After trawling through the Italian Riviera, looking (unsuccessfuly) for a parking spot, we were faced with a decision: continue on the gorgeous, but heaving with people French Riviera or head somewhere more tranquil, and in some shape or form towards Dordogne, where our friends, KP and Sheena, were getting married. The choice was obvious.

The drive to Gorges du Verdon was long and very windy. The area is vast and we entered it fairly late in the day, not having done much research on where to stay. We also kept stopping at viewpoints and to walk down to the gorges to admire their astounding beauty. The sunset was upon us (and a spectacular one at that!) and we decided to press on towards a lake. For us, it’s always better staying somewhere near the water when there might be a possibility to jump on our many boards or use our many many kites. 🙂

With a little scouting and navigation effort, we landed at a perfect camping a la ferme (those are campings in France on a farm), where the owner showed us a shady spot in the forest, 10m from the lake. The Lac de St Croix is artificial, quite long and very blue – similar colour to the Alpine lakes. We stayed a couple of days to drink in the scenery, do a fair bit of hiking and paddling.

On the leaving day, the farmer had a good ol chinwag with Rupert (whose French skills have carried us a long way in the favour of the old MacDonald), gave us some of his local produce which included delicious yellow courgettes. They turned out to taste exactly like green ones but with a more flowery, lemony taste (tasted very nicely grilled).

Next stop – Annecy and the famous lake. We spent a day walking around this gorgeous Alpine town, having crepes and drinking grand crème (black coffee with a dash of cream). Lots of people meant it wasn’t as tranquil as the postcards would suggest. However, this pitstop meant we were getting close to Switzerland…which wasn’t in our original plan but…