Driving day – Camargue to seaside at Argeles-sur-Mer

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Not a terribly exciting day today. The drive to Argeles-sur-Mer, near Perpignan and on the coast only a few miles from the Spanish border was not particularly scenic. We were trying to avoid driving through the middle of busy Montpelier, Beziers and Narbonne while staying off the motorways. The road we took directly west from the Camargue goes through very busy industrial areas, a few miles back from the coast and without sight of the interesting towns of Aigue Mortes, Cap d’Agde, Sete etc. which we have visited before, so were bypassing this trip.

Once past Beziers we turned south and through the ‘Etang’ area which is full of custom made seaside resorts, Leucate, Carnet-Plage, St Cyprien, modern, neat and tidy but not scenic and very much not to our taste. We have driven this way before when we stayed a couple of miles further south and visited Collioure.

We stopped for lunch near Port-la-Novelle on the edge of a lake then carried on to Argeles-sur-Mer. I had changed Bob’s planned campsite Les Pins, to La Chapelle as with 4 stars it had one more than Les Pins and free wifi. It is right next door and in fact in then middle of what must be 20 campsites, all adjacent and all competing with each other for custom.

Still pretty full given it is only open until the 22^nd and 50%!o(MISSING)f the site is taken up with chalets, many occupied by Brits. Ok for a 2-night stop and right in the middle of town and 5 minutes from the beach.

We had a stroll, visited a little craft market, had a drink at a bar then back to the campsite for a swim.

Only me in the pool as the weather has changed. It rained a little while we were driving along and the glorious hot sun is not as hot and keeps hiding behind a lot of cloud. Weather forecast would indicate that our glorious summer of 2013 may be over but at least it is not showing rain for the next few days anyway.

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