More small delights of La Republique.

Monday 16th May, 2016

Breakfast, it's mid May, but even in the Languedoc it's not warm enough every morning to have your first coffee outdoors in the sunshine, which is surely one of life's small pleasures. Even so, it is a very sunny, if chilly, morning without a cloud in the sky, so we'll watch the campsite slowly come to life from the window. Later, it's trundling northwards over the Millau viaduct as we head home at Maisy speed for our ferry crossing on the 25th.

It will be difficult to say goodbye to the Mediterranean, it has been our companion for most of the trip, and yesterday, it and La Republique put on their glad rags to make it especially difficult to leave. 

1. Eat lunch

2. Relax

It was wall to wall blue all from first thing, breezy, but warm and we stayed outside all day, cycling, mooching around the market in nearby Meze, eating lunch and dinner al fresco; afterwards taking an evening stroll into Loupian, watching the swallows play catch above its ancient roofs and towers. It is days like yesterday that make the scary moments around the Rome orbital, the potholed goat-tracks of Calabria, the slow drag up through the Mezzogiorno, the flea-infested ferry from Brindisi to Patras and Scrubs Sicilian style in Noto A&E - all the tricky bits of long term travel - evaporate instantly given a sunny day full of small pleasures. So, yesterday's small pleasures in pictures - au revoir, Le Midi, 'Goodbye to the Mezzogiorno' and aντίο στην Αρκαδία.

View from the table - when will next be sitting in a cafe by the Mediterranean - not too clear about that right now...

Meze Sunday market - the best outdoor market in France we have seen.

Geranium buying moment

Thoughtful fruit man

It's pan-European Asparagus week...

Hat stall

acres of olives

Good local butchers in the indoor matket - no shrink wrapping here - but hunks of meat and cleaver wielding young men!

Goats cheese lady

The bike track back to the camp site.

befriending the local fauna, I was brave and picked up the giant stag beetle to remove it from the tarmac - he was too magnificent to get squished.

The moon and evening sunlight above the towers of Loupian.

Homeward bound tomorrow, a straight line north, for almost exactly 1000 miles - ah well - c'est la vie - as they say hereabouts..

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