Yesterday we repacked our bags. The warm clothing went into one bag which was buried at the bottom of the boot. You've guessed; this morning we had a surprise. Why was that water coming out of the sky? Why was I wearing a dress and flip-flops? In a car park in Beziers I rooted around and found some warm layers, socks and boots. We set off, in our waterproofs, to walk the 1.7Km to Les Neufs Ecluses, the 9 locks on the Canal du Midi built in the early 1600s to c...

A nostalgic trip today, to Vias and Californie Plage, a campsite we stayed at when Ros was about 18 months old, so about 24 years ago, and again in 1991. The place was a sleepy backwater then, but is rather smart now, with mostly mobile homes. We had a lovely lunch at the pirate cafe near the sea. There's no beach there any more, the sand disappeared about 10 years ago, so now it's just large rocks which are shoring up the coastline in an attempt to prevent any m...

Tues/Weds April17th/18th We left Andorra following the signposts to France, but at Encamp spotted a cable car and decided to do a detour via the snow. We were told that the ski runs usually close around 7 April, but that this year, there had been unusual late snowfalls, enabling them to stay open for an extra couple of weeks. The cable car took us 2000m up to the top of a mountain - literally, the café was built on a flat platform overhanging the summit. It w...

Andorra was an easy drive from Montserrat, through breathtaking mountain scenery. The further north we went, the more Catalan flags we saw. When I edited the photos, I found we had loads of views of snow capped peaks taken through fly-spattered windscreen! Don't worry, I've deleted them! We were stopped at a police roadblock but after a look inside the car and being told we were headed for Andorra we were told to continue. Entering Andorra was a shock - the ro...

The monastery at Montserrat is often visited as a day trip from Barcelona, indeed there is a train line which stops at the bottom of the cable car. We're in a pretty Hostal in Ministrol de Montserrat, and I'm looking at the sun rising on the sheer mountain face. Yesterday's drive was supposed to be 3 hours, but took 5 including short stops for fuel & lunch. We didn't arrive until nearly 3pm, which still gave us time to go up on the cable car & see the ma...