If you did a long road trip somewhere, you know that you have to take breaks while you are driving... When someone other is driving, it looks so easy to do it, but actual driving can be very tiring... And as you get older, it is more and more the case that you have to take breaks more often... I remember when I was younger I did a 6-7 hour drive in one take, without taking any break, and it was during the night! There is no way that I can repeat that today... lol...
Recently, I have tried to make myself take breaks after 2-3 hours of driving... When my eyes get "sticky" that's the "last call" to take one... So, when I'm around that time, I look more closely to the next gas station to stop, but I search for that 馃嵈 (cutlery) or 馃巵 (gift) signs... Not because I want to eat or to buy a souvenir, but because those stops have more "things to see"... They may have a park, or resting area, or a forest trail...
When I get out of the car I don't want to sit again, but rather stretch or take a walk, as in that way, I rest better! Sometimes these stops are small and there is no space to do something like that, but sometimes, they can be very interesting and you can enjoy walking around...
What I found interesting in these road trips that I do almost every year is that among the countries that I pass through, France has the best-arranged car stops... You have a gas station, you have small tables outside, like in the park, and very often, you have a small trail where you can take a walk...
This July, we were resting in the Aire de Manosque and it was one of those places... You can follow the link to find out where it is, or you can check out the map below... If you check that link, you will see that there is a "monument" in that place, but it wasn't there this year... lol... I saw only that building which was like a small open theater, or a picnic place (not sure which one of those two 馃槂)... If you scroll up, you can see that white building behind the tree (2 photos up)...
Google Maps Screenshot
As it was too boring there, I went for an "offroad" walk where not many people were going... 馃槂 I couldn't go too far as the motorways in Europe are always "fenced" you have to hit the wall at a certain time...
This was another road on the "other side", behind the fence... Behind the road, and these small trees is a river Durance and it would be great if they didn't "close" this part for people that come from the highway... I bet it's beautiful by the water...
As I hit the end of my road, I went back and tried to photo some plants around it... As not many people come there, it looks like they don't do maintenance of that part at all... Which is even better... Leaving nature to do the job is most of the time the best way...
These benches are human-made, that's for sure... :)
As you are already used to seeing, I like to photograph nice pinecones whenever I find some interesting and nicely shaped ones...
It's time to move on and continue the trip... The next stop wasn't planned, but we saw this beautiful lake from the car and on the map, and we had to stop to see it better! It was on the same day, on our way to the French-Italian border...
Google Maps Screenshot
I missed the stop, so I have to improvise... This wasn't a gas station stop, or anything similar, and as this was an ordinary road, it was much easier to stop... This was an exact place where I parked the car...
To get to the place where I took these photos, I had to go through a small forest of young pine trees, but it was worth doing it! Look at those views!!! That is Lac de Serre-Pon莽on and it was very busy on it... People were wind-surfing, and kayaking, I saw a couple of small boats too...
This was the trail for going back to the car and civilization... 馃槂
The next day, we continued our trip, but I wasn't in the mood to take photos as that was my third day of driving... 馃槂 So, the next two photos were taken somewhere in Slovenia, in one of the gas stations on the main highway, but I can't remember the exact location... So no Google Maps for this one...
The last photo today comes from a random Italian gas station... If you are interested, you can even see the gas prices in the photo (from the end of July 2023)... There wasn't too much to see, only what you see in the photo and a small shop... What I have noticed traveling on this route is that these car stops are the best in France as you have a lot more space to walk, rest, maybe take lunch in nature, etc... So, if you are traveling through France, don't forget to check some of these places... You can check out them on Google Maps and see what you can expect, but even if you do it as I did it (randomly), you will probably discover some of the gems...
Next year, I will try to be more systematic, take notes of exact places, and take more photos!
Thank you for your time! I hope you enjoyed the walk,
ph
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