through the barrier.  There was no one else there but it seemed pretty safe and the neighbourhood was OK, and as importantly, we could walk into the walled town easily.  So we locked up and decided to walk around the top of the walls around the town - a walk of 4.2 km - just right to stretch our legs as well as the dogs.  It was a very nice walk and we got back at dusk for tea and then dinner.

Over dinner we planned to walk around the town in the morning and then set off further up the coast towards France.   A late evening check of the weather forecast indicated some heavy rain the next day around Lucca and that area of Italy and snow in the foothills where we had also thought we might go .... well how often is a forecast right?

It started to rain about 2am and got very very heavy - it is also very noisy in a motorhome when it is raining - so we did not get much sleep and daylight showed the car park to be very wet with big puddles! Umm what shall we do now?

When travelling as we are we can just go, and as with prior times that is what we decided to do.  The weather map showed a low pressure system sitting over the area of Italy we were in for a week!  We needed to head west past Nice before there was clear weather so we hopped onto the autostrada and drove west.  Some 266 miles later we arrived a Camping Les Cigules, in a town called Mandelieu-La Napoule, just west of Cannes, a 15 min walk from the sea.  We are still here at the start of our 3rd night.

We arrived about 4 pm and the site was open with no one manning the gates and a notice to help yourself to a site and check in the next day.  So after a bit of looking about we chose a spot where we could see a canal and some boats and set off for a walk.... we all needed to stretch our legs!

On our first morning here, Saturday,  the sun was shining.  Bridget got up early and went for a 10+ km run and enjoyed the early morning warmth of the sun at the start of the day and about 10am we were able to eat breakfast - yes croissant and pain au chocolate - outside.  

We then went for a good walk along the coast westwards - some areas are marked as 'no dogs' but there are dogs everywhere and in the end we decided it was no dogs on the beach rather than the footpaths behind the beach.  We stopped for a beer and some frites on the way back to Vincent and skipped lunch.  Dinner was eaten out at a local brasserie which was nice and we discovered, on the way to dinner, that the local 'expo' centre had a 3 day food festival - wine and local produce from France.  We decided that a further night's stay was needed to visit this!

Today, Sunday, has been just as sunny but there is a cool wind blowing which makes it feel a bit cooler - however it was at least 14C today.  We visted the food fair as planned late morning - there was lots in there - wine (all quite expensive), lots of fois gras (which neither of us like much), plently of cheeses and sausages, chocolates etc but in the end despite trying some wine and other bits we left empty handed.  Well worth the visit!  This afternoon we walked along the beach in the other direction,towards Cannes, and gave the dogs a good run about.  We plan to set off westwards tomorrow towards San Tropez and the wine route of Provence before heading northwards.

I have plotted our route to date and you can see it here .... https://www.thenaylors.co.uk/vincentvangoes/maps/