1. Escaping the British winter - or so we thought! Our journey south to Spain 🇪🇸

After an exceptionally snowy and icy couple of weeks at home, we were excited to be heading off to warmer climes, hopefully escaping the challenging British weather for a few weeks - Spain here we come! 

But setting off wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped - actually getting the van out of the driveway took five of us to get the better of the snow and ice. A couple of our neighbours passed by on their tractor and offered help - I was fully expecting them to hitch the van up and tow it out, but with 3 of us pushing from behind we soon got moving 🤣 First challenge dealt with successfully 👍

Leaving the snow behind 

Headed down to Kent for a quick overnighter to see our dear friends JJ, Judy and Jessica, then back on the road early the next morning and on to Folkestone to get the train. Sailed through Pet Passport Control (always a relief), then boarded an earlier train to Calais - yet again the Eurotunnel terminal was deserted. 

Arriving in France was cold - snowy, misty and very atmospheric. Making good progress south we stopped for the night at the ancient small town of Chateauvillain just north of Dijon, and boy was it cold! The town was stunning. Beautiful old buildings, medieval walkways and towers, dating back to the 12th century - truly spectacular! Looked like there were loads of interesting walks and historical sites around the town, but after a very quick dash to the centre, we returned to the van to warm up - or so we thought! 

Unfortunately our butane gas canister was really struggling with the extreme low temperatures, so sadly that meant we had very little heating for the night 😢 Cooking dinner was also challenging as the olive oil had frozen too 🤣 The only way to keep warm was going to bed - fully clothed, with hats and scarves, under duvet, blankets and sleeping bags 🤣  Emerging 11 hours later (after a fabulous and cosy sleep, surprisingly) we were shocked to see the temperature dial showing -9 😳  Far too cold to explore the town further, we defrosted as best we could and got on our way. But definitely a place to come back to and explore, in warmer times 😃

Solidified olive oil 

Couldn’t believe our eyes. -9!

Making good progress south we settled on Beziers for the night. The temperature was starting to rise a bit, and at around 2 degrees the olive oil was starting to return to its usual consistency, and the butane gas starting to behave itself 😃 knowing that it would get cold again overnight, we parked at an Aire with electric hook up, only to find out that most electricity points in French Aires only cope with 6 amp devices - and our electric heater is @8.5 amps  - Sod’s Law 😢 Not wanting to blow the whole circuit we settled for our, now usable, if a little unpredictable, gas heater. Note made to purchase a lower wattage heater 😃 So after an evening stroll along the Canal du Midi, we settled down to balmy overnight temperatures of -2 for a comfortable nights sleep 🤣 

Spent the following morning exploring Beziers. Although not a major tourist destination, the city does have a lot of appeal. The Canal du Midi runs through the centre, and our first landmark was the beautiful stone aqueduct which carries the Midi across the Orb.. Climbing up to reach the above canal, sadly there was very little water at the time and no actual boats passing through. But fabulous to see this beautiful, and amazing feat of engineering 😃 Further along we came to the Pont Vieux, the historic old bridge that was once the only route across the Orb into the city. 

 

Aqueduct carrying the Midi over the Orb

The famous Pont Vieux

Dominating the skyline is the enormous Cathedral of St Nazarius, a huge gothic fortress built in the 13th century to assert catholic dominance over Cathar heresy - acting more like a castle than a cathedral. 

More like a castle than a cathedral 

Cathedral of St Nazarius

Wandering through the old city, a maze of quaint cobbled streets and beautiful old mural clad buildings, we arrived at the newly restored Halles Market. In a beautiful old building, dating back to the 1890s, the interior is completely modernised, with an array of traditional and contemporary independent food stalls and cafes. Everything looked delicious, and in true French style, there were a number of people sitting at stalls nibbling tasty morsels, and of course drinking wine - at 11 o’clock in the morning! Managing our expectations, I messaged the market owner the night before to check whether Rubes was allowed in - she wasn’t  - so no tasty snacks for us on this occasion 😢 But fortunately it was warm enough in the sun to sit outside the grand Hotel de Ville for a coffee, soaking up the atmosphere. Was easy to see the importance of Bezier as a major wine producer in the region, with bodegas, wine bars and lovely looking restaurants lining the streets.

Halles market

Inside the market 

Coffee outside the Hotel de Ville

Meandering through the streets we eventually arrived at the ruins of the old Roman Arena, surrounded by pastel coloured residential buildings, blending old with new - the ruins garden accessible for locals, but sadly no access for visitors before Easter 😢 As still quite cold, and keen to crack on with our journey south, we left Beziers after lunch. Although a relatively brief stopover, we died feel a certain charm associated with the city, and would be keen to revisit on another occasion to explore further. 

Beziers

Mural clad buildings 

Leaving Beziers, and driving through the surrounding vineyards and countryside, we remembered our experience in this region last year, and of getting caught up in the French farmers dispute, with tractors blocking the motorway around Perpignan. Interesting that their protests against government directives were ultimately effective, with the farmers winning the argument and the government backing down. Thankfully no protests today 😃

A couple of hours later we arrived at the beautiful medieval Spanish village of Pals, just east of Girona. A stunningly beautiful village, popular with artists, and also famous for rice growing. It’s quite a tourist magnet, and the town had created a small grassy area for campervans to stay - so we were well set up for the night. Thankfully deserted at this time of the year, we ambled around admiring the stunningly preserved buildings, the verdant foliage adorning the houses, and the interesting ancient icons and art structures. Interestingly, the small town has 5 Michelin restaurants! A shame though that all were closed for the season, as looking at old menus I think we would have liked a couple - being more a la carte than tasting menu - but hey ho, another time perhaps 😃 

Our park up for the night 

Pals

Pals

Pals

Ideas for our garden 😃

The locals bar along the street is where we ended up. Trying to strike up a conversation with the barman, Dave committed the most funny faux pas by extolling the virtues of Madri beer. At first the barman thought he was saying “madre”, and couldn’t understand why he was talking about his mother.  Then realising he was referring to the famous Madri beer associated with Madrid, was slightly aghast that he was praising the principal Catalan football competitor- we soon realised this when we noticed all the walls in the bar covered with newspaper cuttings and photographs of the Barcelona football team, and in particular the famous Galacticos. We did chuckle when we realised 🤣 Setting for a glass of Estrella (the official beer of FC Barcelona 🤣) and a packet of the most wonderful crisps - lightly salted and cooked in extra virgin olive oil - Spanish crisps certainly are the best, we were very happy 😃 After a lovely walk the following morning,  a well needed leg stretcher through the surrounding ancient woodland, we set off again heading south. Mindful that a low front was coming in that evening, we eventually decided to stay the night a little further north than we had expected - hoping to miss the storm 🤞

Estrella & crisps 🤣

The woods surrounding Pals

Pals from a distance 

Finding a lovely small parking area on the coast, with access to a beautiful beach, we decided to spend the night. Imagine our surprise when we got down to the sand to find that we were at a nudist beach 🏖️ Dave immediately stripped off (only joking), but reading the beach etiquette, we figured they probably wouldn’t mind us having a fully clothed walk on a blustery day in January, when everywhere was deserted 🤣 Or so we thought! No sooner had we got back to the van, a stream of single men in cars drove up, and headed for the beach - all looked a bit shifty, so not sure what site we had settled on for the night after all! 🤣

Interesting sign!

Risking it, fully clothed 🤣

Any opportunity for a roll 🤣

Too rough for a swim

Anyway, had a quiet, uneventful night (thankfully) and the following morning set off to our first “proper” destination, Xalo (Jalon) in Alicante. Despite the extreme cold temperatures earlier on in the week, it’s been a great journey down to Spain - really interesting to just stop at different places that we might not otherwise have known about, and as usual, so very easy to travel in this way. And as usual, Driver Dave did a sterling job, getting us here safely (without too much huffing and puffing), and my navigation skills did the trick - think we only made one wrong turn on the whole journey 😂 And as always, Ruby just chilled out for the ride, relaxing in the back, with the occasional romp on the beach ❤️

Onwards south - hasta luego 😃