Here we are in what we consider to be one of the greatest cities in Europe - Barcelona. Even though both of us have been here many times before we still love it & today have walked our feet off visiting a few of our favourite spots.

Nearly 16k steps later we have seen the ever growing Sagrada Família (looking better every time we see it), the Rambla and the gothic old town & then walked back here to Port Olympic & the boat. We had fantastic tapas lunch in our favourite bar right at the top of the Rambla.

Our crossing yesterday of 112 nm (the longest we have ever done) was smooth and incident free. We saw the largest pod of 50 or more dolphins but not a lot else. We travelled much faster than usual doing 18 knots rather than our usual 8 so it took us 6 hours.

Tomorrow we head up the Costa Brava to Palamos. Only 2 nights left of our Spanish adventure in VA which has taken us along the whole north coast, the west coast, the south coast and then east coast & Balearics - what an amazing experience it has been. This week we head back to France and for Us both the opportunity to explore a coast we hardly know at all - more fun to come.

A hop up the coast from Barcelona to Palamos today with the main excitement seeing a tuna leap out several times but other than some nice coastline north of Lloret de Mar not much else.

We are only staying here one night because I know this area well & we think we should get into France in case of any lockdowns here or if France closes the border so tomorrow we will cross the border.

Bonjour France, adios Spain.

We made it to the South of France😀, we have officially finished cruising around the Spanish coast. Our biggest challenge now is to switch from speaking Spanish (which we have been using for 7 weeks) back to French - si/oui or gracias or \240merci - it’s all a bit tricky at the moment 🤪.

We have now completed over 600 nm & enjoyed 16 stops this year.

The journey here from Palamos was lovely, beautiful coast scapes through the foothills of the Pyrénées. We saw several dolphin pods & finally have photographic evidence that actually proves this. We saw leaping tuna and even a flying fish. We also passed the Costa Brava village of Tamariu where my Dad & Jo used to own a villa bringing back lots of lovely memories of holidays spent there when I was younger.

Port-Vendres where we are currently berthed is a proper working port in a prettyish village, probably successful because it is very close (5k) to Collioure which is a gorgeously beautiful coastal town made famous by well known artists (Matisse, Derain) \240in the early 19th century. This area is known as the Cote Vermeille - named for the colour of the rocks at sunrise & sunset. It is a very beautiful landscape of small coastal villages & green hills behind covered with vineyards.

Today we cycled to Collioure & spent several hours wondering around the small lanes filled with nice shops & as well as scouring the weekly market for tasty things. We also went into the royal castle and admired the views from the ramparts - it was built in the 12th century so quite impressive.

Collioure was incredibly busy but everyone was dutifully wearing their masks although social distancing was pretty much non existent here. Back in Port-Vendres masks are more aux chois apparently & even the local police are not wearing them!!

So we are now well into the French south coast after moving from Port-Vendres to Gruissan on Friday.

Our last day in Port-Vendres we spent in the lovely town of Banyuls-sur-Mer, home of sculptor Maillol, whose most famous works can be seen in Paris. We did the Maillol art walk which was very pretty, we did the lovely street market & we did a lovely lunch with delicious Banyuls-sur-Mer rose wine (so good we bought a case for the boat plus two dessert wines - which we had to carry home then on the train).

Our journey here to Gruissan was choppy, windy & uncomfortable but not too scary. Surprisingly in the marina we have a hammer head mooring so back to side on (just like the Atlantic Marina’s). It’s a big marina & on first viewing of the local area we judged it to be a bit of a shit hole & to be fair the marina area is pretty awful. However the old village of Gruissan and the surrounding area is really lovely so more than made up for the port.

Day 1 here on our bikes we found the market, the Halle des Peche (where we bought 2 loup de Mer - sea bass). In the afternoon we cycled out along the coast to the salines (salt flats) and then through beautiful vineyards & hills and finally around the Etang Gruissan (lake) all very picturesque.

Day 2 we cycled back to the salines for a lovely fruit de mer Sunday lunch in the prettiest place where they grow & harvest their own oysters - delicious.

Today our last day here we took the bus (at great expense - €2.40 for 2) to Narbonne & then slightly more expensive train to Carcassonne (the 2nd most visited city in France after Paris). It is impressive but to be honest a bit Disney because although the original walled citadel was built in the 12th century, the one that is there now is mostly from late 18th/early 19th century as a massive restoration following several burning downs of the original. The inner city is now filled with what we call Tatarias (lots of shops that sell tourist tat) and over priced bad restaurants. We did the tour of the castle & ramparts and made a hasty exit back to the old town outside the citadel for lunch and then back to the more honest city of Narbonne that actually has old buildings and roman ruins. All in all it’s been a fabulous day and we have walked our socks off & seen a bit more of the area.

Tomorrow we head onwards and slightly upwards to Sete. Only 34 nautical miles & the forecast is looking good.

What can I say about Sete other than now we have been we don’t need to come again. It’s a bit like a jaded English seaside town with a fabulous market hall & street market, some nice beaches & not much else.

We tried a cycle ride described by the tourist information booklet as a lovely ride around the lake (Lake de Thau) to a pretty lakeside village. After 4 miles of industrial estates and a very busy dual carriageway we found the village on the lake which was more of a holiday camp than a pretty lakeside cycle ride. We had a Citron presse & cycled back. We did have a lovely meal in one of the canal side restaurants close to the fishing port. There are loads of restaurants here but they mostly have the same menu, this one had some different stuff we had never seen before so it caught our eye. My starter of artichoke & hazelnut salad was delicious, Andrews main of red mullet Mille feuielle was melt in the mouth & the local wine we had with it just perfect.

Today we cycled to the beach and I had a swim. The sea here is so much cooler than the Balearics, hence it just being me swimming because Andrew will only go in if it’s over 25 degrees but it was nice & refreshing & my first swim on the French south coast.

Today we were also boarded by French customs (Andrew was having his hair cut so I had to deal with them). They asked if we had anything to declare - no! Did we hold large sums of cash on board - no! Did we have a safe onboard - yes! They asked to see the safe & for me to open it, with Andrew gone I was suddenly worried that he might have stashed a load of cash in it without telling me 😱 but luckily no it was empty 🤪. I had to phone Andrew to get the number to open the safe! Anyway after about 20 minutes and quite a few questions they seemed satisfied we weren’t smugglers, drug dealers or criminals! They were very polite & even said what a lovely boat we have, I told them that it was French designed & built of course.

Tomorrow we head onwards to the Camargue region. We then need to make a decision whether to skip Marseille entirely due to its massive increase in Covid numbers and a high chance of a local lockdown. A real shame but we don’t want to get stuck there.

Wow - it’s Sept already !!

Our wonderful time in the Camargue region is coming to an end. We actually stayed an extra day because the Mistral wind is still blowing a hoolie and the sea is a bit choppy but hopefully tomorrow all that changes and the wind drops & the sea is calm.

Back to the Camargue though.... an area unlike any we’ve really seen before. Wild marshlands and rivers (petit Rhône) and amazing sand dunes and beaches - all very ecologically rich. We are berthed here in Port Gardian in Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer which is pretty little seaside village with more restaurants than houses & despite being a little touristy is quite quaint. From here we have been to Nîmes & Aigues-Mort. Nîmes being a lovely city with Roman arena, temples & towers & winding back streets through an old town. Aigues-Mortes is a medieval town completely within huge walls full of very pretty little streets but very touristique because of this. We spent an exhausting day exploring both & below you can see some of the photos.

We have also cycled. First to the Parc Ornithologique where we saw amazing birds & wildlife, indulging the twitcher in me. It was fabulous, lots of flamingoes, herons, egrets (little & large), swans, ducks etc but we also saw amazing kingfishers, a cuckoo, an avocet, dippers, black swans, coypu & Camargue horses. I was in my element. Most of the good photos are by Andrew because he is better at it than me.

Today we cycled along the dunes into the regional Parc for a different perspective. Wild beaches & lakes and a completely different landscape to any we see at home. This pm we even took a boat trip (not in VA) up the Petit Rhône to see another perspective of this vast marshland area. We saw beeeaters, lots more herons, egrets, black Camargue cattle & more Camargue horses. It’s been a lovely experience.

Obviously I can’t write a blog without mentioning food 😋. We went to the weekly market & bought what can only be described as stuffed piglet, clearly stuffed with its entire bits that had been chopped up & cooked (see picture below). For me it was a bit too piggy, chewy bits that I couldn’t quite put my finger on although it tasted mostly ok, the texture was not good.. More Andrews thing than mine. We also bought a local delicacy called Tellines, very small clams which to be honest are a lot of effort to eat for a morsel but in a deliciously garlic sauce. We continue to seek out the markets wherever we go here in France because they are always amazing & always throw up something we have never seen or tried before.

Tomorrow we are off to La Ciotat, we are by-passing Marseilles sadly because Covid is rife there.

We are here but the next blog isn’t - it will be in the new chapter Cote d’Azure & beyond.

Part 4

The Cote dAzure to current location