Left St Cyprien and ended up coming out through Perpignan which wasn't as bad as it sounds. Found our first traffic jam up the hill but the a lidls with one of those huge boulangeries.
The Aire at vernet Les bains is next a therme and free. You need to turn to go over the bridge then left and right before the car park then there are 6 marked out close together pitches and some preceding these on the right where somehow a Frenchman has gained a hook up !
We are parked up another level and the jury is out about our legitimacy.
We are here with an unmarked covert van but cars are coming up with old ladies walking through the fence with empty 10 litre water containers then coming back full so we suspected a string, but now there are children with swimming kit and the map suggests plan d'eau.
Anyway we found this abbey up a hill. abbey st Martin du canigou
I mean hill.
1.7 Kms long 250m vertical rise. The wife was well impressed when even on full power and lowest gear we had to push. Great views at the top but brakes on all the way down.
A vehicle (Suzuki samurai small jeep thingy) came down with us and had to 3 point turn at every hairpin.
So having achieved annoying the wife we then headed to gorges de Cady.
Uphill cycle described as steep didn't seem to improve the mood but parked up and began walking and ignoring the signs of impasse interdite 500m we found the gorges closed and impassable after 500 m.
She seems happier after some pistachio ice cream and no more cycling today (planning on walking to the town though!)
Will update later re water plan d'eau and town
So the mystery of serious amount of water collectors is that there is a spring coming straight out of the mountain. They've been turning up with shopping baskets at a rate of one every 5 minutes.
We popped along to see it then meandered up to what we thought might be a plan d'eau but was a picnic area where they have filtered water from the river to create a stream for wading. Armed with sandals we can confirm wading is all you would want to do owing to the rather cold temperature. However, on our legs today it was welcome.
A walk into town was really quite nice, we took the route of jardin d'hiver overlooking the bastide type town and to the church at the highest point de ville. Some lovely crooked steep narrow paths made us wonder how this isn't a beaux village.
Lovely beer in the town where we watched the rural police monitoring the car of a lady who turned up from the coiffure to find the police car sitting because she had left a window open.
The Aire at vernet Les bains is next a therme and free. You need to turn to go over the bridge then left and right before the car park then there are 6 marked out close together pitches and some preceding these on the right where somehow a Frenchman has gained a hook up !
We are parked up another level and the jury is out about our legitimacy.
We are here with an unmarked covert van but cars are coming up with old ladies walking through the fence with empty 10 litre water containers then coming back full so we suspected a string, but now there are children with swimming kit and the map suggests plan d'eau.
Anyway we found this abbey up a hill. abbey st Martin du canigou
I mean hill.
1.7 Kms long 250m vertical rise. The wife was well impressed when even on full power and lowest gear we had to push. Great views at the top but brakes on all the way down.
A vehicle (Suzuki samurai small jeep thingy) came down with us and had to 3 point turn at every hairpin.
So having achieved annoying the wife we then headed to gorges de Cady.
Uphill cycle described as steep didn't seem to improve the mood but parked up and began walking and ignoring the signs of impasse interdite 500m we found the gorges closed and impassable after 500 m.
She seems happier after some pistachio ice cream and no more cycling today (planning on walking to the town though!)
Will update later re water plan d'eau and town
So the mystery of serious amount of water collectors is that there is a spring coming straight out of the mountain. They've been turning up with shopping baskets at a rate of one every 5 minutes.
We popped along to see it then meandered up to what we thought might be a plan d'eau but was a picnic area where they have filtered water from the river to create a stream for wading. Armed with sandals we can confirm wading is all you would want to do owing to the rather cold temperature. However, on our legs today it was welcome.
A walk into town was really quite nice, we took the route of jardin d'hiver overlooking the bastide type town and to the church at the highest point de ville. Some lovely crooked steep narrow paths made us wonder how this isn't a beaux village.
Lovely beer in the town where we watched the rural police monitoring the car of a lady who turned up from the coiffure to find the police car sitting because she had left a window open.
