Author: Franco

Catcher ‘n’ the Fly

[A literary pun? Whatever next?] When enjoying a sunny evening’s BBQ outside Guillaume, we have been a little bothered by small flies/gnats, which insist on gathering in a swirling bait ball over ones head. Actually, it’s Franco’s less than hirsute

Posted in 2014 France

Francine’s Summer Solstice

The French have a traditional way of celebrating the summer solstice; the whole country joins in staging a fête de la musique, in which very varied types of musical entertainment break out all around the streets in cities, towns and

Posted in 2014 France

Nightingaled Awake

I am very pleased to say that last night we were lulled to sleep by a satisfying chorus of croaking frogs in the Fanjeaux lake. Clearly senior (erstwhile) farmer Marcel has not managed to manges tous les grenouilles. A couple

Posted in 2014 France

Chez les Brebis

Shunning the autoroutes favoured by Sally Satnav, we dragged Guillaume the 150kms across country from the eastern Pyrenees to Fanjeaux, just north of Mirepoix. We’d booked a lakeside pitch from the coming Friday but were arriving four days earlier than

Posted in 2014 France

Welcome to the Tramontane

It’s good to have a reason to go and investigate pastures new. I have an e-friend (i.e. met over the Internet), a fellow dragonfly enthusiast, who has a holiday home down at the Eastern end of the Pyrenees. His latest

Posted in 2014 France

Tired of the Tramontane

The day we arrived at Llauro in the eastern Pyrenees was, we thought, pretty darn windy. That, it seems, was just the Tramontane flexing it muscles and warming up. For the last two days, the Tramontane has been up to

Posted in 2014 France

Arthur or Martha?

At our continuing-to-be-practically-full ACSI campsite near Mèze, we had a recent interesting new arrival. A lone traveller pulled into the pitch behind us driving a Spanish registered McLouis brand motor van,. An apparent lady got out and started setting up.

Posted in 2014 France

Bird Wars

Now look, don’t get me wrong, I love birds, as those who know we would freely admit. yesterday morning, however, they were having a laugh. The first assault was mounted yesterday when a small bird, possibly one of our surrounding

Posted in 2014 France

Surrounded by Serins

“It feels good to be on the road again,” muttered Francine as we drove out of Maussane-les-Alpilles. We’ve done something rather out of character for us on our nest stop and it’s proved quite interesting. We’ve returned to an area

Posted in 2014 France

Making our Next Move

In the words of Francine, “we’ve become tired of staring at our unresponsive ‘Hi-Ho Silver-Haired-Cloggy-Away Dutch neighbours” – the ones with the caravan that is so badly loaded it rears up like a stallion when you slam the brakes on

Posted in 2013 Spain