Challenging driving experiences in Provence, France
In June 2010 me and my family headed to the south of France to enjoy a relaxing holiday in one of the most beautiful places in the world - a region known as Provence. This area is famous for its stunning lavender fields, its scenic hilltop villages and its large number of historic monuments such as Avignon’s Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) and the Romanesque monuments of Arles. During our ten day tour, we encountered a number of situations when we were a hair’s breadth from real life danger. Such is the nature of touring on wild, country roads in foreign countries where unpleasant situations can arise out of nowhere, without prior warning.
One of the most difficult challenges was driving from Marseille to the beautiful Calanque of Sormiou - a wonderful sandy inlet surrounded by dramatic cliffs on the Mediterranean coast. The two hundred metre descent towards the car park adjacent to the beach was barely fit for our over-sized minivan and entailed sharp, hair-pin bends and incredibly steep road that facilitated the need for to be vigilant on the handbrake! At times we had to give way to other cars by pulling over when we were just inches away from plunging a hundred feet into a rocky gorge. Luckily, the trip only lasted for about 10 minutes and we soon found relief as we returned to the main roads and headed home.
Another terrifying experience was during the trip back to our villa from the wonderful village of Roussillon, situated in the Provence’s Luberon Valley (the resorts of which was featured in the film ‘A Good Year’). As we drove along a narrow straight road, a heavy goods vehicle came our way and refused to give way or stop for us. As there was clearly not enough space for both of our vehicles to pass through, we politely asked the driver to move back - using what limited French we had! The driver refused to do so and instead he moved forward. As he gained on us, inch by inch, we thought he was going to hit us. The road was surrounded by ditches and our minivan would have become stranded if we had reversed into one. Instead, we had to retreat several hundred metres into a small driveway in order to allow the truck driver to pass. After the angry man uttered what appeared to be French swearwords to a family with children, we continued on, angry and shaken.
We were confident that a heavy goods vehicle would be banned from travelling on such a narrow road under French law – it certainly would be in Britain. Luckily, our overall holiday in Provence turned out to be one of the very best we have had. The wonderful landscapes, markets, people, cuisines, monuments and climate are what make Provence such an enriching and charming region to visit. We are confident that we will be returning again at some point – although we hope to avoid repeating the same mistakes that had landed us in the somewhat frightening situations that have been discussed above!