A morning treat!
We had another good night's sleep, and when I woke up, I took my coffee out onto the terrace to enjoy the cool morning air. I suddenly heard a "whoosh", which sounded like the burner of a hot air balloon. I raced over to the corner of the terrace and looked over to see a brightly coloured one hiding behind the trees. As I listened, I heard more whooshes, and it slowly climbed into the sky. What a treat!
After showering and dressing, we went for breakfast at 8.30am. We took a table overlooking the pool and chose pastries, scrambled eggs, bread and coffee. Mathieu was his usual jovial self, and his truffle dog appeared and said hello to everyone!
We packed up the car, paid the bill and bid farewell to Mathieu, promising to come back again soon. I would love to visit in the autumn!
On the road again!
We took a different route back to the A20, and the roads were empty. It didn't take us long, and we were soon heading south. The temperature climbed again, and by the time we reached southern France, it was in the 30s. The traffic was light and we made it around Toulouse easily with no problems. We had a few more tolls today, but that's the price you pay for a good motorway network.
We didn't stop for coffee today as we'd had a good breakfast, and by 1pm, we had turned off to Perpignan. We wanted to have lunch in Banyuls-sur-Mer, and I knew that the roads would be busier. Jeeves directed me expertly onto a beautiful road (the D914) which skirted the coast. The scenery was stunning, and we could see rows of vines on the hillsides for the Banyuls-sur-Mer and Collioure appellations.
In Banyuls-sur-Mer, we parked near the centre and just prayed that nobody would see our luggage in the boot! It was fearsomely hot and we walked back towards the beach where we'd seen numerous restaurants. We sat down at a tapas restaurant, but the waitress came over and said the lunch service was over. It's the story of our lives! She told us to go next door. So we did!
We ordered a tartiflette and a pizza to share. Keith ordered a large Affligem and Sophie treated herself to an Aperol Spritz. I had a tiny (and I mean tiny!) glass of the local Banyuls white wine.
It was pleasant sitting in the shade, and the restaurant gradually emptied out as the lunch service finished. The food was good, and our waiter boxed up three slices so we could take them back with us. Sophie couldn't resist the lure of the tiramisu and had to share some with me; the portion was so large!
"Keep both hands on the steering wheel!"
After paying the bill and using the (hot and smelly) facilities, Sophie walked to the water's edge to dip her toes into the sea. It was hotter than hot, and I looked at people sunbathing without any shade on the pebbly beach in amazement. I couldn't imagine anything more uncomfortable! Before returning to the car, we popped into a small supermarket to stock up on essentials, and it was then a hot walk back to our baking car. The temperature was registering 43c! We opened the windows to let the heat out and looked at the route to take us to L'Escala.
This proved to be a mountainous route with some parts of the road having steep drops and skirting the coast before turning inland! Sophie was not at all happy and kept telling me to put both hands on the steering wheel. The views were spectacular, though, even though I hardly dared look! A couple of towns were gorgeous (Cerbere) and wouldn't have looked out of place on the Amalfi Coast! We passed the border into Spain and saw that the customs buildings were covered in graffiti.
In Spain, we drove through a couple of dismal, scruffy towns (Port Bou in particular), and I kept pulling over to let the impatient locals pass. We were a little apprehensive about visiting Spain this time, because of the protests taking place against tourists. I just hoped we wouldn't witness any animosity on our trip. We saw several signs saying that Catalonia wasn't Spain, so there are obviously some strong feelings about it.
Sophie was having trouble getting wifi on her phone, so we had to rely on Google Maps on mine, and she directed me off the main road and onto what was a dirt track next to a large factory. It was bizarre, and when the road deteriorated completely, we turned back!
We skirted Figueres and we were soon on the road towards L'Escala, the familiar C31. I had another impatient local behind me, who was literally inches from my back bumper despite me having nowhere to go! I braked slightly and pulled over, but he obviously didn't have the balls to overtake. It didn't make for a pleasant experience.
Our low point...
We eventually found our home for the next ten days, a lovely house on a quiet residential street. We parked outside and went inside to explore. It's a strange layout, with a bedroom, bathroom and sitting room downstairs and two bedrooms and an open plan living area upstairs. There's no interior staircase, so you have to use the outside steps to access both floors.
It was while exploring that we had a shock realisation that there was no washing machine... we had three days' worth of sweaty clothes in the car and I was itching to get them washed so we could wear them again. I know it sounds silly, but it was the low point of the holiday so far, knowing we'd either have to handwash our clothes or use a launderette. Not really how I wanted to spend my holiday!
We turned the aircon on, unpacked the car and admired the views across to the mountains and a tiny bit of L'Escala. All around, we heard fireworks and discovered that tomorrow is the festival of St Joan, with tonight being particularly lively and noisy!
We sat on the lovely balcony first and watched the sunset, before venturing downstairs and cooling off in the pool. We sat and chatted and gradually began to relax after our long day!
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