OVERLANDERS HIT THE RIVIERA - 14 HOURS ON THE BUS AND MORE RAIN THAN THE ISLE OF SKYE! 1976

[14 hours on the bus as we press on through the rainy and misty Riviera - and I think nostalgically of the sunny Isle of Skye!  But a sing-song and dried apple keep spirits high.]

WEDNESDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER, 1976

"Sunny Provence is still wet.  Up at quarter to 7.  After breakfast walked through gardens (camp is on a hill) to look down on the amphitheatre of Orange.  Statue in middle; seats repaired, lighting, so obviously still used.  Mass of irregular red-tiled roofs and narrow streets hemming it in.

Making for Riviera - lots of vineyards.  (Geoff handed out free toilet roll each - pink!)  Countryside gradually more rocky, small bushes and square red-tiled farm houses.  Further south - hilly, forested, towns on hillsides.

Seen the Med! - very grey and misty.
Nice - palms, blocks of flats, little stations, 2 triangular multi-storey luxury hotels.  Drove along famous Boulevard des Anglais - beach front and exclusive hotels.  Up mountainside and along coast - very steep, lots of trees and houses perched high up, view should normally be incredible.  Superb bays.

Into Monaco - saw palace on hill; very densely housed.  Brief glimpse of Monte Carlo Casino as drove past.  Very prosperous looking restaurants and boutiques; lots of young people.  Made a stop for shopping outside "La Madone" hotel, as yet haven't been told to move.

Extract from letter home:  We bombed down through the Riviera - Nice, Monaco - all in the pouring rain!  Typical - always knew the weather on Skye was the best!  So we went on into Italy along the new auto-route which is a series of tunnels and bridges across valleys and towns.  At the border the Italian customs man tried to get us to give him a bottle of whisky so that he wouldn't ask us to unpack all the luggage!  However, we managed to get away with doing neither.

At Italian border, customs officer tried to barter for a bottle of whisky (unsuccessful!)

Italy wet, houses rather drab in rain.  Road follows coast, tunnels and viaducts crossing valleys and towns, views out to sea.  Making for Pisa - had a sing-song in back of bus and Shirley's dried apple!
14 hours on the road."

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OVERLANDER LETTER HOME, 1976 - Angel Delight, Pernod, cards and camping in the rain.

FIRST LETTER HOME WRITTEN ON THE BUS THROUGH FRANCE:

A touch of envy at Contiki Tours; no camp stew and Angel Delight for them ...

 

On the bus!

(Provence)

Dear Mum and Dad

Hope you got my p.c. from Paris.  We had a good evening - some of us got a lift from Contiki Tours into Paris again.  A very smooth bus - tinted windows, luxury seats and a courier who tells sick jokes!  (They even had a marquee affair where they doled out breakfast - not real camping!)

They drove up the Champs Elysees and round the Arc de Triomphe all floodlit - and round and round ... the traffic being Parisian it took some time to work our way to the outside of the race-course and take one of the roads again!

And a brief encounter with a formidable female French patron in a bar ...

They all went to a restaurant for a meal but as we'd eaten the soup/stew? and Angel Delight? concoction at the camp we all piled into a bar down the road.  We were "stung" by the awful prices because we sat down rather than prop up the bar.  Two of the group tried to "persuade" the waiter that the prices were too much and disappeared behind the bar with him - far from winning, the lady patron appeared - and no one argues with French landladies (they ended up buying the waiter a drink!)

Aussie card games on the bus and putting up tents in the rain ...

Yesterday we were woken at 6.0 (ugh!) and were on the road by 8.30.  We had a few 15 min stops on the auto-route, but apart from that, were on the road for 12 hours!  Spent most of the day playing rummy than then learnt an Aussie game called "5000" - I was pretty useless (having excelled at Rummy) - perhaps it would help if I stood on my head!

In the dark and rain we pitched at a place called Orange, Provence.  Had a quick drink to fortify us - the exuberant barmen had been knocking back the Pernods, so insisted that the first round was free! (About seven people).  This morning was still wet and hazy."

card scores recorded on toilet paper!