I'm writing this sat opposite a bit of the Canal du Midi, East of Carcassonne, in the South East of France. We're on day 3 of a 22-day road trip East, North and then back West again.
After spending a couple weeks down on the South Landes coast, we decided we'd had enough doing-nowt-but-surfing-and-baking-cakes and opted for a bit of adventure (also influenced by a certain gale-force onshore wind that was wrecking the surf). We did get a couple of decent surfs at St Girons Plage though these were bone-crunchingly dumpy waves which, if you were lucky and able to tuck in tightly and quickly enough, you'd get a 3-second ride before being sucked down and bounced off the sandy bottom.
It feels good to be moving on again and seeing some new stuff; the Landes coast is totally awesome but it's very big and very samey after a few weeks; everything starts to look the same and you need a new buzz; the forests are all the same and the beaches are all very big and prone to blustery conditions (not complaining, just saying...). When you're in one place you start to pick up on a lot of consistencies and here are a few we've noted:
All the old biddies appear to be fitter than I am; they ride about on their old, small bicycles in their old frocks, saddle-bags full of groceries, making long round-trips to the out-of-town supermarkets; no bus passes here, for Public Transport is nowhere to be seen. And this is the reason why all the old ladies ride around on bicycles and all the teenagers scream around the place on ultra-noisy-like-brain-rattlingly-so mopeds - I can only presume that their helmets have ultra-heavy-duty ear protectors fitted into them, or maybe they all get deaf or stupefied by the time they're 25 and that's why all the pop music's so bad here? And maybe that's the reason for the final observation we've made (of those which currently come to mind) which is that the young men aren't very nice to their dogs; we've seen countless red-faced fellas attempting to put some discipline into their poor mutts by delivering shocking rib-punches the likes of which would bruise you or I a lot, nevermind the poor pooch, the bastards!
So being back on the road is fresh and new and jolts the brain a bit more than lounging around on the beach does (I miss it already). Pepped up by this, I've come up with the following get-rich-quick schemes for when we return to normal life:
1. Open up a Chippy which does both normal Chips and also Seasoned Chips too! Anyone who makes their own chips (baked is best) and has thrown some suitably spicy and savoury (not sweet; cinnamon would be shit) seasoning will know the awesome assault of the tastebuds that results. You could have a series of trays with various seasonings in them and give people the choice, throwing the plain ones, straight from the fryer, into the seasoned pan of choice, and then into the paper bag; awesome!
2. Design and build friendly-looking Campervans; the amount of favours, free bottles of wines, chats, free parking tickets, etc. we've had as a result of people liking our 'pretty little car' has been awesome! I'd like to convert old Renault Trafic vans into campers; those things are awesome; they look like they're made of Lego bricks and all the engine gubbins, etc. is right in the front so there's heaps of headroom in the rest of the vehicle; awesome
On the way across the South we spent a day in Toulouse. This experience was way cooler than the one we had there 2 years ago when, straight after arriving at our Hotel, we witnessed a stabbing and then our evening jaunt was cut short by teams of gnarly looking dudes all giving me and Mick scary looks; we ate Kebabs and Chips in our Hotel room!
This time, we arrived on a Sunday and the market was in session; approx half a mile of fruit stalls and other delicious stuff; I might go there one day when I haven't eaten for days, with a roll of cash in my pocket! We wandered around and found the old part of the City which is full of character and awesome old-skool typography. We looked around in a couple of Gothic Churches which, with all their medieval bling and decoration were, to me, more like wandering around some MTV star's Crib than a potentially spiritual experience. That said, one did stand out to me (I can't remember the name of it, got a leaflet somewhere...) which was more like it once was Bling but is now just a carcass. It's a big temple-style building (no inner walls) with recesses going all around the sides and in these recesses, various displays have been set up with less-than-considered taste. It's almost as if this was one-too-many churches to bother furnishing and noone knows what to do with it except put in some old tattered paintings, a few stage lights and a couple of those Tourist-trapping coin memorabilia things (put €2 in, get an old replica coin out).
It was cool to be back in a City; we found a nice little Tea House which served up big wine-bottle-sized bottles of Cider for €6 and you could sit outside and get baked in the sun (sheltered from the winds in those little streets). We also visited the Cinema; living in a van has made me realise how much I love movies, etc.; we saw 'The Good Shepherd' which filled it's requirement (as far as we were concerned) of being a big, well-produced-Hollywood-style flick though afterwards I did wonder what it was about if not just one big tragic story about some American spy?
Tomorrow lunchtime we'll arrive on the East coast and it would be awesome to find some surf there (it does happen, up around Marseille), but if not we'll leg it on to Nice and then all the way up to Mont Blanc, before heading back West across the country through the 'Central Massif' which looks rather awesome but like hard work for poor little Buddy.
Spice of the week is Cinnamon: Add it to Pancake batter or season some sugary, hot milk with it (excellent if you can't sleep and you're camped up in the middle of nowhere next to a gusty, spooky Lake and you've got no wine to get you to sleep) to help you nod off. Kitty's just baking some Butter Cookies with it in too; I'll keep you posted. The other benefit of this one is, if you spill it all over the van and yourself, it doesn't matter 'cos it smells sweeeet!
-17 °C
I was treated to a little insight into life with Kate , Boo and the monkeys in their little Buddy van for 10 days. I brought a bargain Tent for £7 , risked the flu on Ryian Air , hiked across London with my 7ft board 'Matilda' and 'Serious Concerns' by Wendy Cope as my only companion after completing a grueling 4 night shifts in a row. Kate and Boo had 'serious concerns' about me when i arrived and compared myself to a very depressing poem ......so they fed me lentils, rice,onions, garlic,French bread, Cheese and Rum and Coke and who can forget the porridge and apricots and introduced me to their worlds...... and Wendy....., you know where you can shove your Serious Concerns!!!
