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
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