Day Twenty

Spain: Sitges to
France: Nages

Thursday 24th July

I woke early eager to move onto the next destination, France. Ian had a hang over from the excesses of the previous night, the bottle of wine we downed back at out campsite not helping matters, but for once I was fine I think I’m acclimatising to the beach bum lifestyle and so packed up Priscilla and we were soon the road again.

As we headed over the border into France we both cheered. We’ve been brought up on family summer holidays in France and both have an addiction to the food, the landscapes and the people. I’d planned our route with a pit stop at the Carrefor hypermarket in Narbonne. Ian was looking forward to the gastronomic experience that is a French hypermarket and he was suitably rewarded, wandering round like a little boy in a toy shop, he had a permanent grin on his face as he picked up all his old favourites. I picked up a bargain cool box to replace the one that had given up on me last week as well as a snorkelling kit (not sure why but hey it was a beach bum thing to do!) and proceeded to pull some food together for the next few days.

We snacked on bread and cheese in the car park before continuing our journey into the Languedoc-Rousillon region. I’d read a review of a campsite, again in the cool camping France guide, that had sparked my imagination, being set amongst rolling pine forests on the edge of a lake.

The journey deep into the forests was great and again I was in tree hugger paradise. We had a challenging hunt for the campsite, not being able to pin Maureen down to get the exact address. We arrived at Indigo Rieumontagne to a some what disorganised reception, not the most welcoming of experiences and problems ensued having chosen our pitch as the pitch next door had hooked their electricity point into ours. But eventually reception sorted things out and we relaxed with a beer on our large and leafy pitch.

As we poured wine and lit the BBQ we heard the distant boom of thunder rolling around the hills, Ian looked at me ominously, suggesting we might need a rain plan. But we had soon re-arranged things to be high and dry.

As our BBQ progressed the thunder got louder and the lightening stronger and it wasn’t long before spots of rain were tapping on Priscilla’s tunnel tent. Safe inside we carried on drinking and eating in comfort as the orchestra of the storm boomed away in the background, it certainly made for a dramatic evening. It turned out to be more of an electrical storm than a rain storm and it passed over without incident as we engaged in meaningful conversations late into the night.