2019/20 Winter Tour - On our way 'Home'

Wednesday 4th March 2020  🌞🌞⛅⛅⛆⛆
Distance travelled 160 miles from Vilanova to Les Cabannes
Parking Co-ordinates 42.78493, 1.68312

The 4th March was the much earlier than planned date that we left Spain behind and started our trek homewards, but at our snail pace that will still take us another couple of weeks!  Our journey took us through the Pyrenees Mountains via the C16, and as we went the bright sunshine dulled and the temperature gauge dropped, but with all the height we'd gained that was only to be expected.  The scenery was dramatic and the traffic was only very light, and although we usually try to avoid toll roads the 5 km long Tunnel del Cadi, (which runs under the Serra de Moixero mountain range) and later (once we were over the French border) the equally long Tunnel Puymorens reduced our journey by a huge number of miles so the £23 fee between them was well worth it!

Once we'd crossed the Spanish French border the road took us even higher into the mountains and as we went the snow at the side of the road deepened but it never caused us any problems because the several snow ploughs that we'd seen had obviously done an excellent job.

Then as we dropped down on the French side the white stuff soon disappeared and we I was treated to views of fast flowing waterfalls and rivers as well as extensive tracts of waterlogged soggy ground - they've obviously had a lot of rain here! 

Just one of the Mountain Villages that we passed by

As planned we arrived at today's destination which was a pretty Aire in the small village of Les Cabannes in the early afternoon, but unlike on our last visit here, the very pretty hills which surround the site were shrouded in low cloud and it was cold.  Therefore we stayed snug in the van and filled our afternoon with a bit more planning and a few games on our electronic devices!





Thursday 5th 🌞 🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️and Friday 6th March 2020 🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️
Distance travelled 141 from Les Cabannes to Agos Vadelos
Parking Co-ordinates 43.03595, -0.07053

Thursday started well with what looked like warm spring sunshine but that soon deteriorated so for most of our journey our windscreen wipers had to earn their keep, but looking on the bright side, at least our solar panel may have been washed clean of pollen and pigeon poop💩!

As we went we travelled through several very pretty Pyrenean  villages and through the outskirts of Lourdes, but by then the rain was pouring so rather than getting soaked we continued on for about 3 miles to our Camping Car Park Aire at Agos Vadelos.   And once we were settled we watched eagles souring high over the hill tops and one even seemed to be swooping down to nick eggs from a magpie nest!

Then Friday - well there really isn't much to say!  We were only going to stay at Agos for one night and then move on to the coastal Capbreton but when we read the weather forecast for the area (which indicated torrential rain and 50 - 60 mile an hour winds) we decided to stay put!  At least at Agos the surrounding high hills mostly protected us from the gales!


Saturday 7th March 2020 🌧️🌧️☁☁⛅☁
Distance travelled from Agos Vadelos to Capbreton 98 miles
Parking Co-ordinates 44.43159, -1.16645

First thing this morning (and for most of the previous night) the rain absolutely hammered down, but by the time we'd had a lazy breakfast and tided up it had stopped so at least our van ablutions could be completed without us getting a soaking!  And while we performed them we had the pleasure of watching the eagles once again as they practised their acrobatics in the sky.

Capbreton Aire

Then once we got underway our windscreen view was filled with more murk and low cloud set against the backdrop of of high hills with more torrenting water falls and the fast flowing River Ousse.  It was also quite cold compared to what we'd been used to Spain, and our temperature gauge initially stubbornly refused to budge much higher that six degrees, but then as we dropped down towards the coast my toes eventually thawed out😂.

We arrived at the huge Capbreton Aire at just after 2pm so our first priority was lunch, but after that had been scoffed we headed our to see the sea and also for a good long walk into the pretty town.

John looking out over the Bay of Biscay

The towns old wooden pier that dates back to 1858

Sunday 8th March 2020  ☁☁⛅☁ 🌧️🌧️🌧️⛅⛅
Distance travelled from Capbreton to Navarrosse near Biscarrosse 86 miles
Parking Co-ordinates 44.43159, -1.16645

Today's drive was just a short hop to an Aire that sits right on the marina at the lakes at Biscarrosse.  There are two main lakes -  Etang de Cazaux Sanguinet and Etang de Biscarrosse et de Parentis - and they're connected by The Canal du Littoral des Landes which extends into the Arcachon Basin from where it's possible to exit into the Bay of Biscay. However, I doubt it would be navigable for big boats!

The middle purple marker on the map marks our present position but in previous years we've stayed on the Arcachon Basin and near Sainte Eulalie.  From our present position (if the weather had been kind) it would have been possible to access the 13 km cycle track that circumnavigates both lakes but once again the clouds dropped more rain so we didn't get to go out until 4ish so by that time we decided to just satisfy ourselves with a walk through the tall pine trees on the lake edge.

As you can see everything was pretty well water logged!

Part of the Canal du Littoral des Landes

Monday 9th March 2020 🌧️🌧️☁☁⛅⛅☁🌧️
Distance travelled from Navarrosse near Biscarrosse to Blaye 78 miles
Parking Co-ordinates 45.12534, -0.66624

For today's destination John has routed out the town of Blaye that is located right on the banks of the broad Gironde Estuary, and on the way we travelled through huge tracts of Bordeaux vineyards.  However,  as yet there wasn't any signs of life on the bare boughs but one can only  imagine how many gallons of the good stuff are likely to be made from these extensive fields🍷🍷😋.
So why Blaye?  It's waterfront location and the Citadel were the main attractions but in the end maybe the former was a detraction but I'll tell you about that later😱

Blaye Citadel 

The main Portal

Some of the main structures within the Citadel - the top left corner shows a tidal inlet that runs into the town.
When we arrived we parked right beside it and because the tide was out it was empty!

The Castle - Chateau des Rudel which was built between the 12th and 14th century and predates
the Citadel by about 2000 years. However, it sits within the Citadel Walls 

And the 'little boys room'  that was situated on the outer wall of the Citadel!

The info boards explained that the citadel was built here because the waterway left the prosperous city of Bordeaux very vulnerable and open to attack.  Therefore, in the mid 17th century  Sebastian Vauban was asked to provide fortifications to defend the area and control traffic in and out via this route.

The Gironde is the largest estuary in Europe and stretches from the Atlantic to the Bec a'Ambes which is a confluence of the Dordogne and Garonne Rivers.  When we arrived and parked the tide was out, but as afternoon turned to evening the water started to rise and by high tide the water was lapping over it's containing wall and onto the road in front of us and also to our left side.  We did a quick 'recci' with Google and it seemed high tide was at 6.30 pm and as the water was still far from our wheels by then we decided to stay put!  I just hoped we didn't regret it in the morning when the tide would be full again long before our getting up time!


Tuesday 10th March 2020  ☁☁⛅☁☁☁⛅⛅☁
Distance travelled from Blaye to Royan   miles
Parking Co-ordinates 45.62827, -1.01193

This morning we woke early and had a bit of a scare that made us scuttle😱!  Last night just before we went to bed (11pm ish) John had become a little more worried about the morning's high tide (6.45am) which Google had predicted would be 300 mm higher than the previous evening's.  Therefore, he set his clock for 6.30 am but luckily he woke a bit earlier than that!  As soon as his sleepy little peepers 👀 were open he peered out of the window and saw that the Gironde had flooded well past it's banks and that our part of the Aire was covered in shallow water - I'll leave you to  imagine his expletives 🙉!

This was the Gironde at high tide on Monday Evening but I didn't have time to take a pic this
morning and anyway it was still to dark!  If you look carefully you can just see the shadow of it's
containing wall at the waters edge.

Luckily, at this stage, the water we were standing in wasn't very deep but as it was still 45 mins to high tide action needed to be taken pronto!  At first John thought we could get out of the wet stuff by backing up towards the rear of the Aire but as he did that the water around us deepened so then we had no choice other than to make a quick exit into the still dark streets of Blaye.  And it was quite a bumpy departure because now all the numerous pot holes were hidden beneath the water and because we'd left in such a hurry the van wasn't in travel mode so there were lots of rattles and bangs as we went - but at least everything survived!

Following our departure we initially parked in the streets of the town but there it was still possible to see the advancing sparkling wavelets so without delay we put our trusty steed into gear and hightailed it several miles inland to the tiny hamlet of St Vivien de Blaye and there we sat under the church wall and laughed about our little escapade while we had breakfast.  Happily, it all turned out okay, but our story may have been much different if we'd slept on to our usual getting up time of 8 am!!!

So what should we do now???  Our on going plan had been to spend some time further up the coast on the Ile de Oleron but we'd recently read that parts of the flat island were also suffering from floods so we thought it probably wasn't a good idea to go there after all!  Thus further reviews of our Camper Contact  app were made and we eventually settled for a Camping Car Park Aire in the town of Royan

But it seems we had to travel through Snail country to get there!!!

Once we'd settled on the Aire we had lunch and then took ourselves off for a walk to the town's Marina, and lovely sea front that was backed by a good number of beautiful old Villas that all seemed to be deserted.

Maybe the Adam's family lived her (but not our Adam's)

11th March 2020  🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️☁☁⛅⛅
Distance travelled from Royan to Villandry 206 miles
Parking Co-ordinates 47.33935, 0.50732

After much discussion about the water logged state of much of France and the risk of flooding we've decided to give any more touring a miss and instead head for the coast to spend our last few days in France at the sea side!  However, it was a bit to far to get up onto the the North Coast of France today so we broke our journey at the now very familiar Aire at Villandry where we've frequently stayed before.  On the way there we saw more evidence of hugely swollen rivers that had spread into surrounding farm land, but happily all the towns and villages that we passed through seemed dry.  But at this point we weren't going to change our minds so tomorrow we will head for the coastal town of Cabourg and that will mark the end of our travels for the next 5 days! 

The swollen and fast moving River Cher

12th March 2020 🌧️🌧️☁☁⛅⛅🌞🌞
Distance travelled 182 miles from Villandry to Cabourg.
Parking Co-ordinates 49.29017, -0.10331

Today is another day that I really haven't got much to tell you about.  Our drive was happily uneventful but maybe a bit on the slow side because, as usual, we avoided the toll motorways and just trundled along the byways!  We arrived in Cabourg around 4ish and easily found a parking spot on the town's free Aire, and like I said before this will be home for the next few days.  So all we have to do now is chill and sit back with our feet up while we wait for our ferry back to Blighty!

Chill our till Tuesday when our ferry is booked!

The windswept English Channel

So for now I'll sign off and we'll see you when we get there!

Bye for now 😘😘

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