Adventure - 6

Mon Apr 29th

We heard back from the campsite at Urrugne about the damaged guttering – they have repaired it and have not charged us anything – which makes us feel doubly guilty but very relieved. We will definitely go there again if they will have us and next time will do our best not to destroy anything!! I know now that when Cliff is moving Brian I have to watch the front, the sides, the rear and the top – all at the same time! Oh well... Cliff found a lakeside walk for us to do today, the guide book says 3 hours so maybe we could do it in two. Parked up by the little café which unfortunately was closed, then set off. A few hundred yards on and we came across forestry workings – it looked as though they had driven right into the lake – they had certainly left the footpath in a great muddy mess. We plodded on and eventually came out onto grassland – hooray – mud is very difficult to walk through. Round the corner of the lake and – Aarrgghh! More mud, wider and deeper than before. Well by now it was just as far to go back as to go forward and so on we went hoping that eventually the footpath would reappear. No such luck! The footpath around the entire lake had been totally destroyed by the forestry machines. When we reached the dam we took a short cut across it, whizzed up through a farmer’s field before the bull or the dogs saw us and thankfully reached the road. Found a little seat and bench where we stopped for coffee – overlooking the lake but surrounded by farm machinery – very picturesque! Got back to the car and took Sammy down to the lake for a bath! What should have been a delightful lakeside walk turned into a literal mud bath!

Tues Apr 30th
Visit to Foix today, only 30 minutes away. An interesting little town, famous for its castle which dates back to 987 and is known as a centre of the Cathars, a Christian movement in direct opposition to the Catholic Church between the 12th and 14th centuries. We paid up to go into the castle as, unusually, Sammy was allowed in! Wonderful views from the top of the tallest tower. Went into the tat – I mean souvenir – shop and Cliff found himself a very interesting book all about the Cathars. That will keep him quiet for a while.

Wed May 1st
Cliff flies back to UK today for hospital checkup tomorrow. Sammy has started scratching again – the vet thought it was an allergy previously. Cliff has a couple of hours before taxi picks him up for the airport so, instead of a nice little walk into the village as Cliff suggested, we set off for the vets in Saint Girons. Got there for 9am when they are supposed to open – and they are closed. That’s when I remember that today is a public holiday in France! Cliff not best pleased especially as on the way the speed camera flashed him so he’s probably got a speeding ticket and all for nothing! Back to La Bastide, stop at café for a coffee before heading back to Brian to await the taxi. He was on time and Sammy and I waved Cliff goodbye at 11 o’clock. What to do now? Caught up with emails then had lunch. Sun was shining after lunch so walked up the hill by the campsite with Sammy, except Sammy didn’t want to go and I had to haul him up most of the way. Sammy doesn’t want to go anywhere without his Daddy and couldn’t understand where he’d disappeared to. When we got back to Brian Sammy decided to sit outside for a couple of hours (something he never does), waiting for Cliff to return. When he did come in he sat looking out of the window and woofing every time a car went by. I hope he won’t be like this for the next two days! 

Thurs May 2nd
Miserable damp morning. Sammy still scratching so I decided to take him to the vet. Waited 30 minutes, nice young lady vet weighed him – he’s put on weight since we’ve been here – no running about on the beach! She suggested it might be an allergy to something in his food so gave me two samples of different food to try. Back at Brian almost lunchtime! Gave Sammy some of the new food – he gobbled it down so I think he must like it! After lunch – took Sammy for a short walk and then - housework. Not that there’s much house to work – all done in a couple of hours – not like Greenacre where it would take a couple of weeks to do it all! Spent the rest of the afternoon on tenterhooks waiting for Cliff to call with news from the hospital. When he did – wonderful – they gave him a clean bill of health!! What a relief. We can now plan for a bit more of a future knowing that at the moment he is well. Sammy still moping. Torrential rain and thunder late afternoon so he had to wait for his poo walk till after tea when it was just drizzling. But he’s a good boy – he generally poos on command so we didn’t have to stay out in the rain very long! No photos today so here’s some arty-crafty type pictures from the archive. I wonder if you can guess what they are (answers at end of document). 

Fri May 3rd
A dry morning so walked into the village with Sammy, trying to find a post box to send some postcards. Last time we looked I thought I’d found one only to be informed by Cliff that it was a letterbox to a private house! Well, French post boxes are yellow and this one was yellow so – ipso facto. – must be the post box…. Good job I didn’t put the cards in there. This time I had another look around by the post office (surely there must be a post box at the post office??) and voila! There it was – hiding behind the phone box. Time for a coffee at the café – brought my book so settled down for a nice read for a while. Then it looked like rain so set off back to Brian for lunch. Cliff called to say he was boarding the plane so all well that end. Didn’t do much this afternoon except play my piano – actually I was going through the Beatles repertoire – very catchy tunes - they don’t write songs like they used to, do they (or is it just that I’m getting old…) Another call from Cliff to say he’d arrived at Toulouse – an hour and a bit later and he was home – well, back at Brian, which is our home now! I was very pleased to see him and Sammy was beside himself with joy – his pack are all back together now, just as it should be…

Sat May 4th
Today’s the day. Cliff has decided wet or not we are going to try and get off this grass pitch. The forecast keeps saying sunny days but we haven’t had any. First go was to try and pull the trailer forward so the wheels were on the roadway. Fortunately the Monsieur had given us two sheets of chipboard which we’d put under the trailer wheels to stop it sinking. Although they had broken we managed to roll forward off the grass but then the whole lot was facing the wrong way. So Cliff had the bright idea of unhitching the truck, manoeuvring that on its own to face the way we wanted to go and re-hitching. Except that when he reversed the truck up to the trailer the angle was too acute, he stopped just before the tailgate hit the trailer side! So think again. Only solution was to manoeuvre the trailer back onto the grass (aaarrrrgggghhh – hopefully it won’t sink) and try going forward again without hitting the hedge, tree, lamp post or getting the truck stuck in the mud. With much trepidation and heart thumping on behalf of both of us Cliff reversed the truck. Well, the trailer wheels went back on OK but there was now a rut about four inches deep – would we get off again?? I had the bright idea of placing the pieces of broken chipboard in front of the trailer wheels. Cliff went for it while I watched all the obstacles he could have collided with and – hooray – he did it - phew, phew and more phew! He then reversed up the roadway to park at the end of the road out of the way for the rest of our stay. We really don’t want to go through that again. In future we are going to make sure that the pitches we go on are hardstanding – even if it means setting up in a supermarket carpark!

After the stress and trauma of the move we went into the village to relax at the café with a coffee. Then decided to go back to Les Cabannes as it was a nice day to take some photos in the sun. We stopped off at Tarascon thinking we could find some lunch, but no snacks available, only restaurant meals. So drove on to Les Cabannes. Same story – no snacks in either the bar or restaurant. So we bought some quiche and patisserie from the bakers and went back to the bar where we sat outside with a coffee to eat our lunch before we went for a short walk by the river. Fully restored we set off to visit Ax-Les-Thermes which we hadn’t been to for 30 years. Cliff thought he recognised the restaurant where the children had frogs legs for dinner all those years ago (no we wouldn’t now and I haven’t seen them on the menu for years, it’s the thought of all those poor little legless frogs with crutches and wheelchairs). Another coffee in the square before we took the picturesque way back to La Bastide – up into the hills and down again. Wonderful scenery, snow still on the bigger peaks, streams tumbling down the hillsides, lots of tiny villages right up in the high hills. One we passed through we remembered from years ago – it was a little place called Appi and there we had discovered an old chap ploughing his field with two oxen - Blanche and Belle – he preferred working with oxen to horses – they didn’t stop to eat the grass! Back to Brian for tea and an early night - tomorrow we are going to drive to Millau where our next planned campsite is – just to make sure we can actually get in there!

Ax-Les-Thermes --- Pyranees

Sun May 5th 
Get up at 6am, set off at 6.30 with cacophony of dawn chorus all around us. Watched the sunrise on the way and four hours later we arrive at Millau. Stunning views on the way – the first motorway I’ve seen with hairpin bends! Saw my first poppies of the year – albeit at the motorway rest area! A brilliant view of the Millau viaduct on the way down into the town – what a feat of engineering - must make sure we go and take a closer look if we stay there. Found the campsite easily enough so parked up, explained to the lad on reception what we were doing and went to have a look at the pitch which was reserved for us. Grass, of course! Did Cliff think we could get on it and, more importantly, get off it?? We had a look at the others nearby and decided that they were probably OK but the one next to our reserved one was better. Could we change it? Yes we could! So we’re all set for going to Millau. Phew! Had a coffee in the town and bought lunch to take with us before setting off back to La Bastide. Sammy was as good as gold all the way there and back although a tad fed-up! But it was worth it. We can now relax and not worry about whether we can get on the site or not! (Oh the joys of living in a trailer!!). Back at Brian we had a short rest and then walked into the village for our customary coffee in the café. Le Monsieur there smiles at us now so after almost two weeks he must recognise us! Tea this evening in the restaurant which is attached to the riding stables just a few hundred yards from the campsite. Very pleasant – beautiful sunny evening and we sat and watched the resident peacocks doing their stuff to impress the sparrows!

Arty-crafty picture quiz:

1. Stones on Beach

2. Underneath a stone spiral staircase

3. Road tunnel

Contributed by Chris & Cliff

(Published 4th Feb 2013)