Life in the fast lane (Thursday 11th July 2013)

Today was spent mostly in the Clio knocking off about 700kms from Dijon to the south of France. We called into the local supermarket before we left, to buy ingredients for lunch. The place was huge sort of like a coming together of Coles and Bunnings. We got everything we needed except baguettes. I could buy a lawn-mover in this place (they were even on sale) but I couldn't buy bread. Go figure! So our first stop on the road was going to be a bakery.

Driving the autoroutes is no easy task. One needs to keeps ones wits about oneself all the time. The cars in the fast lane appear from nowhere and there is always a passing maneuver happening somewhere about you. A lot of concentration is required. Generally there are three lanes in each direction, sometimes down to two. The speed limit is mostly 130kph. The left lane is for the cars that want to go faster than 130kph, the middle lane for the law abiding citizens and the right lane for trucks, caravans and cars that can't do 130kph. Drivers are all very respectful of the unwritten laws, especially the one that says don't stay in a faster lane any longer than you actually need to. Make your passing move and get out of the way! Drivers do this and move very quickly between lanes. They'll even wait a for you to pass a slower car or truck if it looks like you might get stuck behind it.

The Clio is a real fuel miser. By the end of our journey today we had done over 1000kms from Paris at an usual speed of about 125kph and including probably 60-70kms of bumper to bumper traffic for a return of just 4.5l/100kms. I reckon an unladen car driven at 100kph could achieve the stated 3.4l/100kms.

We stopped in Chalon-sur-Suane to get our baguette and then pushed on. For lunch we stopped In little village by the Rhone river to eat lunch.

The landscape had changed dramatically for fields of corn wheat/barley to rocky land that only supported grape vines. Along the way were many dramatic ranges of rock with the occasional being the to abandoned castles or forts. After a few more hours and lots of visit to toll booths we sighted the Mediterranean Sea for the first time. We had decided to try our luck in Nice, but didn't hold out much hope. Emily once again directed us to our chosen hotel only to find it (not surprisingly) booked out. We made a decision to try our luck further out from the coast so headed for the Ibis hotel in hills behind Antibes. Luckily there was one triple room available which we snapped up. Emily's pull out bed needed a little stabilisation though!

We enjoyed a nice meal on the balcony, over looking the pool, went for a swim and then headed to our room.