Thunderstorms in Fanjeaux and onto Marseillan Plage

Zagan the motorhome can smell the sea once again. He’s enjoying the holiday atmosphere at the aire in Marseillan Plage (N43.31968, E3.54758), on the French Mediterranean coast. As it is still June (for a couple more days), the cost of the aire is €6 for 24 hours, on Saturday when July begins it doubles to €12 – guess who won’t be here then!

After a quiet night in L’hospitalet-Pres-L’Andorre we continued our journey north. Our only stop was at a Brico Marché (a DIY store) as now we are back in France we stand a chance at understanding what we are buying. The charcoal filter on our SOG unit needs changing. It’s recommended you change it every year to stop the smells from inside your loo cassette being blown onto your neighbour’s BBQ when the fan kicks in. As we weren’t near a motorhome dealer, and let’s face it we won’t buy a specific motorhome product if something else will do the same thing for less, the Brico called. Five minutes and €6 later and we have enough charcoal filter to last us a lifetime, it just needed cutting to size (the ‘proper’ filter would be €10 each, and we’d enough for maybe 10 replacements). Update – tested the filters and sadly they don’t work, you don’t want to be parked next to us until we get to a motorhome dealers and buy a proper filter!

A couple of hours after setting off we found ourselves in the village of Fanjeaux, close to Carcassonne. Well at least found ourselves there on our second attempt, as the entrance to the village looked a tad tight when we first approached it, so we carried hoping for a wider entrance. There wasn’t one. We later found out that Fanjeaux was once a large castrum (Roman Fort) and in the medieval period it was a town with 3000 people in it. Its large chateau was surrounded by a moat and defended by ramparts with fourteen towers. Most of that has long gone, but the two (tight) entries to the village now serve as reminders of the medieval gates which controlled entry into the town. At least satnav didn’t try to take us through the town…

Fanjeaux

Parking up in the leafy and free aire with a lovely new service point (N43.18605, E2.03250) we found ourselves next to some very quiet neighbours. Hoping the neighbours would protect us when the predicted thunderstorm rolled our way, we set off for a look around the village.

Good neighbours for a couple of nights

As the village is at an altitude of over 1000 feet it has panoramic views in all directions; a sign kindly informed us that from the village we could see seven departments. We walked over to the main viewpoint and tried to work out how what was shown on the information tiles corresponded to what we could see – it didn’t really, but it is handy to know that Carcassonne was somewhere over one of the hills.

Artistic impression

What we could actually see!

We tried to decipher a sign in the Dominican chapel which we could tell certainly said no photos (so we couldn’t get a picture of the sign) but seemed to also say ‘no looking’. We surmised that it must mean no video recording and went in for a look to see what all the fuss was about. There was an old lady in there giving a guided tour to a group, so once we were sure we wouldn’t be struck down by lightning or told off, we edged in further. Sadly I think the reason you weren’t allowed to take photos was because the place was in disrepair. The walls were in a particularly sorry state and it looked like water had leaked in and caused many of the tiles to come off.

I was surprised when a coach dropped off its load of passengers, including several nuns (no idea why I always get excited and want to take a photo when I see a nun or priest – especially any with funny hats). Intrigued, I had a read of the plaque on the wall of the house they all squeezed into. It was an outbuilding belonging to the new château (built in the 13th century) and once served as Saint Dominic’s residence. The crumbling Catholic Dominican chapel across the road, supposedly marks the site of one of Saint Dominic’s miracles.

The door to St Dominic’s place, I wonder if he fitted the huge lock

We stopped for a couple of days, nipping out between storms to the local boulangerie (yay, we love being in France) and having a few looks around. When the thunderstorm did come it was a good one. Thunder, lightning and pea sized hail, all washed down with enough rain to cause a minor river to take over the road.

‘oooh I could crush a Jay!’ 

Last night there were ten motorhomes in the eight spaces in the aire. The local cat did her rounds of all the vans in the hope of some food, and when she shamelessly leapt into Zagan Charlie was not too impressed. After a few seconds of disbelief he started to growl and bark and totter over towards her as fast as his arthritic limbs would carry him. Jay meanwhile, picked up the cat only for it to turn into a ball of fur, legs and claws and make a great cartoon cat screech. Once order had been restored and Jay’s wounds seen to, the never-learning cat then appeared on Zagan’s roof, peering in through the skylight. Charlie was lifted up to the skylight to emit suitable cat deterrent noises, which worked as it jumped right off the roof onto the floor – most impressive.

All good friends before le chat ventured into our van

This morning at 10am six of the ten motorhomes decided it was time to leave, causing a queue for the service point. So today’s top tip is – when on a busy aire, plan it so you leave at 9.50 or 10.30. We went for the latter time and after forgetting we were on a chock (big thud as we drove over the levelling ramp) we made our way east. Passing the impressive towers of Carcassonne I couldn’t help but take a photo, even though we’ve already visited there in the past. We zig-zaged with the Canal-du-Midi (which we’ve also been to in the past) through wine country. The tree-lined roads were hemmed in by acres of vines, sporting miniature bunches of grapes.

Carcassonne. If I remember our visit it looks better from afar!

A quick stop at a Carrefour (sorry Lidl, but in France we want the tasty French food, so you are only used for staple items) saw us splash out on so much delicious, and probably very bad for you, food that the fridge door is now struggling to stay shut: rilettes de poulet, terrine de compagne, steak haché, bouef bourguignon, pain au chocolat, chausson de pomme, poulet rôti, religieuses café…

It was a good job it was just a quick stop as when we arrived the machine at the entrance to the aire said there were only two spaces left. We paid for 24 hours and drove in only to find loads of spaces, it’s only half full! We suspect several instances of tailgating when leaving has knocked the machine out of sync?

Naughtily we are now having a bit of fun watching motorhomes pull up at the machine and being stopped from entering because the aire is now full. Several of the owners get out and wander around scratching their heads as they look at all the empty spaces. One chap has been to the tourist office to complain and is now waiting by the barrier for someone to leave, someone else is off to find the mayor! This is certainly a popular spot. Time to go out and explore to find out why.

Ju x