Les Alpilles 2014

2013 - a year without France! We have been in Croatia.  But in 2014 we had withdrawal symptoms concerning France. So we four (Ute, her sister Ingrid, Ingrid's husband Wolfgang and me) started on May 23, 2014 again to a journey in the Provence, this time in the departement Bouches-du-Rhône, in the small village  Mouriès at the southern slope of the Alpilles. We had booked a vacation domicile at Interchalet .The vacation home was okay, even if there was some little reductions .

The total distance of 1300 km from  Halle to Mouriès we don't complete in one day . After 800 km we have a stay in Besançon  in the hotel Zenitude. We have been there. It is located in the western outskirts of the city next the medicine department of the university and very reasonably priced

Hotel Zenitude in Besançon

For one stay  (2 persons) we have to pay only 51 €. Great is the possibility to park our car in an enclosed basement garage. And for 8 € we have a very good breakfast (atypically for France).

After this breakfast we start in a southward direction, but not on the expensive toll roads. We use the free national and departemental roads.  We begin on the N83 in direction Lons-le-Saunier leading  through lovely  landscapes of  Doubs and later the French Jura. Lons is the capital of the Jura and a relatively busy city.

After Besançon

In front of us the French Jura

Lons-le-Saunier

Lons-le-Saunier

By the way, in Lons is produced the famous cheese  "La vache qui rit - the laughing cow" , in France a cultic brand!


The N83 after Lons is now called D1083. The central government in Paris wants to safe money and rededicates the national roads to departmental roads. Quite straight without big curves we head for Bourg-en-Bresse.  There is a very spacious bypass. (return we drive through the city relatively problem-free on the shortest way). The Bresse is a  flat countryside strewn with many small lakes and ponds.

Now, the roads are getting "more French", right and left bordered by tall planes. It looks a little like Southern France.

Soon we approach Lyon. Always a critical node when you  drive southward in France. Here, we can use some free parts of the motorway. But we cannot! We are hardly on the A46 and are driving direction Marseille  we must brake! JAM!  Junction Marseille closed! Road works. Our GPS is confused. It proposes adventurous routes. At any time we return on the same place where we left the road. Now, we can make out the deviation signs ! An unimposing, small, yellow sign. We are able to change the lane and we are on the right road! We see: Marseille Grenoble Lyon. Finally!

We drive still a while on this part of the autoroute-called like in Paris "peripherique". Shortly before Vienne  the free part finishes and we leave the A7.  On the four-lane  D1407 (actually N7)  directly at the Rhône bank we go through Vienne. A wonderfull view of the Rhône valley!  We stay a while between the A7 and the big, southward flowing river. Somewhere on the banks we buy from a farmer delicious cherries.

Die Rhône in Vienne

In Touron-sur-Rhône we cross the river and stay now on the right bank of the Rhône until shortly before Avignon. On the  N100 we reach the Pont de l'Europe and cross the Rhône again. We drive on the southern edge of the city now in the direction of the Alpilles. On the northern slope of the mountain lies St-Remy-de-Provence, a place we will frequent more often in the next time.

The road winds in serpentines upward.  Up on the ridge (just 300 m high), let's make a short break to make phone calls with our relatives.  Then we go down through some sharp curves on the nice, smooth asphalt road D5. After the pine forest is over, now we see vineyards and olive plantations  on the right and left of the road . The southern slopes of the Alpilles is the largest olive growing region of France. We cross still Maussane-des-Alpilles and then we see the entrance sign of Mouriès.

Finally!!!