Soreze

The rain has arrived, although it is still fairly warm. 19c. We are still wearing our shorts, which gives us away as being tourists, and probably English! We were under no illusion that the weather would change once we returned to France and headed north, so we were grateful for yesterday, when the weather was glorious. Angela's niece, is at her holiday home in Albufeira, Portugal, where we met Sandra and Gloria a month ago. Seeing the photographs of the Portuguese resort on Facebook, makes us want to turn Marge around and head back down south. 

Today we travelled up country, the rain as we drove down from the Pyrenees was heavy. Fortunately, the mountain roads were quiet, which Angela mentioned, just as two cars and, a campervan appeared on a narrow stretch of road, just around a bend. Breath in Marge, this is going to be a very tight squeeze. Why do we make these stupid comments? The mountain road required two pairs of eyes. One to watch the winding roads, the other to seek out any upward oncoming traffic, which can sometimes be spotted through the trees.

All that aside, we saw yet more stunning views and a fantastic rock formation, which we stopped to photograph.

In the hedgerow next to Marge were blackthorn bushes, so of course John had to forage some of their fruit.

As we reached the valley, we could see the fast flowing river waters. When we were in Portugal and Spain, we commented daily on how dry the river beds were. They always look nicer with water flowing through them, rain the price to pay for that. Looking back towards the slopes, the vineyards were a tapestry of golds and reds. So that was mountains done. Did you enjoy them Marge? 

Our journey then on was fraught. The rain was horrendous, torrential to the point visibility was much reduced, and then calm, until the next band came across. Leaves were torn from the trees by the savage wind that accompanied the rain.  Turning back south had never been more appalling!

Around two o' clock, we arrived at tonight's stop in the town of Soreze, just north of 

Castelnaudary, which is between Carcassonne and Toulouse. We were back in familiar territory, having cycled nearby, alongside the Canal du Midi on a trip to Narbonne a few years ago. For us France is like a pair of old slippers, familiar and comfortable.

We took our usual walk out to discover the medieval town, with its Colambage houses, (half timbered), and historical monuments.

Some of the exposed timbers on the buildings were rife with woodworm, and we wondered just how reliable they now were for the job they were originally intended for. The Abbey, founded in 734, dominated the town. As we passed by one house, we stopped to look at the display of chicks in the double fronted windows.

Obviously, the owner didn't realise today was Halloween, and not Easter, which even we'd realised, having been in a time warp for so long.

Amongst the narrow streets when we walked out again later, (to make up the shortfall in John's target of ten thousand steps), we could see the children dressed in their costumes, buckets and bags in hand. Tonight from Marge, we can see the silhouetted cardboard cut outs of the nearby trees against a dark sky. Just a little spooky!

Tomorrow we need to eat up some miles, if we want to spend a little time in the Loire. So an early night, and and a early start for us.

Duilhac-Sous-Peyrepertuse

Yesterday evening, John picked some fresh rosemary from the herbs growing opposite the aire. The fragrance from them filled Marge with a comforting aroma. Like eucalyptus it would comfort us in our sleep.

This morning, we could see that many more vans had arrived during the night. The official aire had space for five vans, but being near the border it was oversubscribed. One French family had set up their breakfast table, complete with red checked tablecloth, under a tree near to their van. If it wasn't for the fact they were in the town car park, it would have made a great photograph for a French holiday brochure. 

Just after we left this morning, we passed a 'new' castle, built for a wine producer. It looked a little out of place set amongst the grapevines.

As we prepared to leave Spain, we stopped at the border town of La Jonquera, so John (who's taken on sobriety) could stock up on 0.0% alcohol San Miguel lager, and also purchase a bottle of Sangria, for our daughter in law Kirsty, as promised. Shopping is a lot cheaper in Spain than France, and this would be our last opportunity. 

At eleven forty five this morning Marge said " Salut France, we're back". We could hardly believe it was eight weeks ago tomorrow that we arrived in France, and spent our first night by the circus school. 

Our destination for tonight took us high, in fact very high over the Pyrenees mountains, and these were the smaller ones! A misjudged gear change by Angela put Marge's engine into safe mode. After a minute, we restarted her, and being on a severe incline, climbed slowly upwards, for what seemed like forever in first gear. Then guess what? It was all downhill. For goodness sake! Oh. Then there's that old adage, 'do something everyday that scares you', well we managed to fit that in at the same time, who doesn't like a sheer drop next to them with no barrier or retaining wall? 

Tonight we are in the Pyrenees.

Above us is the Chateau, which we read was, a forty five minute walk. Let's go for it we decided. In our heads we had the image of a nice footpath, oh no, try rocks and loose stones and a steep gradient. The perfect combination. We were in first gear most of the way, and can now sympathise with Marge, and the pain she sometimes suffers.

This was serious mountain walking, but forty five minutes to the chateau, we don't think so. Eventually we came across the road up, and joined that.

An hour later we arrived. The views were stunning, looking across the mountains and down over the vineyards of Corbieres. We were hot, (the temperature this afternoon 25c), a little bothered, but also quite elated.  We could now claim we'd walked in the Pyrennes. Next stop, Mount Kilimanjaro. 

For our return back to Marge we decided to walk down the road, stopping to look at the ladders in the olive trees, ready for the harvest, and at the trees amongst the fir trees, which had their autumn attire on, in shades of yellow, ochre and browns.

After two and a half hours we were back at the van, feeling tired, but a little smug, when we looked up to the chateau, which now looked unreachable in the fading light. But we knew different, we'd actually walked, or rather scrambled up there.

There's life in the old dogs yet!

Peralada

This morning there was an autumn mist to start the day, but it cleared very quickly, and by ten o' clock the sun was once again with us, which pleased our fellow travellers, the French put out their tables, and the German women put on their swimming costumes, a little ambitious we thought, the temperature being only 20c at that point.

After our chores, we walked up to the local D.I.Y., store to purchase some plastic coated steel wire, and a padlock. We are approaching the border with France, and for some reason the area is a hot spot for opportunists wanting to break into vans. We have heard stories about people losing everything, including their clothing! Anyhow, Marge is now ready for them, and the extra security is in place.
After lunch, we said goodbye to the Costa Brava, in fact to all of the Costa's we'd travelled through. We were now leaving the Spanish coast for the last time on this trip, and heading inland. Tomorrow we will cross into France. Obviously we are sad to leave Spain behind, we'd got used to the weather. The blow of having to return home, was softened by the fact we would be travelling up through the Loire for a while, one of our favourite areas of France. Let's hope the weather will be kind to us whilst we're there.

Tonight, our last in Spain, we are spending at Peralada, near to Figueres. Figueres, is the hometown of Salvador Dali. The aire at Peralada is very European. There's Marge, along with vans from Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Germany. Drew Pritchard, from the television programme Salvage Hunters, visited this town, and bought some fantastic antiques here. John visited an antique shop were Drew had visited and was offered 'genuine' medieval tiles and a 'as new' Roman mill stone!

As soon as we arrived, we took a tour of the historic town. The castle, now a hotel and casino, and then various sites of interest in the old town, including the old Antic hospital, which fell into the hands of the Farmers Union, at the time of land confiscation. They used it to house irrigation pumps for their members. Now, the area, provides, much needed parking for the residents of the town. An archaeological dig, revealed the hospital had a cemetery, from which 116 bodies were exhumed, inside one of the bodies, twenty five gold coins were found hidden. We'll leave you to guess where!

So Marge, tomorrow it will be adios Espana. We've enjoyed it, especially the coast in the north, and know we will bring Marge back here in the near future.