Family staying and a very socially distanced lunch out!

My brother and sister in law have just spent a week with us, and oh, it was SO lovely to feel normal again in these weird times. To have people in our house to chat to and laugh with and just spend time with seems all quite remote now. We didn't hug when they arrived, but we felt OK to not socially distance, again like I said when Monika came, that would be so hard to do. We knew they had been camping for several weeks before arriving chez nous so figured they wouldn't have been spending much time near other people anyway.

Imagine our surprise though, when Grazyna said, halfway through our cuppa and cake which we had upon their arrival, that she had a pressie for me and a surprise that she seemed itching to show us, despite the fact I hadn't even finished my cup of tea! We went downstairs to the basement to show them the guest room then went outside through the French doors there .... only to be confronted by a campervan!!! What?!! "Did you hire it?" I asked. "No, I bought it" said Kevin (Keith's brother)! Well blow me down, there we had been imagining them sleeping in a tent these last few weeks across chilly Europe (they came from Poland where G had been looking after her mother who has dementia (and has now passed the job over to her sister to give her a break)) when all the time they had been glamping in a lovely moho! (The pressie was lots of choc 😀 and some tea bags and coffee to cover what they would be consuming of ours!).

The inside is lovely too; they have a separate shower unit (unlike our wetroom) and a really large kitchen area complete with oven and microwave. Then two sofas opposite each other which convert to a double bed at night. Not bad at all in a van 6.39m long and is one of the van type ones with the doors that open at the back. Keith though can't stand upright in them so we discounted them from the start when we were looking at mohos. Also no garage space which makes quite a difference really. But each to their own, this van suits them down to the ground like ours does us, and Monika's does hers!

Their first full day I sent them all out for an 8km walk whilst I had a nice quiet kitchen to myself to prepare dinner! The next day, a Sunday, the weather was forecast to be lovely so off we set in the car to the coast for a meal out. None of us had eaten out since the beginning of the pandemic, but we had decided that now that restaurants seemed to be actually following rules for staff to wear masks and for customers to wear them when going inside the restaurant, that we would take a chance. We all really longed for a nice meal out and hopefully moules frites! As we turned the corner out of our road we were confronted with one of the rare really clear views of the Pyrenees, snow clad and much better than the views in summer, which tend to be very hazy. 

The Pyrenees from Fanjeaux (click on photo to see larger so you can see the mountains better).

Having left home a bit late and finding the place we originally were going to full (without, stupidly, booking, it being a sunny Sunday, duh! I hadn't realised it was French school hols too, double duh!), and all the other restos in that village with no tables free, we charged off to nearby Port La Nouvelle, which is much bigger, in the hope we would find a brasserie or somewhere that would still be serving after 1.30pm. In France everyone eats early, the norm being no later than 12.30. Usually restaurants are clearing up at 1.30pm..... 

Me at La Franqui.

Luckily for us we found somewhere with a few free tables outside, and as we wanted to sit in the sun, the waiter pointed to a table sitting all alone outside the actual restaurant patio area, which we thought would be perfect from a socially distanced point of view! I don't know why the table was there in the first place, as it was on the other side of a row of stone benches in the empty space around a bandstand/stage! It was perfectly placed and we sat and watched people roller and inline skating in this area, and although we couldn't see the sea itself, we could see the tops of boats coming from the port area, sailing past buildings, which looked very funny! The food was lovely and most of us had our moules frites so we were very happy indeed. 😀

The bandstand was to the right of us where those steps are.

Socially distanced or what?!!!

After lunch we went right the other side of Narbonne to the far end of the Massif de la Clape, to visit a sinkhole known as Le Gouffre de l'Oeil Doux. We had a short walk up to it and suddenly there it was. Typical France, no health and safety here. No railings whatsoever, just walk up to the edge and hope you don't fall down! It really was quite spectacular and we could see some lagoons and the sea beyond over the other side of the sinkhole, but with the late afternoon light it was very hard to show this in a photo, as the bottom of the sinkhole was in shade.

This is the first photo upside down, showing the beautiful reflections of the top of the cliffs in the water!

On the day they left, we had a photo shoot in front of our vans. However, as G got out a fruit box from our log pile to balance her phone on, someone noticed a rather large insect sheltering on it.

After a bit of research we learned that it was an Egyptian Grasshopper or Locust. They are apparently quite common in Europe and the females can be up to about 7cm long! This one was a good 6cm so must have been a female. Poor thing had some injuries, I hope it wasn't a cat which did it. Could have been a bird, I suppose. She had a peck hole on her eye and was missing an antennae, as well as a wound on her back.  After our photo shoot we put her back in place in her nice sheltered spot, which is under cover and away from the wind 😀.

Egyptian Grasshopper or Locust (Anacridium aegyptium)

When they left this time we did hug, as they had been with us for a week and if any of us had the virus we would have passed it on by now anyway, so we made the most of having some human contact with someone other than our own spouse! What a lovely feeling that is these days. Life is just MAD right now. 😢

Au revoir - until the next time!

Going back a few weeks, I wanted to share this magnificently coloured shrub. Sadly the leaves didn't last long, but it was stunning whilst it lasted. As it never flowered this year I have absolutely no idea what it is! Any ideas?

Also, yet another orchid appeared in the lawn, en masse! These are Autumn Lady's Tresses, and there were a good twenty or so of them. Not as stunning as some of the spring ones, but a nice surprise and lovely when you look at them close up.

Autumn Lady's Tresses Orchid (Spiranthes spiralis).


And now here we are back in full lockdown again from yesterday to 1st December, at least. Hopefully the lockdown will be lifted in time for families to be able to get together for Christmas (not that we will be having anyone visiting). I imagine that is what Bojo is planning now he has finally realised that full lockdown is the only way to really slow the spread of the virus. Anyway, next post will be us going out in the moho on the day before lockdown - making the most of it whilst we could!


P.S. Just seen a Red Kite flying over our house! Yay!! 😄😄😄

MoHo Trip No. 3: Gulf of Morbihan

After our trip to England in May, we felt the urge to get away in our MoHo again. We were desperate to get back down to the Gulf of Morbihan around the Sarzeau area in search of the elusive Bluethroat once more. We also fancied just revisiting some places we'd been to in April, wanting to see what they would be like now a couple of months later. So off we trotted back to the same campsite, just for an overnighter, on June 7th.

At the Duer Marshes, not surprisingly, there were avocets all over the place.....

.... and Shelducks too, but it was the first time we'd seen any baby ones, which were mega cute.

Various birds seen, from top left clockwise: Kestrel, Brent Geese, Kentish Plover, Chiffchaff, and Kestrel again.

Back at the marshes and dunes around the Chateau de Suscinio, we were really hoping to see a Bluethroat. We passed some birders with tripods and scopes who we chatted to, who then called out that there was a Bluethroat in the reeds. At home my not very good extremely zoomed in photos were hard to figure out; it certainly wasn't a male but didn't look much like a female either. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it was a juvenile or female Stonechat! Oh never mind! We will just have to go back and try again next year.

The dunes beside the marsh were looking pretty with bright splashes of yellow and blue from the Sedums and Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare) everywhere. Surprisingly there were very few butterflies here. Maybe it was too windy. Plenty of bees though enjoying the nectar. 

I managed to capture this Skylark singing - there were a fair few of them around, as well as the by now usual Linnets and Stonechats, which we keep encountering on our coastal forays.

Below - the Skylark again top right, and I think a Yellowhammer bottom right. Left, there were snails like this all over the coastal plants!

The highlight though was this magnificent dragonfly which flew over the marshes and settled quite close to us. It's a Golden Ringed Dragonfly (Cordulegaster boltonii) and I've only seen one twice before (one time in my veg patch!).

On the path round the back of the marshes we were pleased to find that the ground had dried out - in April this path was practically underwater and although we managed to walk it, our trainers got extremely wet and muddy!

Suddenly we discovered an explosion of Meadow Browns - I think they had just recently eclosed. There were dozens of them and we walked amongst clouds of them. When we stopped walking they settled on plants, flying up again when we resumed walking. It was a great experience - I don't think I've ever seen so many butterflies in one place before!

They were already doing the business!

I saw a few Marbled Whites too, but the one at the bottom of the collage had just eclosed I think, which I hadn't realised at the time of taking the photo. I think there is something wrong with its underwings though as they haven't unfolded like the forewings, and if that was the case then it wouldn't have had a very long life, sadly.

A little way further along the track and ...... drum roll....... I saw a lifer butterfly! A Black-veined White (Aporia crataegi). I'm surprised I haven't seen one before as the larva feed on various common fruit trees, including Blackthorn and Hawthorn. It was the only one we saw but very exciting!

Moving on to a flat rocky headland, the Pointe de Penvins, which we hadn't managed to explore last time as it kept raining - this time the sun shone, it was warm and the birds and butterflies were out.

A Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) which was strutting its stuff with a grub in its beak.

Rock Pipit again, and a Painted Lady butterfly. There were more Ladies than any other butterfly in this place! I don't necessarily expect to see them beside the sea!

Our final point of call on day two was the end of the Rhuys Peninsular at the Port du Crouesty in Arzon. Thankfully we managed to find a parking space which is not always easy in a motorhome. The weather was just perfect and all that was needed was an ice cream.

This ice cream shop had the most amount of flavours that I've ever seen. Look closely at the ones in the image below. Do you see anything odd?

Yuk and double yuk!! Can you imagine goat's cheese (chèvre) ice cream? Or Reblochon? Ugh, that's a horrible cheese just as cheese, but as ice cream? Tomato, maybe. Pepper? I don't think so. But oh, cheese ice cream. Dear god. Interestingly enough, I don't see any scoops taken out of either of the cheesy ones. I wonder why not!

We were sensible and I had the most wonderful home made real fresh banana I've ever tasted, plus chocolate brownie which I've never had before and was just absolutely amazing. We'll have to come back here just for the ice cream!

Squeezed into a regular spot in a car park. When we came back to the parking there were several more MoHos - once you spot where a MoHo has parked, you tend to go there and congregate. I guess we have become part of the 'camping car' brigade now. We are not loved by all though - on our most recent trip out in Mary MoHo we came across the idiot van driver who swerved towards us on purpose. That's one of the reasons for having spent a few bucks on the white wing mirror protectors - we've heard some tales of people who have had their wing mirrors smashed by truck drivers who don't care for motorhomes. 

By the way what is going on with the followers numbers? At one point I had 82, then Blogger said they would remove anyone who had followed using a Twitter account or other accounts I've never heard of, so my numbers dropped. Fair enough. But then it said I had 59 whereas when I counted the followers there were about 70! And now I'm suddenly down to 57 as the last two followers have disappeared. Soon I'll be Billy No Mates! :-)

MoHo Trip No. 2 La Turballe, Part 2

Day 3

Our third day dawned cloudy and grey and was to remain so all day, unfortunately. We had planned to visit the medieval fortified town of Guérande so off we set. We were lucky to find some MoHo parking nearby - this is the downfall of having a motorhome - it's less the length than the height which is a problem as so many car parks have height barriers, particularly by the coast. Not something we'd ever really noticed in a car before!

A map of the walled section of town taken from Wikipedia - wish I'd looked at this before we visited! It's so easy to walk around in circles in these places and you wonder if you missed anything! I think that we saw most of it though.

When we were there the market was just finishing and packing up - but not before I spotted these eggs for sale which interested me! How much?!! I need to open a market stall...... :-)

Loved the suit of armour and cute half timbered houses are to die for.

We decided to lunch out and it was moules frites for K. I stupidly ordered a galette, and it was every bit as boring and tasteless as every other galette I've ever eaten. Why do I do this?!!

K outside the medieval city walls.

That afternoon we did more stooging around and came across some lagoons with interesting bird life, luckily in a place where we were able to park nearby. I forget where this was exactly. The Grey Plover below was a lifer bird and I've only seen Dunlin once before in northern Spain - well any waders get me excited, except for Avocets and Black Winged Stilts as I've seen so many, especially here and the gulf of Morbihan. Doesn't that sound awful, but you do get really blasé about them!!

However, I've never seen an Avocet doing a mating dance before. I should have videod it as it was very funny, and photos just don't show it like it was.

A lifer Grey Plover top and bottom left, with Dunlins galore on the right.

An Avocet again top left, bottom right is a Ringed Plover and top right and bottom left are Black-tailed Godwits in colourful breeding plumage.

My OH's photo of the Black-tailed Godwit.

Day 4

The sun returned on our last day, and not only that - it turned surprisingly warm! We returned slowly up the coast in the direction of home. We didn't visit the town of La Turballe but decided to stop at Piriac sur Mer a bit further up the coast. What a surprise - I had been expecting a typical touristy seaside town but in fact the town had the label "Petite Cité de Caractère", and character it had a-plenty. 

The port

The sea front overlooking the port area.

Up the many back streets with many beautiful granite houses. It is a very pretty place to stroll around, not big but well worth a visit if in the area. Plenty of restaurants and some tourist shops, but not enough to spoil the character of the little town.

There are sandy beaches here too but it was low tide so all the people who go out with their buckets and spades were out. But not like the bucket and spade brigade in England (kids and sandcastles!) - when you see people out and about like this they are collecting shellfish. If they are doing so in sand and mud I think it's cockles they are collecting, but thanks to my camera zoom I was able to conclude that here it is rock oysters that are being harvested off the rocks.

A bit further up the coast at the Pointe de Merquel near Mesquer, we had a delightful stroll beside the sea and next to a field which apparently had a particular type of orchid in it (purple something? and which I forgot to take a photo of). That's because we were too busy watching the Linnets flitting about and seeing what other birds we could spot. 

On the sea side we spotted this Wheatear.

And in the field I managed to capture this male Linnet in full breeding plumage. There were other males around which were not nearly as colourful as this one. I don't know why some were so much redder than others?

My final photos for the day were these Turnstones sitting on the rocks beside the Pointe - it was fun watching them as the waves were washing over the rocks at times and the birds would be floating around before the wave went out and they could resume their places on the rocks.

So that ends our four day trip to this part of the world. We had a thoroughly enjoyable visit and on top of that, were beginning to get to grips with this motorhome camping lark. :-)