I am now 200 miles north in Puy-En-Velay, having left Crones (term coined – affectionately? – by my ex-hubs) 2 & 3 at the airport for their return flight. The days have of course passed so quickly, but everything ‘worked’ as we hoped and the happy times have continued, at least for me!
The heat has been increasing day by day and now most of France is enjoying or despairing of temperatures 10 – 15 degrees above normal, reaching mid thirties. It is though still cooling down in the night for good sleeping. On day 1 we enjoyed our bike ride 15km along the Canal du Midi to arrive at the square in front of the train station in the middle of ‘le Bastide’ – the medieval town which for many decades/centuries? was in competition with the fortified 13th century Cite on the hill across the river. Walking up to, and round this in the heat, followed by the bike ride back, soon reduced the usual gushing, me included, about the fantastic weather of those just arrived from the UK. But the campsite-now -become-a-holiday park with touring provision no longer – held out its jewel in the crown, the heated swimming pool. This we had more or less to ourselves after our days’ outings until Friday, so the daily schedule included this swim followed by shandies and beer served by Pierre the restaurant manager in the bar. He was very glad to have our custom and all the staff were really pleasant, preparing the site for increasing holiday traffic week by week.
We were allocated a cabin at the furthest corner of the site??, and had mostly no neighbours which enabled us to really enjoy the day’s final activity before bed – ie sitting outside on our balmy (the occupants 🤣or sunset warmth?) decking, with the reddening sky in the distance, blasting out on the campervan’s sound system – the mini-speaker – with our tuneful accompaniment musical memory lanes. These included Gilbert O’Sullivan, Genesis, Supertramp, Beach Boys, Doobies, David Cassidy, adding to summer classics as we returned from our outing in the van to Narbonne typified by ‘Lovely Day’. We even had a line dancing session led by Crone 3 on the next door cabin’s empty decking, but for some line-dancing purist reason she wouldn’t do it to Achy Breaky Heart.
I loved the walk through the Bastide, discovering the beautiful main square, where we had lunch on our 2nd day of visit, this time getting there by a 1-mile walk to the village of Trebes to catch a bus. After a very interesting exploration of the Cite Chateau and finding the widow’s mite in the form of Crone 2’s (Sandie’s) essential cap left behind in a shop we eventually returned to the station square dodging the sun whilst upping our pace despite la chaleur to make the timetable. Tired and hot, we waited about 15 mins for the correct bus at the drop-off stop only to be told that we needed the bus going in the other direction which was at a different stop and turned into another 15 minute wait. Our happiness at being able to get on a bus for 30 minutes rest whilst nevertheless still anticipating the 1-mile scorching trek across the fields to the cabin, was destroyed by this driver’s brusque explanation that his bus was not going to Trebes.
It was at this point, realising that a further 30 mins wait at the side of the hot busy road was required for the correct bus finally, that we quickly agreed with Sandie’s proposal of a very good deal 19eu uber ride – which she said had reduced from somewhere around 40 according to her previous research, due to uber’s price flexing. She is the expert amongst us on this. We concurred that our return journey for the day had therefore cost us 1eu on the bus journey plus about 5 for the uber. Result. Within 2 minutes along came a Tesla driven by a young man in his twenties who very early on in the journey proceeded to almost get the car stuck in a very, very narrow tunnel. The trims on the car’s very large wheels were gauged against the kerb within it and we could see on the large screen how the poor car was suffering in its position. Unfortunately the Tesla hasn’t as yet incorporated the function of making itself narrower. He said he’d done this before, but we didn’t believe him. Can you imagine the conversation between the the crones, due to age no longer constrained by social niceties and then him, in French and English, particularly as we were initially rather hyperly jubilant to climb into a car – and could it not be a Tesla next time – offering a lift door to door as it were. We did explain that no alcohol had been consumed. Having managed to actually get the car out of the tunnel, so we didn’t have to climb through a window, he then proceeded to drive in the wrong rush-hour direction down by the canal still within the town, into a dead-end little street. As we tried to say nicely that this was not what we were expecting in terms of a route to Trebes, he triumphantly pulled up in front of a gate at the end with a sign on the gatepost saying ‘La Commanderie’, …….the same name as our holiday park. All was revealed and we weren’t at least in the hands of a kidnapper. We were obviously not getting out here, and he was happy to carry on driving to our re- stated destination, so 30 mins later Sandie was paying the algorithm’s now sum total of 60eu!!! An appeal was hatched immediately as Deb & I enjoyed the swim, and literally within 10s of minutes the AI agent had agreed the original charge and promised a refund. I won’t hear a word against that AI. From the depths to the heights once again. What a day.
Friday’s trip planning quickly settled on the van’s 4 wheels to Narbonne rather than via Carcassonne for the train. Easy drive through the vineyards to the coastal lagoons. What another lovely small town, both the former and latter with population sizes of between 45 to 60k. Historic main square and medieval streets, 12th-13th century Archbishops palace and cathedral and the tree-lined Canal de la Robine running through the centre. In the afternoon we headed to the sea at Narbonne Plage, with the return journey including the really beautiful drive through the ‘La Clape’ wine area. The sand was literally already too hot to walk on barefoot, but it was great to float around abit in the clear, flat Mediterranean.
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- Archbishop’s Palace with a sculpture of a modern woman imo
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- My kind of building
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- Just for proof
Given the distances involved and the potential to meet up with an old friend, I have decided to make my way sooner to Annecy near Geneva. The route today included the running out of scenic superlatives free A75 motorway bordering the Tarn Gorge & the west of the Cevennes, across the absolutely stunning Milau bridge from the south, up and down mountains, reaching 1200m, and then on empty minor roads across the high uplands with pastures and cattle, to the Allier valley. After 5-6 hours of driving I arrived at my 12eu per night municipal campsite right in the middle of this historic town famous amongst other monuments etc for the start of the French Camino to Spain’s Santiago de Compostela. I got the second to last pitch hallelujah.
This is such a good time to travel in France without needing to book due to the season just beginning, but already the cheaper campsites I enquired of today near Annecy are full. From Monday I will be on a 4-star pitch without an ACSI out of season reduction. Tomorrow is my exploration of Le Puy and the heatwave is set to continue.
The original joy of campervanning
