France and Spain Dec 15 - Jan 16

Huzzah! We managed to escape the crud that is Christmas in the UK and escape towards some sunshine. On the 19 Dec we set out through the tunnel and stopped for the night at the aire in Pont de Arche near Rouen, which has the advantage of avoiding the pain that is Rouen. There were a few motorhomes around, including a large Concorde, and we had a quick walk around the very pleasant town before settling down for the night. In the early hours some drunken locals decided to bang on the back of the van, but it was just early Christmas high jinks (but bloody annoying all the same). It had to happen on the first day out that the hinge on the oven door broke, The oven worked, but it was a bit of a struggle to open and close it.

Pont de Arche

On Sun 20 we were up early and  pootling further South, stopping at  very pleasant aire at Verteuil sur Charente, near Angouleme. The same concorde with the very nice Welsh couple also turned up. We stopped for some absolutely delicious mulled wine in the local café before settling down for a very peaceful nights kip.

On Monday we checked the weather for the Somport tunnel and it seemed clear, so  another very long drive to the aire at Oloron St Marie, a fairly nice town on the route up to the Pyrenees.  There was a traveler's caravan set up in the corner, but other MHs were there so we stayed. Guess who turned up - yep, the Concorde.

Oloron St Marie

Aire de Camping Car or Aire de Traveller?

Tues it was up and over the Pyrenees and into Spain, descending the long drop down from Somport and stopping for the night in Teruel next to the police station.

Somport Tunnel

Turuel

 Finally, on Wed 23 Dec, we pulled into Camping Villasol in Benidorm, discussing as we passed through the massive orange groves near Valencia why on earth we had brought oranges from our local Tesco all the way home to Spain!

Benidorm is Benidorm. Initially we thought "Yuk - Hell on earth" but we still ended up staying 24 nights. This was probably due to the Motorhome Fun (www.motorhomefun.co.uk)  people we met on site and the fact that the weather was good and the food and drink incredibly cheap. Christmas Day we cooked our dinner in the van and ate it outside in the warm sunshine, dressed in our finest T shirts and shorts. Lovely!

Decorations are up!

Christmas Dinner

New Year's Eve

Expensive restaurant!

Three Kings Day

Neptune's bar from the TV series

Camping Villasol is situated about 20mins walk from the beach and fleshpots of downtown Beni, albeit there are restaurants and bars very close by, so it is ideally situated. It has a very nice indoor and outdoor pool, an excellent supermarket with warm, fresh bread every day. The restaurant and bar are large, fairly unfriendly and soulless and we didn't use them much. The pitches closest to the road are quite noisy but you became accustomed to the passing traffic very quickly. Electricity is metered, which is a bit of a pain, so solar power would have been advantageous.

Funsters having fun in the sun

After over 3 weeks of fun and frolics, visiting various places around the area, lazing around, partying with the Motorhome Fun crowd and just generally relaxing, on Sat 16 Jan we finally set out towards Montpellier in order to watch Harlequins play in the European competition. We left Camping Villasol and drove the relatively short distance to Bonterra Park, Benicassim.  We had dinner at the campsite and then explored the town, which was having a festival whereby bonfires were lit in the street. Very interesting, if not a bit smelly.

Outdoor cooking gone made

Churros and Chocolate - yum

On Sun 17 Jan we moved further up the coast to Camping Eden, Peniscola. What a fantastic place this is and needs another visit. The old town on the peninsula is stunning and, despite it being Sunday with most things closed, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Nice day for a paddle - in mid January!

Peniscola

The weather was turning cooler as we moved further north and on Mon 18 we stopped at a new camperstop in Palamos. This is half aire, half campsite and very smart it is too. A gentle half-hour stroll to the town and the sea, and very close to a large supermarket where we could stock up on cheap items before hitting the expense of France.

Tues 19 saw us return into France and into Collioure where we briefly stopped at the aire at the top of the hill and decided that it was too far to walk in (and the shuttle bus wasn't running), so we drove through and finally ended up on the aire in Port Vendres.  At 0800hrs the following morning the local police were banging on the door looking for payment for the overnight stop!

Nice view from our window

In the morning we briefly stopped at Collioure again before heading along the coast, stopping at Narbonne Caravannes to have a look around the motorhome shop, then on to Lattes, just outside Montpellier. What a strange campsite! Some very odd people parked up here (including ourselves, of course!). We referred to it as Banjo land as it was certainly a bit redneck, but it suited our purposes with only a short walk to the tram stop for the journey into central Montpellier. It also featured possibly the worst washing machine in the world. Amazingly, despite feeding it millions in euros, the drier actually made the clothes wetter! On the Weds afternoon we popped into town and on Thursday we met up with the Harlequins gang arriving for the game and also our old and dear friend Dominique, who lives close by. On Thursday eve we met up with loads of Quins supporters and went into the bar "owned" by Francois Trinh-Duc. Dominique warned us it was a Mafia bar and the robbers did increase the price of a beer by a euro a pint to welcome us all. Thieves - won't be going back there again.

Banjo Land - Camping LeParc Montpellier

Pyrenees

The washing just wouldn't dry!

The Quins fans gather in Trinh-Duc's bar rip-off!

Friday was match day. The less said about that the better, but what an unfriendly, awful ground. They have the most ridiculous system of having to pre-load a credit card to buy anything (food, drink etc). Barking mad!  Won't be hurrying back there again either.

On Sat 23 Jan, along with a group of other Harlequins supporters,  we caught the train into Nimes for a great day out in this lovely city.

Mont Ventoux

On Sunday we were invited to lunch at Dominique's house in Frontignan, where we enjoyed a fantastic dinner of local specialities. I do like the local ethos of "if you don't have thirds then you are obviously ill". We then had a tour of Pic St Loup and the Cevennes. Simply stunning!

Pic St Loup

On Monday we just relaxed in Monpellier, saw the rest of the Harlequins supporters off, bought a new coffee machine then went back to the van to relax.

On Tues 26 Jan it was time to head north to find winter again. We didn't travel too far though, stopping for the night outside the tourist office in Roquefort and then going for a tour of the famous cheese caves and a tasting. The memsahib wasn't over enamoured with this taste of this delicious fromage! Lovely!

Roquefort - Yummy

On weds we awoke to see the mists in the valleys and clear blue skies above. It would be an ideal day for photos of the Millau viaduct, so we quickly headed to the autoroute and crossed the viaduct heading for the aire on the other side. As we crossed we went from clear blue to thick cloud. We parked, but couldn't see 20m ahead of us. By memory we found the footpath to the viewing spot and stood there in thick, dense, cloud seeing nothing. Suddenly it started to lift and gave us the views we had been waiting for! Finding the van was significantly easier on the way back.

The clouds lift in Roquefort

Down into cloud

There's a bridge there somewhere

Ahh - there it is

Bit easier to find on the way back

Onwards to Clermont-Ferrand, a quick look around a motorhome dealer, then on to our stopover in the car park of the Puy de Dome. We were the only people there. It was incredibly quiet....and dark....and spooky!

Clermont-Ferrand

The 28th saw us in Léré, a pretty spot near the Loire. The weather had certainly become colder and wetter as we ventured North, but we had a peaceful nights sleep and a nice drive through some very pretty places in the Loire Valley. Shame our view was blocked by an old tub moored on the river!

On Fri 29 we arrived in the Champagne region and stopped for the night in a very nice France Passion house in the village of Villeneuve Renneville Chevigny. It would have been rude not to have had a bottle or two of the owner's own champagne and very nice it was too.

Finally, on the Sat we were in familiar territory, staying on the aire in Watten, near St Omer. It was cold, dark and damp. Welcome back to the North (but we did have the most amazing pizza from the local van with a wood fired oven in the back).

Sunday it was up early and through the tunnel to Blighty and the long winter slog to decent weather (hopefully) in the Spring. Wish we were back in Spain :-(