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Winter Trip Report

Zydeco Joe

By Zydeco Joe
in Motorhome Matters

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Zydeco Joe Proficient

Zydeco Joe

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SEEKING WINTER SUN

Have Motorhome – Will Travel, so we decided to go to France and Spain for Christmas and New Year and to have a little winter sunshine.

We managed to book a Ferry crossing for £65 return, so took off on 6th December to go down to Dover, where we parked overnight on the Marine Parade. It was an early crossing, so got up at 6am to drive round to the docks, and had a nice bacon and egg breakfast on the ship while watching the sunrise.

From Dunkirk we drove towards Lille and then south towards Reims. We were not sure what time it would go dark, so decided to stay the night at a little village called Etreaupont. We parked by the side of the church at first, but the bells were much too noisy, so we thought we ought to move round to the campsite. However, this was closed for the winter, so we parked up just outside the gates on the river bank.

After a nice quiet night, we woke up at 8am, looked out and saw 3 inches of Snow –Not Good !! We managed to dig ourselves out and drove carefully back into the village, but the roads were treacherous, so we headed for the motorway to go south.

We stopped at Viviers, just south of Montelimar, and parked on the riverside by the marina, and the next morning it was cold but sunny, so we had a walk around the old town, which had lovely views from the ramparts, before continuing on our journey.

In Lauris, just above Aix en Provence, we stopped in a layby for a cuppa and saw a wild boar cross the road right by us. We were not quick enough to get a photo, but it was a great view and we had never seen one in the wild before.

We then we headed for the Gorges de Verdon, and stopped in the town of Greoux-les-Bains. We called in the Tourist Office, who told us it was going to snow on the day after next, although it was lovely and clear on the day we arrived, so the next day we decided to visit just part of the Gorges and then head further south. We drove through Moustiers-Ste-Marie and then down the side of Lac de Sainte Croix, which was a very scenic area and may be worth a further visit in the summer, before driving down to Hyeres on the Mediterranean coast.

We found a car park by the beach, with other Motorhomes on it, so decided to stay the night and had a short walk along the beach before it went dark. Next morning was cloudy and grey, but we managed to have another walk along the beach into town and back before it started to rain. Then it poured, and poured, so we just stayed in the van reading a book for the rest of the day, but we were nice and warm and comfortable. It rained heavily all night, and the next morning the car park was flooded up to six inches, apart from the little bit we were parked on, so it was like being on a little island, but we were glad we had moved down from the mountains.

We then made our way along the south coast, through Marseille to Carro, where we parked up on an official Aire by the beach. It was very windy, but we managed to squeeze in between two larger vans, so we were not buffeted quite so much. The next morning was lovely, sunny and warm with super light, and there were stand-up paddlers in the surf, so we spent time taking photos of the action before going for a walk along the beach. We bought fresh fish off the market by the harbour, which made a very tasty evening meal.

 

We then drove alongside the Rhone river to Arles, where we parked up on the official Aire and went into town. All the shops were open for Sunday Christmas shopping, so it was a carnival atmosphere, and we even saw Santa on his sleigh. In fact, we saw two Santas, as one was being pulled by two donkeys, and the other by one donkey, but the children probably didn’t notice !!!

The next day we drove up into the hills of Les Alpilles, and visited the quaint little villages of Mausanne, Les Baux and St Remy. We even found the quarry with the Audio-Visual show of famous paintings, but they no longer allow photography inside so we did not go in.

Our next visit was into the Camargue, where we saw some Slovenian Grebes but not much else, so we just drove through, stopping for the night at Le Grau-du-Roi. Next morning, after a walk along the beach, we continued along the south coast towards Cap D’Agde, where we parked up on the Aire and had a game of Boules, with tips from a very nice Frenchman on how to improve our game.

The weather was still cloudy bright, but not very warm, so we decided to head into Spain, and crossed the border at Le Perthus, driving on to Blanes which is on the coast, about 75 miles north of Barcelona, and where it was much warmer.

We stayed for 12 nights over Christmas and New Year, spending time strolling into town to buy fresh fruit and vegetables from the marvellous market on the sea front, and relaxing in the sunshine. On Christmas day, all the campers got together for drinks and nibbles, put on by the camp owners, and we mixed with Germans, Dutch, Swedish and Spanish. We were then entertained by Paco, the chap who booked us into the site, giving us Flamenco singing and dancing, accompanied by his friend who played a mean Spanish Guitar. It was a super afternoon.

On 2nd January, we moved inland to an area of extinct volcanoes, which provided interesting scenery and lovely walking country, including a super beech wood. We visited a town called Olot, which had lots of little alleyways to explore and a very unusual Nativity scene in the town hall, and then watched the Parade for the Three Kings on 5th January. We also visited Castellfollit de la Roca, which is a medieval village built high on a basalt rock ridge, and climbed the old church tower for a view over the red roofed houses. We then went back to the coast at Roses for a couple of days of sunshine, before having to head back home through France, and saw thousands of starlings gathering to roost in the marshes.

On the way home through France we called into Albi, which is an old town with quite a few large squares, making very pleasant places to sit in the sun. It also has the largest brick built cathedral in the world, which was very tall and had some very strange and weird paintings inside.

Over the next four days we made our way north, with the weather getting gradually more cloudy, grey and colder, until we reached St Omer where it started to snow quite heavily, so we headed direct for Dunkirk so that we did not have to travel too far the next morning in order to catch the ferry. It was a very heavy frost with icy roads on the last morning, so we had to take it easy, but there were no problems with the sailing and the roads were all clear when we reached England.

We arrived home on Wednesday 16th January, just before it snowed heavily on the Friday, so we felt lucky with our timing, and we are now waiting for the warmer weather so we can get out and about again.

 

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Zydeco Joe Proficient

Zydeco Joe

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Hi Guy's,

Many thanks for the kind words.

We never book just turn up,,,,,, we did not even have a Aires book and had no problems finding spots to park up for the night. Most campsites in France were closed and not many in Spain were open, was told about the Blanes site on a Aire in France by a couple of fellow Brits and that worked out great, have never spent 12 nights on a site before and that tells you it was ok.

Took our time getting down to Spain but next time will get a bit more of a move on but we had the time so we used it LOL.

 

Regards

Zydeco Joe B-)

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