Last day in Spain then setting off slowly northwards bound.


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Europe » France » Languedoc-Roussillon » Carcassonne
September 22nd 2016
Published: September 22nd 2016
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Very lazy day today, Wednesday. We spent the morning at the campsite relaxing with our books (well Kindle in my case and Tablet in Bob’s). After a bit of lunch we headed down to the beach, Santa Margarita end, the holiday resort part of Roses.

It really does have a rather lovely beach with a very pleasant promenade running behind, its full length. Lots of shops selling your usual beachside tat and cafes and restaurants galore.

We had a very good swim as the sea was quite warm, once immersed anyway and perfect for swimming. Warmer than campsite pool so I made sure I swam enough to cover my daily pool lengths as no intention of freezing myself in the pool later.

The sun hid itself behind a cloud but warm enough anyway so we lay on the beach for a while and read. This is a lovely bay with the white buildings of Roses rising up the hillside and a very pleasant place to be. Can easily see why this is such a popular resort.

Once we were dry we strolled the promenade along with lots of others until I found us a café selling crepes. I chose the one with icecream cream strawberries and chocolate sauce and can only call it an indulgence.

We Kisbee’d into town for dinner and ate at the same restaurant, L’estrop where we lunched last year as we so enjoyed it then. This time we had paella as we haven’t risked trying one since we had an awful one in our hotel in Ribadasella in 1995 ! This one was good.

Moving on tomorrow to a campsite near Carcassonne just for one night. Will complete this then as no wifi.



I complained at the campsite reception today that the wifi was dire and a man from their internet service company came to check it. He signed my wifi ticket and I took it to reception and got a full refund. Very fair.



Up and away with only a little hiccup. The water heater drop valve dropped itself when Bob disconnected the electric and it took him a few minutes to work out why. The red isolating switch behind the driver’s seat had been knocked. ‘Unknocked’’ it. Sorted. Bob smiling again and off we went heading for France.

Along to Figueres ensuring we took the motorway towards France this time as last time missed the turn and ended up in the town centre. We used the motorway just as far as Perpignan to get us over the Spanish border, then up to Narbonne before heading West towards Carcassonne.

As we went through the tolls on the French part of the motorway I checked the vehicles queing with us (never takes long they have tolls off to a fine art) and counted 12 different nationalities.

Once heading west away from the North south traffic it was a lovely area to drive through, the Languedoc region, with many vineyards along the way some vines still heavy with fruit.

Not a very long drive today (120 miles )before we stopped at our rather delightful overnight stop campsite. Le Moulin de Sainte Anne at Villegly-en-Minervois.

Very pleased indeed with our choice. Good spacious pitches with electric and water tap, lovely and peaceful site and a super pool which we of course used. Wifi free and freely available which is brilliant as Bob can use it on his Nexus tablet while I also have it on this laptop and the phone. Last campsite Salata should be ashamed of itself, charging €5 per day for iffi wifi on a single device !

Making a mental note to visit this area next time we are down this way. We shared a gite in Velieux with Lynne about 20 years ago which we still remember with pleasure and from there visited lovely Minerve. Next time we are this way I will make sure we fit in time to visit them. This is Cathar country, full of castles and fortresses most of which were attacked by Simon de Montfort. That bloke really did get around !

It’s been an absolutely gorgeous day today. Temperature up in the high 20s and sky cornflower blue from sunrise to sunset. Due to stay good for most of the remainder of our trip but suspect that today will be the best of the rest.

Dordogne tomorrow but we will stop there for 2 nights, don’t need to rush home too fast.

Not many photos last couple of days, just a few to illustrate where we've been.


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