2018-09-12 Ste Eulalie de Cernon to Chateau Moyau

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Ste Eulalie de Cernon to Chateau Moyau

Ste Eulalie de Cernon to Chateau Moyau

There are showers at this aire so we make use of them, breakfast and watch most of our fellow campers leave (including the interfering German!). We walk into the walled village of Sainte Eulalie to look for the guitar-playing blacksmith but do not find him. This is the Circuit de Templars-Hospitaliers and Ste Eulalie was one of the biggest/richest of the walled cities in the area. It costs €4 each to enter, with a guide book in English. The self-guided tour takes us about one and a half hours for  the Eglise and Fort of the Commanderie. There is fascinating history here of a whole life lived in the 12th and 13th Centuries, the restoration of frescos, the great hall, monks’ dormitory and stone mullions buildings is quite something.

We wander through the walled village, now filling with tourists and then make our way back to the camp site and have lunch. We leave about 2.00pm and head south on the A75 through the Haut Languedoc mountains. We drive over a high plateau at around 770m altitude to Lodève and then drop down by 350m though spectacular gorges of the Naucelles. The road weaves its way through tunnels and steep downhill sections, so steep and bendy they are limited to 30mph in places. We pass into Haute Aude and leave the A75 at Beziers where the climate is totally different, hot, dry and Mediterranean.

We make our way along the coast towards Narbonne but find that the Aire at St Pierre sur Mer (where we stayed in April) was totally full (60 places). In fact, it was packed end to end with maybe more than 60 motor homes! When we were here in April there may have been 15! Disappointed we turn around and head for Gruissan, about 10km further south. As we pass Domaine Moyau winery (the purpose of our visit to the Narbonne) we have a brainwave… we should call now to taste and purchase more of their wine (we were here in April) and maybe we can stay overnight in their car park. We do this, buy €300 of red wine: Sauvage, Enfin and 1792 and stay overnight on their car park. We reflect that we are at Narbonne in the south east corner of France and this is only our seventh day away from home.

Our trek through France and Northern Spain

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Summary of motorhome journey through France and Northern Spain