Coast to Coast in two days – almost!

Finding ourselves in the bizarre situation of heading north to enjoy cooler weather (!) we discovered that this year’s great leap north looked to be a relatively easy affair, as we were not that far from the fabulous and free A25 motorway, which we could take all the way to Clermont Ferrand.

Making sure we were well stocked with all our favourite southern goodies (including a stop at the excellent local wine cooperative in Sérignan), we managed to head onto the A25 by midday, not entirely sure of how far we would get, but grateful that we should get a good chunk of the route home out of the way.

Apart from the heat being pretty intense in the mid 30s; our non-aircon cab maintaining the same temperature as outside for most of the time; and our shouting skills becoming finely tuned as we battled over the wind noise from the open windows to hear each other – the first leg was problem free.

We stopped for a break at the roadside aire near Garabit to take a look at the fabulous viaduct/bridge, built by none other than Gustave Eiffel of tower fame. In years gone by we would have driven past it a good number of times, but this was the first occasion that we’d actually stopped to take a peek. Built in 1885 and the highest bridge in the world at the time, it’s still in use today although with speed limits, and is a good reminder of the building skills of the 19^th century.

Mrs B was on duty for finding somewhere to stop for the night, and she soon spotted that we might be able to make it to a small but lovely lakeside aire that we had last visited in 2012, in St Pardoux. It only has spaces for four campervans and is accessed via a narrow road a few miles into the countryside – so we knew we were taking a gamble, but took some comfort in the large number of campsites not too far away – just in case.

We had been tailing a couple of other campervans as we headed towards the small village, where we would need to turn off to get to the aire. And sure enough, they both turned off in the direction we were heading…

Luckily, they also both turned off towards one of the campsites, so our spirits soared that we might stand more of a chance of nabbing one of the four places. And sure enough we did, with two vacant spots left – phew!

With enough space to get the table and chairs out for our evening meal (and noting that both of our French neighbours were already tucking in) we heaved a big sigh of relief that our gamble had paid off. And it didn’t take long before our neighbours wandered past to say hello, looking as is so often the case at our Scottish flagged number plate and asking where we were from, in French of course.

For regular readers and people who know him, yet again Mr B didn’t let his limited grasp of French get in the way of a conversation, little expecting that his new bezzy mate Jerome would keep him talking for an hour whilst Mrs B was left to labour over the food. Even its arrival and the commencement of eating and drinking didn’t deter Jerome from his desire for a natter. And neither did Mr B’s obvious linguistic limitations put him off ranging across a range of topics, including of course ‘Le Brexit’!

We figured that Jerome must have been pretty starved of conversation and/or was just one of those super-friendly people out there, but we did benefit enormously from his sharing of an App that was new to us for seeking out places to camp up overnight (or park during the day). Park4night.com is another Dutch managed app that works reliably all over Europe and, as we discovered subsequently, was pretty useful in locating some interesting places to sleep for the night. Used in conjunction with the Camper Contact and ACSI apps we had been using for a while, and this year’s other discovery, Pass E’tapes, we came to learn that we now had some pretty reliable resources to do more advance planning than ever before – so thanks Jerome!

After a lovely peaceful and cool night, (as St Pardoux is high enough to cool down overnight) we got off to an (unusual for us) early start as we continued towards the northern coast. It turned into a longer and slower day, but we managed to get as far as St Rémy-sur-Avre where one of our apps showed us a good value Municipal campsite. Coincidentally, we had stopped here before to have lunch, never guessing that there was a campsite in the middle of the village! We knew we could have gone on further, but as we had left enough time to spend a few days on the Normandy coast before our ferry, we decided there was no rush.

With the weather still holding steady in the mid-30s, it didn’t take us long on arrival to find a spacious and shady pitch tucked away on the edge of the site. And what an amazing view through the skylight in the morning!

With all available skylights and windows fully open and the (almost silent) skylight fan on full to maximise airflow and to try and drop the inside temperature as much as possible, (as the Canicule sat stubbornly over this part of France and kept the night time temperatures in the high 20s), the hum of nearby aircon units on turbo from the large office block across the other side of the site, replaced the southern drone of cicadas. And although we were both used to the background noise of cicadas, Mr B struggled to convince himself that this noise was close enough to ignore!

Making another unusually early start, we stopped for lunch at the aire at Lamotte-Beuvron– another regular spot for us from the past. We’ve not been there for a while and were amused to see that there is now a floating restaurant on the small artificial lake, well positioned to admire the fountains and capture more of the tourist-euro…

We used the stop in the shade of the trees to make some decisions on where to stay near Dieppe, having sworn last year that we would swerve the aire at the port at all costs because of the inevitable noise from the arrival of our morning ferry! Using our growing suite of helpful apps, we plumped for an ACSI site in St Valery-en-Caux that would give us a discounted rate until our very last night, when we would then need to pay what we expected to be a small-ish increase (Normandy not having the pull of the Mediterranean, we thought…).

We’d decided to go to Dieppe before the site, so we could have a more relaxed ‘last chance’ shop in the large Auchan hypermarket there, as well as test the journey time to and from the site. So we arrived at Camping Etennemare mid afternoon and were presented with a free choice from a good number of vacant pitches, and also the news that our ACSI rate of €16 a night would rise to €28 for our final night! Clearly this part of Normandy was more popular than we had anticipated – as we soon discovered when most of the vacant pitches filled in over the weekend!

We found the site to be very ‘English’ in its layout, with box hedges surrounding a lot of the large grass pitches and quite unlike most of the other stops we had made across France. Still, with the weather set fair the day we arrived, a heated swimming pool and a short walk into the town where we could have our French ‘last supper’ as we planned, it seemed to be a great alternative to the noisy port-side aire in Dieppe. It certainly had some novelty value in terms of having one of the tiniest caravans we had ever seen!

We managed to squeeze one last day of pleasant sunny temperatures lazing about on the site, before, on our final day of the trip (and in classic return-to-the-UK stylie we have experienced before) the weather changed for the worse, with cloud, drizzle and temperatures almost half those we had been used to! It didn’t stop us from exploring the town of St Valery-en-Caux though, along with loads of locals undeterred by the weather as they swarmed to either the enormous boules festival right near the site, or the mackerel festival at the port. With huge queues waiting for barbequed mackerel, we plumped to lunch on home made quiches from a small stall on the quayside, and very warm and delicious they were too.

We discovered that as well as the charming mediaeval centre of the old town, and a very beautiful contemporary church with stunning stained glass windows, built after the war, St Valery-en-Caux was (in)famous as the location of the ‘other’ and untold Dunkirk of 1940 when around 9,000 allied troops were surrounded by the German army whilst they awaited rescue from the beaches. Unfortunately, the ships never came and although most of the troops were British (the 51^st Highland Division) they were under French Army control and on the 12^th June French officers surrendered. With escape virtually impossible, the 51^st Division also surrendered. Over 1000 soldiers had been killed and 4000 wounded. 8,000 were marched into Germany and Poland to spend the rest of the war working in fields, factories and the salt mines of Thuringia alongside inmates of the Nazi concentration camps, as slave labour. We also discovered that a few soldiers to the west of the town managed to escape and a few made it on foot to Le Havre and were evacuated. Others made their way through to Spain, and then Gibraltar before finally sailing home.

Having visited the D-Day beaches at the start of this trip, it was fascinating and sobering to discover a part of the pretty well documented history of WW2 that we never knew about – and probably still wouldn’t had we not visited St Valery-en-Caux.

With the weather unexpectedly improving to a glorious sunny day and clear blue sky on the day we headed for the ferry, our good fortune was boosted by the campsite only charging us the ACSI rate for all of our stay – woohoo!

And unusually, as we sat at the port in Dieppe waiting for the ferry, we knew we were not yet at the end of this year’s adventure, as we were returning to the UK but were then heading west for a final week of adventure and catching up with friends in Somerset and Dorset. What a great opportunity to compare and contrast campervan travel in the UK and mainland Europe!

And, as if to set the tone, as we entered the port of Newhaven, the good weather that had stayed with us across the Channel was clearly settled in the UK, and we were treated to an aerial display by paragliders over the old fort – another first for us!

S&J

Sérignan Part Two – and that heatwave! Sizzling in Sérignan…

 After our adventure along the Canal-du-midi, we clearly felt we had need of some serious down-time – so much so that the eventual length of our stay was a whopping 18 nights – probably the longest we’ve stayed anywhere on a camper van adventure! Not quite the type of exploration of France we had envisaged at the start of the trip, but a welcome reminder of the fabulous times we had spent on a very similar beach at Oliva in Spain.

So, what was it that kept us there and would we visit again?

The short bike ride along a dedicated cycle path between the town and beach was one of the factors that helped us laze away the days – and importantly, not need to move the van off the pitch until the day we left. It’s not really that hard to pack down and go off for supplies or even a day out, but when you’ve drifted into that laid-back vibe and there’s really no need, those folding bikes come into their own! Between us, there’s enough carrying capacity in panniers, rucksacks, baskets etc to fetch a few days’ supplies in one trip. And with local fruit and veg suppliers, an artisan bakery and a few decent resto/bars all within a 15 minute walk of the site (plus the site’s own shop) it all became very easy indeed to feel at home on our corner pitch, five minutes from the beach…

The beach is probably one of the biggest factors that made it so easy to stay, as it stretches for miles in each direction with easy access to safe and shallow warm water. There’s plenty of chance to raise the pulse rate with different water based sports or, as we opted, just to wander up and down the beach and enjoy the ever changing scenery and listen to the different languages drifting across the sand. Needing only to load up our festival trolley with whatever we felt we needed for the five minute walk to the beach, it soon became part of daily life to spend a few hours there most days. Or even an evening tipple and apero on the handily placed bench overlooking the beach…

The site itself is worthy of praise, and not just for its discounted ACSI prices! With touring pitches dotted amongst a range of cabins, and most pitches offering shade at some point of the day with imaginative and colourful planting, it was easy to see why it was so popular with campers that favoured a more traditional and slightly old-school site. With a sheltered pool, outdoor gym and free paddleboards and canoes on the beach for guests, as well as a children’s play area and ping pong, low key entertainment and a decently priced restaurant and shop (star buy – 1 litre of draught local rosé at €3!), it was pitched just right for us!

We’re not usually that bothered about the sanitary arrangements so long as they are kept clean, but we loved the fact that our nearest block was home to a small group of ‘hirondelles’ or barn swallows, that did an excellent job of keeping the insect population down (including it seemed, mosquitoes) as well as providing a daily display of aerial mastery accompanied by some jaw-dropping flight paths in and out of the block!

On the days that we were able to drag ourselves away from the beach, the town of Sérignan delivered a lot more than we were expecting. The main square where we had lunch with our friends on the first Sunday also hosted a market three days a week. As is the case in many provincial towns with more than one market day, different stallholders would visit on each of the days. 

Prices were reasonable (and very good at the road-side stores too). Over the length of our stay we worked out that we could survive easily without getting the van off site, and that there was more than enough to keep us well fed and entertained, with a small supermarket, poissonerie (where we discovered the delicious Limande Cardine which we think is a Megrim/Whiff), local wine producers, oyster bar, vegan café, butcher, more artisan boulangeries than you could shake a baguette at, and a pretty interesting range of restaurants. Plenty to make us confident that a return visit would still be delivering new places and experiences! 

For any fish experts out there, here’s that fish:

One of the entertaining things we noted as we settled into near-resident status, was the noise that wafted on the breeze from nearby camp sites of an evening. Noisy enough to be vexing on occasions, but always over by midnight, we were intrigued to find out exactly what was going on at one site where, night after night, we would hear the raucous DJ shouting loudly (if mainly indecipherably) including lots of numbers… With curiosity getting the better of us, we ended up taking a walk into the site, only to discover that it was a form of video karaoke/dance moves with the happy campers (of all ages) stomping their stuff to the on-screen animations, and the DJ (whose speakers were placed so that nearby camp sites heard as much if not more than those dancing and singing!) shouting out count-downs to new dances and then scoring participants at the end. And once we knew what it was, it became a whole lot less annoying, strangely!

And as our stay at Sérignan drew to a close, Mr B discovered a new talent for lock picking! After returning from one of our bike rides, he had noticed that his heavy duty chain lock had come undone on the return journey, and thought nothing of it when he locked the bike to the van. Except, when we came to set off for our next ride, the usual combination wouldn’t work – eek! Reaching for the hammer and hacksaw out of the tool box, and wondering why he hadn’t packed the bolt croppers, fortunately, Mrs B managed to head him off by suggesting that a quick trawl on the Interweb might be more useful. And so it was that after a couple of YouTube demos on how to crack a combination cycle lock, and a hot and sweaty 45 minute steep learning curve for Mr B, he managed to get it open! And as if to check on his learning new skills, a couple of days later Mrs B’s lock also changed its combination on its own (we never did work out how any of this happened) but after a mere five minutes, Mr B had it open. We are, of course, now reconsidering what we lock our bikes up with…

What eventually encouraged us to move on was the by now infamous ‘canicule’ or heatwave that had sat over France, delivering 41 degrees centigrade on site and then ‘cooling off’ to the mid 30s. The idea of arriving on the northern French coast a few days earlier and chilling in temperatures forecast in the low 20s gained more traction, until we eventually decided that we could probably do the drive north with maybe only a couple of overnight stops, leaving us three bonus days somewhere in Normandy before our ferry back to Blighty…

S&J

Adventure before dementia – the Canal du Midi

Ever since we watched Prunella Scales and Timothy West barge (sometimes literally!) their way along parts of this famous French canal, with plenty of pause for thought as we observed how they dealt with Pru’s dementia, we’d been determined to give it more than our customary sideways glance as we travelled along a road that ran near it over our years of travelling in France.

 

And now, here we were, within almost spitting distance of its final stretch before it enters the Med near Cap d’Agde – how could we not make an effort to go and have a look, and explore the tow path?

We decided to make an initial exploratory stab at working out how best to get to it from the campsite, as there was no agreement between Google Maps, the advice at reception, and a cycle tour map we had picked up en route. This was not perhaps one of our more successful trips by bike, as the most direct route to access the tow path involved what could only be described as some challenging off-road dirt tracks that tested our little folding bikes (and Mrs B’s patience) to the full, as Mr B had asserted (we never did find out on what basis) that it would be an easy cycle path, surely…

So although we did find an access point near the town of Portiragnes, the unplanned mountain bike section and the thunder and lighting with belts of heavy rain on our way back to the van somehow took the edge off our first foray! Still, we now knew we could get to and from the Canal in about 30 minutes, leaving us with a decision to make about whether we should head west to Béziers, or east to the Med… Either way, our visit to the lock and bridge at Portiragnes had whetted our appetite, so long as we could pick some more reliable weather and avoid that off road section…

Once we had reviewed the weather heading our way, and the ramping up of the temperatures closer to those of the Middle East than the Med, we decided that the longer we left it, the hotter and more challenging the ride would be. Which is why, just a couple of days after our initial exploratory ride, we were mounting up once more and heading off (on the non-off-road route) towards Béziers, having decided that the ‘9 locks of Béziers’ (compared to the Caen Hill locks of Devizes) would be an interesting visit for our first adventure along the towpath.

This canal really is something! Linking the Atlantic and the Med (with a bit of help from the Garonne river near Toulouse) it runs for about 240km end-to-end. Started in 1667 and finished in 1681 it is famous, amongst other things, for having almost 100 locks, 130 bridges and being lined with shade-giving plane trees along its banks. Unfortunately, as we discovered, many trees have been cut down to manage a wilt infection and although there is a replanting scheme that has been underway since the disease was discovered in 2006, there were many sections on the short stretch we rode that have nothing more than some very large but shade-free stumps lining the banks.

The ride provided plenty to look at with some very different boats than those we might see on a British canal; 

A floating tourist office;

A cunning rising bridge that could be lowered to allow trucks from a massive pump factory to cross the canal; 

An impressive aquaduct that carries the canal over the river Orb at Béziers;

Some amazing canal-side buildings;

And of course the 9 locks;

And although it turned out that there were only 7 locks (since the aquaduct had made two of them superfluous) they were indeed impressive, with the very deep lock chambers emptying and filling at a rate of knots, aided no doubt by the very efficient electro-hydraulic system operated remotely by the single lock keeper!

We knew there was a café/restaurant at the locks and we had decided when we paused to rest at the tourist office at Villeneuve-lès-Béziers, that we would ride on and eat a bit later than we had planned. Not one of our better decisions that, as the café/restaurant was one of those over-priced and underwhelming places that can crop up when there’s nowhere else for miles.

And so, saving a visit to the nearby failed ‘water slope machine’ (where French engineering prowess of the 1980s was thwarted by gravity and the giant tractor unit was unable to push barges up a 5% incline)…

…we decided to track back to Villeneuve-lès-Béziers for a late lunch. Except, it’s France and yet again we had forgotten that in the south, between 2.00 and 5.00 nothing much moves, or is open (except, oddly, a pharmacy!) and so we made the return trip with rumbling tums and amazement at our own forgetfulness! Luckily, we were fine for water as the canal has a number of fresh water taps dotted along the path and so, hydrated but starving, we got back to the campsite in time to get a fresh baguette from the second daily bake, and we collapsed into a well deserved late lunch or early dinner!

At 25 miles the trip was a proper adventure and although a bit further than Mrs B had anticipated, not enough to deter her from subsequent folding-bike adventures! Given that almost all the other bikes that passed us were full-size wheels, and most of those electrically assisted as well, we felt pretty chuffed to have managed it, especially as the temperature only got to 34 degrees!

It was a great day out and with so much more of its length to explore, we started to kick around the idea of maybe one day finding a secure park up and hiring a small boat for a few days on a subsequent trip. You never know…

S&J

Sérignan – Part One

The drive onwards to Sérignan Plage and our much discussed, long awaited meet-up with our good friends Dave and Jan was short and blissfully straightforward – largely as we pushed the boat out and bought ourselves a 21km stretch of Autoroute that cut out all the little towns and villages that would have been lovely to look at, but tortuously slow to navigate. And at €2.50 for the privilege, what’s not to like!

Based on our recent experiences of ACSI sites operating at full capacity, or with only last-ditch pitches available, we were a tad apprehensive as we turned south off the road that had skirted the Canal du Midi and we entered familiar territory from 2016, when we had stayed on a full-on pimp-my-pitch site that was on full ACSI discount – just for the year we found it! Our choice this year was unknown to us, but was the only site on this gorgeous stretch of beach with the same deal, and so we found ourselves at the reception of Beauséjour and, with a large Pass’Etapes aire opposite, we were feeling fairly relaxed that if not here, we’d have somewhere to stay at least. (The aire was one of the biggest we have seen so far, big enough to accommodate one of the biggest camper outfits we have seen on this trip too!)

The receptionist was most bemused by the look on Mr B’s face as he was told that we had a choice of four pitches. And his joy was increased as we walked around and saw that the vast majority of our fellow campers were French – what a treat! Mrs B suggested that we drove the camper onto the first of the four pitches that took our fancy and then walked to look at the rest. An excellent call this, as we have found from experience, that it’s much easier by foot to get straight to the vacant pitches to assess them, and when (as it was with us) other campers were also hunting down their ‘ideal’ emplacement, at least we would know that we could claim squatters rights on one! As it turned out, Mrs B had nailed the best one of the four straight off – and, after we had taken a good few turns around the site over the length of our stay, probably one of the best on the site for our needs!

With Dave and Jan on the site right next door, we had just enough time to pitch up, get straight, and we were round at theirs for an evening of fun and frivolity – once we had handed over some ID and been issued with mandatory wrist bands that is – something we remembered from our stay in 2016! With so many attractions and facilities on the site, security was super-efficient!

As with many of our friendships these days, we may not meet up for some time, but the years that may have passed are held fast by a thread that holds firm over the passage of time – and its an easy process of relaxing back into where we might have left off last time.

The next day saw all four of us heading off on our trusty folding steeds to the nearby town of Sérignan where we were planning to have lunch. It’s a pleasant 30 minute ride along the cycle path north (with some fabulous painted agricultural buildings) and then across the (new to us) bike and pedestrian only bridge, directly letting on to the tree covered central square, bounded on two sides by a good range of restaurants and cafés. And it was just as well there were so many eateries, as, although we had allowed for the fact that the French like to eat early, our arrival at midday was just in time, as we had completely overlooked that it was Fathers’ day!

Relaxing under the broad and protective canopy of the magnificent plane trees that give shade to the square, we easily whiled away the time over a lovely lunch of local delights, with just enough wine to be on the right side of a 30 minute cycle back to the vans!

With Dave and Jan coming round to ours for food that night, we had a laugh at the different levels of security on our site, where the process of signing us in, a uniformed guard to claim our ID back from, and those mandatory wrist bands, was replaced by a nod from a relaxed, and very hench guy lounging on one of the site’s electric golf carts, exuding a charm that you just knew would be replaced by the tough stuff if you were to cross him!

Picking up from where we had left off at lunchtime with our reminiscences and plans for future travel, another pleasant evening whizzed by before Dave and Jan had to walk back to their site so we could all observe the 23:00 noise curfew on each site…

With only one day left before it was time to say goodbye to our chums as they made their way back through France to Belgium and their ferry home, we took advantage of their final shop by car at a nearby hyper-market to get some provisions, without having to cycle for them, as we might subsequently need to if we didn’t want to move the van, and we organised a farewell BBQ at ours. This was the first site of the trip where we had been allowed to have an old school charcoal BBQ, so it seemed crazy not to, with the evening ending without any incendiary incidents and peppered with promises we hope we can all keep, to meet up again with hopefully less time elapsing!

With our friends heading north and us having only just arrived at the coast, we kicked back and decided we’d just take the days as they came and see how long we wanted to stay down south and enjoy the sun, sea and the miles of marvellous beach …

S&J

The not Calanques and an inland beach and lagoon…

The drive from the bucolic beauty of rural Provence led us steadily back towards the industrial sprawl of Marseille. We’d skirted the city en route over to Aix and were uncertain about the likelihood of a coastal strip adjacent to major shipping lanes delivering on the beauty of the actual Calanques we had thought we were heading for. Undeterred by the petrochemical refineries and their gas flares that we could see out of the driver’s side window, we kept to a strict ‘eyes left’ policy and admired instead the undulating and forested landscape that led us down to the coast itself – at last!

We could tell by the very large and recently built access road that had been carved out of the hills to give easy access to the string of resorts along the coast, that we were visiting the playground of the Marseillais. The densely packed but stylish and low rise holiday settlements that started to hug the coastline reminded us of other resort areas we had visited in France, many of which we had surprised ourselves and enjoyed!

And as we turned off the super-highway to La Couronne where our hopefully idyllic not-quite-the-calanques campsite awaited, the houses gave way to a string of campsites along the coastline. Spotting an encouraging ACSI flag outside a campsite that was not our first choice, we pulled in to Camping Pascalounet to see a note in the closed reception window – oh no – ‘Complet’… and just in case that wasn’t clear, FULL in block letters underneath. Disheartened that we wouldn’t get to sample the little piece of paradise that had been so beguilingly conveyed to us in their site description, we took heart in that ACSI flag blowing gently in the breeze just down the road.

Parking up alongside what could be plan ‘C’ – a Pass’Étapes Aire opposite the tanatalisingly close but out of reach Pascalounet, we went into the open reception office of the ACSI flag bearing campsite to find out about vacancies and costs. Knowing that a pitch would be a bit more than an ACSI ‘camping card’ discounted one, but usually with at least a bit of discount, we were underwhelmed to be offered just one choice in a parched and scruffy plot that shared boundaries with the road, a rubbish point, and what could only be described as some sort of ‘work in progress’ area – for €30 plus tax!

At that point, the Aire across the road looked decidedly attractive – and we had said we wanted to try out one of the new-to-us network of Pass’Étapes Aires, hadn’t we... At €13 a night with electric and free WiFi, water and waste disposal, we decided to give it a try for a night – especially as it shared the exact same beach as the campsites!

These Aires are unlike any we have stayed on previously, in that although they vary in their initial attractiveness (this one with no shade and the one in Nantes in a lovely wooded lane, for example) they all give a minimum demarcated pitch size, have free WiFi, drinking water and waste disposal and many, like the one here at La Saulce, electric hook-up too. With a maximum of 9 vans allowed at any one time at this particular Aire, we decided that although it might just get cosy, it wouldn’t be anything like some of the cheek-by-jowl regular Aires we have stopped at!

Entry is by a ‘smart barrier’ that reads how much credit you have on the mandatory PE card (€4 for life and printed while you wait!) which then won’t let you out until you have loaded enough pre-payment to raise the barrier on departure. We also discovered that although you can just turn up and, if the barrier lets you in, you can stay for up to three nights, you can also pre-book a pitch at least 48hours in advance. So if you turned up and liked a place, you could immediately pre-book from night 4 if there are vacancies. And we were super-impressed with their ‘live’ website that gives an indication of the vacancy level at each Aire – very clever!

The electric hook-up clinched it for us, as it was the only way we could guarantee a hot indoor shower each day, as our over-priced and unreliable diesel heater that would normally be pressed into service, had given up the ghost before we left the UK. (The option of our outdoor solar bag showers between the back doors of the van would probably not be condoned by Pass’Étapes – nor the people passing along the adjacent road!)

And the beach and coastline of the not-calanques turned out to be very pleasant indeed, reminiscent of a number of Atlantic beaches we’ve visited in northern Spain or even Cornwall.

We stayed for two nights (quiet and peaceful) and with the temperature in the mid 20s, suffered no real hardships for the absence of shade. And the WiFi was the fastest and most reliable we have encountered on any campsite – no doubt helped by that maximum of 9 campervans! We could have stayed a further night with the weather set fair and more exploring to do, but we wanted to pace our trip west to meet up with Dave and Jan near Béziers, so we could arrive in Sérignan early enough to stand a chance of getting a pitch on a site near them. We had discovered (and were reminded of our trip to Croatia when we encountered a similar high occupancy period) that we had hit the two week period in June, when many of the southern German states have a two week Pentecost holiday – something to remember on subsequent trips!

With this in mind we opted for an inland and quirky looking site in Fabrègues, given that the vast majority of the German campers we had encountered in this holiday period were young families who tended to favour coastal resorts. Even the sudden rainstorm en route didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for a ‘proper’ campsite stop, and we took the equally sudden clearing of the skies as we turned into camping Le Botanic as a good omen…

Never assume they say, and we shouldn’t have, as although we’d called the probable absence of young German families right, they had simply been replaced by equally large numbers of older (like us) Dutch couples, with, we soon discovered at reception, a large and loyal following of repeat customers at this site! That’s the thing about camping on the hoof, there’s always someone else on holiday! Listening in as the Dutch couple in front of him were being turned away as yup – you guessed – this site was also ‘complet’, Mr B turned on his best cod-gallic schoolboy French charm and asked whether there might not, perhaps, may be a teeny-tiny pitch for a campervan for only one night? Suddenly we (and the Dutch couple) were offered a place in the adjacent field – with hook-up and use of all facilities for the ACSI price – woohoo!

With temperatures rising now the sun had shown itself, we quickly pitched-up and headed off to explore the site and its ‘lagoon’. We soon worked out why the site was so popular, with well shaded and thoughtfully planted pitches, a very tasteful amenity block accessed over two small waterways, and, of course, that lagoon, complete with sandy beach and palm trees…

. . . and with a small bar/resto and swimming pool on site as well. Even though Le Botanic wouldn’t have tempted us for much more than one or two nights, we could see why its quirky charm had generated such a fan club! And we had the added bonus of our Scottish registration plate starting a conversation from a lovely German couple who had visited more of Scotland than we had. Undeterred by the fact that we weren’t actually Scottish, and intrigued by our reason for adopting a Scottish flagged plate as a response to the 2016 Brexit vote, we were amazed to discover that the woman had been born and raised in Mönchengladbach, where Mr B’s brother was born and he had lived for a brief period in the early 60s!

By the time we had swum and settled down for supper, Mr B’s view that it was his intervention at reception that had engineered our overnight stop was a little compromised by the half dozen or so other campervans that had found their way to the field! We figured in the end it was probably no more than making a clear distinction that there were no ‘camping’ pitches available as per expectations of an ACSI site, but that there was this overflow ‘aire’ if people were desperate enough!

And so with mounting excitement at seeing our friends Dave and Jan, but with some trepidation about occupancy levels at campsites, we set off for the relatively short hop over to Sérignan Plage…

S&J