November 4, 2023 Perpignan FR

Our original plan was to head to Avignon to look at a bridge. The weather forecast for Avignon was a lot of rain, so Ton went on line and looked at weather and places to see options and landed on Perpignan. Perpignan is only about 30 minutes from the Spanish border and is part of French Catalonia, and most importantly is supposed to have good weather for the next 3 days.

We were standing next to a fishing forbidden sign as Ton took this picture. The mountains in the background are the Pyrenees on the French-Spanish border.

We woke up to the rain that is driving us towards Spain, so we were not in a hurry to get up and get going. Before departing we went over for a final coffee with Fred and Denise. We enjoyed another conversation and after about an hour reluctantly headed down the road. We are going to keep track of their travels and are hoping to find another opportunity to meet them. Our only regret is we did not get a good photo of them and us together.

The village next to the reservoir we are parked on.

As we drove down the autoroute the weather was initially pretty bad, but as the forecasters predicted the rain got lighter and lighter until we finally broke into a bright blue sky. We arrived at the campground I had picked out, hoping they were still open. The internet said they were open until the 15th, but I was a little nervous about the accuracy of the information. When we pulled up I was relieved to see they were open. When I checked in and asked for 2 nights the guy at the desk said only two nights as they were closing for the season on Monday. So while the information was not accurate, it was accurate enough for our needs.

This band was shooting a video next to the reservoir. Only the drummer was actually playing as they had no electricity to power the other instruments.

We settled in and then took a walk around the reservoir the campground is on. After that Ton prepared a pizza on the stove top using a technique our friend Cory taught us on her boat last year. It was delicious.

April 19, 2018 Fitou FR

We are parked in an aire next to a hotel in Fitou France.  Do not try to find it on a map unless you have a very detailed map of France, it is somewhere near Narbonne.  

After a slow start to the day, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and had a nice conversation with our German neighbors, who were a little confused at first when we did not respond to their initial conversation starters in French.  After they sorted out we were not French they effortlessly switched to English.  We had a nice time talking to them and getting to meet their dog.  They are German versions of snowbirds, spending about 6 months a year in Spain and Portugal.

We decided to head into the town of Rose to have the meal we missed yesterday.  We had a fantastic 4 course lunch for €13.50.  This was a huge meal including a glass of Sangria for an aperitif, a bowl of mussels for an appetizer, paella for her main dish, and a creme brulee for desert.  She had a choice of wine or water and chose wine.  Ron had Sangria, calamari for his appetizer, a dish similar to paella but with noodles instead of Rice, and flan, because he was driving he had water.  We were wowed with the quantity and quality of the food, and enjoyed people watching while we ate.

The town of Rose, on the Costa Brava, the Costa Brava may require a longer visit in the future.

One correction, all of the fields we were identifying as mustard are actually canola fields, or as they call them here Rapeseed.  The yellow fields are still really beautiful.