Friday 10 June 2022 St Martin's to Avignon

Visit to la Grotte de San Marcel 5 km north before we set off for Avignon from St Martin Sur Ardeche  where we have swum in the blissfully warm waters of the Ardeche and enjoyed the peaceful campsite there.

Amazing underground caverns , with lights illuminating a very  large number of floor  pools , guided tour for an hour 12€ was a bit speedy and I knocked over the fluffy toy  bat stand in the gift shop at the end which didn't win me any friends 🤣

The ripples and currents making patterns in the vast underground galleries 

James Cameron has been down here ! 

Incredible ...

The biggest collection of pools formed by calcification in Europe, compares with Panukkale in Turkey (but they're outdoors). 

Beautiful  aren't they ?

It took us a long time to find the campsite on a very hot Friday afternoon, a campsite called La Bagatelle 3 stars, first impressions were that it  looked a bit grim at first,  but then city campsites do look grubby with dirt pitches and old sanitaire  toilet shower blocks. Sara the receptionist was very warm and helpful though, 20€ a night with EHU  parked against a perimeter breeze block wall, road the other side frequented by motorbikers going full throttle through the evening

We walked along the river Rhone across from the walled city of Avignon , a pretty sight in the evening light  and found a cool open air bar playing music I wanted to dance to but too early. A fairly peaceful  night, we are camped in between long term caravan settlements.

The Cote du Rhone  village vineyards were setting up wooden cabins for wine tasting on the banks of the Rhone just across from our campsite and we heard the bands doing sound checks. a

Nice bar across the river from Avignon. We had tapas and some good beer.