I left the Gorges du Verdon, and drove over the most amazing mountains in order to get to the other side and the French Riviera. I stopped a few times to take photos, but mostly I just enjoyed the view. It was a lovely road to drive on, and quite a bit wider than the one I'd been on at the gorge!
I arrived at my destination – Grasse – at 11:30am and promptly found a parking station in town to leave the campervan. I'd been driving since just past 7am so it was a relief to get out of the van, stretch my legs and wander around a pretty city. And Grasse was definitely that! It is part of the French Riviera, though not on the ocean like Nice. But it was full of brightly coloured buildings, narrow streets and lovely boutique stores.
Grasse is best known for its perfume industry, and there is even a perfume museum dedicated to all things smelly. I decided to go have some lunch, then explore the museum which was a particularly good idea since I had ordered a glass of wine for lunch and was instead brought half a litre. So the walk around the museum did me good. It was actually really interesting, with all the old equipment for making perfume. They also had smelling stations with things that looked like microphones – you put your nose up to it and pushed a button and got a whiff of roses or jasmine or lavender.
There was also a LOT of old perfume bottles, which I am love for their beautiful design aesthetic. So many beautiful bottles that, forgive me, I couldn't help photographing!
After the perfume museum, I went for a wander around Fragonard, and bought some of my favourite perfume, before exploring more of this lovely little town. It was so bright and colourful, perfect under the hot, sunny skies.
I left Grasse about 3:30pm and drove a short distance to the Jardins du MIP, or the gardens of the International Perfume Museum. This garden was quite fascinating, as it consisted of flowers, plants and trees that have different elements that are used in the making of perfume and cologne, as its not all just flowers. You could smell your way through the garden, though it was a very hot day so standing out in the sun for any period of time was just draining!
I left the garden about 4:45pm and drove to the campsite that I had chosen for the night, Domaine de la Bergerie. This was actually a fairly fancy site, but they had unpowered camper and tent sites at the back underneath the trees that suited me. It actually reminded me of camping in a national park in Australia, the trees and cicadas were very reminiscent of home.
I picked a site to park, but I couldn't get the camper in, as it was a flat circular area surrounded by rocks and trees. Sometimes I wish I had someone to guide me, as there were rocks around that I couldn't see. I abandoned my attempt on that one, got out and looked at the site next to me, which appeared to be a bit easier. They were definitely more suited to tents than campers; even though mine was a minivan size, it was quite difficult to manoeuvre. I managed to get it in first go and opened all the doors and windows to get the camper to cool down a bit. There were some mozzies around in the evening but it was just too hot that night, and I slept with the camper door open and mosquito repellent on.
Campsite: Domaine de la Bergerie
Rating: 8. The back area was less fancy and good for tents and small campers. The powered motorhome area was nice and tree-covered. There was a pool and the facilities were good.