BGD Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Kathy and I are toying with enjoying some more of the monies that Postnote kindly sends to us regularly here in Spain, by doing a couple of motorhome tours early in the New Year. We're thinking of a couple of weeks down in the Andalucia region of Spain in early January, and then separately, a couple of weeks up along the Med coast of France in mid-February. Mostly wild-camping, plus staying on aires now and then, as per usual for us. We know what the conditions are generally like down in Andalucia at that time of year as we've been down there several times previously, but I have no experience of the Med coast of France in mid/late Fabruary. We'd not be venturing far inland or up hills/mountains at all, but simply hugging the coast. We don't mind a bit of rain, but we can't do sub-zero at all as neither the motorhome, nor we, are winterised. We'd really appreciate any comments from others who've previously toured/stayed anywhere along the Med coast of France during February: what were the weather conditions like for you? Muchas gracias mis amigos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesFrance Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 You may be lucky, but anywhere west of St Tropez is likely to be very windy for a week at a time. Languedoc Roussillon has the Tramontana and coming down the Rhone valley is the mistral, which blows from the north west for about half the time in the winter. It can also be very cold and we have had - 7C at Carcassonne in January and even snow in May one year, not much above sea level. There is a good site for wind forecasts over a week here: http://www.passageweather.com/ If you look at central mediterranean you can see a typical winter weather pattern for gales tonight. On the other hand if you get a spell of good weather it can also be very pleasant. It should be milder around Nice, but not much chance of aires or wild camping there in height barrier land We tend to winter in your area, but as you know it can still freeze at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Highe Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Hi You can't be certain of the weather along the Med and we've had snow and freezing temperatures at that time of year even in Monaco. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingpete Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 I stopped for few days in Narbonne Plage municipal site, in January 4 yrs back. Was on way back from Spain, and found the site adequate, with hot water & toilets, 100 mtrs from sea via sheltering dunes. Barrier locks you in at night, so making sure you pay the fee in the morning provided departure is not before 8 am. Worth a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neillking Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Our experience was better than these reports but there you go maybe we just live in rather negative and pessimistic times? When we were there around 5 years ago the weather was quite mild as long as we stayed on the SE side of the hills and out of the Mistral. It can be sunny or overcast day by day and on any trips up into the hills you may encounter snow and there are aires up there catering for cross country skiers so not your thing really. Do the coastal festivals though - February is party time on the Cote d'Azure and many of the parking and camping-car restrictions are lifted temporarily while these 'bashes' are on. Aires do exist albeit in modest numbers near the coast but wild camping is also possible in winter, sometimes in/on surprising places like harbours where the moderating effect of the sea is a big help. The honeypots like St Tropez and Cannes and Hyeres are indeed difficult though. We did the Mimosa festivals at Bormes and St Raphael along with a couple of hundred other camping-caristes who melted away into the countryside after each bash, the Citron festival at Menton was very good too, didn't manage to get to any of the Jazz. It was warm enough in Menton to sit out under trees eating crepes self-doused with generous helpings of Gran Marnier a la francais ... albeit not in our teeshirts! Enjoy yourself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesFrance Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Hi Neill, I find your posts very hard to read as the letters are huge. I don't know if it is something to do with my computer, but maybe you have some strange settings on the forum? Good to hear that you enjoyed your winter visit to the riviera, it sounds like an interesting time to visit and without the tourists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neillking Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Hi James, showing as 10 pt Verdana here and same size as your post on my screen.Maybe a local font issue, this is 10pt arial is this any better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesFrance Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Neill this one is easier to read and grey instead of black, but the letter size is still much larger than normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshague Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 when we were there two years ago march in rained for four days solid and was very cold .we had just spent a month in spain and it had been hot for time of year . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 JamesFrance - 2011-12-16 7:18 PM Neill this one is easier to read and grey instead of black, but the letter size is still much larger than normal.Looks fine to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike B. Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Hi We used to live in that area for a number of years albeit on the Italian side of the border and whilst it was usually quite clear and sunny in Winter it did tend to be cold. On saying that it very rarely snowed but it did have the odd covering in January. The nights temperatures did tend to drop quite significantly too. Would suggest if you do go, you get a fur coat and thermals to take with you! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike B. Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 JamesFrance - 2011-12-16 6:34 PM Hi Neill, I find your posts very hard to read as the letters are huge. I don't know if it is something to do with my computer, but maybe you have some strange settings on the forum? Good to hear that you enjoyed your winter visit to the riviera, it sounds like an interesting time to visit and without the tourists. Think it's your settings that are wrong James-looks fine to me (Unless of course mine looks extra large to you!) Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesFrance Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Thanks, it's strange that everyone else's posts look the same to me, but Neill,s have letters about 4x larger than the others. Maybe some odd interaction between windows 7x64 and Firefox. I just looked at this topic again using Comodo's Dragon browser and Neill's lettering is the same as the others. Apologies for the off topic posts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 Neil - in my Google Chrome your typeface is the same as everyone elses, for all the postings you've made on this thread. Reckon you've got the dreaded lurgy mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Your timing (mid Feb) will clash with the French schools mid term holiday period, so maybe less busy at the end of February. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 flicka - 2011-12-16 11:19 PM Your timing (mid Feb) will clash with the French schools mid term holiday period, so maybe less busy at the end of February. What flicka? French schoolgirls? Really? Mid-Feb it is then. (This was a pathetic but valiant attempt at a JOKE - remember humour? - for the sake of all the PC numpties) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffersonCampervan Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 JamesFrance - 2011-12-16 4:00 PM Thanks, it's strange that everyone else's posts look the same to me, but Neill,s have letters about 4x larger than the others. Maybe some odd interaction between windows 7x64 and Firefox. I just looked at this topic again using Comodo's Dragon browser and Neill's lettering is the same as the others. Apologies for the off topic posts. FWIW, I see the same difference in font, also using Win 7 64/Firefox. Who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neillking Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Reply with rich edit turned off. i.e. no font and style choices available to me. What does this look like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 neillking - 2011-12-17 1:01 PM Reply with rich edit turned off. i.e. no font and style choices available to me. What does this look like? Much better Neil - normal in fact - or at least now the same as everyone else as I hesitate to use the word normal for anyone on this forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neillking Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Ah most likely a style problem in the receiving browser then. A well known issue to web designers. I may leave the rich-edit off to improve matters for you folk with the problem but I suspect that's just favouring the peculiarities of an 'unusual' browser. I too am hesitant to use the word 'normal' even about myself, the amusing thing here of course it that it is most likely the style called Normal that is at the heart of the problem! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Bruce If you go here: http://tinyurl.com/74g7euq and play around a bit you should be able to get some idea of what to expect. The data is for temperatures for 2011 at Perpignan. You will see that you can pull up rainfall and sun. You can also get data for earlier years, and if you work back through the site, for different weather stations. There was a very good site that put up averaged data since, if I remember, 1980 odd, to which I was going to post a link, but it has now made access to those data sets subscription only. However, I've got some tables I downloaded a couple of years back charting the annual monthly averages for max temp (daytime), min temp (night), sun hours, rainfall and rain days for Perpignan, Nimes, Montpellier and Nice. I've e-mailed you copies separately. I think Nice looks worst in Feb with Perpignan slightly more reliable. However, it seems as a general rule the further east down the med you go in winter, the worse the weather gets. Andalusia, or western north Africa seem to do best. Usual warning about averaged weather data - it conceals wide variations day to day and year to year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Peter Highe - 2011-12-16 5:22 PM Hi You can't be certain of the weather along the Med and we've had snow and freezing temperatures at that time of year even in Monaco. Peter Always check ! Our Mobilehome had 2 foot of snow on it last year, (Argeles sur Mer) Less than one kilometre from the Med! Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neillking Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 And the Cote d'Azur has a climate all of its own - surely the reason the wealthy adopted it as a winter retreat originally. PS: I didn't mention earlier you'll only find it still unfriendly in winter if you are over 3.5t. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted December 18, 2011 Author Share Posted December 18, 2011 Lots of thanks to all who've advised, and particularly to Brian for the emailed very useful spreadsheet info. Ta mutchly mate. Hmmm. We're having second thought about the Med coast of France at that very early time of the year.......we'll mull it over in the coming weeks, and maybe wait till after our January tour anyway, until the very the last moment, to decide whether to point the bonnet North East or South West in Feb............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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