Category: Uncategorized
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The Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean Sea at Collioure – home of the Fauvists and the iconic Hôtel des Templiers
From the minute we hit the D81, the sinuous coastal road to Collioure, memories assail us. We had many happy holidays here with our teenage children and a collection of various friends. But there’s more to celebrate here than memories, the Pyrenees undulate down to the postcard blue sea, the vines cling to the hillsides.…
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Border hopping between France and Spanish Catalonia
As we’ve said before, sticking to an itinerary is not our style, so it is that our art tour of Languedoc Roussillon takes us into Spain, where the temperature is five degrees higher than its French Pyrenean neighbour. From here we plan to border-hop back into the artists’ haven of Céret. Soon we’re winding up…
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We get distracted in Arles – City of Art and Philosophy
Even the ring-road round the centre is graceful in Arles, wrought iron balconies on creamy limestone, where we park up before passing the Medieval and Roman town walls. The park by the walls hosts a striking WWI memorial fountain. The agonised face of a woman defending her children stops us in our tracks. Not far…
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In Van Gogh’s Footsteps in Saintes Maries-de-la-Mer
Before we check out Van Gogh’s series of works painted in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, we trundle around the vast marsh and lagoons which border the sea beside Camping La Brise de Camargue. It is big sky country here, the sun breaking through white clouds, strings of riders out on horseback threading through the marsh’s paths. An egret…
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The Pink Salt Pans of the Salins du Midi at Aigues-Mortes
There’s only one thing left to do before we leave Palavas-les-Flots, we need to visit the small 18th Century fort, La Redoute de Ballestras, on the Lac du Levant. Once protecting the town from pirates, it now houses a strange museum with the works of Albert Dubout, an artist who specialised in cartoons of the…
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Languedoc Marshland to Montpellier’s City Delights
The cycle tracks radiating out from Palavas-Les-Flots are amazing, speaking as someone whose Sussex town has been fighting for a cycle track to the railway station for years. We cycle off among the marshes and lagoons north of town and stop off to stroll along a narrow spit of land to watch the flamingos staging…
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Palavas-Les-Flots in Languedoc Roussillon
Base Fluvial Paul Riquet Camper Stop in Palavas is on the port of the canalised Le Lez River. We’re surrounded by a watery wonderland of lagoons and river. I watch the flamingos out on the water from our pitch. Even better, we’re a five minute walk to town centre and beach front. The colourful Catalan…
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The English Channel to the Mediterranean in One Overnight
The day dawns sunny and a balmy 17 C , the sea is a tender jade colour, so, of course, we don’t set off south from Dieppe at 9 a.m., as was my ever-optimistic plan. We finally get going at 1.30 p.m. Our campervan tour is meant to be an art one of the Languedoc…
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Dieppe Again and the Start of Our February Campervan Therapy We fail to dodge the pelting rain at home as we pack the van up. But the Channel from Newhaven to Dieppe is calm today, providing just a gentle rock to my dozing. Notre-Dame de Bonsecours stands sentinel on the chalk cliff, guarding Dieppe’s port,…
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Stunning Stamford – From the Pestilence and Bathhouses to Bold Boudicca – Celtic Warrior Queen
The Danelaw walking trail across the fields from Lincolnshire’s Ryhall to Stamford conjures up the image of Vikings in bear skins and horned helmets. But this pair of ramshackle ramblers soon lose the trail only to find ourselves stumbling around amidst a field of celeriac as big as footballs. Eventually we manage to circumnavigate the…
Campervan Therapy 