Narbonne, France

After a fabulous time in Port Grimaud we decided to make some progress toward Spain were we are booked in for the winter. This site http://www.campinglanautique.com/index.php?lang=en was a convenient place to stop for a few days. It was right on L'etang De Gages and close to Narbonne.

The access to the site was OK and as we crawled along to our allocated pitch a young boy out on his bike followed us dangerously close at times. He  appeared unconcerned about my polite warnings to stay clear of the RV and trailer (all given while I'm hanging out the window to check his position yet again) and carried on following us to our pitch.  When we got out of the RV to park up he greeted us with the following statement "all the mozzies are around here, my sister was bitten 73 times you know" (said he'd counted them!). Despite his message of doom we smiled and set up camp anyway while Rosie and Big Nige did the same on the next pitch. I have become painfully aware throughout our travels that many big pitches are next to the black (toilet ) and grey (sink ) waste disposal facilities on camp sites. As we unloaded the trailer and set up camp our first encounter with the neighbouring dump ( hidden from our view by a tall hedge) unfolded. A motorhome drove up, stopped to stare at us and our RV a while, gave us a jolly wave and proceeded to unload what smelled like a years worth of rotting sewage! All just 2 feet away. Please note that this dump also housed the local snake population, the off-cast skins everywhere were a big clue that they were present and growing!! (wise kid on a bike didn't know or want us to know about that one eh!).

Our pitch had it's own toilet and shower brick hut that required chemical warfare before attempting to strip off and using the dam thing! Rosie and I blitzed them, resulting in the phrase "CLEAR I think!" The water pressure was so weak but at least we could get clean.... ish.

Supporting the resident mossie population were these buggers,

they were jet black, big and noisy, but non-biters and we came to love them! Due to a combination of the proximity of the dump, increasing number of cast-off snakeskins and Mr H and Big Nige being bitten to death by mosquitoes on these pitches we moved. Our next pitches were more level with no nearby dump but once again Rosie and I had to scrub and sterilize our facilities!

Despite our few niggles we found the surrounding area to be very flat for cycling, picturesque, clean and mozzie free (always a bonus). We happily explored the area both on cycle and scooter with a long canal

that reached the sea eventually

 

and Grisson was just lovely;

 

although the locals were armed to the hilt

As luck would have it the mossies followed us to our new pitch so following an emergency planning meeting with Rosie and Big Nige we decided to move on to Barcelona a little earlier were we had arranged to meet up with family.