The Italian Job: Day 4 - Avignon to Cannes

Good morning. Well its the day after day 4 as Wifi internet access wasn't "disponible" in my room. I was on the 6th floor of the mighty Etap Hotel overlooking the bay of Cannes.

Yesterday was quite an expensive day. After slipsliding around on the monsoon sodden road in between Arles and Avignon I thought it was necessary to get the front tyres change. I found a local Speedy garage and after 2 hours and 380 Euros later Bertha emerged with two new front tyres (high quality Hankooks by the way) and two new shock absorbers. One was coroded and starting to crack and the other was leaking fluid. Better to be safe than sorry.

I then went back into Avignon as a I had a lunch date with a beautiful and charming young lady. After a hearty lunch of beef, ratatouille, jacket spuds and a creme sauce ( plus a bad case of Pigeon Porn) it was back on the road to Aix en Provence. I did a quick tour by car of Aix but again the traffic was bad and I couldn't find anywhere to park so I continued onto to Mont St Victoire. I painted this from a copy of a Cezanne painting when I was nine. Apparently Mr Cezanne painted this amazing mountain over 50 times. And guess what, after seeing it I know why he did. It never looks quite the same. You walk 10 metres up the road and the light and shading of the mountain changes. It must've have driven him crackers. Can you imagine if he went back the next day to finish it off? He must have said "bollocks, where the hell did I sit yesterday?" But its an incredible mountain. Its only about 1500 metres high but I doubt it very much if I'll see one with so much character. It was so peaceful and quiet up there as well. The odd cricket in the background but its a truly stunning place to visit.

After this I drove on the Autoroute to Cannes to check into the hotel. I found the same Carrefour that me and the mad dog went to last year and bought some Nuit Calme tea (request from Copper Knob's wife, the poor woman) , some tins of William Saurin Cassoulet and some fine wine.

I dined out at McDonalds. I had a CBO burger (chicken, bacon and onion). Not bad.

After off to Italy today via Grasse. I will try and get as far as Livorno or La Spezia today.

Here are a few pictures........