We continue our visit to Venice with a trip to the Island of Murano – famous for Murano Glass and yes pretty much every shop was selling glassworks of some kind. Tp be honest a lot of it was touristy tat and easy to ignore but there were some outstanding pieces at a fairly outstanding price too….
Murano was like a smaller and much quieter version of Venice, without the gondolas and magnificent buildings but to my mind prettier and more authentic….
And we enjoyed a lovely stroll around the main and back streets until the weather took a nose dive and we decided to seek respite on a water taxi taking us to another island – Burano….
Still raining quite heavily when we arrived so we took shelter until the worst had passed over before wandering around the brightly painted streets and pretty canals….
What an absolute delight – I wonder who decides what colour the houses are painted?
A lovely way to round of our day in Venice and begin to make the longish journey back to site.
A slightly overcast day for us, still warm but actually ideal for the long walk along the seafront that we ended up doing today.
We started (after a fairly hairy journey over the hills) with a brief visit to Theoule-sur Mer as we were unable to find anywhere suitable to park, though we did get a couple of pics when we pulled into a viewing area…
The hillside properties have unbelievable views out across the sea but you would need a good set of lungs to get anywhere on foot! A little further along the coast we found suitable parking in Mandelieu and set off along the promenade towards Cannes. Unfortunately all of the beaches had dog bans in place (though there were a few dogs on the beaches) apart from this first one – Plage du Robinson….
After a little play, we were happy enough to walk along the promenade, as I’ve mentioned before there is no firm sand to walk along which makes it heavy going. In quick succession we walked by the other beaches of Mandelieu – Plage des Sables d’Or, Plage Troude l’Ancre and Plage de la Bocca….
There was a whole string of beaches (all really part of the same stretch of sand) leading up to the centre of Cannes – Plages du Rubine, Font de Verde, des Rochers, de la Nadine, du Midi and Festival Beach….
We took brief wander around the Port of Cannes – filled as you would expect with some pretty awesome gin palaces (I wonder how much use they actually get?), edged with beautiful terraces of Provincial buildings with the castle sitting up above…
Around the corner to the uber modern Palais of Festivals and the path of fame….
And onto the last couple of beaches of the day – Plage Palais de Festivals and Plage de Croisette….
At this point we stopped for a well earned drink and rest, before making our way all the way back to the van and ultimately back to the same Aire as the past 3 nights as we were unable to find anything any closer.
Thoughts of the day:
I may be being a bit paranoid but I have read so many reviews about campers being broken into, both when parked and when actually occupied overnight that I really don’t want to stay in or around the coast for the rest of this little adventure along the Cote d’Azur.
The old town’s are really quite pretty in a sunbleached kind of way – at least they have character unlike so many other resorts I have visited.
Today’s stats:
Miles driven – 45 (pretty hairy ones at that but I am trying to avoid tolls)
A grey and breezy day as we take a run down into Lyme Regis. A buzzy and pretty little coastal town with a nice long promenade and a fair bit of sand on the main beach at low tides….
We easily found parking (paid) just shy of the seafront and took a breezy walk first down onto The Spittles to the east of town where numerous fossil hunters were scouring the shores….
Under the watchful eye of Lyme Regis’s most famous fossilier – Mary Anning….
Heading back towards the town for followed the shore along Church Cliff Beach and Front Beach…
To the end of the promenade and Monmouth Beach, before heading back along Front Beach to the van and home…
After a morning spent on site doing stuff, we headed down into Bridport for the afternoon. Not the best weather, mostly grey and misty but dry and plenty good enough for a nice walk along the beach. Firstly we headed eastwards away from town towards Burton Bradstock, along the high sandstone cliff backed East Bay…..
Plenty of space for Tilly to have a good run around, before heading back towards Bridport’s West Bay resort where the sand turns into large banks of shingle (currently being dredged from the harbour area onto the beach)….
We wandered out along the harbour wall from where we were afforded magnificent views of those sheer East Bay cliffs….
On the other side of the harbour, West Bay beach was not as impressive….
We followed the raised promenade to the end of West Bay where unfortunately access to the long sand and shingle Eype Bay was closed due to recent rock falls from the soaring cliffs….
West Bay had a nice feel about it and was quite busy with no shortage of Fish & Chips, amusements and pubs it was clearly a popular venue for Bikers, many of whom were gathered along the harbour front enjoying the almost sunshine and said fish & chips!
After a lovely few months back in Cornwall, spending time with friends and family and what has been a long, wet and stormy winter, we are glad to be back in our ‘Happy Place’ and back on the road again. We left home on Monday 2nd and are slowly making our way across to Folkstone to catch Le Shuttle on Thursday 12th. In between preparing and settling back into the van and completing various admin tasks we are hoping to bob in and out of the coast and notch up a few more beaches before heading to Europe.
Todays drive took us over Dartmoor as we made our way from Tavistock to Charmouth, pulling over in the hazy sunshine to take a walk across a section of the moor – we were not alone….
Albeit somewhat shrouded in mist the views were still pretty spectacular – in the distance Bullseye Stone…
Heading 5 minutes further onto the moors and we were suddenly completely immersed in the low mists with visibility shrinking to 50m or less….
Needless to say it was a slowish journey to Charmouth and even though the mist had opened up once we left the moors, we decided against popping down into Exmouth and will save that delight for another day.
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