France Part Five - Week 5

Nights out this trip - 38
Sites - 9
Aires/Pub Stops - 2

After enjoying 8 nights at Cavalier sur Mer we decided to move on with 80km/h winds (Gale Force 9) winds forecast for mid week. Our last day there there was heavy rain in the afternoon and a pretty big storm swirling around for a good few hours, creating a washing down of the Sandy pitches into a river on the site. We really enjoyed our stay there and we warmed to the place, feeling at home. We then planned a route following the coast to aim for Beziers to cycle along the Canal du MIDI. On the Tuesday we broke our journey with an overnight stop at Camping le Devancon near the very pretty town of Peyriers, just east of Aix en Provence. The site was very rural and high in the Provence hills, so decidedly chilly, felt like Derbyshire in November.

This portion of the journey was eventful in as much as Katie ringing us to tell she had had an argument with a brick wall in a car park at work and lost. Not much we could do, car was a bit of a mess, as we nearly were ourselves as finding somewhere to park (following a hasty

autoroute exit and search for a non existent supermarket car park to use the phone and help get her rescued) took us down a one way street which funnelled us into a narrowing row of houses, we escaped unscraped, unlike our Daughter. She’s a habit of this, at least it wasn’t 2:00 am in Dubai airport like last time. Bugger all we could do, at least only damage to car and her pride on both occasions thankfully.

Feeling like some home comfort that evening we fancied Quiche and a nice salad for dinner, after it’s allotted cooking time (x 2 to allow for an oven which is more like a slightly warm breeze in Bridlington in early April) Mrs H opened the oven door whereby the said Quiche flew out Eddie Eagle style and landed face down on the floor. I’d not put the oven tray in right and we’d created our own ski slope from which it grandly launched itself.

Wednesday we followed the beautiful coastal road past Le Lavando, hugging the edges of the Mediterranean which sadly after Toulon then turned into a busy, ugly and industrial road south west through Martigues and along salt marshes inland to Arles. The scenery improved marginally as we progressed stopping at Vauvert for a snack where we enjoyed seeing the friendly Boulanger sneeze loudly and proudly into our cakes, which was nice.

After a few SatNav smart arse detours we arrived at Villeneuve Les Bezier for 2 nights at Camping les Burges du Canal. A very traditional, friendly site with the chosen sunny pitch being too small for our van we parked diagonally across it, nobody seemed to mind. The Caravan Club would have sent Wardens in numbers to read the riot act on a Club Site I mused.

We spent 2 nights there, and enjoyed a bike ride into Beziers via the Canal and tourist 9 locks park which was very pleasant. The marked canal path into

the city abruptly stops, says “fuck you English Rossbifs” and leaves you abandoned to find your own way into the centre. This involved pushing the bikes up a Hovis advert style cobbled hill into the centre of this large and pleasant perched town. After coffee and cake we trundled back down another hill to try and find the canal enjoying a pleasant area (The Plateau) lined with bars & then on through a park to trace our route back, with the same applying as the track in making the canal a challenge to find.

Our next stop took us to Collioures close to the Spanish border and some clear Catalan influences. I think we were lucky to get a pitch on the cliff top site of Camping Les Criques de Porteils as it seemed very popular, and rightly so as it turned out.

Arrived on the Friday in blazing sun and the warden, laughing, chose a nice

open pitch 202. We were pitched next to the 3 toddlers from hell belonging to a Dutch family who enjoyed breakfast outdoors at about 06:30 each morning. A Zen family who encouraged their offspring to cry and scream for most of the day for no apparent reason, I’m not sure what noise a cat being neutered makes but I’d rather have been next to an administrating vets. Earplugs seemed to work for us eventually, and at least allowed getting up at a reasonable time. We got the sunny, open pitch I asked for in my dodgy French though.

Collioure was about 30/40 mins walk, either along a cliff path route with a fair scramble involved (Mrs H not impressed as she chose flip flops to walk in), or an easier route along a cycle path of about 20 mins. Known for painters, it’s a beautiful place, lovely little side streets and sea front.

I’ve stolen this, but it says it well….”Collioure has over the past 150 years,

been home to an immpressive array of artistic talent. Collioure was originally just a relatively poor fishing village, eeking out a living from the Anchovy trade. However, in the early 20th Century, Collioure became home to an important new art movement "Fauvism", with many artists attracted by Collioure's "special light". It is true, every time I have ever visited Collioure it has always been bright and sunny. But it is a special kind of hazy sunlight that reflects back up from the shallow bay. The basis of the Fauvist paintings, was a strong use of colours, whilst still exhibiting elements of the Impressionism painting style. Early Fauvist painters such as Matisse, Derain, Dufy and Rennie McIntosh, were later joined by
Picasso, Georges Braque and Maillol in the town”

Enough of that culture shit, plenty of places for beers by the sea, chuffin expensive though. That’s arty places for you.

On the Saturday we enjoyed a super walk in the mountains above the town, it was rated as no difficulty. This was a blatant lie as we needed ropes for the steep, rocky climb up to Coll de Mollo. This was after visiting the hermitage Notre Dame De Consolation for a lunch stop, creepy Catalan place to be honest, with feral dogs and walk directions which told us to go back down the same way up, which we tried several times. These directions were not to be trusted, and in the end I ditched them and followed a trusted walking app. The route took us high up through vineyards and chestnut groves with rewarding views all around before dropping back down to Collioure for refreshments. The circular is known as Les Hauts de Collioure, and was around 13km with 482m of ascent.

Sunday we took a saunter along the coast in the other direction to Argeles Port, purpose built around a nice marina lined with many bars and restaurants. It was clearly a popular pastime to wander round the harbour on a Sunday afternoon, which after starting cloudy cleared into a clear, sunny blue sky. Good job really as the bar owner was in no hurry to serve us our Demi Pressions.

We’re not yet decided how long to stay, pondered on crossing over to Spain for a while and push back our planned return crossing. Probably unlikely we’re doing that as the good weather looks set here for a few days yet and despite the screaming pre school children we like it here, and the area is lovely. We’re

due to be back across a week Thursday, we’ll see.