A Trip to France

Each year we like to visit France for our main holiday in June. Here is what happened this year.

We got up on the Saturday morning nice and early; we had a flight to catch. The flight wasn't too early but it was our first time flying for a holiday and we were unsure of the procedure and so wanted to be there in good time for check in and security.

Come Fly with me

We had several different ways of getting to the airport like going by train or taxi. But, in the end, I decided to drive. This gave us a bit of independence. And as I was able to get a reasonable priced parking space for the week it was the best option.

We were limited with our baggage so had to be really careful not to go over the weight limit specified. The airline, although offering cheap flights, had a very strict policy and if you went over the weight limit they would charge you extra for each kilo excess. This was a worry but, as ever, we need not have worried; all was fine when we checked in.

When we parked there was a bus from the car park to the terminal. This seemed a long way from where we parked. The bus - a long Bendy Bus went all around going to all the different areas where people had parked.

Andrea was anxious. It was not helped by a lot of waiting around. But, after we had got through to "flight side", we made the best of it by buying breakfast of coffee and croissants.

We went through to another area where we could see the planes, there was still more waiting. While we where waiting there where quite a lot of people milling around with the same outfits on. Different groups with different outfits on. These, I found out, were cheerleaders going to a European competition in Denmark.

We had a call to go on board and were glad to have got some reasonable seats. People say in the budget airlines that there is not much leg room, but as far as we were concerned it was OK.

The flight was mostly uneventful. The stewards gave the usual safety talk. From time to time they would try and get you to buy things like duty free or food and drink. I, in the end, went for a little bit of pizza. It took ages to arrive but when it did it was piping hot.

I hadn't noticed that my hearing seemed to have diminished. This, I found out, is due to the pressure change in the aircraft. It helped if you swallowed but not completely. Andrea and Sarah-Jane had it worse though, they felt their ears hurting. It was especially bad, she told me, when we were descending. I am glad to say I didn't feel that but I did notice my nasal passages hurting a bit. As we hadn't experienced this kind of thing before so I tried to ask a steward. She surprisingly said "Sorry, what did you say? I can't hear you!" She was experiencing the same thing! I knew then there was nothing to be done but to put up with it.

We landed with a slight bump and slowly came to a stop. Everyone was clamouring to leave the aircraft, but I couldn't see the point of that. We were on holiday after all, so I took my time.

Perpignan airport wasn't very big with only a small terminal building. This was very different from the bustling airport of Stansted that we had left only two hours before. Two hours! It was a quick journey all things considered. When I was booking the holiday I was investigating the idea of going by train, this was expensive and we would have had to be on the train for over thirteen hours; flying was definitely the best option.

After retrieving our bags I went to the point where I was to sign for and collect the hire car. I was a bit nervous about driving on the right side of the road. Sarah-Jane was keen to help and do some driving herself, but, unfortunately, they would not allow her as she was under twenty five. So it was left to me. As a contingency plan Andrea signed as well but she said she was not going to drive unless there was a genuine emergency. So there it was a nice, fairly new and not too badly sized French car. I set up my navigation system and off we went. I was glad of it. When we were in France before, a couple of years ago, I got completely lost without it.

The trouble with driving on a different side of the road to the one you are used to, is you don't know where to look. The mirror is in the wrong place! The gear stick is in the wrong place! I took things slowly at first. Eventually, after a couple of days, I got used to it a bit more.

We arrived at the campsite. We had booked a caravan to stay in for the week and the rep cycled to show us where it was. I am glad to say it was very good, very clean, so much so, I actually thought it was new to us. I expressed this later to the reps and they were flattered I had thought they had done such a good job in preparation of our arrival.

Mediterranean dreaming

We couldn't wait to see the sea! So we left our bags half unpacked and headed off. As the campsite was next to the sea it was only a short walk across the site to the beach. The weather was pleasantly warm. There it was, the sea, lovely and blue. Although we could tell this would be a busy site in the height of summer, at his time of year there was hardly anyone about. Mostly what we saw that evening was two horses being ridden along the beach, a helicopter doing what looked like rescue practice, and two micro light aircraft fliers.

The sand was golden and Sarah-Jane was the first to run and dip her toe in to the sea. Andrea was busying herself taking lots of photographs. "Imagine", I said, "This sand may have come from volcanic eruptions like Vesuvius" (this is the volcano that had destroyed Pompeii). I think that was a bit lost on Sarah-Jane who really was only interested in enjoying the moment. The mountains, which were a backdrop to the beach, looked lovely in the late afternoon light. The air was still, and by now the helicopter had flown off having done what it had sort to do; all you could hear was the waves lapping the shore.

"Time to get back to the caravan and unpack", I said. The afternoon light was fading and we had jobs to do.

After unpacking we had a meal in the local campsite restaurant. This was quite a posh restaurant we discovered; on the menu were mussels and other specialty things like that.

Our main reason for going to this part of France was the hope in seeing some birds we had never seen before. The local or normal birds were very different to what we were used to. Nightingales sang, spotless starlings rummaged in the grass, and Hoopoes loafed about. We went to a few different places to see other birds and were not disappointed with what we saw. We felt very privileged to be able to catch a glimpse of them all.

The highlight of the week, for me anyway, was our visit too Spain. The border was very near to where we had camped and we wanted to visit the artist Salvador Dali's house. He very much adopted the town of Cadaques that was just across the border. We set off early and took a winding route along the coast past the now dilapidated border point and into Spain. We got to the house after a bit of a trudge through the town. We had parked in a car park in the edge of town and did not realise we had to up and over a hill to reach a little harbour that the artist had settled in. On the way we spoke to workmen laying new paving slabs. They were very friendly and jabbered their answer in French. With much patience and many gestures from them I finally gathered the direction I should take. Going down a steep hill that I found difficult to believe any vehicle could ever use; we found a tranquil bay with many fishing boats gently bobbing on the water.

The house seemed to be the only house there. We found out it hadn’t started that way. Over time Salvador Dali had bought up the various houses in the bay as he got richer and more and more eccentric.

We were taken round to the various rooms all filled with amazing things. One had a ceramic snail and in another a life sized stuffed bear. In his studio there was even an original piece of half completed art still there. I have always been a fan of his and have always enjoyed his work. He belonged to the Surrealist art movement and so some found his paintings and sculptures strange and difficult. This was not so for me. I am an emotional sort of guy and suppose that because he painted emotionally his art spoke to me.

We returned home via the same wiggly winding route. This was unintentional but it did give us a chance to see the fantastic coastal scenery again.

Normally, Andrea and I are not what you would call “Beach Bums”, but we decided as we had such a lovely beach and lovely sea we would spend Thursday on the beach. We walked from the campsite and found a nice spot. The sun was strong but it wasn’t too hot. I had brought a sun parasol that was supplied buy the holiday company. It turned out to be a prudent idea as the beach offered no protection from the sun. After swimming in the sea with Sarah-Jane I settled down to have a bit of a sleep. I started with the shadow of the parasol protecting me, but I had not allowed for the fact that the sun would move and so after a while I was well asleep in the full glare of the sun. I woke up feeling quite hot and unfortunately, quite badly sun burned. It took two days for the sunburn to diminish; I was very red and very sore.

On one evening we found in the local resort had a fantastic market of crafts and gifts. Andrea and I were surprised to find out we had plenty of time to look around as it would not close until 12 midnight.

By now the holiday was fast coming to an end. We had had such a great time and, as always seems to be the way, the week definitely seemed never to be long enough. We cleaned the caravan on Friday evening and got ready for our trip home the next day.

All was packed and so off we went to catch the flight.

The return flight seemed better than the one coming. Andrea did experience so much the problems with her ears. I was able to get a window seat and spent a lot of the time watch the clouds.

Nearing the end of the flight and when we started to descend, I was delighted to see some of the recognisable parts of London. The first thing I recognised was Wimbledon. Not long after there was Tower Bridge! The shape of the River Thames could clearly be seen as well. This showed we were not far from landing.

Having landed we caught the bus that took us to the place we had parked a week before. I had not realised how far the car was.

I had done all the driving whilst in France so I asked Andrea to drive home. I sat in the back and read the paper. Because of this I did not notice how Andrea was having to deal with very heavy rain and thunder and lightning. She told me later that she was compelled to drive at a crawl some of the time. God is always faithful and all was well and we all got home safely.

So there we were our holiday to France.