We had been expecting the rain but it still wasn’t good at 3 am this morning, hammering on the roof, with the occasional clap of thunder. At 7am it wasn’t raining quite so heavily, although the pitch was a bit slimy and muddy. We managed to get away just after 8am, soon on the motorway and heading south. Traffic wasn’t too bad until we neared Barcelona, plenty of lorries around there. Once we’d passed Barcelona the traffic eased and the only problem was the wind which buffeted the van around. The weather improved as we moved south.

We arrived at Camping Ampolla Playa late morning, to be offered 1 pitch. Fortunately it was OK, so we took it. The Dutch had got here before us, filling about 75% of the site, next to us we have a nice couple from Dagenham.

Above: Paul had to do some pruning of the Eucalyptus tree behind our van

The site is in a lovely position, on the edge of what is still called a ‘fishing village’ one side, and a Natural Park the other. Apparently there is an abundance of wildlife, birds, flamingos and fish. I’m looking forward to exploring. There are also rice paddies, that will be a first !

The first thing we did after pitching was cycle into the town to find a pharmacy, unfortunately I have cystitis so needed something to help (note to self: next time bring something from home!) We found the pharmacy but as we are in Spain their opening hours were 9 – 1.30pm and 5 – 8.30pm. It was now 2.30pm, we had to turn around and wait until later, so frustrating.

Eventually I was able to show the girl in the pharmacy my phone, where I had put my question about cystitis into Google Translate. She gave me some antibiotics and tablets, then typed the instructions for taking them into Google Translate and showed me. The wonders of technology!

The weather had been reasonably OK, with some warm spells, although very windy. However at 7pm it suddenly went very dark and hailed! Then we had thunder and heavy rain for about an hour. I had to quickly shut all the roof windows as the hail was finding it’s was in through every opening.

We are forecast more rain tomorrow before going back to sunshine.

Our pitch

Slow start to the day, only 52 miles to go. Paul found he could not get to the camper service area – a narrow access exacerbated by cars parking alongside their caravans – so I just said I would get someone to move their car. I had to disturb a nice Frenchman who was having his breakfast. No English spoken, just a mixture of my GCSE French and miming. But it worked.

The wind has completely disappeared today 🙄 but we need to head south as there’s heavy rain coming in on Tuesday.

Easy journey to Spain and a good pitch on Camping Mas Nou.

In contrast to the last campsite in France which felt like the Marie Celeste – almost empty – this site is nearly full. Mainly Dutch with a smattering of other nationalities. It’s nice to see people coming and going, saying hello/bonjour/ole as they pass. It’s a spacious site so doesn’t feel cramped. It’s at the edge of the town and there is a Lidl / Aldi and Spanish Supermacado to choose from in terms of supermarkets, I like Supermacado so I went in there for some bread for lunch and came out with a large bag full of food! I’d forgotten how much cheaper it is in Spain, and the fish counter was amazing.

After lunch we cycled down to Empuria Brava, which is known as the Little Venice of Spain as it has one main road down through it and either side there are numerous waterways with properties backing into the water, each having their own mooring. These areas are very pretty, lovely to see the boats coming and going. We came here many years ago, and rented a boat (a TINY electric boat) to pootle around the waterways, good memories.

Down at the sea it was blowing a gale and dogs were not allowed on the beach so we found an ice cream parlour, a seat out of the wind and indulged ourselves. I’ve become a big fan of yoghurt ice cream 😋

Back to the campsite and a sit in the sun and finish my book. We have a corner pitch so Paul loves it, watching all the coming and going, speaking to everyone as they pass by. By 6pm the boules pitches/courts had filled up and people were taking it very seriously.

The showers here are heaven : hot water + lots of water + no button to keep pressing. Perfect.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to be double dot rain so we’re going to try and outrun it by going a couple of hundred miles down the coast. Might as well travel in the rain as sit on a site in the van.

Even quieter news day today.

We were woken about 7.30am by La Chass – the hunt – bang bang bang. Lottie didn’t like it one bit, she wanted cuddles and reassurance. Paul held her whilst I got dressed, then she wanted me to hold her, climbing up on my shoulder each time there was a bang. Took a couple of hours before she was prepared to stand on her own, I think they (the hunters) had moved further away by then, the bangs were more distant.

After doing a wash we pegged it all out and then cycled to get some bread for lunch.

The wind was really strong today and by the time we came back from the bakers, the sheets were almost dry.

We decided not to go to the beach, because of the wind, so cycled to Canet Plage via the marina. There are some beautiful boats, lots of catamarans, possibly down to the fact that we saw at least 2 catamaran shipbuilders.

Cycling along the beach front of Canet Plage was not really pleasurable because of the wind. We did find a part of the beach that Lottie was able to go on but after a few minutes of being sand blasted we gave up.

We had to give Lottie a shower tonight. She was very grubby and definitely not white. How long it will last, I don’t know.

Tomorrow we head for Spain. Hopefully somewhere out of the wind!

Quiet news day today.

We cycled into CANET Roussillon this morning, stocked up on a few essentials, bought some fruit and veg from the market, then cycled down a mile or so into Canet Plage. We have fond memories of Canet Plage as we visited here several times when we used to stay in a house near here, about 12 years ago, during our summer holidays. We occasionally used to go to one of the set ups where you pay for a sun lounger, Paul always used to ask for Premier Ligne(the first line/row next to the water) but they were always reserved in advance, it became a bit of a joke with the chap there. The same place is still there.

There was also a market in Canet Plage, one of the stands was something to do with animal cruelty (I think) and had the cutest miniature pig, and also involved someone handing out bon bons 🤔

We then got slightly lost on the way back to the campsite but found it eventually. Our route took us around the marina so we didn’t mind getting lost.

Late afternoon we set off for the beach. Although the beach in front of Canet has a dog ban, the beach next to our campsite fortunately allows dogs, so Lottie is in her element. The wind, although not as bad as yesterday, was still blowing a hooley. We put a parasol up but not sure it did very much. There were a few nudies on the beach but unfortunately for Paul they were in their 60s/70s, no young curvaceous beauties.

We’re staying another night and then we’re moving into Spain. Although the forecast for Tuesday us rain ☔️

Our pitch here:

Detante was reached last night with the neighbours. I think we finally wore them down with continuous smiling and saying Bonjour every time we passed. The chap in the same bay as us told Paul they lived in Toulouse, were staying in the aire for a MONTH and then going down to Malaga for the winter. Interesting. It was a good stopover aire for us for a night but I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to stay for a month but it would be cheap living I guess.

Lottie got me up about 6am this morning as she needed to go out, I tied her on a long lead and opened the door, waited 5mins and then pulled her back in. Back to bed. 10 mins later she wanted to go out again. Same procedure except this time I went out with her and walked around the aire in my nightie and fleece, commando style, it was very chilly! The third time I gave up going back to bed and had coffee and breakfast. The neighbors must have loved it, me closing the van door every 10 mins. Paul managed to sleep 😴 through most of this. I waited for him to wake up and then I showered and took Lottie out. There was a back gate to the aire that took you straight onto the canal tow path, we walked along this to a bakery to get a baguette and pain au raisin for later.

All went well on the journey south apart from a slight confusion on our part when leaving the Toulouse ring road. I was looking at my phone when he said ‘I’m not sure if I should be in this lane or if it’s a bus lane’. I looked up and saw a road in the middle with 2 lanes and a further single lane either side. I thought we were in a bus lane so Paul pulled into the middle road, then a motorbike drove up the single lane beside us, just as we saw BUS written on the road in front of us. Quick change back to the single road on the right (no buses or other traffic around to guide us).

Lottie decided to be sick on the doormat in the van halfway down south, it could have been my lap so I didn’t mind.

We decided not to use the toll autoroutes today. A plus was that we saw some lovely towns and villages, the minus was that it took forever to get to our destination – Canet Plage, on the med, 8 miles south of Perpignan. With a lunch / supermarket stop we didn’t get to Canet Plage until about 3.15pm. When we were a mile or so away from the campsite Tom Tom tried to send us through a single track tunnel under the main road which was 2 metres high (we’re 3 metres) 😮 I had to use google maps to find a quick alternative.

The next problem was that the GPS took us around a winding road that ended at the entrance to the 5* all singing and dancing campsite called La Brasilia. They have a very grand, large entrance and before we could turn around a woman came out to greet us, all smiles, asking if we had a reservation, in French. I had to explain that we did not mean to be there, we had in fact been looking for the ACSI 3* site of Le Bosquet. How embarrassing. Her smile disappeared as she told us the entrance was back around the corner, where it had said Le Peuplier campsite. Confused, we made a hasty exit. We found the entrance we needed (not nearly so grand and they didn’t come out to greet us!) and I went into reception to say that we were looking for Le Bisquet. The girl at reception beamed at me and says ‘it is ‘ere’. She said the 2 campsites were now one. Confusing. Anyway, we had a wander and although it’s not a particularly attractive site – 90% statics – we managed to find a pitch that would get some sun, and it’s much cheaper than the 5* site (but I was definitely tempted to go there). It’s really warm and sunny, about 27 degrees, but extremely windy. Fortunately it’s going to die down over the weekend.

After pitching up we went through the back gate in the site, out onto the cycle path, and walked down to the beach. Not far at all and a lovely walk by a river. Dogs are allowed on the beach so it was great until Lottie peed on a wooden block of a game that a family were playing …… embarrassing.

Not sure how long we’ll stay here, definitely 2 nights, 3 I hope.

I don’t think this photo loaded last night. This was our walk at Il de Re yesterday

Today – Thursday

Lottie woke me at 6.40am to go out, this time I put her in the lead before she could poo in someone else’s pitch. Fortunately her bowel movements have returned to normal! I had planned to make an early start so had breakfast and got dressed. Paul was not quite so eager to get up. But we were off by 8.30am so it was worth the early start.

Today was all autoroute driving, we had about 250 miles to cover so needed to avoid villages and roundabouts.

Paul is still coughing and spluttering, he must be feeling unwell as when we stopped for a coffee and wee break he suggested I drive 😳 – that doesn’t happen very often, I usually have to virtually kick him out of the driving seat if I want to drive. We met a lovely couple at the services, from the West Midlands, with a Bichon Frise. We let Lottie say hello and we were just telling them that she can be a bit funny with little white dogs when she suddenly bared her teeth and growled and barked at this poor elderly innocent Bichon. I snatched her up and apologised. They were fine about it fortunately.

After a while we set off again, with me driving for the last 100 miles, arriving at our aire at Moissac about 1.30pm. This is where we are:

We had a slight dilemma when we arrived as each bay had room for 2 vans but there were 15 bays with 1 van in each. So wherever we went it was possible to upset someone – being the only English people in an aire full of French people. There was one bay with a table left in it to reserve it so I reversed into that one (the bay, not the table!). I tucked the van right into the corner of the bay, thinking that the other van would come alongside us with their door facing the other way. But they drove into the bay on the other side, so that their door faced ours. Great. We said Bonjour and they did reply but didn’t seem overjoyed to have us share their bay.

After some lunch we cycled into Moissac, I had read that it had a medieval part so we were keen to see that. It did have a large old church and an abbey, and a few older buildings but it was an odd mix. It didn’t quite live up to expectations.

There was a cat wandering around the church that seemed very much at home

You can’t see it on the photo below but the interior walls were all painted with a lovely pattern, I can’t imagine how long it must have taken to do.

The river and canal areas are beautiful. We cycled along the canal for a while, then watched a boat come through 2 of the 3 or 4 locks that were there.

Back at the aire it was very quiet, one of the quietest aires we’ve ever stayed at. But 8e for 24 hours with electric is good value, and only a few miles from the autoroute.

At 5pm there was suddenly a queue of vans waiting to come into the aire, it rapidly started filling up. A gendarme came and had a wander around.

Tomorrow we head south – haven’t actually decided where yet …….

Last night at Lottie’s feeding time I realised I hadn’t taken her food out of the freezer. Not to worry, I thought, she can have the M&S dog food I bought just before we left. It was grain free chicken and she loved it. A great success I thought. She wolfed it down.

Today, not such a great success, she has definitely had a gippy tummy. Let’s just say her poo has not been solid and it involved me having to buy some baby wipes when we were out this morning. ☹️ She’s been very good at asking to ‘go’, but whilst I had gone to the shower apparently she asked to go out, Paul let her out and before he had got his trainers on he could hear the English couple 2 pitches up shouting at her as she squat in front of them 😳 Paul said he rushed up, apologised and picked up her poo (except he said he couldn’t find anything so just pretended he had) 🙄. I was just glad I wasn’t there. She’s had her normal food tonight so let’s hope it settles down.

This morning Paul was determined to get the owners of the english Carthago pitched behind us to speak, so far they had stayed in their van with the blinds up. About 9.30am I heard him say in a loud voice ‘Morning Carthago neighbours’. 🤣 he’d spotted the chap get out of his van so he went for it. I heard them chatting for a while, then he came in and said ‘you won’t like them, not your sort of people at all, the wife was moaning about everything’. He’s right.

We cycled into La Bois Plage and spent a while wandering the market, I bought some bits and pieces for tea, bought Paul his favourite ‘little white fish’ (anchovies). We wanted to stop at the cafe that we’d been at 2 years ago when I heard the news that I was going to be a grandparent but unfortunately it was too busy so we had to find another one. Next to us in the cafe were an English couple who were also in a motorhome but at a different campsite. He was (or used to work as) a dentist and although they lived in Wimborne now, they had spent some time in North Devon and knew Jonathan Munns, who used to be my dentist many years ago. Small world.

We cycled back to the campsite and had a late lunch. Late afternoon we cycled to Ste Marie which was only supposed to be 1km down the cycle path 🚲. However it took us about 2miles to find some sort of centre. We visited the Pharmacy as Paul has had an irritating cough. Usually he sends me in to buy anything but I told him he had to do this himself as they would ask questions. He came out about 10 mins later clutching a bag of cough syrup and a throat spray.

We then spent another mile or so trying to find the beach, which we did eventually. It was a very windswept, natural beach with lovely golden sand and many pebbles. We walked for a while, taking in the fresh sea air.

Our winding return on the cycle path took us past a collection of boules pitches, about 6- 8, with many people playing. Maybe there was a competition on.

By now the weather was windy and grey. We had decided to move on tomorrow and this reinforced that we’d made the right decision. We were going to head for Sam Sebastian but the weather wasn’t looking too good down there so we’re heading South in France, probably towards Collioure/Argelès-sur-Mer.

We thought we’d better move as if we stayed we would end up putting on a lot of weight! The food around here is delicious, the bread, the cheese, the pate etc etc

Another lovely day, activity and weather wise.

This morning we cycled to La Flotte to go to the market. I love markets, Paul not so much. But he absolutely loves La Flotte market because it is quite small with some amazing food stalls. Fish, fruit, ready cooked food to take away, stunning desserts, we came away with oysters (5e a dozen, we only had 6 for Paul), crevettes and langoustines for lunch. 11e the lot. It was all delicious. I did think I’d bought cooked langoustines until Paul pointed out that they were extremely flexible and raw, out came the pan and some garlic butter. We also have some prune tart for dessert tonight.

After our seafood lunch we had a quiet sit in the sun and then cycled to Saint Martin de Re, the main town of the island. As we neared the town the number of cyclists increased substantially. This island is covered by a large network of cycle paths and you get all ages cycling, whole families with children in trailers, dogs in trailers. When we arrived our first port of call was – as Paul calls it – the donkey soap shop, to get him some more soap on a rope. He was disappointed as they, for the first time in about 8 years, didn’t have any citron ones. He had to have lime. They also wouldn’t take card so we had to make a visit to the hole in the wall for some cash.

We had a wander around the shops, which seem to have increased, and then a wander around the harbour, looking at all of the boats.

Got lost on the way back to the campsite, had a short detour before getting back to where we should have been. But that’s all part of the fun. Lottie has run most of the 12 miles or so that we’ve done today and is now passed out on my lap. Peace. Actually it wasn’t very peaceful just now as the young German couple next to us had a very loud shouting match. It involved their young son (aged about 4) and a scooter and the words ‘kaput’. Paul, who knows a few words of German said it was something about the boy and another boy hitting and breaking the scooter with a stone. It all seems to have calmed down now thank goodness. I was glad I was in the van as it was very loud.

We’ve decided to stay another night. Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny so I’m hoping to get to the beach.

Busy day today. Lottie got me up at 7.10am by squeaking that she wanted to go out. I had to throw on some clothes and take her for a walk as she needed to wee and poo desperately.

We set off for Il de Re, stopping at a supermarket on the way.

Over the bridge to Il de Re

We arrived at our campsite, Chardons Bleus, and had the longest ever check in. The young girl checking us in was learning on the job and very sweet but unfortunately her understanding of English, and english grammar, was not all it could be, so several times we had to go over something again and again. I told her at the beginning of the conversation that we were using ACSI but at the end she said it was 57.90e for 2 nights, so I said no, it wasn’t (very nicely). Yes it is, she said, no – we have an ACSI card I said. Eventually an older woman spoke to her and told her what to do on the computer. 37e she said, that’s better I said. Took us about half an hour to check in.

We only had about 5 pitches to choose from and only 1 that had the slightest chance of any sun, so that was the one we chose. The first job was the washing which needed to be done so we changed the bed and loaded the machine. Once we’d had lunch and put the washing out we cycled off to La Flotte for a wander round. The tide was out so Lottie didn’t get a swim, but she did have a walk on the beach. There were several people out digging amongst the seaweed, obviously foraging for something. I did go into the tourist office and asked the girl in there what people on the coast were digging for – ah, she said, there is some construction going on. No, I said, they are digging on the beach – ah she said, they’re building a new part of the cycle path. No, I said, they are looking through the seaweed – a ha she said, they are looking for maybe shellfish?? With a shrug of her shoulders. 🙄 We had already worked that out.

People out foraging for shellfish

We had an ice cream and sat on the side of the harbour. What do you want to do next, I asked Paul. Just sit here and do nothing, he said. What??? I find it very difficult to sit and do nothing. Give me a book and I’ll sit for ages. But I sat on my hands and looked at the boats for as long as I could, for Paul.

La Flotte

Eventually we went back to the bikes and after a bit more of a cycle around La Flotte, and a cycle around another campsite at La Flotte, we made our way back to the campsite.

Unfortunately we didn’t have any sun on our pitch so we made a G & T and sat on an empty pitch 2 down from ours. This worked well until someone came to look at it and decided to have it. They were a lovely young couple with a toddler and even said we could stay at the end of the pitch but it didn’t seem right. 😆

We are surrounded by young families with under school age children, they are all lovely families and the children are delightful.

Lottie had the first shower. She’s been in various streams, rivers and sea water so needed a freshen up,

The first night tonight that we’ve not showered in the van. The ‘facilities’ here are nearly new and very good, lots of room and very clean and even a hairdryer that actually dries hair, not one of those ineffective ones that are usually there.

Just got to decide what we’re doing tomorrow now.

Our pitch at Camping Plein Sud

The market at St Jean de Mont

Lottie met a friend

The beach where we stayed