PAG 26, page 21
We set off early the following day as it seemed sensible to get as much travelling as possible done before the sun got high in view of my delicate state. We estimated we had 200 miles to go. Ian was very keen to see the Millau bridge, an impressive crossing of a large valley whose opening had been much publicised because of the sheer scale of the thing (British designed too, apparently.) so we planned our route accordingly.
I wore my fleece lined flying helmet for most of the day as the most practical sun-hat we had, which may have puzzled the locals given the hot weather. Approaching Millau we avoided the Peage (tollroad), which used the new bridge, and took the road through Millau itself which involved a good A road hairpinning down into the town and up again. The sun was up, the road was quiet and Ian, who was hogging the driving on the excuse that I wasn’t fit, got more and more into running the bends. I started clambering about to help and we had a superb time frightening Froggies. There were signs warning that we were in a radar-speed-trap zone ‘for our own safety’ but we decided that we’d be away before any of THEM chickens came to roost and enjoyed ourselves. Later we realised that most French speed cameras seem to photograph you from the front and, as I don’t use a front number plate, we started trying to trip them while waving and grinning. Unfortunately they all seemed to be placed in spots where the speed limit was reasonable anyway and by the time we’d spotted them it was too late to accelerate enough to do the job so we never managed it. Conclusion? The French are, unlike the safety-nazis over here, realistic when setting their speed limits.
The Millau bridge, seen from the old road is amazing. You get the best views from the eastern side of the valley; we stopped at a purpose-built view point. It is like 3 Severn bridges (6 bays) standing on legs perhaps 3 times as tall and crossing a dry valley. Nothing will convince me that it is not going to collapse one wild night, because it is so tall and long, yet only 2 dimensional. It is completely improbable; even impossible, and, partially because of that, spectacular. Well worth a detour, and so was the road!
We headed SE from there and dropped down to the coast at Montpellier. We were on the last leg now and from here the traffic was, for the first time, tiresome. I think anyone else coming to this area would be well advised to stay north until able to drop down on their destination, avoiding travelling east-west in the Montpellier, Nimes, Avignon environs; we spent a lot of time bumbling down old Roman roads lined with plane trees in moving queues of traffic, then working our way round slow ring roads. In English terms it could have been worse but we’d been spoilt by now…We stopped at a roadside café in a Rhone bridge town (where the clientele mustered enough English to tell us cheerfully that we were mad) and had the set meal which was probably our first really good, good value meal since crossing the channel. 11E for 4 courses, coffee and a carafe of vino. Then across the Rhone and into the last leg, getting out of the populous bit now and beginning to enjoy the driving again. Kate’s cottage is south of a ridge of hills called the Luberon which run east-to-west north of Marseilles and we drove along their south side for some way. After some ferretting about on the back roads and despite rather vague directions and no real address, we parked the car within 20 feet of Kate’s house, all unknowing, wondering what to do next, and she walked round the corner. So there we were. A bit battered but OK, and the little car had done 878 miles and all I’d done is feed it petrol and some oil.
(Well that was that for the Hornet for a few days; Kate had hired a people-carrier so the party travelled mob-handed and the holiday itself is a bit outside the scope of PAG. I ran a few errands in her, mostly for the great pleasure of driving the local roads without luggage or passengers, but she had little work until a week later. I will just say that an excellent time was had by all)