Another day with the weather not very conducive to outdoor activities, so we decided to visit the Haribo museum before we moved on (lollies for those not familiar with the name!!). It was slightly more informative than expected - we learnt a bit about liquorice production as well as sugar processing as well as the making of jelly type lollies. The kids were delighted with the packets of lollies that we generated during our visit, and Darryl was pleased as he had opted to stay in the campervan and enjoy some downtime. We headed off after lunch and on route to our next destination we saw something interesting - a river lock. We had read about them but this was our first encounter and it was incredibly large one on the Rhone river. The river had a height difference of around 15-20m on either side of the lock. As we approached we saw a boat coming down the river towards the lock - and not a small boat either, it's length was about 80m. We stopped and watched as the boat made its way into the lock which according to the on site information board was 190m long. We could barely see the boat in the lock initially because it was so far down (we estimated around 15-20 metres) and the fencing around kept us a little way back from the edge.. It took 15min for the lock to fill with water and bring the massive boat up to the higher water level. It was really impressive to watch it happen on that scale of magnitude.

We continued on our way and arrived at Chateaux Baux des Provence in blustery and rainy conditions. We had afternoon tea while we waited and hoped the rain would stop - we expected a lull (according to the projected forecast), and it did stop long enough for us to walk around about 2/3 of the site. It was still wild and windy though - it reminded me, slightly nostalgically, of a good bracing wellington southerly, but there was also a wonderful scent of lavender in the air - even though the plants weren't in flower. The chateau is a ruin, but still has some interesting parts intact. It affords fantastic views across the surrounding valley. We saw a trebuchet (catapult) and a ram that was used to break down doors. The remains of a dove cot was interesting with lots of little holes in the wall where the birds nested. A number of little shops with an interesting variety of products were situated in little alleyways eading up to the castle, not visible from below they were a nice suprise and a good place to hide from the rain as we made our way back down. We headed off with no particular destination in mind - due in Nice in a few days time we were just heading in that general direction. The weather had deteriorated a lot - the campervan must not like lots of rain, as it started to behave a little strangely not revving properly, and then a warning bell went off that we couldn't identify. It seemed to come right after we found somewhere to pull over and stop for a few minutes, and we were very grateful as the weather was now even more miserable. We'd decided to treat ourselves to a night out of the campervan and we were pleased our accomodation wasn't too far away. It was literally just two rooms with beds and a bathroom, but with hot showers and a door between the rooms and an English speakingTV and wifi it was devine. We even downloaded a movie to watch. It also gave us a chance with unlimited wifi to work our what to do plan our last two days in the campervan - winging it sounds good and it might be in a small vehicle, but not so much in a campervan when you have a deadline to hit, as things take a bit longer to get to and finding suitable parking is also a bit more complicated. The more research the better!

April: It was very wet.
Sarah: I didn't know that liquorice was made from plant. I was surprised that the catapult could only be fired once an hour.
Scott: The lollies were yummy
Darryl: The castle would have been cool on a fine day.