From Carcassonne to the Côte d'Azur – 2026 Campervan Road-trip Part 3

In this weeks blog, we take you from the fairytale castles of Medieval Carcassonne to the beautiful Calanques on the Cote d'Azur around the coastline of Cassis. After leaving the gorgeous little village of Saint Cirq Lapopie situated on the Lot River, we had a long 150 miledrive south. We had only 3 days left to get to Toulon to catch the ferry to Sardinia and so much we still wanted to fit in!

Carcassonne

Many people describe the medieval Cite of Carcassone as being very Disneyesque and they are not wrong. Over the years, as damage has been repaired to the original fort that was the medieval city, the architects have at times used their own interpretations of what it should look like. That said, it is absolutely stunning and a wonderful place to visit and have an explore.

We met up with some friends who live locally and were great hosts showing us the sites and giving us the full guided tour. We had a delicious pizza in one of the squares – the company was so good that we forgot to take any photos!

The Cite is definitely one of the more popular destinations on the international tourist trail and you could hear accents and languages from all over the world. As the restaurants emptied from the lunch time rush, the narrow streets filled to the point where, at times it was quite a squeeze to get past the throng of people queueing for ice creams and browsing the wares of the tourist shops. And talking of ice creams – we had probably the prettiest gelato I have ever seen where serving it took on an art form. The ice cream was layered in the style of petals inside the cone – sadly, with temperatures of over 30 degrees – that didn’t last long. I chose well, lime and basil flavour, a delicious if not slightly peculiar sorbet.

We enjoyed our afternoon exploring Carcossonne but were equally happy to get back out into the quiet of the countryside. We had a bit of a drive out into the windy lanes of the Corbiers vinyards and mountainous viewpoints. Our hosts Jo and James took us to some of the truly most unspoilt parts of rural France that was far off the beaten track and it was wonderful.

Lagrasse

After a lovely night staying at the beautiful home that Jo and James have painstakingly restored, we all set off in our vans on a little adventure and they continued to show us some of their favourite places. We headed south to the monastic town of Lagrasse and stayed at the local aire that was only a few minutes walk to the town centre. Set amongst the Olive trees and only €9 a night – it was amazing!

We had intended to do a hike up to a view point over the valley, but the temperature was in the mid 30’s, not ideal hiking weather. Instead – we put on our swim wear and headed down to the river for a swim. Lagrasse is renowned locally for having a great swim area with a small beach and as it was a weekday it was relatively quiet. The water was crystal clear and deliciously cool in the heat of the sun. We spent a good couple of hours swimming and sun bathing before finding a café for a cold drink. A perfect afternoon.

We were all up with the dawn chorus the next morning so that we could get out hiking. A great decision and we finally made it to that viewpoint. We had an odd encounter on the way back down as we were overtaken by a monk in full robes out on his morning run!

We had an explore of the town which had come to life as it was a Saturday morning and market day. The main centre of lagrasse is set around the medieval open air market hall which is packed full of traders selling fresh produce – fruit, veg, honey, cured meats, cheese and even a fresh coffee roaster. The smells wafting around as we wandered past  the various stalls were unique to that of a traditional French market – a wonderful combination that brought back memories of happy summers spent with our children in France. I bought some local lavender honey which went particularly well with fresh baguettes for breakfast over the next few weeks.

After a couple of days with great company, it was time to keep moving and we made one last long drive across to Cassis on the Mediterranean coast. Up to this point, we had managed to travel all the way down through France only spending a couple of Euro’s on tolls but that changed as we went through several expensive toll booths in quick succession.

Cassis

On the recommendation of Jo and James, we spent our final night on the mainland in Cassis. There is only one campsite in Cassis that is in walking distance of the harbour town and it had a monopoly on prices too. It was cash only and cost us €48 for the night. And it was not that great if we are honest, but what it lacked in finesse and facilities it made up for in easiness to take in the beauty of the area. We were there on another bank holiday weekend – our second in a row and we were lucky to get a pitch as the town had a huge festival with live music and dozens of street stalls.

After having our evening meal back at the van, we walked down to the harbour and enjoyed a small bottle of local Rose by the waterside. This is our way of trying to keep to our travel budget, we still get to enjoy the feel of sitting out in the evenings with-out having to pay a fortune. There was a great atmosphere around the town, we even found a small garden area where there were dozens of old couples ballroom dancing, so sweet and romantic.

Our ferry to Sardinia boarded at 6pm the next day, so we made the most of our Sunday morning and got up at 6am to go on a hike. The Calanques are a series of small beachy coves and inlets surrounded by rocky cliffsides stretching along the coast. They are accessed from a path that starts down by the harbour, the further you walk, the more deserted the beaches. However, this was a French national bank holiday weekend…

The harbour was deserted at 6.15am and the waters were still, it was quite eerie after the celebrations the evening before. We hiked past the first calanque which is more of a yacht mooring harbour before dropping down to Calanque Port Pin with its white sandy beach surrounded by forest and cliffs. We were there just as the sun started to rise above the tree line and the light was spectacular. There was only one other person and it was silent apart from the gentle lapping of the waves on the shoreline. We spent a while taking photos and enjoying the silence before moving on. We knew it was a hard 14 km round trip hike to the furthest point and we had to get back to the campsite before 12!

The rocky path to Calanque en Veau takes you inland for a while with only a rare glimpse of the sparkling blue waters below. It is hard terrain underfoot and for the last 1500m it was a steep drop down into the inlet before the vista opened up to the most beautiful cove. There were 2 other intrepid hiking couples on the beach and one boat moored up. By this point it was about 8.30am and we had been hiking for over 2 hours so we cast of our clothes (we did have swim wear on!) and ran into the sea. Actually hobbled is probably more accurate as this beach was made of pebbles.

When we arrived, the cove was still cast in the shadows of the tall surrounding cliffs but as we swam and sunbathed, the sun rose higher overhead transforming the vista. The colour of the deep sea in the inlet changed from an inky dark blue to the most stunning aquamarine, crystal clear blue that twinkled as the sunlight beams danced on the surface. It was mesmerising standing on the rocky shelves on the cliffs watching the transformation.

We knew it was time to leave as by 9am, the beach had started to fill up a little. There was a steady trail of hikers like us wanting to get there early before the heat of the mid day sun and a few more boats had appeared with the occupants paddle boarding to the shore.

The hike back to Cassis harbour was eye opening in many ways. There were literally hundreds of people winding their way along the rocky paths and cliff tops hoping to bag a spot on the secluded beaches for the day! Not too many were adventurous enough to head out to Calanque en Veau but as we dropped back down to Calanque de Port Pin the waters were just a sea of people and there was hardly a grain of sand to place a beach towel. This confirmed we had definitely made the right decision getting up so early.

We made it back to the campsite in plenty of time for our 12 o'clock deadline, we even managed to fit in a coffee stop as we walked back through the busy harbour.

The drive to Toulon was pretty uneventful, we stopped off at a picnic aire for an hour as we didn’t want to get to the ferry port too early. The excitement was building for the next part of our European adventure – the island of Sardinia.

In next weeks blog we will share our route around the island, our favourite spots including the stunning island of La Madalena and the different campsites that we stayed at. We spent two magical weeks exploring Sardinia, encountered another busy bank holiday weekend and found a remote mountain village with over stunning 150 murals decorating every spare bit of wall!

I have put a link to the video from this part of our road trip below

Have a great week, Jackie and Richard 

https://youtu.be/uJy9TdaiG2Q?si=FhlaqzZQa7mCX8co