What did we do there – well , there’s the Ceze river at St Denis, our closest favourite place
there’s the Chassezac river and Mazet Plage
there’s the Cascades de Sautadet at the Roque-sur-Ceze
and not forgetting the kayaking on the Ardeche river
Time gallops on as I realise it’s almost a week now since I drove to Courry, a small village on the edge of the Cevennes and Ardeche areas, to spend time at my Mum’s house with 2 of my offspring, their other halves, and a couple of friends. I spent about 45 mins driving round the uni area of Montpellier en route, looking to find a parking spot, from which to do a brief cycle tour of the city centre. I was almost deciding that Montpellier would have to be left for another time, when I found one at last, and enjoyed a bit of exploration, resulting in the conclusion that this city did warrant another more relaxed visit.
The drive from Montpellier up to a ‘town called Ales’ immediately brought home to me as ever, how fortunate we are to be able to stay in such a beautiful region. Mum’s house is not the luxury south of France villa that I always expect people to be thinking; it’s very quirky, hence my comparison with the house on the TV series the Durrells, (highly recommended for the script, which for me got better series by series, the acting, the scenery); its charm has grown on me over the years, particularly when only needing to clear all the dead insects :), dust and debris from the ‘the outside-in’ rooms, and not being responsible for its general upkeep:
Not quite sure of it’s age, but it has served many different functions in addition to housing a village family – including a boulangerie and silk farm. In the heat of Summer, it’s really cool on the ground floor.
These are views from a chapel 3km away at 445m altitude from which on a clear day can be seen Mont Ventoux, the mountains of the Ardeche, and the Cevennes above 1500m:
Decided to stay on the Med at Marseillan Plage, next to Cap d’Agde for a few days of good weather forecast on the way to staying with extended family in the Cevennes/Ardeche area.
An ‘old friend’ was staying at a more expensive! campsite nearby, so decided to surprise them by walking along the beach to where they would be no doubt immediately taking advantage of the sunshine. I had to abandon the surprise as found myself, due to worsening eyesight having to draw near to single men lying on the beach which had become naturist as my walk progressed, to determine whether their likely ‘parts’ eg hair, or naked physionomy particularly including whitish buttocks, belonged to said person. There were at least 3 such candidates.
The 2nd day’s search to meet up on the beach was also abandoned, given that it was the afternoon, very busy and full of primarily middle-aged to elderly dangly bits everywhere, which I just didn’t want to be scrutinising, to try and find the needle in a haystack, even if from behind sunglasses! 🙂 Can see the benefits of naturism, and the Cap d’Agde Naturist Village is a real centre for practising such in all aspects of life, but unlike the gastronomy which I really feel I ought to develop an interest in actually trying out, baring ones all will never be me 🙂
The beach at Marseillan Plage is great – lovely sea and plenty of non-naturist-inhabited sand for me. Loads of campsites here, very busy in the Summer months, and I’ve got a very nice pitch on a small one for 16eu per night without electricity, but direct beach access.
Whilst the ski boots and clothing did not make the final essential inventory, the body board had been biding all this time, knowing the Atlantic coasts were there, but needing the opportunity of a beachside location and the warmth of the Med to finally fulfill its destiny.
After all my practice with a selfie-stick, to enable me to record my battling with the waves, including even a video proving that the body board did catch the waves with me on it, I resorted to using the tried and tested solution of an old friend holding the camera.
If reading in conjunction with the previous post, those in the know will realise that the only friend of mine who, to my knowledge, enjoys sunbathing in the altogether is ones ex-husband, who is able to combine enjoyment of campervanning, France – at least the warm bits, and surprising the family for Father’s Day.
On the campsite Au Fil de LOo at Bagneres, I met this young man, who was temporarily living out of his surfer dude VW, basically kitted out, while he and his girlfriend, who was in the UK just then, bought an apartment next to the cable car station.
They really liked Bagneres from a previous visit, because of its proximity to skiing, beautiful countryside, Spain, the coasts, etc; Will is a remote worker so can work anywhere. He is a structural engineer designing steel mezzanine structures, and currently able to use the office of a British company which organises expeditions worldwide and happens to also be based in this small town. The prices to buy are 30% cheaper than in the UK so for them – why not.
As I write this, I realise there are loads more questions I’d like to ask about this ‘adventure’ for them. All very interesting.
Had a lovely drive today, through the countryside between the Pyrenees to Toulouse and heading for Agde and Montpellier. Particularly the D11, which runs from Carcassone towards Beziers, with the Canal du Midi, boating and cycling, running alongside and within the vineyards and hills of the Minervois – lots of beautiful villages, stopping places, along the route.
It was a Monday holiday as part of the French Pentecost long weekend, so the roads in my direction were quiet, and the temperature started to rise to reach 21.5deg in the sunny afternoon although all of France is experiencing unusually low temperatures for this time in June and not going to be much warmer over the next few days until Sunday.
I realised that my search for LPG could actually be fulfilled by the same garage at Carcassone where I was eventually successful the last time I was in this area at the beginning of April. With my memory augmented by mylpg.eu I was able to find the establishment again, and it was open and ‘quiet’; lets do this; french adaptor duly applied, connected the nozzle – pump motor started, pressed the green button, and the gauge showed gas being pumped???!!! Piece of …….. Completely straightforward and I now have a full gas tank once again. Cost 0.9eu per litre which is really cheap compared to buying and swapping bottles.
Notwithstanding my new-found arrogance about LPG-filling (did I really only write the article about the travails of the same yesterday?), I did note a certain ‘carefreeness’ re the drive – Monte’s been running like a dream, ok with satnav and roads, even the possibility of doing a Cock of the Aire and stopping unexpectedly because a particular aire in a village looked attractive, and hey why not …
I veered off into the village of Capestang because it looked attractive and had an aire sign-posted. Discovered that the village had created a municipal campsite, because it didn’t necessarily want motorhomes parked alongside the Canal, so decided to stay here, and possibly do a short bike ride tomorrow before moving on. My immediate neighbours here are a Swedish couple who’ve just retired, sold up in Sweden and are about to complete and get the key for their new home they’ve purchased in a village closer to Beziers. Wanting to live in a warm and sunny place while they are able to make such a move.
