Week 60: Ohh no we have to head home soon!
- Oct 24, 2022
- 7 min read
2 nights-Camping La Tour Fondue (near Giens Pennisula, Southern France)
2 nights-Camping Parc Mogador (near Beau Cours, Southern France)
1 night-Aire de Camping Car de Carro (near Point de Carro, Southern France)
2 nights-Camping Parc le Bastide (near Saint-Remy de Provence, Southern France)
We’ve been lucky again with the weather this week and never thought this far into October, we would be having dry weather with daily temperatures of 22-25 degrees. As we reach week 60, we also know we are only a week from returning. The miserable UK news, doom of heating bills and great weather here is starting to make returning a foreboding thought. We have been looking for work and have applied for some jobs, aspects of this are quite exciting but the thought of being in one location, with less freedom, more structure and living mainly indoors is less so. We are looking forward to seeing family, friends and neighbours…and my extensive shoe collection!
We’ve been listening to ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast all this year and have both become a little obsessed with it, and Allistair (who I call the ‘big grumpy one) and Rory (who I call ‘his little elf’). Steve has always been very political, but it is something I’ve become more engaged with this year. Of all the plans we had, I don’t think either of us ever thought this would become a focus. We had hoped to read more, exercise more, train the dog further (his plan was to train us further), paint more (me not Steve) and of course visit new places. But maybe it’s not that we are more political but that it has all become so ridiculous, that there is no avoiding it. We have not even been in the UK for any of Liz’ term…and I think we will have to leave the UK if Boris attempts part II of his ill-fated, self-deluded, ineffective, bumbling and bafoon-esque leadership!
So, this week. We had spent the Sunday night (in Steve’s blog last week) at La Tour Fondue but decided to stay a few more nights. The campsite was quite compact, but we had a good pitch with no one next to us, it was very close to the sea and cheap. On Monday we got the boat to Isle Du Porquerolles, a small French island about a 20-minute boat ride away. We thought it would be ‘quite nice’ but had no thought beyond this. We knew it was a national park and quite small, being only 6 kms long and planned to go for an hour or two. However, when we got there, we loved it. The island felt really different to the mainland and like ‘we assumed’ a Caribbean Island might feel (neither of us has ever been to the Caribbean). The island had very diverse landscapes, amazing flora and fauna and relaxed feeling. The main town had a few restaurants, a great ice cream shop and plenty of bike rental shops. We were sold and ready to relocate…just not sure what their need was for an English-speaking SEND educationalist and insurance person (never really knew what Steve did?) come ‘wannabe’ seal counter was??? Anyway, we had an amazing day, we walked towards one end of the island and then back to the town. We were then planning to take Bear to the beach, as a reward for being sooo good and to cool down, unfortunately they had a ‘no dog’ on the beach policy, that’s that then, we are not relocating! I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking for this great island…
Examples of the diverse fauna and flora on the island.
The town...and ice cream shop!
The coast on the island
The harbour for the island...lots bigger than we thought it would be for the size of the island.
Boat trip to the island and wind in his whiskers!
Whilst at Camping La Tour Fondue we also heard about a local market, thanks to our French Mo-Ho neighbour. We took Bear on the bike to visit but decided the meats, cheeses and breads (Bear is obsessed with bread) were just too much of a draw for him and carried him around. The French looked at us rather bemused by this situation. However, I think they would look more bemused if Bear jumped onto their stall. (We did have an incident recently where we had bought a baguette and Steve had put it in his rucksack but it poked out the top. Steve put the rucksack down to get his bike ready and Bear ‘accidently’ lunged for the baguette and licked the end of it. Steve was very cross. Bear looked delighted with himself!)
Back to the neighbour-we had a path one side of us, a spare pitch the other and then our new found French friend and his wife. He seemed very chirpy and always wanting to stop and talk, it was good to practice our French (after having virtual lessons during lockdown and then spending most of the year in German speaking locations!), he and Steve particularly seemed to chat a few times a day. They were very positive about my skills after seeing me complete Steve’s haircut. I even understood the French joke of ‘is the dog next?’…the man looked quite shocked when I explained I do the dog’s hair as well-a dual skill I did not envision I would be developing this year.
Just in front of campsite and salt marshes and pink flamingo a short bike ride away.
Then to campsite Mogodor, about an hour’s drive away, with a frustrating stop to try and buy food-we couldn’t park in the supermarket as it was too busy and there was no space for Gordon. Mogodor had lots of positives, one being that our pitch was completely sectioned off by bushes with us parking Gordon across the pitch, I was able to fit in three Fiit classes, in privacy. The campsite also had a swimming pool and we swam each day-with it still being warm enough to use a non-heated pool-how lucky are we. We walked into the town Sanary-sur-Mer had a look around, gave Bear some time on the beach…and had another ice cream…we need to eat less ice cream. We hadn’t realised how hot the afternoon was-27 degrees- and Bear was shattered when we got back. It felt like a more ‘local’ area rather than a tourist hot spot and it was good to walk about, nose at the houses and find some quieter coastal walks.
The town by Mogodor campsite.
The Aire was planned for one night. We were expecting rain and the hard standing/car park style flooring would make it easier with muck and Bear going in and out of the van. A lot of the campsites recently have been grass or hard sand pitches. However, the rain never really arrived and there was just a very light sprinkling during the evening. The Aire was directly next to the sea but when we arrived it was very windy and the sea very choppy. We purposely parked at the back as we did not want to be shaken all night, with the wind and sea spray hitting the van. It was nowhere near as bad as the storm we endured in Cornwall last October and by the evening it had calmed a lot. However, Steve was very pleased to see lots of windsurfers and kite boarders out. The Aire was big enough for about 80 vans and was nearly full. Even though it was a Friday night, we were confused as to why it was so busy in late October. The little town was pretty but very small and it was a great location, right next to the sea but we concluded this stretch must always be quite windy and choppy and attract a lot of surfers. It was entertaining and impressive to watch and Steve could have sat there for hours.
Ohh no, we really then did start heading towards the UK. We drove north for about 1.5 hours to Saint-Remy. The campsite was a little rustic and there was no way we’d be using the campsite facilities (sometimes we do but we mainly use Gordon’s loo and shower) but we had a great big pitch which was completely private as it was surrounded by bamboo and we had the whole row (about 20-30 pitches) to ourselves…but of course another van turned up on our second night and of all the pitches, thought it was best to park next to us!!! We decided on the campsite as it was on the way to Avignon but Saint-Remy was a lovely town and only a 15 minute walk from the campsite, our plan to eat less ice cream was semi-successful, we shared one giant sundae? We also visited Carrieres Des Lumieres as it looked interesting but by coincidence, realised our neighbour from home had told us about this. It is an art exhibition but with a difference, as it’s inside part of a limestone quarry and moving images are projected onto the walls. We left Bear in the van and cycled the 6-mile route there. 5 of the miles were up hill. It was really different and quite disorientating when you first entered as you couldn’t quite tell what the floor surface was like or a times whether the walls were moving. It was worth the bike ride and unique. It was really well structured and visually spectacular. See the videos below to get a ‘taster’ of this. We then cycled more up hill, to reach the village of Les baux-de-Provence, a town in the Alpilles mountains. It is deemed one of the most beautiful villages in France and dates to 6000BC, it was stunning.
http://www.carrieres-lumieres.com
Many great adventures this week…but we do need to focus on some basics: we need a food shop, Gordon needs a wash and we really need to find a laundry-with all those sweaty Fiit classes-the washing stinks!!!!
(Ohh breaking news, since starting the blog and publishing it, Boris has stepped away from entering the leadership bid…evidentially for the good of the country…so many things to say about this that it could be a blog in itself, so I’ll just leave it there! Yay Steve won’t instantaneously combust, the fear of what may happen if Boris returned!)
Comments