BIENVENUE EN FRANCE

Bonjour,
We arrive in France to nearby storms. It's windy on Frontignan Plage but only the odd shower. This is really a summer resort with a great beach on the Med and many water sports activities but also has excellent cycle paths around the area.
Frontignan town even on market day was a bit downbeat but had a very typical town hall as you can see.

 The sky was blue for our cycle around the 'ponds' and the canal as shown below.

Fishing is still important and small houses and boats line the long jetties reaching out from the roads.

I'm sure you've never had enough of bird pictures - below a shelduck.

Shelduck with friend.

So onward to Chalon sur Saone.

Many use this site on the banks of the Saone as an overnight stop but they

A short walk from the campsite along the banks of the Saone into a pretty town. Many use the site as an overnight stop but they miss out on a small, pretty, typically French town, only a 15 min walk from the site. There are also great bike rides along the river.

If an alien was to land at 5 random restaurants in France it would be excused for thinking that the whole country was covered only in fields of haricot vert. And it is true that the imagination of French restaurateurs leaves a little to be desired. The fantastic market in Chalon, however,  shows the full range of veg grown as well as some fantastic cheeses.

Loads of river cruises drop in for the day mainly filled by Americans.

The large church had a wooden toy exhibition spoiling the view. The structure on the left is a lamppost.

The cathedral was in a very old square but 

was not over exciting.

Carving in an old elm which had to be cut down.

Thanks to Deb for her continued support and I hope Mike has survived Coventry this year. Welcome home Jude and Andy, St P sounds like a destination. Is the food any good and are there any campsites?

Next stop is a short venture into Germany and hope to blog during next week.

Au revoir,

J&P

ADIOS ESPANA

Buenos,
For the last time as we move from Taragona to the small town of Frontignan Plage on the French Med.
But before I get on to Taragona I should mention an interesting phenomenon. I have complained on plenty of posts that everything closes down in the afternoon but I have noticed outside many major towns young women sitting at the end of farm tracks, I thought selling Dad's produce. After a couple of sightings I thought they're very good as they seem to have sold all their produce. However, on about the fifth sighting I was suspicious. Even more so on the next day as the young lady was completely naked. These were main roads and would compare to a young lady sitting on the A34 just outside Wilmslow! Not something I've come across but if you otherwise please let me know (for info only.) At least I now know that not all Spanish business closes in the afternoon.
Taragona was a short bus ride from our campsite right on the beach. It's an interesting town with a charming old centre and its' main claim to fame is a large number of reasonably well preserved Roman ruins as we see below at the local forum.

The winding streets reach up to the Cathedral which, Hallelujah, has audio guide by St Bill of Nighy.

There is a walk along the Roman walls.

And views back 5km to our campsite.

The Cathedral  (12th - 14th century) offered little new from the outside or internally,

but we thought the horse on this statue had an interesting face.

Usual old carvings which St Bill tried to make interesting but usually failed.

The cloister gardens were very peaceful as you would expect.

 A day ticket got us round all the Roman sites - a view of the amphitheatre below. Our sightseeing stopped, of course, for lunch which was taken at a modern Spanish restaurant offering a 3 course menu del dia including wine for about 16 Euros which is double the norm but was exquisitely presented and prepared. My love of steak tartare knows no bounds but the chef may have pushed the boundaries a little far this time. I didn't object to the steak sitting on a bed of smoked aubergine but I was a little startled by the topping of brown crabmeat. Not a disaster but perhaps not worth repeating.

The Roman Circus used for chariot racing also had passages are shown below.

Pauline, naturally, is the light at the end of the tunnel.

Probably not the top amphitheatre on my list but quite impressive given the age.

View of the city from the top beach next to our campsite.

Some good walks through a national park next to our campsite.

A view of the Cathedral from the top of the Pretori Roma.

And that was Taragona crossed off our list. So next stop France and more next week.

Thanks to you all for following my ramblings.

Adios

J&P

ANOTHER WEEK IN BENICASSIM

Hola,

Our second week here comes to an end and we're on the road again (as Canned Heat sang an incredible 47 years ago).
We've continued our routine of walking, boules, tennis, swimming and cycling - most recently along the coast path to Castellon. Pretty empty at this time of year; a few palm trees and

a trawler out at sea.

In fact we should really do more planning. Apart from the music festival in July, there is a blues fest in June and it seems that there is much more in Benicassim during the summer months than the rest of the year put together. We also discovered the Barcelona Beer Festival takes place every April with craft beers from around the world. The advertising video shows a few brewers discussing their products - and who is front of the queue Steve Os? Brewdog of course. Those shares at £95 a pop are looking mighty cheap now.

We also embarked on a pretty tiring walk. It took us about 10.5km but up to a height of 500m starting at sea level. It was a track rather than a path and whilst climbing up was fun, coming down less so as so many of the stones and rocks were loose. What made it worse and us feel old was the runner who left at the same time as us but went the other way, who we met coming down the other side after about 80 minutes. He would finish in less than 1 hour 40 mins - about 3 hours quicker than us. I couldn't understand how he ran and leapt and kept his balance with so much loose material underfoot.

Anyway the views were great

on both sides of the mountain.

And even better when we reached the top

There were old deserted huts and chapels en route

which added to the enjoyment.

It has to be said that after a few tumbles I was pretty glad to get back almost in one piece to my first cold beer.

Many thanks to Jude & Andy for their regular comment. I promise we won't look hungrily at your driveway on our next visit. Have a great trip to Russia. Thanks also to Sue and Dave for their e-mail and have a great time in Majorca next month. 

In a few days we will be off to Tarragon which will be our last stop in Spain. So thanks for following our journey and more next week,

Adieu

J&P

BENICASSIM

Bona tarda (as they say in Catalan),

We're now in Benicassim which is not quite Catalonia but Catalan seems to be the predominant language. We were here last year, last year's post has more photos, and liked it so much that we decided to return for a longer stay - about 2 weeks.
Many Thanks to Deb for her 3 comments. I would have loved to have been at that Liverpool game. I bet Mike was floating for days after.
Those Easter processions take place in every Spanish town and many have pointed hats. The different colours in the run-up to Easter represent the different churches in the town. They may all change to white on Easter Day as you suggest but I've usually had my fill of parades before then. Which takes us seamlessly to your chateau comment and in turn reminds me of the famous West Brom tour to China in the early 80's. One of the squad (maybe Cyrille Regis?) was asked why he had not joined the rest of his team mates to visit one of the wonders of the world and replied "seen one wall, you've seen them all!" Some sort of perverse logic there.
Back to Benicassim where the campsite has an indoor and outdoor pool as well as 4 boules rinks, tennis and padel courts. So first two games of tennis this year plus first ever few games of boules thanks to Steve Oz loan.

Looking up the campsite to mountains in the distance which if the weather cools a little we may well climb.

Fantastic beach and fairly empty at this time of year.

Lovely villas from the early twentieth century line the prom. This is one of our favourites but another, slightly larger one, is up for sale for 4.2m euros. We're just 4.1m short of making an offer.

There is a genteel feel to the resort although I'm sure it's all change in July and August with the 4 day music festival (headlined by Kasabian this year) and the hordes of local tourists. Pauline outside an excellent seafood restaurant where we went last year and enjoyed our favourite arroz negro.

There is a good cycle route at the back of our campsite going to the neighbouring resort of Oropesa about 6km away down a disused railway track.

Me emerging from the darkness.

In Oropesa, another small seaside resort, very quiet at this time of year.

And finally, the famous Arroz Negro, admittedly not the most photogenic of foods but utterly unctuous.

And that's all for this week.

Adeu,

J&P

PILAR DE HORADADA

Buenos,
Well spotted, Jude and Andy! I was beginning to think there was something funny going on but as you can see I managed to find an avocet looking the other way.
We had a few days in Pilar de Horadada where the good news was that it was a shortish bike ride from the salt flats and home to flamingoes as well as lots of other wild birds, most of whom wouldn't sit still long enough to photograph.

Looking back to the resort of Pilar. It looks busy but it was a national holiday.

Our campsite in Pilar was fairly new and lacked any real character. It also reminded us of why we don't travel in summer. It was the Mayday holiday on 1 May which was a Thursday. The Spanish take advantage of any holiday which doesn't fall on a Monday or Friday by making a very long weekend of it. As a result the site was mobbed, noisy with kids and music and probably not somewhere we'd stop again. There was a swimming pool which periodically opened but was too shallow to swim in and an indoor spa which again was full of kids. 

I tend to get a bit grumpy as you might have guessed in these situations. Talking of which: we enjoy art galleries very much and the contemporary art gallery we visited in Velez was stunning. It also had a class of local primary age children in rapt attention as a teacher was explaining a large painting in front of them. This was great. Contrast our experience in the Picasso Gallery in Malaga. It had a class of about 20 teenage schoolgirls, sadly English, who walked through the gallery completely uninterested, not stopping at any of the artworks with a teacher who was similarly disinterested and completely unable to control her charges. Why did they bother going? 

Señor Grumpy signing off for a few days. 

Our next stop is Benicasim which we enjoyed thoroughly last year and hope to enjoy for a couple of weeks this year. Hope all is going well with the rest of you.

Adios,

J&P