2024 September: France and Spain – Caveau Morin Langaran to Camping Montagut
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The Caveau Morin Langaran opens at 9.30am (and we do not want sample wine at that time) so we are on the road south by 8.30am.
Taking the D18E/D18 we head south through Pomerols to Florensac. These are small wine growing/production communities, the tractors and trailers already out to collect the grapes, mostly red around here.
Onto A9 (paege) a fast, and busy three-lane motorway stopping at Aire de Beziers for coffee and to change drivers. The road is busy past Narbonne with its cathedral and chateau gleaming creamy-white in the morning sun, and south to Perpignan where we lose most of the traffic. On to Le Perthus just before the Spanish border where the toll booths sit across the A9 for those leaving France and entering Spain.
It cost €35.20 to cover 143 km but took less than half the time than on non-paege roads. We cross the border into Spain seamlessly, the old border crossing still there but abandoned and unused. On the E15 (same road different number) we stop at La Jonquera, the first service station and have lunch. It is pleasantly hot again, about 27°C and we spend a little time looking for filling stations that sell Autogas. As we leave the service area we pass the Autogas filling point (!! and wonder why Google didn’t identify it).
On our way south on E15 to Vilamorel where we turn north on N260 towards the mountains and Montagut Camping. We last stayed here in September 2018 when we were parked up on one of the terraces and entertained by the three families camping in total chaos in front of us (later they were asked to leave). In 2018 Camping Montagut cost €17/night, today Camping Montagut cost €29/night! We park on pitch 44 (below the terraces) but have a level and well shaded spot near the toilet/shower block.
We settle in, eyeing our neighbour’s pitch opposite dubiously. They are out for the afternoon but the whole pitch is cluttered with awning, barbeque, hammock, bags of ‘stuff’ and definitely no room for a car! We set up anyway and relax in the warm afternoon sunshine. Not many here, no one in the pool, but quiet and well supplied with services as we remembered. Our neighbours return, four of them (Spanish speaking Dutch) their actions and behaviours as chaotic as their pitch and they never stop talking!! We decide we’ll cope. After a totally relaxing afternoon we open a bottle of Aldi’s Gewürztraminer… delicious and only €5.99. We sit late in the evening playing bananagrams.
We are woken sometime after 1.00am by the tell-tale whine of a mosquito. I can’t settle as I know it is there somewhere and probably hungry, if not already dined on one of us! I wake Mr C. (he who sleeps like the dead) who is immediately wide awake when I mention the word ‘mosquito’!
We sit with the small light on and wait (our Canadian experience so very useful) and sure enough it lands on the wall next to the bedding. It gets an almighty thwack from me, enough to smash it to smithereens. It’s bloody corpse enough to tell us that it has dined and dined well…. I remove the corpse and we inspect our bodies, nothing evident yet but the morning will tell us who got the unlucky strike… I suspect it was me as I heard the whine. At least it wasn’t a tiger mosquito. It takes a while to settle after our nocturnal adventures but eventually we drift into a deep and dreamless sleep in a land where there are no mosquitos! In the morning we see that I was the unlucky victim who has the tell-tale sign of the nocturnal walkabout, a line of three bites on the soft white fleshy parts above my elbow.
We sleep late, well after eight (middle of the day for us) but make the most of a slow and restful morning. Our neighbours start their inane chatter immediately on emerging onto their shoe, mug and litter cluttered space under their awning. We take advantage of the shower, lots of hot flowing water and after breakfast put a load of washing into the machine: €5 for a cool wash and €4 for a dry. Towels, bedding, clothes… it all fits in the large commercial drum and takes 51 minutes to wash. I remove it and hang it on one of the rows of washing lines behind the shower block in the full sunshine (who needs electricity when the sun is so hot)!
After lunch we rest, read, write and paint (Mr C.), the washing is bone dry so the bed is made with fresh and clean sheets, sun-dried towels hung in the bathroom and the clothes folded and filling the shelves again in the wardrobe. Where has the day gone, so restful and relaxing here even with the entertaining neighbours and their endless chatter! After tea we out until after sunset enjoying the cool of the evening, we plan the next few days… to stay another day or move on. We decide to wait till the morning.
We go to bed while our three neighbours are still sat outside drinking chatting and laughing. Of course after a day of drinking beer the volume is steadily increases. By 11.20pm it is very loud, I pull on some clothes and open the door (I note the woman has gone to bed leaving just the two men). I ask them politely if they could keep the noise down as it is nearly 11.30, they sit there and give me a sullen look… and, despite saying ‘Yes’ I know they are going to ignore me. I am right, the volume is somewhat reduced but by 11.45 they are still laughing and chatting as if its early evening.
I go again and ask them please to keep the noise down. I am met by a tirade of shouting, effing and blinding. I point out it is nearly midnight and some of us would like to sleep. The chatterbox (who has never stopped talking all day) gets out of his chair, menacing and threatening and moves towards me saying something along the lines of ‘you are going to regret this’. His friend gets up as if to restrain him and says ‘No’. I stand my ground waiting… I am not sure for what, but if he clobbers me I’ll have him for assault.
He’s a big man and a bully and like all bullies he’s not sure what to do when I stand my ground. He backs off and says there’s no law against talking and he’ll go to bed at midnight! What to do… but go back in and wait. He goes to bed at 00.15am.
Photos from – Caveau Morin Langaran to Camping Montagut
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