Towards Béarn

Continuing my mild obsession with the second letter of the alphabet our next destination is Béarn, a lovely, yet often disregarded bit of France centred on Pau. However, rather than drive 170 miles in one go we've planned to break the journey at Marmande, allowing us to call into a motorhome dealers about ten miles south of Bergerac to peruse leisure batteries.

In the event we balked at the prices - €265 for a 110 ah AGM type, €170 for a gel model with the same capacity. We think we will hang on for a few days and see how the battery manages before writing it off altogether.

South of Bergerac the D933 wanders through some low hills near Montbazillac. As you would expect the slopes are covered with carefully husbanded vines. It is one of those bucolic spots in France that oozes 'bien etre'. We passed a small road leading to a village called St. Abondance, - that figures, I thought.

Ther's wine in them ther hills

The Aire de camping-car at Marmande is in a large park on the edge of town outside the old town walls. It is very spacious and attractively situated in a wood. We suspect it is the old municipal camping ground redeveloped as a paid for aire. At €10.20 for 24hrs it is quite expensive, but EHU is free, the surroundings are pretty and it is an easy walk into the pleasant old town.

Marmande aire

The only downside is the place is infested with large evil looking brown flies, or perhaps flying beetles. Insects don't bother me but Gill is not happy at all, especially as I seem to have found an extra safe place to store the bug spray, but cannot remember where.

Lots of these - a swarm of them  really.

We walked into town stopped for our first 'deux noisettes' in the only busy looking cafe in the main square. Marmande looks quite prosperous, there's a big Michelin factory marked on our map and a shop had merchandise for the A380 in its window - maybe Airbus have a presence too.

Cafe time!

After wandering around for a while and staring at the ancient town walls we found a track across the park to the banks of the river Garonne. We scrambled down the sandy bank to a shingle beach. Among the pebbles were cockle shells. Are there freshwater shellfish? We have no idea - something to Google when return to the van. It transpired there are indeed many species of freshwater shellfish. Most are inedible.

Ancient walls..

The Garonne

Freshwater cockle shells?

We decided to get the Cadac out and BBQ the sausages we bouight at Bergerac market. They were ok, but a but under-seasoned and a tad 'dense'. Sausages in France are a bit hit and miss, some are tasty others bland, like these. The seared courgettes and peppers were good.

Right now we are sitting outside under the stars. It has been a beautiful day. From what we can tell the whole of Europe is having a spell of summer in late September. Even Buxton is a warm and sunny 18°; Sarah reports temperatures in the thirties in Lisbon, and here in the mid afternoon a pharmacy display showed 31°, though these tend be optimistic rather than accurate. We need to relish the moment, the warmth will not last forever, days are shorter and the leaves are turning; we are lucky to wander these southern roads during the long golden autumn that stretches into November. It's our fourth year of doing so; we know from experience though some days are glorious, there will be stormy periods too.

As darkness deepened Gill fired up her 'Star-gazer' app. We duly noted 'Vega conspicuous overhead'. Low on the northern horizon were four bright points of light. It was obvious what the one on the left was, it had a distinctly reddish tinge. The app confirmed it was Mars. This made the twinkling one to its right Saturn, the faint speck between them Pluto, and the bright planet peeking between the pine tree branches had to be Jupiter. A truly planetary experience. 

The BBC reported yesterday that this week is the fiftieth anniversary of the West End opening of the musical 'Hair', so I suppose it is appropriate to have our very own version of 'The Age.of Aquarius' unfolding overhead. When 'Jupiter aligns with Mars' was supposed to herald the age of 'peace and understanding; 'Then peace will guide the planets\And love will steer the stars' went the refrain. What we got was global environmental degradation, billionaire bankers and Donald Trump. New-agers have less ambition these days, thankfully they've abandoned clairvoyance and taken-up lactose intolerance and mindfulness instead.