We’re off to Spain tomorrow – decisions about where to go – lots of poring over maps – calculating distances and finding campsites open – decision made – tomorrow, campsite just south of Barcelona – it’s about 250 miles away – see how that goes, then perhaps move further down the coast around Valencia…I’ve always wanted to see Barcelona – lots of World heritage sites and fascinating architecture…and tapas!
As you may know, we had planned on going to Italy – Sicily in fact…but looking at the weather, and the distance, we’ve decided that Spain for now will suit us fine – who knows, we may even decide to go on round to Portugal 
The weather here has been weird – even the campsite owners say its unusual to be cold now – Pascal is even predicting snow tomorrow! The blue skies and sun are deceptive as the wind takes any hint of warmth away – sitting in a café in a sunny window is hot and fools you into thinking it’s warm – until you step outside…
The past couple of days have been spent sightseeing around Béziers – we took the bus into town and went to the covered market where we bought a ‘poulét de roti’ (a deboned chicken all trussed up with string and ready to roast) and veg to go with it – the princely sum of €1.40 for broccoli and beans – the chicken was slightly more at €15.00 but will do at least 3 meals…
Sue cooking up a storm…
Andrew ready to eat…
Not bad for a trussed up chicken!
The market is in a beautiful old building near the main square in Béziers – and even though its winter, they still had meat (of all descriptions – even a separate horsemeat butcher – the meat there was very red and grainy) poultry – one of the biggest turkey drumsticks I’ve ever seen – the owner must have been a monster – plus fish and oysters, lots of moulés…and all the fresh fruit and veg you could imagine…cheese, jams and honey, sweet pastries and lots of yummy things…
So colourful….
Lots of meat of all descriptions…
The Market in Béziers…
The butcher fascinated us the most – along with chickens (?) and additional assorted feathered creatures trussed up complete with heads, there was the biggest assortment of offal – including lungs, hearts and lots of tripe…also veal in all forms – I almost went for a veal fillet but need to look up a decent recipe first!
Walking back through the centre, we went past the posh shops – lots of designer gear and a huge optician – every conceivable type of designer glasses available…
The main centre avenue in Béziers is a wide open space lined with beautiful old trees – we chose the right day to go in as there were flower sellers there too – beautifully coloured spring primulas and pansies, yellow mimosa, cyclamens by the dozen and daffodils too – with all sorts of greenery – a splash of wild colour…even lemon and orange trees for sale! None of them cheap by any means though. Further on down was another fruit and veg seller – with this beauty – a ‘Romanesco Provence’ – by coincidence, this weird veg had featured on a TV programme about Italy which we’d seen in the UK – and it has a pattern which resembles the ‘Fibonacci sequence’ – for those of you who are interested, look up Fibonacci spirals in nature on Google…
The Avenue…
Flowers!
Lemon and orange trees…
Trees…
Weird veg….
Pretty though…
A wander through the streets and a big park before we headed back to the bus stop – not the main bus station, but on the road out of town – we did walk a long way!
More balconies…
Old buildings and balconies…
The old bridge into Béziers
As we’d decided on Spain, we also discovered we need an ‘extra’ for Woody – all ‘longo vehiculo’ in Spain over 12m have to have special reflective rectangles (aluminium) on the back – so we started our hunt to buy them – began in a store where I had yet another chance to practice my French as chap didn’t speak a word of English! And – success! Not only did he understand me, but proceeded to haul out a huge catalogue to show us what he had – exactly right – if we’d been a truck – as they were plastic…never mind, at least I had some more French to try out the at the next place!
Back home for lunch and regroup (no point going out at lunchtime – all little shops shut remember?!) I did a search on the Internet to see if there were any caravan supply places around – found addresses for 3 on the road out to Adge so off we went. The first place was a ‘camping car’ dealer – no luck – but he did point us to a camping car accessories place – which only had the red & white squares for a bike rack – argh! The accessories place was on a big shopping estate so while Andrew went into BricoMan (yet another type of toolie place – BricoMarché/BricoDepot/BricoMan – all ‘bricolage’ = hardware! Like a kid in a candy store! I left him to it and went to investigate Carréfor – and found a vacuum cleaner for Woody…
Back in Buzz, I thought maybe Snoop would be clever enough to find a caravan supplier in his database…so programmed in a ‘centre Mobile’ – not knowing what on earth we’d find but hey – we had to try! Wound up at the weirdest place on top of a hill on the outskirts of a village – where caravans and mobile homes go to die – it was a scrap yard for caravans! Gate firmly shut with a guard dog barking it’s head off – eventually, some bod wandered over (NO chance he would speak English so I didn’t bother asking!!) but no luck – even though I’m sure they would salvage stuff from all the old scrap lying around, it was evident that none of those old heaps made it to Spain! Last chance – on the way back, we pulled into a small garage just outside Béziers , where Andrew went to speak to the bod he’d seen as we drove past – he gave us directions to a truck supplies place on the way back to Colombiers. Once again, chap = no English…again, pulled out big catalogue – by which time we thought we would have a repeat of the morning’s experience – but no – he had aluminium ones! Sorted! Woody is now the proud owner of 2 yellow and red reflective panels on his rear end…and again, Andrew had all the tools for the job…
While Andrew was drilling holes in Woody, I thought I’d better learn how to empty all the tanks we have onboard…started with the galley – the tote Andrew bought takes 45 litres…have you any idea how heavy that is?! But, I did it – emptied not only the 2 grey tanks – galley and shower, but did the black tank too…hard work, but I figured I need to know how it all works in case some day “I have to” Once again, it brought home just how much water we use and dispose of – usually without a second thought – just turn on a tap, use and it runs away to who knows where…. not when you have to fill and empty tanks though!
There is a promise of spring all around here – the trees are just starting to come into leaf, and some are already blossoming…I brought an old friend with me from Kingsway – actually, I had her sin Hereford, so she’s been carted around a bit – Andrew will be the first to tell you that she’s been badly neglected and ignored – but, Twiggy and I have an understanding – I do look after her, but also shy away from doing too much pruning and only when I’m seriously nagged, do I give her a haircut…she’s enjoying her spot in the sun on our table and has put out new leaves pretty much every day since we’ve been here…a real miracle of nature…
Meet Twiggy
Á bientôt (not sure what the Spanish is for ‘see you later’ – will have to learn!)
Tagged: Barcelona, Beziers, travel
