Category: Uncategorized
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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…
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Handsome Helpston – A Lincolnshire Jewel
We arrive at Top Farm Campsite in the dark of an October evening only to be blinded by a huge lamp shining ominously into the van from across the field. However, far from fierce, it’s only the kindly warden making sure we follow the tyre tracks of the previous van so we don’t get mired…
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Campervans and Canal Barges – Travelling in the Slow Lane
It’s what I love about campervanning: even the most prosaic task can become an unexpected adventure. So, when Fran the Van needs some minor medical operations and we have to take her back home to Brownhills, the dealer in Newark-on-Trent, we’re going to be on the road north. That’s when our friends, Mary and Martin,…
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Lamas de Mouro in Portugal’s Penedes-Geres National Park
The Mouro being a tributary of the Minho, we think Lamas de Mouro qualifies for our tracing the Minho odyssey. But a wrong turn at a tricky roundabout on the N202 from Paderne sends us up a vertiginous road to Cousso, a mountain hamlet and a dead end, nothing in front of us but the…
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Tracing Portugal’s Minho River and its Tributaries from Covas to Lamas de Mouro
We’re sad to say goodbye to Covas, so the night before we leave we treat ourselves to a local bust-a-gut meal at Flôr Fontela, 500 metres from Parque Campismo de Covas. The area is rightly known for the quality of its chargrilled steak, along with mountain cheese, succulent olives and the freshest salad. We both…
Campervan Therapy 