France and Spain Sept 2012

We left for France on 6^th Sept 2012 after picking up our new motorhome (now christened Elenore after the famous 60’s song by the Turtles!) on 1^st Sept and trying it out for a few days in Norfolk.  With everything working we headed home to have a satellite fitted (so that Malc could still get a good TV picture!) and then headed off to France.  We stayed at a lovely aire next to a lake near Arques – great weather although a bit chilly in the morning.

The next day we travelled to Broglie to another aire just south of Tours – only a short walk to the village and cycle paths close by.

The next stop was in the Touraine region of France at Ste. Maure de Touraine at a private aire where we have stayed before.  The man that owns it renovates Victorian horse drawn carriages but now majors in making wooden gypsy caravans that have become very popular in France for people to keep in their gardens!

Then off towards Bordeaux.  On the way we had our first mishap in Elenore…whilst driving around a tight left hand bend the cupboard door holding the table flew open and the table came out, fell backwards onto the oven and caused the glass door to explode!  It appears the catch on the door wasn’t positioned correctly and was not holding the door closed!   However, one phone call to the motorhome manufacturers and a new oven door was dispatched to the campsite we were heading for in Spain.  It meant we had to eat out that evening (shame!) at a very nice French bistro overlooking the countryside and river at Riberac - where we had decided to stop for the night.  We stayed at an aire next to the river…very peaceful!

We spent the next two nights (10^th& 11^th) at Cassy, near Andernos Les Bains and met up with our friends Bett and Al for a wonderful lunch of Oysters, Prawns and Bulots (whelks) on the water’s edge at Cap Ferret…wonderful!

On the 12^th Sept we headed for the Spanish border.  Amazingly we passed Malc's cousins son Matt and his friend Anthony who are cycling across the world for charity....what are the chances of that!

Thinking it would be quiet as the school holidays were over we left it later than usual to find a place to stay.  We eventually found the last spot at an aire in the mountains at Col D’Ibardin next to the border.  On the way we had our second ’incident’ with the van when, on a narrow road, we clipped the wing mirror of an oncoming truck – a 50/50 accident.  Ours was fine but it smashed the other vehicle’s mirror and we had to stop to exchange insurance details.  We then realised it had broken the bulb in our wing mirror and we had to find a garage that was still open (rare after 5pm in France!) to buy a new bulb.  That done we were on our way again and so were even later.  By now it was raining and the beautiful aire at the top of the mountain was shrouded in cloud…but still lovely!

The next day we took the motorways through Spain so that we get to our destination in one day rather than two.  Just as well I think, as the countryside through the middle of Spain via Pamplona and Lleida - was dry and dusty and quite boring.  We arrived at Tarragona, to a campsite – Las Palmeras - that had been recommended to us, in brilliant sunshine and blue sky and proceeded to check out which pitch we were going to stay on.  It was right next to the beach so we thought the closest we could get to that would be great and they had just one left!  We drove on to it and came to a sudden halt as the heavy van sunk into the sand…..ooops!  Apparently it “happens all the time” so they sent the tractor out to haul us out.  That’s when our third ‘incident’ occurred!  They tractor driver (who we found out later to be the gardener/handyman!) attached the chain to the weakest part (metal trim piece) of the van and NOT the axle and, of course, it broke!  Yet another call to Autotrail (and we had only had the van for 12 days) to confirm that it wasn’t a crucial or load bearing part and could be unbolted, fixed and bolted back on which the guys at the campsite did two days later and we were all fixed again! 

At this time of the year there is a celebration of all things Catalonian in Tarragona every day from 15 to 24 September which goes on into the night.  The festival of Santa Tecla. We happened to be there on one of the days when they celebrated the castelles (human pyramids).  There were four main teams from different villages and the team included about 60 people.  The pyramids were 8 or 9 rows high and 3-4 people on each level depending on the difficulty of the pyramid.  The ones at the top were kids of about 5, wearing crash helmets but it was still scary. 

We saw two towers crumble and people must have been hurt but they didn’t tell you about that bit! 

We spent the next few days on the beach – very relaxing – or cycling into Tarragona to see the various celebrations.  Lots of parades and fireworks attached to the dancers….interesting!  Malc managed to get a bit too close when taking photos and had two holes burnt into his t-shirt and socks!  With this and the castles one can see that health and safety isn’t too much of a concern here!

Barcelona was only one hour away by train so we spent two days there seeing the city and had a fantastic meal in a Catalonian restaurant.  

The old bullring (now a shopping & restaurant venue!)

Gaudi architecture

We visited the stunning city theatre (The Palau) and watched a spanish guitar performance that evening.

We cycled into Salou which was only 17kms away - it was nothing like Tarragona which was very old and had a lot of character; Salou was more designed for a beach holiday...you couldn't miss us in our bright cycling shirts which was just as well as the road was awful to cycle on. 

Day Glo T Shirts for road safety!

We left Spain on the 28^th September and took a week to get back through France stopping at some lovely aires along the way – no mishaps this time; Elenore was very grateful!

The aire at Lurcy-Levis