...AND THE TIE BREAK QUESTION IS.....

.......IN WHICH YEAR DID BLONDIN CROSS THE NIAGRA FALLS ON A TIGHTROPE ?

This was to decide who came 1st/2nd in the quiz last night. The Good Fairy plumped for 1878 and our opponents went for 1864.

So did we win the €50 or the €32 ? Our record in tie-breaks to date has been dismal..........you'll have to look the answer up yourselves

FUN IN THE SUN

January 20th 2010.

How time flies when you're having fun.The sun is shining and Conil looks better than ever, prosperous even and a buzz about the place with more new shops opened than shops closed and at least one big new hotel that has gone up within the year.....and although it means a slight detour on the walk to beach, they have also landscaped the cliffs in front of it with boardwalks through gardens and some great viewing platforms. Conil remains essentially a spanish holiday resort, refusing any high rise blocks, Irish pubs or all-day english-breakfast emporiums and all new developments blend in very nicely with the andalusian 'white town' concept. I can recommmend it.

The local festival of San Sebastien was set for Sunday and the site management put on a very nice free lunch on Wednesday which was very well attended and at which an extraordinary number of jugs of Sangria were sunk...which may have accounted for a dismal showing in that night's quiz - our first - when we only managed 5th place by a whisker, should have been second and could have been first. Honour was somewhat restored on Thursday night when the Good Fairy took the Whist Drive by storm, winning a €1.46 bottle of wine for coming first ( as opposed to €50 for winning the quiz).

Friday night was lets-get-pissed-at-the-sports-bar night where all the drinks are a €1, things got out of hand and getting home by torchlight is hazardous.

On Saturday we cycled up to the fruit farm for oranges and veg and ran foul of the Polizia Traffico who pulled me over at a roundabout, where they were stopping motorists,because I wasn't wearing a cycling helmet.... I couldn't believe there was a law making helmets compulsory but I was let off with a caution. Subsequent investigation revealed that you don't have to wear one a)in town b) in hot weather or c) going up hills and that there is a nice shop in Conil seeling helmets from €40 upwards. I later counted 15 people not wearing helmets on the same stretch of road but when I went to buy one later in the week and spoke to the cycle-shop owner he said that they fined 3 people on Sunday at €100 a pop so you have been warned..

This disruption to my equilibrium may account for what followed. When we arrived back at the site and I was recounting this tale to much hilarity from the usual suspects I discovered that I had inadvertently left my rucksack full of veg and oranges at the cafe we had stopped at for coffee and had to make an another 11 mile round trip to retrieve it.

Most afternoons are spent playing Boules (in the sunshine), the ladies have yet to win a session.

The festival of San Sebastien on Sunday was much bigger,noisier and more colourful than previous years, the popular reason being that the warm winter has made everyone very happy and the population of Conil were all up for a 5 mile walk in the sun drinking sherry and sweet wine and sharing it liberally with bystanders-which seems to be part of the tradition. The very large carpark at the entrance to the site is the traditional first picnic stop out of a town and was soon covered with rugs,food,drink and horse droppings in equal quantity. And they were all very happy as they then departed for El Colorado and a massive BBQ under the pines..

On Monday we walked with Paul & Marianne along the cliffs to the port of Conil, about a 10 mile round trip relieved by a couple of glasses of beer in the cantina and a huge plate of fried anchovies (before they are salted variety) which are called Boquerones and highly reminiscent of whitebait and which were very tasty.

BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN......

January 18th 2012

Now well and truly embedded at Conil after a fairly straightforward and uneventful trip. Left home on Sunday 8th for CC site overnight at Folkestone and Eurotunnel on Monday morning. Booked on the 07.50 but arriving at 07.00 caught the virtually empty 07.20 and therefore on the A16 in Calais by 08.00 or 09.00 as it is in Central European Time. Pleasant run down to Lemans and the aire at Suze s/Sarthe and by arriving mid-afternoon managed to get one of the 3 hook-ups thus saving gas on heating and running the fridge. Outside temp chilly overnight and fairly foggy in the morning.

Tuesday to Bordeaux in mostly sunshine and Acsi campsite on the lakes north of the city and just off the ring road. Site looking definitely sad and evidence of itinerants and migrant workers especially in the chalets.....lot of coming and going at 6pm and 8am. Still, the site is very handily placed.

Wednesday, a shortish run down to San Sebastian and aire on the university campus. Topping up with fuel at a Shell station in Bordeaux there was a problem with the card at the cash desk-not a card-only pump- when the machines appeared to have a problem. The terminal said "paiment accepte" then blanked out and repeated this message another twice..the managment was summoned and put the card through another machine much to my annoyance as I subsequently discovered that although I was only charged once for €59.80 a further 2 requests were left pending on the card (Caxtonfx prepaid card) and the 'available balance' is €119.60 lower than the actual balance. I specifcally avoid autopayment pumps for this very reason as advised by Caxton and did not expect to encounter a problem in a manned station. Phone calls to Caxton revealed that they could see the transactions but could only say that they should drop off the transactions pending radar within 16 days and the balance would be restored.....lucky that the card is loaded with sufficient funds to make this an irritation rather than crisis.

Arrived San Sebastian early afternoon, met a charming Spanish couple who gave us chapter and verse on buses into town etc and spent a great afternoon exploring a very nice & classy resort. Very similar to Biaritz and St.Jean de Luz with a very striking town overlooking a wonderful horseshoe-shaped bay with great beach.

Off early on Thursday down to Salamanca. Very easy run on nearly toll-free motorways (€21 to just south of Burgos then toll free). Mixed weather but foggy at first then sunshine after mid-day. Arrived Acsi campsite in Salamanca and plan was to spend 2 days and explore city. Temp -3 overnight and awoke to very thick fog. Waited till 10.30 but no sign of fog lifting or temp rising above freezing so decided to give sightseeing a miss as it would not be much fun even if we could see anything.....Salamanca is quite high...and head on to Caceres. Fog disappeared as we dropped down and blue skies and sunshine were order of the day as we arrived Caceres early afternoon. We stopped off at the aire here last year when the old town centre was having a makeover and we said we would like to return to see the town in its full glory . And very pleasant it is too. Aire again was overflowing.

Saturday was a beautiful day and the last leg to Conil, arriving at 3pm. Site very busy this year (there is a CC&C rally here for 2 months) but our pitch awaited us, next to Roy and Joy who have been out since November and Paul & Marianne who arrived the day before us having used the Santander ferry for the first time...still can't justify the cost personally. So many old faces here that it was like going back to school after the hols and getting settled took for ages as we kept stopping to chat. First stop was the van wash shed to hose the dirt and grime of 1500 miles in lots of fog

off the van. Then a few beers as we caught up on the news. It has been a good winter here with hardly a drop of rain and everybody looks tanned already.

Ate in the restauarant on Saturday night. On Sunday we got really settled and put the sun-lounge up which is just about on its last legs. Good job we did because then it rained for 24 hours and naturally everybody blamed us.

Monday night we ate in the reastaurant again with P&M as they had a Flamenco evening which was excellent and lots of alcohol was imbibed.

By Tuesday the weather was back to 'normal' with clear blue skies and warm sunshine. Cycled down to the beach which looks better than ever and walked on the sand for miles........

IT'S A BIT COLD HERE........

9th-14th OCTOBER

Good drive up the Rhone Valley to St.Laurent du Pape where we stopped overnight. Found a better route than last year, taking a toll round Aix for 1.40€ which saved over half an hour - unfortunately I obviously didn't explain it well enough to D&M who got lost and despite leaving an hour before us, arrived an hour later feeling very grumpy. So much so that next day they spurned my lovely route up the left bank of the Rhone and cunning deviation round Lyon, avoiding the centre, and took the motorway all the way to Beaune at a cost of 30€ and arriving about 2 and a half hours before us. At least they an afternoon to look round the lovely old town. We all went out for a meal in the evening which was pleasant enough, pricey and rather spoiled by a grumpy proprietor.

We went our separate ways on Tuesday as they had to go and get the dog innoculated in Reims. We spent the night at Gurgy on the riverbank after a nice exploration of Auxerre which we always seem to miss on account of parking problems but this time found a coach park on the left bank of the Yonne which was ideal. Weather getting chillier.
Made such good time on Wednesday towards Mareuil sur Ay, our usual stop, and with the weather starting to get rainy so that we might as well be driving as sitting in the van staring out, that we pressed on to Catillon sur Sambre where we found an excellent aire with electric hook-up for 5€ a night. As gas might be getting critical this was just what the doctor ordered.

This left a 2.5hr drive on Thursday to Gravelines, between Calais and Dunkerque where we had tried to find the aire some years ago without success. As there is a perfectly servicable ( if somewhat noisy) aire in Calais next to a great restaurant we had never bothered looking at Gravelines again, but in conversation with D&M we decided to have another go, this time with better instructions. And a jolly nice aire it is too, overlooking the harbour, quiet within walking distance of the town centre where we had a jolly nice meal that evening......the GF treating me to a late birthday dinner.

Friday was nice and sunny and home by 2pm. A very pleasant,warm and sunny trip with many memorable moments. Van has now been washed and polished and put to bed until January.....perhaps.

ALL GOOD THINGS........

19th September - 8th October

28 days at CAVALAIRE-sur-MER draws to a close with a day of uncharacteristic bad weather in the form of violent winds. Since we have arrived here, we had 1 day on which it rained, 1 day when there were a few showers and now 2 days on which there were high winds and the temperature has remained constantly between 25-30.

Derek & Margaret arrived 2 weeks ago and the alcohol intake has increased to such an extent that the Good Fairy has forbidden me to go round to their place to play any more......and she is still trying to teach us all to say "No thank you, I've had enough" without much success.

We have found some good cycle tracks, visited nice beaches at CAVALIERE, about 8 miles down to the coast and introduced the Parkers to the joys of Boules to such an extent that they have bought their own sets.

A great day out was spent at sea following the regatta at St.Tropez. It was the last day and all the old classic yachts were in full sail as well as the modern huge racing yachts...a magnificent sight against the blue of the sea and the Provence sky. We boarded the boat at Cavalaire, sailed round the coast to St.Trop and spent the day in the Gulf watching the yachts all around us and then had a brief stop in the port to mooch around the town for a couple of hours.....still one of my favourite places.

We have managed to watch most of the Rugby world cup games and are now waiting to watch the England-France 1/4 final having just seen a terrific match between Wales-Ireland in which Wales were awesome winners 22-10. If we beat France (possible but our form has stuttered so far) we shall meet them in the semi-finals.

Starting back home tomorrow, 9th.Oct, with the Parkers until Tuesday when we separate as they head off to a vet to get the dog vaccinated.

Postscript...........

We won't be facing the Welsh in the semi-finals as England dismally failed to surmount the first hurdle of beating the French first. 16-0 at half time was enough to make a grown man cry as England decided not to bother the scorers and the second half was only marginally better.....but as the checkout girl at Carrefour said ,,it's only a game,,

LIFE ON THE RIVIERA

10th September - 18th September

The site at MALLEMORT proved to be excellent. The large, shady pitches had water and drainage, facilities were very good, the town ( with a large Intermarche) was a a few kms cycle ride and had an excellent market on Saturday morning for fruit and veg. The local river is part of what appeared to be some sort of hydro-electric scheme run by EDF with a network of canals for pumping water back up to a reservoir and which allowed some nice cycle paths to be available. We stayed for 3 days and might well return in future years on the way to the coast. The opening World Cup Rugby game was fairly mundane ( NZ v. Tonga, not a great contest) and Englands opening game against Argentina was dire and embarassing. The best of the bunch was France v.Japan, a very good game and Japan putting up a terrific fight and nearly causing a magnificent upset.

Moved on Sunday to CAVALAIRE SUR MER where we shall be for the next month. Took the pretty route over Garde La Freinet much to the GF's displeasure, but it saves an hour. Last time we took this road, the Porsche Club of France were having a rally, coming from St.Tropez, and I suspect we ruined a few peoples morning and caused some unexpected changes of underwear; this time, the local Harley Davidson chapter were having a rideout and we seemed to have about 50 bikers behind us, all trying to get past on a narrow, steep,twisty road with rocky overhangs on the inside and huge unguarded drops on the outside. May have ruined their morning too.

Arrived to find Camping La Baie heaving at the seams......the weather is still awesomely hot but fortunately we had a reservation - lost count of the people being turned away. The pitch we were allocated, behind the swimming pool and handy for everything, turned out to be too close to the trees for the satellite, but we could get french tv on the digital so rugby was going to be available. However, on Monday morning I spotted a couple of people leaving, and when I explained in the office that I needed a satellite view in order to watch the rugby the boss overheard and turned out to be a rugby fan and insisted that we were accommodated......so we moved to another pitch at 9.30 and now hvae a near perfect set-up. ITV4 can be a bit iffy but we can switch to french tv for the the odd games - mainly early morning games midweek when breakfast tv takes precedence.

So a week has passed, and we have settled into a very relaxing regime of watching rugby,shopping, eating and lazing by the pool in the afternoon or cycling down to the beach. The camp is in the town and you can walk to the harbour and beach in 5-10 mins. Large market on Wednesday, plenty of shops and a Carrefour within walking distance.

On Saturday night we went to the restaurant as they had a live local Jazz band performing.... it was billed as a Soiree Boeuf, which turned out to be the french term for a jam session and was superb evening of impromptu jazz, blues and rock with some fantastic combinations of guys really enjoying themselves.

The rugby proceeds......England regain some respect but still give cause for concern over the penalty count. Ireland's win over Australia was magnificent as the aussie forwards collapsed, Wales almost come to grief with Samoa (again) South Africa look sharp and France recover from their fright with Japan.

Weather crashes spectacularly on Sunday with massive thunder storm followed by gales on monday ( a mistral) that required severe battening down of hatches..........awning retracted, everything put away or tied down but forecast predicts back to normal on Tuesday.

Have found some lovely cycle paths with great views...more in the next posting.

ANDUZE TO THE LUBERON

September 4th - 9th September

Sunday dawned cloudy but bright after the rains of Saturday, and having discovered that the Voie Verte led to a local village classified as "one of France's prettiest villages" and then to a local Gorge highly rated for scenic content, no further invitation was required. The Voie Verte was another ex railway line, spectacularly hugging the hillside over great views, with some very unrailway-like steep bits - but who cares when you have battery-power. The sun shone, the birds sang and we saw proper red squirrels, which we may never have actually seen before. They are noticeably smaller than the greys ( which is obviously why they have been wiped out in the uk) but so much cuter.
As we swept downhill into OLARGUES (Plus Beaux Village de France) we ran into rain out of nowhere. As the sun was still shining, we sheltered briefly under trees, but as the skies darkened, made a dash for the village, only to find its charm of steep,narrow,cobbled streets now running with water were not bike friendly and we had to cower under trees in the lower regions for some considerable time. We were surrounded by mountains and the outlook was bleak so at a glimmer of bright and a lessening of wet, we hightailed it back along the railway track. Sods law being present meant that 8 miles back saw bright sunshine and no evidence of rain, and the campsite, another 4 miles on was roastingly hot and required a visit to the pool when we arrived back.. so Olargues will have to be taken on hearsay as being so beautiful because we never found out.

On monday we moved ever eastwards towards Provence and stopped at ANDUZE, last visited in 2007 during the rugby world cup when we stayed overnight at the splendid aire next the old steam train station and in fact had a meal in town with Dave & Briony who had checked into a nearby hotel. Our impression on that fleeting visit had been fairly neutral, but a few days there revealed hidden charms. WE opted for Camping Castel Rose which was on the river and were not disappointed. Less than 2kms from the town, an easy walk or cycle ride and a very pleasant place with a nice market on Tuesday to replenish supplies.. great pitch on the river bank, with an abundance of bird life.... a pair of herons and a pair of Great White Egrets came to fish each morning and evening and - joy of joys - a kingfisher was much in evidence sitting on a rock. Each time we sat outside for breakfast,lunch or dinner we were besieged by a flock of Great Tits, a nuthatch and several chaffinches, all picking up the crumbs.

And next door to us was small vineyard with a notice announcing that it would be open for tasting and purchases on Wed (4-6pm) and Sat (10-12). So at 5pm on wed I popped round on the bike. At first it appeared closed ( this France, after all) but I persevered on to the farmhouse where I met the owner ( Jean Vercier) and his charming wife (Claire-Lise) who immediately accompanied me back to the Cave ( big garage really) and started pouring wine in very generous quantities. They grow mainly Merlot, with some Grenache and Chardonnay. They produce 2-3000 bottles a year of Merlot, a Merlot-Grenache blend and a small amount of white and rose. The merlot was stunning (14%), the grenache blend less so (13%) so I bought a case of the merlot at 4€ a bottle which I thought was very reasonable. They gave a me complete tour of the operation, this year's harvest having already started and the place was full of boxes of grapes. This was a real family busines because they and their 3 school-age children do the picking in the evening when the heat retreats and the kids have done their homework. He then sorted and cleaned the bunches of grapes in the morning and pressed them in the afternoon. The garage was full of vats of fermenting grapes which he insisted,with a big smile, on lifting lids so I could hear them fizzing.
I didn't get round to discovering where the wine is stored and bottled since what I bought was 2008 and there was no sign of a bottling plant. So I had a lovely time and they were very nice people.

Thursday required us to move as our present location did not give good reception on ITV which is essential for the rugby world cup. So we headed to the Luberon where there were 2 possible campsites that might offer the correct blend of shade and clear satellite views on the river Durance. We arrived at the first candidate at 12.45 which was amistake as reception was shut until 3pm. However as we walked around it became apparent that although the sign said 5 star camping, it was not actually a campsite as we know it but a mobile home holiday park. After half an hour we didn't discover any campers of any description so decided to move on and not hang around to find out otherwise. The other site was only 10km down the road and proved ideal. Lovely pitches, great shade and good views of the sky. All set till Sunday.