Arriving in the South

Leaving Vienne, the RN7 follows the eastern bank of the Rhone river. There's a lot of heavy industry and we made slow progress. After Roussillon, the route becomes more scenic and many beautiful old chateaux and vineyards can be seen as the road hugs the edge of the river.

Despite the Romanesque straight road it took us two hours to reach Valence via the N7. According to Apple maps, the same journey would have taken us only 30 minutes on the motorway. This really does go to show what a difference the autoroutes have made.

Valence is at the crossroads of the north-south and east-west routes as well as being strategically placed on the Rhone. It has had a tumultuous history, being taken over by various leaders and empires over the years. Today it has some beautiful old buildings and is well worth stopping there to look around. Once again, the temperatures were reaching 36 degrees and our next destination (with swimming pool!!) was Aix-en-Provence. The pool was beckoning us so we left the RN7 and took autoroute A7 for the rest of today's journey. We'll be returning back to Calais in a few weeks time, so will plan to stop at Avignon, Orange and other places on the RN7. MoneyPenny is resting up for a couple of days in the undercover parking at Aquabella Hotel & Spa https://www.aquabella.fr/ Our next destination is Saint Tropez and from there we will explore the coastline heading west. More updates to come next week! Au revoir for now.