Some photos attached from Nimes, Martigues, Fayence and Beziers in south of France.

One of the photos in Nimes is the scene from one of our paintings at home by Jeremy Barlow, looking through a narrow street to the Roman Arena, except a large plane tree has grown across the end of the street since then, mostly obscuring the view of the Arena.

Martigues is a very pretty port town near Marseilles, with the old town centre on an island between two canals, and the photos are of an area here called Petite Venice.  We had a lovely lunch in a bistro by the water, which can be seen on the extreme right of the photo where Jan is in deep discussion with a fisherman and his wife (!) by the bridge.

We spent a week with Jan’s brother Mark and his wife Lorna in Fayence, catching up on laundry, home comforts, and cleaning the campervan etc.  We also gave d’Hobby his proper name, and tried out the new awning sides and front we bought in the UK.

We left Fayence on Thursday and had a long drive to Montpelier, then Bezier where we camped at a small village called Colombiers, just beside the Canal du Midi.  We took a day off on Friday to cycle along the towpath into Beziers town – the towpath was covered in leaves, which successfully hid the tree roots and mud patches until we rode into them, which gave for a very bumpy, slippery ride.  It took about an hour each way with photo stops, but a very enjoyable day out.  Lunch eaten again by the canal at Colombiers Port when we got back (a large base here for canal boat hire, etc.).

We arrived in Spain yesterday, a 6 hour drive down from Beziers, and are now in Cambrils for a couple of nights, just south of Tarragona.
We plan to head on down to Peniscola and Pucol, before getting to Benidorm by end of next week.  The aim is to make Marbella (another 800km) before mid-December, and stay there for 6 weeks or so.  After that, we may have a house sitting assignment in the Algarve in mid-January thru end of February, but won’t find out until next week.

We had our first brush with Spanish crime on the first day here!
Some jerk tried the trick of getting us to pull over on the AP-7/E-15 Auto-Pista not long after Tarragona, 2km before Exit 37 at Cambrils – flashing his lights and waving at our rear end as if there was a problem.  He then pulled in front of us to try and get us to pull up, but we swerved around him and left him in our dust, out of his car on the hard shoulder, looking surprised.  We came off at Exit 37 anyway, and never saw him again.
I had only checked all the tyres, bike rack, etc. after our lunch stop, so knew there was nothing wrong.  It was all too quick to take his number, which was a pity, and he didn’t try and catch us up again.

The only times we’ve had any trouble in all our travels around the world have been in Spain:
• Attempted mugging in Barcelona in 1998;
• Jan’s handbag swiped at Alicante airport 1999;
• Attempted highway robbery yesterday.

Why are the Spanish so lawless ?   They’re supposed to be a civilised nation, but it’s like the wild west in places.

Anyway, it’s nice to stop shivering again, and back to 17oC & 18oC, and sunny days.  Hope it holds out, or even gets better as we go further south.

Salud !!