Awaycation Summer 2023 - France

The awning stayed out last night and the tie-downs did their job. The wind had gone up a bit.

The down side is that the centre arm locating point at the top fell out and so we can't use it. Not being 9ft tall I can't reach to put it back.... It looks broken. Another job for JC?

So this morning we packed up. When Reggie had his first pee, I had to brush all the little grass flies off him plus one mosquito that seemed to have bitten his foot. It's dead now, the #@#@#@!

The same happened when we went to pick up our baguettes from the shop. Instant decision. We are leaving.

The site would be superb. In fact it has everything you might want from a holiday camp just without the yellow/red coats calling out  hi-de-hi.... It's just the flies. And the bloody mosquitoes.

They are used to people leaving early. A sign on the door says that a late check out could be had for €5. It also adds the early departures wouldn't get a refund... We spoke to some other couples, Dutch and German, who were also leaving to avoid the flies, mozzies and wind! 

Where to go?  I spent what seemed like ages and decided on the Camping-Car Park at Serignan. It's less that 75 miles west as the crow flies. Unfortunately the French didn't employ a crow and they made the journey more like 125 and threw in a few surprises. Ohrex didn't help thinking as usual that we are 40 tons and 40 feet long. Taking an even more roundabout way. 

So after taking an intentional detour into la Grande Motte to see the centre and the assortment of "designed" buildings we had Ohrex taking us on a magical mystery tour through and around Montpellier. And later at Portiragnes over the Canal du Midi and onto narrow lanes between farms when there was a perfectly serviceable main road route. I have fast routing set, not shortest shittiest. Oh. I forgot the Tour de Sête.

On the way though we have seen many of the white horses and black bulls the area is famed for and flamingos. Loads of them on the salt pans dotted across the area.

Finally we arrived at about 1630. Some five hours after setting off! That did include lunch at a McDonald's...

Although "camping behaviour" isn't allowed on most of the tarmac aires, this one is brass and the pitches are large and delimited with logs. Others have awnings out so we have ours out. Without the centre bar it flaps a bit. It will roll away tonight.

As we setup, there was an air display over towards the beach and we tried to get some pix. I had to use the Sony Cybershot as the phone was too slow starting and couldn't focus quickly enough.

We ended up pulling the roll out awning back in as the wind off the sea was beginning to shake it about. Rather than damage it it went away..

We aren't supposed to be far from the beach area and will probably take a walk later when it's cooler. Maybe a cheeky beer? 😉

I have tried to add a few photos from the camera to the email. I have resized them to VGA using the Resize-Me app on Android.