Hello, France!

Crossing the border into France felt a little like coming home, everything just seems so familiar. If I’m honest, we were most excited to grocery shop and find all of our favorite goodies. One of these days I’ll do another food post and show you the kinds of things we like to get here.

Our first stop was a campground near Antibes. It wasn’t all that, but we stayed there three days anyway. The reason being is that Steven was expecting packages and you know how that usually goes for him. He goes into high alert, our whole world comes to a standstill, breaths are sucked in, fingers are crossed, candles are lit, vigils are held, packages are tracked, lost, found again and yet, on delivery day, something still gets screwed up. The stories I could tell… okay, I will.

One time, when we were still living in our house in Sammamish, Steven was waiting for delivery of a new camera. He took the day off work and was tracking its every move online. It was out for delivery. He stepped away from his computer for a few minutes and when he came back, the notification said, “delivered”. He ran to the front door… nothing. He jumped in his car and drove around the neighborhood and beyond, up and down the streets, frantically looking for the FedEx truck. He came back home, furious. Then, Zoe saunters down the stairs and says, “Oh hey, Dad, this package came for you earlier. I signed for it.” He was incredulous. Of course during all this drama he is texting me the blow-by-blow. Welcome to my life.

In this latest case, what happened was, Steven’s iPad gave up the ghost just as we were leaving Croatia. Since he does all his photography and videography on it, this was a major bummer for him (and by extension, me). He’s on a creative roll currently, so it was imperative that we do something about this travesty. So after we left Croatia, as soon as we got parked up in Verona, Italy, he took off for a nearby Apple store and bought a new iPad. Screw Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately, they had none of the accessories he likes to use, so he ordered those online for delivery at our campground near Antibes.

I won’t go into all the details of the package delivery, but let’s just say that delivery day two found Steven sitting at the entry gate in his camp chair. Eventually, he got everything he ordered and we were free to leave for our next destination. He’s a happy camper now, and therefore, I am a happy camper now, too. Hallelujah.

Our next stop along the southern coast of France was a very popular aire right on the water. Usually, as we are about to arrive at an aire or campground, Steven asks me to guess how many other rigs we’ll see there. I might guess a few, but many times there have been none. When we arrived on the coast at the Martigues aire, there were already 30+ rigs parked up. It was here we knew that motorhoming in France was alive and well. We found comfort in that.

The next day we were on our way to the marina at Palavas-les-Flots, a huge aire that can easily accommodate 100 rigs. It was not full, but it was close. We managed to snag a bit of waterfront and saved another for Brad and Oksana who were on their way having recently left Spain. On our second day there we moved over a spot to be on the end. This gave us a bit of privacy on our door side and we were the nearest spot to the showers. It was perfect. We stayed ten days here, one of the draws being the fabulous biking paths that took us along the coastal marshes where there were hundreds of pink flamingos just hanging out, feeding. What a lovely sight! This was the first time I had ever seen flamingos in their natural habitat. I think the only other time I’ve ever seen them was at the San Diego zoo!

After a ten days stay I was chomping at the bit to get rolling and keep going. We’d been sitting still for so long, I was ready to just bounce along from village to village and stay for an overnight or two. I needed this for my vagabond soul. Brad and Oksana had been in and out of the Marina while we were staying there and on our departure day we decided to meet up with them at the new aire in Béziers. When we got there, I stayed behind in Bijou while the others went into town to do some photography. We had spent a ton of time before leaving Croatia organizing Bijou and after ten days sitting still things had gotten a bit out of whack. Plus, we had just done a big grocery shop and I needed to spend some time organizing. Doing this also makes me happy and I was on a happy binge.

After one night we set our sights on Carcassonne which is famous for the Cité de Carcassonne, a massive citadel overlooking the city. We hiked up to the top and entered through the stone arches and walked the entire perimeter. The history of the centuries old fort is long and varied, with lots of sieges, conquests, pilages, and all the usual yadda yaddas of Medieval war. One intriguing legend on how the city got its name is that of Lady Carcas. Under siege by Charlemagne’s army, and her husband killed, Lady Carcas took up the fight. The siege, now in its fifth year, had taken a toll on forces, as well as food stocks. As a show of force, she had fake soldiers made and stationed them all around the citadel. Further, she took a detailed inventory of food. One man brought a pig and some wheat. Since the population was Muslim and therefore did not eat pork, Lady Carcas hatched a plan. The wheat was fed to the pig, which was then forced over the wall of the fort, falling to its death at the feet of the opposing forces below. Having seen all the soldiers and now believing that their opponents had food stores so vast they could afford to lose a wheat-fed pig, Charlemange and his men retreated. In truth, food was scarce and soldiers beleaguered, but the ruse had worked! The bells rang out across the land, causing Charlemange’s retreating men to cry out, “Carcas sonne! Carcas sonne!” Which in French means “Carcas is ringing!”. And that’s how the city of Carcassonne got its name. At least, according to this legend.

Leaving Carcassonne we made our way to the little village of Mirepoix. You know the cooking term, mirepoix, right? It’s a group of aromatics used in stocks and other recipes to add flavor.. It’s 50% onions, 25% carrots and 25% celery. I wanted to go there because of the name, but Mirepoix is also known for its half-timbered houses. And, it turns out Mirepoix puts on a pretty fabulous market day which we enjoyed a lot! I bought a bottle of Bergamot essential oil and a bag of pecans.

We stayed just a few hours in Mirepoix and when it was time to leave we said our final goodbyes to Brad and Oksana. Well, hopefully not final FINAL goodbyes, we do hope to meet up in the future, but who knows where and when?

We made our way to a “full-service” campsite, having been told there were no showers or restrooms open. That was fine. We don’t mind taking showers in Bijou, as long as we could fill up with water and have a place to dump, we were good. It seemed like this place was out in the boonies, and if I’m honest, a teensy bit murdery. We were the only campers there. We had a lot of trouble trying to find a level spot because of recent rains and eventually got ourselves so stuck in the mud we had to be hauled out. I sat in the driver’s seat in case I needed to do something, but the guy hauling us out told me “just sit back and enjoy the ride.” Of course I recognize that in today’s world that comment is very wrong, but I admit that it made me laugh, and frankly, put me at ease about having poor Bijou yanked out of the mud.

At this point you can imagine our moods. We were on the brink of turning on each other. I could have easily driven right out of that place and Steven really didn’t want to go. It wasn’t that he liked the place, it’s just that he was done for the day and didn’t want to go anywhere else. I could see his point, so we stayed for two whole days! It turned out to be fine.

About an hour or so away from this place was the first campground we ever stayed in the day we picked up Bijou in Toulouse. We had tons of bags from IKEA and all our luggage. We were so happy at this campsite in Montréjeau that we stayed there for a month, taking our time moving into our new home. And after we walked the Camino, we came back for another week! This time, we drove right by as, sadly, they did not open until March 1st. We implored them to let us stay early, but they weren’t having it, damn it.

When we stayed there originally we knew it was just a day trip to go visit Lourdes, which seemed like a “must-do” even for non-religious folks like ourselves. But the idea of all those people kept us away. Lourdes has five MILLION visitors per year, and there was just no way we were going to get caught up in that! But, fast forward a couple of years and throw in a global pandemic, and well, we changed our minds. Off to Lourdes we went, waving to our favorite little campsite as we flew past Montréjeau.

After getting set up, we went off on our bikes to see what we could see. Well, one thing we didn’t see were crowds. There were a few folks milling about, but not many. So we walked around and came upon the fountains of holy water. I had a little sip and splashed some on Steven. He said, “It burns! It burns!” Haha, ever the clown. Lourdes is a major spot for religious tourism and I know there is a lot to see there, but the buildings were mostly closed and there was not much going on. It was the same when we visited Fatima in Portugal, which in my estimation was much more impressive, in a gaudy, money-grabbing, jaw-dropping sort of way. So when we had seen enough, we headed home to eat dinner and prepare for the next day’s departure. One afternoon in Lourdes was enough for us.

Our next stop, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was a place where I was most looking forward to returning. Two years ago we arrived there to begin our walk on the Camino de Santiago. I had visited so many cute little shops where I could buy nothing, because I did not have room for it in my backpack and I surely did not want to carry it for 500 miles. This time, I still didn’t have room for anything in Bijou, but since I wasn’t walking, I figured I could throw something else out. LOL, that’s my goal, anyway. I did what I like to call a little “pre-birthday” shopping. My birthday is mid-March, so not too early. Here’s my haul:

In addition to shopping, we also revisited a few spots around town that are meaningful to us: the Airbnb where we stayed before we started our walk, the pilgrim office, the restaurants where we ate, all closed now, of course. We walked to the beginning of the Camino, but didn’t go any further. Part of me really wanted to take off up that hill, but we didn’t. I don’t know why. I guess once is enough, especially knowing that everything we looked forward to when we first started two years ago was no longer open and available to us. Maybe we just wanted to preserve our memories. Visiting the village, though, is different. It is one thing to experience it as a pilgrim, quite another to just be a tourist, both completely valid experiences. It was sad that we didn’t see a single pilgrim in the town, sad to hear from the shopkeepers that there haven’t been any for months, and sad that we didn’t hear the familiar “Buen Camino!” as we strolled through town.

There is a shop in town that almost all pilgrims visit to purchase last minute items. It was here Steven and I bought our hiking poles the day before we began our Camino journey. Because we would walk through village after village, it was recommended that we buy hearty rubber tips for the ends of our poles. “These will last you to Santiago!,” said the shopkeeper. They didn’t. But they did last a good long way, and I never could find another hearty pair like them. I ended up buying others that just lasted a few days. So when we walked into the shop, I was so happy to finally buy another thick pair of rubber tips for my poles! Given how much I use my poles these days, this new pair will likely last a lifetime!

We said goodbye to St. Jean and drove for just over an hour to another village in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Oloron-Sainte-Marie. We are currently settled into a lovely campground with a view of the mountains. All the services are available, so it’s a good place to stop for a while and catch up on chores. Plus, Steven is learning to make soda bread so with a dishwashing station, he can bake to his heart’s content. Can you believe an Irishman is just now learning to make soda bread? Better late than never, right?

UP NEXT: Dawdling through the Dordogne

…