Friday 22nd September
Up‘n-at-‘em at a reasonable time heading towards Narbonne avoiding the Peage tolls, again; it seems very strange heading along much of the same route we had only covered a few days earlier, that was definitely not in our “strategic Plan”!!! Our rural “route” took us through some very isolated French hamlets and alongside mile after mile of grape vines. Today we start in the Burgundy region, heading through the Languedoc region and onto the Corbierre region; three well known wine areas, pity we can’t stop for more!!!
Arriving at the village we’d picked just outside Narbonne, we were sent on a merry chase to a non-existent parking site, and not for the first time!!! We now headed towards Perpignan 75kms down the road but decided to drive off the main road and see what we could find. After a couple of aborted attempts, we were tired, hot, with two dogs thoroughly fed up, out of desperation we pulled into a not so “salubrious” lay-by but it did have a break in the hedge to get into a field with the pooches. Now we had quietened down, Christine took to Google again and found another suitable sounding site about 20-minutes further up the road in a village called Villeseque-des-Corbières in the heart of the Corbières region. Off we went and the roads got narrower, the bends got tighter and the hills steeper, but we persevered hoping this site actually existed. Eventually we entered this small isolated village, arrived in the “centre”, a small triangle of land with a statute when Waze said “you’ve arrived at your “destination” oh no, not Again but then spotted several ladies sitting on a bench telling us which way to go: Presumably this is a regular thing, motorhome folk looking for the site!!! Anyway we headed down yet another narrow lane, exited the village and low and behold, a “camping Car” site sign with a barrier, and a pay machine alongside. As the barrier was up we went straight in, selected our site and that was that; oh yes a couple of fields to walk the dogs in, a bonus. There was even a servicing point but then realised that if you needed water, you had to pay; we managed with the water we had.
Saturday 23rd September
After a fine and quiet night’s sleep we headed off, we will stop for breakfast along the route. From where we are we had two choices, go back the way we came but that didn’t make much sense so followed Waze and headed on up onto the mountains, fortunately being so early there was zero traffic on this country lane that was the width of Rosie! We eventually stopped for breakfast amongst the vineyards overlooking some majestic scenery, something one never normally sees “flying” along the motorways.
By late afternoon in the heat we were pleased to see the turn off for Peniscola, but again arriving at another fictional stop-over site. Why do some folk review something not there??? Anyway just back a bit we noticed a campsite so tonight we will pay🥵🥵. They charged €30 which included a plug-in facility, good we can bring down our freezer again. Having paid they opened the barrier and we entered “Camping Ferrer”, filling up with water as passed the service point. There were a few pitches to choose from but everyone was crowded in, not much space to reverse Rosie onto the selected pitch; still we were in and Christine shot off looking to walk the dogs on the beach whilst I sorted “things” out.
It wasn’t very long before Christine reappeared saying the beach was a fair way away and that dogs were not allowed, so walked around the site and on the main road; no chance of letting them off their leads. We know from experience if they don’t get a good walk in the afternoon/evening, they will have a very un-settled night, oh well it is what it is, get on with it!!!