Day 147 to 149 - 26th to 28th March - Sisteron

Point of departure: Nice

Point of arrival : Sisteron

Accommodation: with friends Alain & Christine Arnaud

Km travelled today:198km Cum: 26 410km (gravel 0km cum 4 649km)

Countries so far: 13/16

Where to next? Brassioux, France

No of photos: 154 (cum 6 819)

Today the weather dawned cold and miserable so we packed up a day early and hit the road, along the "Route de Napoleon" to Sisteron. Apart from driving through Grasse, this route avoids the motorway and takes in some beautiful passes through the Provence Alps. We stopped for a picnic lunch at one of the mountain top view sights and nearly got blown away. The Beast said it was only 8 degrees but with the wind factor it felt a LOT colder.There was still snow on the surrounding hills. At this point we realised that we miss our camping and living out of the car… we know it sounds ridiculous, but we really enjoyed our time travelling up through Africa living in the Beast.

Then the final stretch to Sisteron and our reunion with Alain and Christine Arnaud - really nice to see them after some 8 weeks since parting ways in Aswan, Egypt.

Even in our broken French and their broken English we managed to have a great evening reminiscing about Jungle Junction in Nairobi, Wadi Halfa, the infamous ferry and its resident roaches and Aswan. It was amusing to hear Alain say that the first two weeks back home he had difficulty sleeping at night and if it wasn't for the cold weather and snow outside, he was tempted to pitch his tent out there and get a good few nights rest. They spent two years touring the world on their motorbike… 40 countries, 128 304km and 48 888 photographs later. Their blog - www.motards-nomades.com. A lifelong dream fulfilled!

We woke up this morning (Saturday) to an overcast day and decided to take it easy. Spent a couple of hours at the local market … the stalls teaming with fresh produce, variety of cheeses, bread, etc … we certainly had to control ourselves from just buying everything we saw. The heavens then opened and we returned to the house.

Alain and Christine, figuring we hadn't seen much on this trip, took us on a whirlwind tour of the countryside… including driving along and up the roads of Mount Ventoux (one of the Tour de France mountain climbs from 2009) - another of John's dreams. Unfortunately we were not able to drive the last 6km to the summit due to the road being closed on account of the snow. Then a walk through the forest of Contadour to view Jas des Terres du Roux - a shepherd's hut built entirely of stones. The forest path still had huge patches of snow which we had to negotiate. Alain decided as there was still daylight left, we had to visit a few more special places like Rochers des Mourres (fossilised stones); the Monastery of Ganagobie, the medieval village of Lurs and Les Penitants des Mees (unusual rock formations).

Alain et Christine, thank you for inviting us into your home and for your wonderful hospitality. We certainly enjoyed ourselves and hope to reciprocate when you visit South Africa. Merci beaucoup et a bien tot!