Camping Car Parks is a network of 500 motorhome aires, mainly in France, that you can pre-book using an app. It lists all the locations and how many places are available in each. The app isn't perfect but it has taken a lot of the uncertainty out of finding places to stay in France. Furthermore, their aires are well maintained so you have some guarantee that the water will be turned on at the service point and the chemical toilet emptying less of a biological hazard than in the free Aires established decades ago by local 'municipals'. They seem to have more or less given up maintaining them. This trip we stumbled upon an inadvertent advantage of the app. It provides an approximate indicator of just how busy an area is. If the Camping Car Park with forty places is listed as full, then the chances are the nearby campsites are going to be rammed too, So when the Camping Car Park at Meze showed it had a handful of places we upped sticks and headed for it hoping that the nearby municipal campsite at Loupian would be have space too.
It worked. We stayed one night in the aire in Meze, phoned the site at Loupian next morning and were settled in there well before the reception closed for lunch at noon. We did consider just staying put at the aire, however, though the surrounding area is a bit of a rural idyll the immediate environs are somewhat god forsaken. The Camping Car Park adjoins a municipal run outdoor leisure area established between two 'plan d'eau'. Typically French, but in this case the 'eau' has dried up in the 'plan' which is now a cracked mud lake bed. To give a slightly urban vibe to the dismal scene the motorhome parking area is adjacent to a graffiti daubed skate park of olympic proportions.
Judging from our fellow travellers, sixty plus French males' preferred retirement present to themselves tend to be petrol head orientated - either a gleaming 1000cc plus motorbike or a funky looking dune buggy. As they faffed about with the trailer to load or unload their boys toys disconsolate spouses stood by clutching two crash helmets.
When we turned up at the Loupian campsite it did have a few spare emplacement, but was much busier than we had ever seen it. Lots of caravans from Holland and Germany and next to us a British one. The couple from Devon were nearing the end of a month long stay. It was something they'd done regularly for years apparently.
Caravanning versus motorhoming, they are fundamentally different propositions I think. Two tribes, with different expectations, preferences and attitudes. In our twenties it was the limitations of cycle tourism that attracted us, its less is more vibe. To some extent the same is true with a motorhome. Caravans do offer the possibility of home comforts on wheels. Our van may have leather upholstery, but basically it's just one step up from a transit van with a mattress in the back.
How long have we been coming here I mused. I looked it up, the first time was in late October 2014. The village of Loupian has changed in the last decade. On our first visit it was a bit of a backwater, beautiful, but somewhat decayed. A few of the village houses looked abandoned, including a couple of the big ornate mansions that were former wine makers properties.
Each year we've returned things have developed a little. Now all the houses are occupied, there are more families living here, not just old folks. The village shops have reopened and the village's infrastructure and transport links improved
This year's innovation is a weekly produce market on Wednesdays, supplementing the larger ones that happen in nearby Meze every Thursday and Sunday.
I am not surprised the area around the Etand de Thau has become much busier. There's a lot to do and see around it's landward shore, places to sample oysters and local wine, a string of small ports all connected by bike tracks. The crusty old Mediterranean port of Sete is easily accessible by bike, bus or a ferry across the Etang.
Everytime we came we discover something new. Last year it was the flamingos that gather in the marshes beyond Meze. This year we turned off the bike trail to Balaruc les Bains to visit the village of Buzigues. It was delightful.
There are still tracks across the marshes towards Marseillan that we have not explored, so I guess we will return again.
However, not in September probably. It is very busy now, vibrant rather than peaceful. The older I get the more I crave tranquility. 'The world is too much with us late and soon', Wordsworth observed, and he didn't even have to deal with Instagram or X.
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