After just a short hop down
to Nimes to get on the motorway, and a trip to a hypermarket to stock up on
food and wine, we set off past loads of places on the Med coast that used to be
regular stop-overs on our meandering trips to and from Spain. It was very odd
just driving past – but good to be putting the miles away on the motorway so we
could have more time on the Cote Sauvage – a part of France we used to visit
with the kids in the 90s.
As we are not big lovers of
motorway driving, we took the A9 to Narbonne and then the A61 to just west of
Carcassonne where we then got off at Bram to use the excellent N and D roads,
heading across the Ariégoise natural park. The toll was €26.90 for approximately 122 miles – a lot more
expensive than Italian autostradas! We’d been past this part of France before,
but never driven across the park area on this route. It proved to be a real
treat to drive through, with plenty of free camping opportunities and plenty of
Aires should we need them.
We eventually stopped in Castelnau-Durban
at a shady riverside Aire (free). This was a classic French Aire, with picnic
benches, a full service area for water and waste, and even a toilet and
regional produce store. And of
course, the morning’s necessities catered for with a boulangerie just across
the road!
As we’d opted to stop early
(compared to some recent drives!) we had a wander up the river and around the
village, thinking we might try the restaurant that had been advertised as we
entered the village, for a treat. Of course, this being France, it was only
open on Saturday nights for dinner, doing most of its trade at lunchtimes!
The village was surprisingly
interesting, with a renovated public weighbridge for crops and animals (last
used in the 80s) and a memorial to Spanish fighters who had crossed the
Pyrenees after their Civil War to fight against Nazism with the French Maquis.
After dinner under the trees
and next to our very own babbling brook, we turned in, looking forward to a
relaxing and cool night. And those church bells were bound to stop at midnight…weren’t
they…?
…except they didn’t, and to
add insult to injury, they not only repeated the time after the first bell
ringing, but chimed on the half hour as well! Luckily, we’d had a nice bottle
of Italian red we’d brought over, so we didn’t really appreciate the bells
until we were woken by rain in the early hours and the need to get up and drop
the skylights – a sound we’d not heard for ages!
The rain had stopped by
morning so after a quick look round the regional produce store we were off,
just as a large convoy of ‘gens de voyage’ descended on the Aire – en route to
what looked like a major gathering of travellers a bit further on our route out
to St Girons and west to Tarbes and Pau.
As we’d made good time on
the motorway the day before, we took the N and D roads over to Salies. The
route over was like so much of our driving in France – picturesque with lots of
stop-offs for another day. By 16:00 we’d arrived at Salies and Chris and Sue’s
new home – wow!
S.
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