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NOMADAMS Diary - February 2003
The first half of this month has really been a round of farewells before our departure for Europe.
We began with individual evenings with our friends, then an 'Adams do' at Chris & Bobs, a 'Drury do' at Porticos in London, a bowling evening with Colin, Russell and Shelley and finally a send off from a campsite in Chichester.
It is from this site that, on Tuesday 11th, we caught the ferry from Portsmouth with a one way ticket to Cherbourg!
11th - 15th; We arrived in Cherbourg at 17.00 local time and drove to Carentan where we spent the first couple of nights. As this was near the D-Day landings, we took a trip to Omaha beach visiting the American WW2 cemetery. We then drove 300km on to Ploemel, just outside Carnac in South (but bloody cold) Brittany. On the 14th, we visited the Carnac prehistoric menhir sites and museum (as a special Valentines day treat for Nicky - as you can imagine, she enjoyed this immensely!). On the morning of the 15th, we set off for Rochefort, in the Charente - Maritime department, where I think Nicky will have more of a say regarding excursions!.
16th - 21st; We sited in Rochefort at 'Le Bateaux' beside the river Charente, with the weather still cold, but at least sunny. After a couple of days settling down (when we tried out our awning for the first time, bought a French sim card for the mobile & managed to catch up with emails & website update), we started to explore the area. First we tried 'North' between Rochefort, Surgères & La Rochelle which we found rather flat & featureless. La Rochelle, however, was particularly pleasant (especially the old town - where Mark enjoyed looking at the old buildings & Nicky enjoyed looking in the shops!!) even in the wet & cold! We followed the coastline on the return journey, discovering Châtelallion plage as particularly interesting. The next day we tried 'South' (even the weather was sunny & getting warmer), stopping at 'St Savinien' & 'Saintes' both attractive towns on the river Charente, before heading towards the coastline (passing some intriguing turreted ruins), to 'Royan' (uninspired resort town) up the coast through pine forest/dune regions, stopping at 'Point de la Coubre' to watch a particularly spectacular sunset. We concluded this region had potential! After 6 nights, we left Rochefort for Bergerac in the Dordogne region (east of Bordeaux) where we sited (Friday 21st) at 'Le Pelouse' on the bank of the river Dordogne.
22nd - 26th; Saturday a.m. we cycled into Bergerac centre where they had a local produce market (stocked up!) and ambled back beside the Dordogne, stopping to watch some anglers (Mark was tempted to get his rod out!). We tried to send emails from the campsite office, but failed again (this is becoming a bit hit & miss). Next day (now getting warmer and sunnier) we took an excursion to Les Eyzies (another prehistoric site/museum) and onto Lascaux 2, the world famous prehistoric wall painting caves (zzzz - wake up Nicky!!). On the way back we detoured to Sarlat & Beynac, both attractive mediaeval towns, climbing to the top of Beynac chateau to watch the sunset. Monday we drove West towards Bordeaux and followed the wine trail around the St. Emilion region (noting that everywhere is a bit brown this time of year!), stopping in St. Emilion itself, a particularly wealthy mediaeval town with plenty of expensive wine caves! (we bought much cheaper in the supermarkets). We also spent some time trying to find a new fuel cap as someone (clue - M**k) left the original in a garage after a fill-up. The Dordogne area seems to be very popular with the Brits as, even this time of year, there were many ambling around the towns. We enjoyed this region, but on with the plot - so we set off Tuesday morning towards the Aude department. After a very windy 300km drive, we finally sited in Villegly, 8km N of Carcassonne in the wet & windy South of France.
27th & 28th; Unfortunately, the wind & rain continued through until Thursday morning which started dry & bright. We took this opportunity to explore the hilly Corbières area and we set out for the Montagne Noire. This was a particularly dramatic climb through narrow twisty mountain roads (many single track) passing several curious isolated villages (why were they there! - where were the people?) finally reaching the 'Pic de Nore' at nearly 4000ft (there was also several feet of snow!). The views were worthwhile, except for the rain clouds we spotted rapidly rolling in. The descent through similar twisting roads was equally daunting (Nicky wanted it known she drove that day!) and we ended the day with a visit to Carcassonne cité, a completely renovated mediaeval city (but looking like a lego castle), which was well worth visiting. It rained again overnight, so we decided to leave the now very muddy site the next morning (again waking to a bright sunny day) and head for Avignon. We followed the scenic route, which took us down to the Mediterranean coastline (at last), passing flamingos in the lagoons towards Sète. We finally arrived at our chosen site (after a few missed turnings) only to find it overrun with 'pikeys'. We left immediately and sited at Domazan (12km outside Avignon). This site also had a pikey presence (it does seem to be a particular problem down here) but less threatening. So we ended February with a particularly sleepless night expecting to have our throats slit!!