I didn’t sleep brilliantly and wasn’t feeling too flash in the morning but we got up, got organised and were on the road by 10am. It was another hot day - 32 degrees by 10am, and ultimately rising to 39 degrees. It was a relatively short hop, less than 1hr, to Barcarès, on the coast northeast of Perpignan. The stop here was to view the art exhibition of one of our friends from Céret. We had bought one of his pictures last year, and he’d in fact retrieved it from our apartment in Céret so he could include it in his exhibition, though it was clearly marked not for sale. The guy hosting the exhibition said that he could have sold our one a number of times. Our friend had over 40 pieces on display, a number of which had been sold, so he should be pretty pleased.
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| Jon Everitt's paintings |
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| Why bother? - you could put the trailer in the boot |
We took advantage of the stop to have a coffee and buy a baguette. Barcarès is clearly a holiday resort area and was full of French and other tourists wandering around in their minimal beach gear and questionable ensembles of short shorts and singlets, for both males and females of all ages, sizes and shapes.
As soon as we’d downed our coffees we hit the road again, taking the motorway until it was time for find a spot for a picnic lunch at 1:45pm. We pulled off into one of the service areas, a pleasant spot with plenty of trees. The temperature was 38 degrees by this time, so we ate fairly quickly before jumping back into the air-conditioned interior of the car.
An impulsive brief stop at Tarascon was well rewarded with a very quick walk around the impressive castle and historic centre. The old lanes were very attractive and we’d loved to have had a little more time there but it was extremely hot and we only had a leeway of about 12min before our appointed time to meet our host at our destination of Vaison-la-Romaine. We duly rolled up bang on 5pm, and she was waiting for us with a big smile on her face. We immediately dumped our bags and headed out to explore a bit, albeit at a very slow pace. I was feeling better but we both felt very drained by the heat. I think we have also lost some fitness.
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| Tarascon Castle |
Vaison-la-Romaine is a very quaint town, split in the middle by a river, with a castle up high on one side. Being Monday most of the shops and artisan workshops were closed, and the whole place had a fairly shut-up feel, partly because the locals were far more intelligent and were sitting inside under their air-conditioning, with only the mad dogs and tourists out in the afternoon sun.
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| The east side of Vaison-la-Romaine |
By 7pm a beer was well and truly called for. We chose a restaurant for a simple three course meal, complete with a beer for J and a coffee for moi. It was a tasty meal, with stuffed guinea fowl thighs for the main. Home soon after 8pm. John recced the alternative routes for the next day, another 4½ hr drive to Susa. Roll on Italy…
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