Home, sweet home

Well, it may have looked like we are lost somewhere in Carcassonne, but in fact we travelled all through France without any signs of Internet access anywhere. The campsites were all too small and rural and France doesn't seem to have Internet Cafes at all.

The cold that enveloped the UK last Sunday also reached the south of France, and so our journey was just about as chilly as it was back home. We found a delightful little site on Monday in the tiny hamlet of Cayriech, near Montauban - one worth a visit in warmer weather. The cold had really set in by this time and an hour's walk was all we could manage before we snuggled up in our warm van again! We had to go through the small town of Caussade to get to the campsite and found ourselves following several huge circus trailers who according to the many posters displayed in the area, were performing for the locals the next day. The one particular vehicle we were behind was pulling 3 long trailers - more like a train on the road - and it took several attempts to turn left into their setting-up area.

The next morning our outside thermometer read 0.9 deg. - we were so pleased we'd taken some porridge oats with us! And so we continued our journey north. We stayed on the autoroute, especially as after the peage just before Brive, the A20 is free. The road takes you up and up over the Causse (high plateau) over the Lot and through Correze - beautiful scenery, but in this cold snap it meant into the snow. The hills and the trees looked wonderful, but the snow was still falling heavily, so rather stressful for a while. Mind you, the snow ploughs were out in force, keeping the road as clear as possible. We stopped for a while at an Aire de Repos that we immediately recognised as one we'd had lunch at, 2 years ago. We fished out our log-book from that trip and read that all the picnic tables were occupied, so to keep cool, we had sat on our stools in the dappled shade of a tree to have our lunch. What a difference this time - we hardly put our noses out of the door, it was so cold!

And so on to Camping Les Grands Pins just south of Chateauroux. We've stayed before at campsites called "Les Pins" and they are usually rather lovely, but this one was a bit of a disappointment and we were glad that we were only staying the one night instead of the originally planned, two. That evening, we were about to get into bed when we thought it was extra chilly at the front of the van, although the fan heater had been on for some time. When we'd arrived and getting the van into the best horizontal position, we'd had the passenger door window down for us to comunicate with each other - and forgotten to wind it back up again!!

On Wednesday we had quite a short journey to do and as the description of the campsite at Rambouillet (south west of Paris) sounded like a good spot for a walk or a bike ride, we got there by 2 pm. A disappointment .... to reach it we drove through beautiful woodland and the entrance to the site was just beyond a peaceful lake ... so far, so good ... but it was Ferme! Both of the site guide-books quoted it as being open, but a large sign said that reconstruction work was delaying this year's opening. The good news was that the sign gave the phone number and details of another site at Versaille, just 25k away. John, using his very best French, phoned and was told that that was the wrong number (he thinks a garage somehow connected with the campsite) and given another. He then rang that and was told that no, they are not open yet either. (A very useful sign we were reading!!) He tried one more, beside the River Seine, that we found in the guide-book, and that was closed too. So over a cup of tea, we decided that we would have to miss out the tempting walk in the chilly sunshine by the lake and press on. And so we negotiated the outskirts of Paris instead and despite one traffic jam because of an accident, we reached the A16 autoroute and stopped at a small Aire de Repos to cook and eat our dinner and moved to a larger Aire de Service just north of Beauvais to camp for the night. We would like to return to the Rambouillet site some time - it really was in a lovely spot.

Now, of course, we are ahead of ourselves, journeywise. So what better plan than to spend a day in Le Touquet. We have been there many times, but it is always a joy to stroll along the sea-front and to look in the windows of the very expensive shops. We approached the area with lots of cafes and restaurants soon after midday and stopped to look at the menu outside the first one we came too. A good job we rather fancied the dishes on offer, as their 'customer-grabber' came out of the door and showed us to our seats before we knew what was happening!! Lunch was very good and by Le Touquet standards, fairly cheap.

Our last night was spent at Camping Le Manoir de Senlecques at Perne on the outskirts of Boulogne. What a pleasure to return there - Monsieur meets and shakes hands with everyone as they arrive, he makes a few little jokes with his broken English and positively beams all the time. At the water tap later, another camper asked John if he recommended this site to friends, because he thinks it's time we all stopped doing that, as it was becoming too popular! It's true that all the hard-standing pitches were taken, but M. would never turn anyone away. There's quite a lot of driveway area around a little duck pond in front of the Manoir (an very old house with a tower) and he fitted 2 or 3 on there. M. invites you to come to his office at around 7 pm to pay for the camping and he gives you a free advertising pen. This holiday I had been using one of the 2 pens we already had from him and I joked with him that they seem to last for ever! But he insisted that we should have another, even though it was his last one and he was waiting for a new batch to be delivered! We got chatting to a couple who were also spending their last night in France, and they told us a bit about their travels - they left home last March, have visited (I think they said) 17 European countries and stayed at over 100 campsites .... now there's a thought for the future ....!!

After a bit of essential shopping on Friday morning - well, we couldn't pass by 'FranGlais' without a visit could we? hic..... - we sat still on a rather bouncy ferry back to Dover and quickly arrived at Peter & Hannah's. Oh, the pleasure of being grandparents! - dear little Emilie was jumping with excitement to see us and on Saturday morning when she unwrapped her Spanish summer dress, she tried it on straight away and wore it for the rest of the morning - over her jeans and long-sleeved T shirt! Her sentences are coming along thick and fast - "No dress off" was today's!

And so we are home again. Lovely to be here and to see all our friends again.
Jacki and Philip entertained us on Saturday evening, when we all tucked into Jacki's very tasty lasagne and an extremely creamy, chocolatey, calorie-laden French pud that was so big that we had to empty our van fridge to accommodate it!

Till the next trip ... goodbye and thank you for reading our blog and for your comments ... but first, please read on .....

While we were away, Natalie sent us an email saying that she was entering the Slough Race for Life in July. She has a very close friend, Karen (Mum to two little boys), who is receiving treatment for breast cancer at the moment. If any of our friends who know Natalie would like to support her effort, just click on the widgit below to find out more, and if you wish, to sponsor her. Thank you.

Carcassonne

Good day in Carcassonne yesterday although the chilly weather caught up with us - needed to put coats on for first time! And had to have lunch inside a restaurant! This will be short as it is a french keyboard and im having trouble finding my way around it.
Enjoyed a bit of retail therapy in the quaint crafty shops and watched a bit of the archery contest going on. Moving further north today - to even colder weather we hear.

Roses

We left Bonterra Park on Wed morning and drove to Peniscola, a town and castle built on an isthmus, and then made our way along a twisting road following the coast. Delighted to find 2 geocaches, one on the rocky beach and the second 250m up in the hills behind. Beautiful views of the hills and the coastline. There´s lots of ancient terracing on the hillsides in Spain, made in the 17th century by the Moors. On these hills, they are almost perfectly preserved and the cache was hidden in one of many dry stone walls. Stayed Wed night at Vilanova Park, south of Barcelona (and enjoyed the tasty restaurant again) then negotiated the autovistas through the centre of the city! Challenging, but achieved with hitch. Arrived at Roses on the Costa Brava (almost France) yesterday and explored the immediate area on the bikes. Today, we are going to venture a little further around the coast. Another lovely spot.

Leaving Benicassim

We can´t believe our two weeks here has passed by already - time has gone so quickly. We start a very slow journey northwards tomorrow morning. We´ve spent the last couple of days soaking up the sunshine and exploring the local shops and cafes. Had our last barbecue with Val and Bernard this lunchtime. They are going back to La Tropicana, just up the coast for a few days before they go to Bilbao for their ferry home.

As on our journey southwards, we are not sure if we shall find easy internet access. So if there´s silence for a while, that´s the reason. But do send us comments or emails as usual as we are bound to find access somewhere.

Emily - pleased to hear you had a good birthday. Thanks for your message.

Anne & Chris - thanks for telling us about parade. Glad it went well, sorry we missed it. Thinking of you with the garden fence problem - we have a similar job to do some time after our return.

Up in the hills

After another night of gales on Friday/Saturday, it was all calm again in the morning. So we left Val and Bernard to do the town and we set off in the van to the hills in search of a good walk. We found the Tourist Information Centre in el Desert de les Palmes as we knew there was a walk from there, and got a much better map than we had found on the internet or at the campsite. So off we set in glorious sunshine, but with a gentle breeze, up and up on a rocky sandstone path. We enjoyed the lovely views down to Benicassim, Castellon and the sea as well as over the various rocky peaks. With lunch under a shady tree on the way, we climbed to the summit of el Bartolo, the highest ´mountain´ in this group at 700m. There are several radio masts on the top which we can see from down here and the chap in the Info Centre had told us that one of them had been blown over in the gales on Thursday. As we reached the huge cross on the top, we could see the fallen mast in a bit of a mangled heap on the ground. We could see that work had already started to attach stay wires to one of the remaining small masts. The way down was rather steep and rocky, but we were soon back at the van ready for our cuppa. A very enjoyable day.

Today has been hot and sunny again, so we decided to spend the morning on our pitches and have brunch. Bernard does some of their cooking on a "George Forman", a little electric grill, so he was in charge of the sausages and bacon, while we were eggs, mushrooms and beans. This afternoon we took our "Kings Game" down onto the beach. It drew quite a crowd, but of course we made our worst shots when someone was watching! Two well-matched games, score Ann & Bernard, 1 - John & Val, 1.

One of our neighbours here with a large motorhome, also towed a trailer with their Smart car on it. John has been admiring it (the Smart car) since we arrived and Alan has said many times "I´ll take you out for a spin some time John". Later this afternoon, he did. It was a fun experience but had to take care over the bumps (and there´s lots of sleeping policemen around here) as you´re sitting over the back wheel. Reminded him of our Fiat 500 back in the late 60´s.

Time to go and put the kettle on, so will continue in a day or so.

Love to all, A & J

PS Although we always try and change the time of publication it doesn´t always work. So if it says 12.10 or the like, don´t you believe it!!!

Day in Valencia

Thanks for comments - yes Carolyn, we are actually relaxing rather a lot - there´s something about warm sunshine, no responsibilities, other laid-back people around us, good food and cheap wine!!! Sorry about the computer problems at No.11 - welcome back to speed-mail. Good to hear from the Dunnings too.

We didn´t do the geocaching, reported the other day. Realised the ones we´d found were rather a long way north and as we are going to be going that way one day next week (making our way home) decided to try then. So it was back on the bikes on Wed afternoon, but the forecasted high winds began about that time. So we had sand blowing in our faces and into our cup of tea! But that was only the start of it. During the night it was up to gale force with gusts of up to 80 mph - we think the strongest winds we have experienced in the van. Had to take down our little outhouse, just in case - well, we did that before we went to bed. During the night 4 awnings were destroyed and several branches had fallen off trees, including one landing on the roof of one of the chalets. We were fine, but along with everyone else, had very broken sleep.

Then we had to be up (relatively) early for the trip to Valencia yesterday. It was still blowing a gale and unfortunately Val and Bernard decided not to go after all as wind really affects Val´s heart condition. So we went off on the coach, first passing a white van that had toppled over the edge of the road, then a huge fire on the hilltop - not sure what could have set that off, maybe the strong sun - but sending billows of smoke over the houses and roads. No more hazards though until we reached the city. We were unloaded by the station, so that we could use the facilities for 10 mins before we were to be taken on a guided walking tour. In those few moments one poor couple had their wallet stolen, so we all waited while our guide helped them get sorted with the police. Eventually we got on our way, visiting some beautiful and interesting sights. The post office was one of the best!! It was only build in 1922 and refurbished a couple of years ago (don´t remember it when we came 2 years ago, so it was probably covered in wraps then). It´s a magnificent building with columns outside and inside, marble floor, circular and actually seemed more like an ancient library (not a bit like Horsham!!!) with a domed glass roof. Went on to see the Silk Exchange, built around a courtyard with orange trees growing in it, the outside of the cathedral - not sure why we were n´t taken inside´- and another chapel. On the way through the streets we kept seeing people in fabulous costumes, all getting ready for the ´Fallas´, an important festival in Valencia later in the month. The ladies-in-waiting had beautifully hand-embroidered dresses and the chaps had similarly decorated waistcoats. Then came the chaps with huge paper mache heads on and they carried things a bit like witches broomsticks, but flat and tapped people on the heads with them. I got two lots of tapping! Then in one of the squares, we were asked to wait at the side as a group of dignitaries were coming through. Then a lady dressed to the nines, but as John noticed, with grubby shoes, came and asked where we came from (this is the group of us, not just us) and then started shaking all our hands and saying nice things (we think!). One of her body-guards then confided to us that she is the mayor of Valencia. Well, we only meet the best people!!!

After lots more foot-slogging, but enjoying it all a lot, we arrived at the point where we were picked up by the coach to take us to where we could get lunch (it was now nearly 2 pm). Imagine our surprise when we pulled up a few yards from the spot where our van was broken into 2 years ago!! There´s a huge, very upmarket shopping mall there and we found a super place to eat - a Buffet Mediteranean where we could eat as much as we wanted for 9.35 Euros. Just what we needed. You should have seen the desserts!!!! We were now opposite the Ciudad Arts and Science Centre that we visited before and although we didn´t have time to go into any of the museums, we enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere around the gardens and lakes surrounding them.

The wind had eased a lot while we were in Valencia, but as soon as we got back to Benicassim, it was still blowing quite well. Not as badly though and by this morning it had all died out completely.

Back to sunshine today, so a lot more relaxing, including a barbecue lunch and more of those yummy chocky bananas! Well you have to use up the heat in the coals don´t you?

Hope to hear from more of you soon,
Love A & J

el Desert de les Palmes

Great day out yesterday to the Desert de les Palmes - a rocky, hilly area behind Benicassim. Took the van up the many twists and turns - not much traffic up there, but lots of Sunday cyclists coming down. Lovely views back to the coast and up to the rocky outcrops - mostly red sandstone. We stopped at a viewpoint to have our coffee and soak up the atmosphere, when a little red Spanish car turned up and set up their picnic and turned on their choice of Spanish pop music at full blast! Needless to say, we moved on and found a beautiful tree-shaded car park where we enjoyed our picnic and a short walk up into the hills. The temp reached 24 deg even up high.

Please don´t feel too sorry for us, but we have been reliably informed that it is going to cool off during this week, possibly right down to 20 deg. with high winds on Thursday!! Have booked a coach trip to Valencia that day, so shouldn´t be too much of a problem.

The campsite organises a few activities (for the elderly?) - like Spanish lessons, bingo etc. and I was quite interested in the Aquafit as that is part of my weekly exercise routine back home. However, we were out this afternoon at the beach and missed the 5pm start, so I went to have a look at the proceedings to see if I might join it on Wednesday. The teacher was a disinterested-looking youth (male) slowly lifting one leg a few times. The class consisted of mainly male geriatrics, looking equally excited about their exercises!! Decided I may be rather busy at 5pm on Wed!!

Planning on a trip out in the van tomorrow, up the coast a bit. There´s two geocaches we shall be hunting for.

Chat again soon,

A & J

Reply to J & G - many congratulations on your psalming! What a marathon! Sincerely hope it was financially rewarding for the organ refurb. Tap me for a fiver when we get back!!! xx