Provence Trip Sept 2024 - Part 8 La Faviere, nr Le Lavandou

It took us a day and a half to drive to the coast to our usual campsite at La Faviere, near Le Lavandou.

Somewhere along the way, still in the mountains, we took these photos.

We also passed the Lac de Serre Poncon again, this time from the south side where we were high up and the views were outstanding.

When we arrived at the campsite, it was full! That's never happened before, as there must be about 500 pitches there. So we were told to go and find another campsite for the night, but we could go back to our campsite of choice for the following couple of nights and we could arrive just before lunchtime, which gave us another half day there. At this campsite we stay put and don't use the Moho and give K a break from driving for a few days. We can take a bus from here or we walk. This time though, we were right the other end of the site from the sea, a good ten minutes walk uphill. 

It was all good exercise for us as the restaurant was also ten mins walk and we sat out on the covered terrace, which wasn't particularly warm as you can see. It even rained!

The following day was cloudy but it was market day at nearby Le Lavandou, which is a huge and very good market (another handbag added to the collection. Woven paper or straw handbags are all the rage, don't you know 😉). The campsite has a little train, so we decided to take it to the beach in order to walk into Le Lavandou to the market. However it is actually much quicker to walk! The train went up and down the alleyways and took forever to get to the stop near the beach. This is the best photo of the bunch we took because the train was rattling and jolting along. It was fun and interesting to see all around the vast campsite.

When the weather at last turned sunny we headed to the beach, only to find everyone else had had the same idea (not surprising really). I have never seen it so packed and we've been here before in June, Sept and October. We had planned to swim, but the water was, shock, horror, cold!! I've swum here before in October and it was warmer then. So we had a good old paddle instead and I got as far in as you can see from the pictures, although a wave came along and wet my bum which was annoying. I still couldn't brave going in further though! 😂

We love swimming here as it's totally sandy underfoot in the water which is so nice, especially as my feet can't take gravel with the neuropathy. It was a bit disappointing but there will be plenty of next times. Maybe we'll stop here in September again on our way to Italy. 

This shows our route from Guillestre to the campsite by the sea.