The drive from Millau to the Med was both relaxingly familiar and without incident, and, for the first time ever, we were able to see the amazing Millau viaduct from the old route through the town that we used to take whilst it was being built – and what an extraordinary achievement that was!
After a couple of hours driving we were pulling in to the familiar Carrefour supermarket on the outskirts of Bèziers to stock up. Our destination, Camping Beausejour, whilst perfectly located right on the beach, has only a small shop selling the essentials (like fresh bread and draught rosé), but not a great deal else!
We have come to love this beach a bit like we love Oliva’s beach in Spain: it’s a very long stretch of sand that’s away from the concrete developments to the north and south, and far enough from the nearest town, Sérignan, about 4 miles away, that the simple act of re-provisioning turns into an adventure on the folders – and being France there are decent cycle lanes to make it a pleasant ride too. Plus, there are a couple of excellent local fruit and veg producer’s huts just 5 minutes’ ride away that make provisioning that little bit easier!
Arriving at the campsite with some trepidation that there may not be any vacant pitches, we were relieved that not only were there spaces, but our details were still on the campsite system (making registration much easier and faster), complete with details of the pitch we had had in 2019 (with lots of shade) but, now the system is configured to highlight shade at different times of the day to help campers choose!
And although our previous pitch was already taken, we were offered a good few that were nearby to choose from, offering shade and relative quiet with easy access to the facilities and the beach. Which is how we found ourselves, perhaps a little unimaginatively, just diagonally across from where we were in 2019! (Since taking a wander around the whole site, we have come to realise, and appreciate, that what you get offered is roughly divided into the quiet-seeking ‘oldies’ and younger people with families).
We wrote quite a bit about our stay in Sérignan when we were here in 2019, and as we’ve arrived with pretty much the same intention of getting some downtime in the sun again, we’ll keep it brief, with just some highlights.
The beach – just as beautiful as we remembered it, and this time including a display by the Securite Civile on a training exercise in their fire fighting planes, dipping down into the sea to pick up and then discharge water…
The thrice-weekly market in town, as busy and bustling as ever, with some great produce (we treated ourselves to faux-filet and mackerel for the BBQ), its relaxed arty vibe and some new street art…
…as well as a couple of plates of oysters, followed by a delicious tielle sietoise (a local octopus pie), washed down with a couple of glasses of rosé for lunch…
Riding out on the folders – for fun, provisions, or, yesterday, a failed attempt to get to Agde along the Canal du Midi (not quite as straightforward as we’d thought once we had arrived at the canal – oops!)…
Board games in the sultry southern heat (this time as well as Scrabble, a new numbers game, Nexus, that we learned about from our good friends Debbie and Adrian)…
The weather, however, has not delivered a re-run of (almost) endless days of sun and blue skies that we had in 2019. Instead, and in league with France Meteo, it has delivered a difficult to predict patchwork of very changeable extremes, often within one day, from the expected blue skies and sun – and wind, to thunder, lightning and torrential downpours.
So, as we near the end of our two weeks here, and although we have not been thwarted from getting to the beach on a daily basis, it’s become more of a lottery with the weather! So much so, that none of the many weather sites we use to help plan our days has been entirely accurate – with even Apple weather delivering different forecasts to each of our phones for the same day!
As we write this, we have had a sunny morning in Sérignan, some time on the beach, followed by thunder and rain (briefly) late afternoon and now, the sun is out again – hurrah!
We plan to update the blog just before we leave to head along the foothills of the Pyrenees and towards the Atlantic coast…
S&J 13.06.23
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