2025 September: Gaillac to Laroque-Les-Alberes

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We are now on the Camping-Car Park site at Gaillac; I am awoken just after midnight by the sudden noisy spattering and then pelting of rain on the roof of Hymer… its becoming a regular feature of this trip!

Now wide awake I hear thunder too and the blue-white flash of lightning from between the crack in the window and blind. I open the roof blind and mentally check that I did close all the roof windows (I did). The rain comes down in torrents, the thunder gets louder and the blue-white flashes are so brilliant I close the roof blind. On and on it goes and I wonder if we will have floated away down the River Tarn by morning, like Noah lifting the blind and seeing a watery world outside. I don’t know as I must have drifted off to sleep. When I wake it is morning we haven’t floated away, there is no sight or sound of rain just a very heavy grey overcast sky and huge puddles outside where pigeons are bathing.

Up and breakfast and then we service Hymer, filling with drinking water and emptying the other tanks. We call at Marie Blachère boulangerie where they have a wonderful selection (and smells) of freshly cooked bread. Mr C. buys baguettes and we get on our way, first leaving Gaillac by D968 ring road and then onto A68 paeage south to Toulouse. Here, at a very large motorway interchange we take A62/A61 southeast towards Narbonne. Stopping at Aire de Toulouse Sud we have lunch and a welcome break from the driving. Changing drivers, Mr C. takes over and drives all the way to Carcassonne where we have a short break at the lovely Aire Vinci (with great views over the medieval cité of Carcassonne) and onto Narbonne where we turn south on A9. South along the A9 (still paege) with great views of the Mediterranean coast and inland salt lakes on the left, passing Sigean, Fitou, Rivesaltes and Perpignan.

Once on A9, the landscape changes quite quickly from rural farming of cattle and crops of sunflower and maize, to dry rocky scrub only supporting white or coastal pines, olive trees and vines: row upon row of vines with evidence of the vintner harvesting the grapes. We leave A61 paege (cost €37.50) at Le Boulou and take A900 west towards Ceret and find Camping de la Vallée in the foothills of the Albères mountains. The photos (and price) online must be several years old, it is not €15 but almost €30 (photo below), while it has a nice-looking swimming pool, it has very small dirt pitches rammed full of motorhomes, caravans and cars parked all over the place. We do not stay. Retracing our tracks to Le Boulou on D618 through St Genis des Fountaines and turning south on D2 to the village of Laroque des Albères. The Camping-Car Park Aire is located down a narrow road behind the tennis courts.

We see the barrier and green entry pillars and pull forward onto the entry area. Mr C. enters the C-CP App code and nothing happens (the barrier should rise). He tries again… nothing. A Frenchman who speaks good English comes over and explains that the barrier isn’t working, we need to phone the telephone number on the board and they will give us a code to enter. Mr C. phones and, as in England, we are in a queue… we wait about 10-12 minutes and finally an operator answer (in French). Mr C. explains the problem, en francais, she gives him the code, he enters the new code and voila! The barrier raises and we drive in and find a level pitch under trees on the perimeter, it is a quiet and well-shaded Aire, we park up. We are in, but it has taken a long time to get in. This illustrates one of the disadvantages of the Camping-Car Park network of sites; the sites rely on internet access and associated technology to work. We discovered later that the internet connection was not working and that was the reason for the access problem, the equipment at the gate needs to communicate with the central booking system to be able to verify the number we entered and charge us.

The Aire is circular with pitches arranged aerially around the perimeter and a parking circle in the middle. Pitches are large, demarcated by logs laid in the ground (no hedges) and there are large, mature pine trees giving plenty of shade in the circular middle area. There is a water, a good emptying service point by the barrier and each of the 25 pitches has access to a hook-up post. It is €16.40/night (sept 2025), mostly level, quiet and about 400 metres from the village centre. We are very happy that we moved on from the not-very-nice campsite. I put beefburgers and vegetables on to cook slowly, and we open a bottle of Pinot Noir wine from Super-U, not the best but it tastes very good to us as we drink it while eating hummus and thinly-sliced baguette.

It is getting dark by the time we have eaten, there are now eleven motorhomes here (tents and caravans not allowed), all is very quiet, folk are sat out, reading, chatting and NO televisions! Bliss.