Our first stop as we left the campsite at Serignan was the local wine cooperative to stock up on the amazing rosé we had been buying on draught at the campsite shop for €3.70. Of course at the Cave it was a little less and also available in boxes. Nice and easy to tuck a couple away in the garage!
It was a fascinating reminder of just how much local wine is a staple part of the community, as we were surrounded by the locals, filling their containers ready for le weekend.
After shopping at the local Carrefour (our first supermarket shop in two weeks), where we were reminded of the ready availability of washing and drying machines in many supermarket car parks (what a boon for campers!) we headed off for the motorway to Perpignan, to eat up the miles as we headed into the foothills of the southern Pyrenees.
Mrs B had suggested `Camping La Tour de France’ as our next destination, as it had great reviews for its restaurant, as well as being well positioned to explore this part of France. Situated in the small town of Latour de France, the campsite was a cool oasis of well-shaded pitches, with plenty of availability.
Dodging the storms we had feared would be part of this leg of the trip as we skirted the Pyrenees, we lucked out on our visit the next day with just an overcast sky, to see the amazing ‘Orgues’ near Ille-sur-Tet, a series of incredible naturally sculpted geological features referred to variously as ‘fairy chimneys’ or ‘organ pipes’ as in the site’s name.
The drive over the hills was dramatic – if only it hadn’t been so cloudy!
Sculpted by erosion over the millennia, the site had an eerie and impressive feel about it with very few other people about at the time we visited.
The short 800m walk from the ticket office to the actual site itself was accompanied by some vibrant convulvulous, and a number of welded metal ‘works of art’, some of which Mrs B enjoyed more than others!
Returning to the site after another picturesque drive via a different route, we decided to try out the campsite restaurant for dinner. And what an amazing meal it was! For a small campsite restaurant in a village, the food was outstanding by any measure. We clearly weren’t the only ones who thought so either, as we counted around 50 diners throughout the evening, including a lot of local customers.
We shared a meat and cheese tapas platter to start, followed by a delicious and inventive main of squid on potato puree, with shaved fennel, a cashew nut and wasabi dressing and chorizo mayonnaise, washed down by a lush local white, Canigonenc, followed by tarte tatin and a chilled local sweet wine, finishing with what we think is the French near equivalent to a cortado, café noisette. It was one of the best meals we have ever eaten in France and a real testament to the skill and inventiveness of the chef!
Before we left we visited the local Cave to get a bottle of the village cooperative’s sweet wine, made under the Rivesalte DOC – a bottle we’ll be saving for home!
Our next stop will be a return visit to Maury and its fabulous wine cooperative, as well as one of our all time favourite wine producers, Elodie Grebule, whose ‘Belle Enfant’ red we first came across in one of our favourite hotels in the UK, Corse Lawn in the Cotswolds – fingers crossed it’s open this time…!
S&J 26.06.23
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