Our original plan had been to head northwards from Andalucia following the Mediterranean coast, past Valencia then through the Pyrenees and into France using the Somport tunnel. So it would have been perfectly sensible to find ourselves parked in the aire de camping car at Oloron Sainte Marie as it is the first place of any size north of the mountains. Now it makes no sense whatsoever to be parked here given we headed instead for Spain's northern coast in pursuit of better weather. Whether we decide to head home via Bordeaux, Brive or Clermont Ferrand, stopping in Oloron Sainte Marie involves a considerable detour, but we had an ulterior motive.
Yesterday's distractions involved the pintxos bars of Donastia, today's the chocolate bars of Oloron. Lindt & Sprügli have a big factory in the town with a retail outlet. Chocolate pilgrims flock here to worship at the temple of the golden bunny. With Easter little more than a fortnight hence, a huge graven image in gold of the lapine deity greets devotees at the entrance to the shrine's inner sanctum.
A single square of Lindt with our post lunch macchiato is a one of our post retirement rituals. We buy the bars in bulk whenever they are on deal at Morrisons, but they only stock about four varieties.
In the factory shop not only are they cheaper but all the flavours of our preferred 'Excellence' range are available. We bought a couple of dozen and a big bag of mis-shapes and a small golden rabbit for each of the kids.
An air of quiet deliberation pervades the place, if you like chocolate then being in a Lindt factory shop is a serious business. The joy comes later, piecemeal, literally. I wish I could apply the same discipline to my wine consumption - consume less, but of a higher quality. That remains work in progress. We had parked at an E Leclerc store about half a kilometre from the Lindt factory, however we noted there is dedicated parking place for coaches and motorhomes behind the shop. Next time.
The Aire de Camping Car in Oloron is on the opposite side of town, the streets are somewhat artic. choked, I suppose the proximity of the Somport tunnel makes it a major crossing point for trucks heading to and from Pamplona's big factories. Basically, Oloron is in the way. We have a similar problem at home. Buxton gets jammed with trucks, it ruins what should be a peaceful place.
Eventually we reached the aire, it was basic, but OK. apart from the ridiculously small entrance. To squeeze through you need to swing out into the opposite lane, further irritating the HGV drivers, both those behind and coming towards you.
We slept badly, a combination of rain hammering on the roof, traffic early and late and the inevitable angle-grinder which always seems to burst into life at eight-o-clock sharp no matter where you are in France.
Onwards, on 'N' roads to Pau, then southwest down the A62 towards Toulouse, a miserable journey, non-stop rain the whole way. We reached the city just as everyone was returning from lunch, torrential downpour, people switching lanes all the time, grumpy driver. Just before the A61 junction for Carcassonne and 'Barcelone' we passed signs to the Aerospace Science complex, 'World CIty of Air and Space' a giant LCD display proclaimed; a big brag, but with Airbus Industries HQ and a host of aerospace related training, management and research organisations based in the city it is not an idle boast.
The terrible weather persisted almost all the way to Castelnaudary, our next overnight stop. We intended to use the Camping car park there. An advantage using this national network of paid for Aires is that they have taken motorhome stopovers into the 21st century. Their app is well designed, you can pay online and check if there are available places. That is the theory. Today it showed only two places out of a total of fourteen were in use in Castelnaudary, in fact when we arrived there were only three places remaining. How this glitch occurred became apparent later.
In the meantime, although it was still overcast, the rain finally stopped. The camping car park is next to the Canal de Midi, we decided to take an early evening stroll.
In good weather the location would be great. The old town centre is along the tow path. Pedal in the opposite direction and you have miles of traffic free cycling through beautiful countryside.
We contented ourselves with taking photos of the big canal boats. It was good to get some fresh air and a walk after two days solid of driving through downpours.
When we came to leave next morning discovered the problem. The automatic barrier system was not working. Two men in yellow vests had opened the gubbins, one was on his mobile while the other stood beside him wearing a Mr Bean style 'I am perplexed' expression. Of course it's always a challenge in France to work out if two men garbed in hi-viz have turned-up to repair or vandalise something. They did have Ville Castelnaudary badges, so we presumed they were here in a technical rather than a political capacity. After a few minutes they abandoned trying to fix the machine and raised the barrier manually.
It was only later as we headed down the motorway that it dawned on us that the electronic system still believed we were parked in Castelnaudary and would carry on deducting €11 every 24 hours until the €65 euros we had credited on the system had gone. Gill phoned Camping Car Parks' helpline, got through first time, they were happy to deal with the problem in English and fixed it in moments once they had our customer number. When was the last time that happened in the UK, a customer service line that answered promptly then actually offered customer service? In fact, when we checked our balance we still had €65 credit. It seems the machine at Castelnaudary really was dis-functional, not only had it not checked us out, it seems it hadn't registered us arriving either. This could well explain why when we turned up yesterday the on-line system recorded two places in use when actually there were ten vans parked in the place. Still, you cannot expect remote systems to operate perfectly, what was impressive was the efficiency of the customer support team in dealing with the glitch.
We identified two possible places to stay next. We needed a campsite. Once we start heading north up the A75 in a few days time we will not have time to do laundry; we probably underestimate the extent our itineraries are shaped by availability of fresh underwear.
Finding campsites open in France before Easter is very tricky, lots of them aren't, those that are seem coy about advertising the fact. On websites 'open March to September' means available from a secret date sometime in March until sometime in the autumn that hasn't been decided yet. Recent reviews can be a useful indicator that a place is actually open, or simply phone ahead .
A meandering discussion ensued as to whether we should head for a place we discovered was open in the hills north of Narbonne or another on the outskirts of Bezier beside the Canal de Midi. Earnest vacillation took our minds off the fact that the weather was still truly dreadful; through the Arriege, all of l'Aude, almost as far Herault heavy rain cloaked le Midi in greyness. We ended up near Bezier simply because we had lost the will to make a choice and had sailed past the turn-off to Narbonne in a state of confusion.
It turned out to be an inspired indecision. Les Berges du Canal proved to be a great little campsite in Villeneuve de Bezier. The rain was forecast to be replaced by gales from the northwest, the 'real feel' first thing in the morning below zero. However It was sunny so we did get the laundry washed and dried. In the evening there was almost a sunset, the first break in the clouds for five days.
Looking at the photos we took over the three days we stayed here it looks like a picture perfect southern French town, a pleasing combination of ancient and modern, an excellent Cave Cooperative, and good cycling along the Canal de Midi tow path.
Swanky new Hotel de Ville, I presume the 2CV6 is owned by a local who is paid by the Mairie to do a circuit of the place every half an hour to create an authentically Gallic vibe.
The area by the Canal de Midi was truly lovely. Is Herault Department our favourite part of the south of France? Difficult to say, parts of Provence are very bewitching too, but we do seem to keep returning to the eastern part of the Languedoc more than anywhere else in France these days.
For a place called Villeneuve the centre seems quite ancient.
More Brownie points - an excellent Cave Cooperative, they were doing a deal on cases of Rosé where you got six bottles for the price of four, it would have been impolite not to have taken them up on it.
What the photos can't show is the temperature which even in the middle of the day struggled to reach double figures and the maddening northerly gusting at over 70kph day and night. A classic Mistral that in a Marcel Pagnol novel would have driven the protagonist to brain his evil neighbour with a le Creuset frying pan before hanging himself in an olive grove overcome by remorse. We haven't quite got to that stage yet, but might by tomorrow.
Hopefully we will have some more seasonable weather before we begin to head north in three days time. Our plan is to stay in Meze, have a Picpoul de Pinet and some seafood in one of the harbour side restaurants, perhaps manage to have a pedal by the Etang de Thau. It is fair to say overall this hasn't been our easiest Winter trip, but it certainly has had memorable moments, some of them for all the wrong reasons.
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