Life in La Franqui

Bonjour once again, 

We are still here in beautiful La Franqui avoiding the hustle and bustle of most of the South of France at this time of year, this place really is a hidden gem.  When we began our travels back in January we didn’t really have any agenda although we knew our first stop was to be Meribel in the Alps and that we had to work our way to Barcelona to meet Dave & Brenda in June.  We always said that the great thing about it would be if we found places we liked we could stay as long as we wanted and if we didn’t really like them we could move on which is exactly what we have done.

The wind is still playing out it’s battle with which direction it wants to blow so we have been just chilling on the beach some days with a nice sea breeze then suddenly that will just stop and then the whole thing switches round and you get an off shore breeze.  The funny thing is all the wind turbines up on the hills decide to swing round to always face the wind but I am sure they must use all the energy they have generated just changing direction all the time!  Once again though the wind has been on our side again this week with some fantastic kite surf sessions, I don’t think we have ever used our small kites so much (5m & 6m) and it’s so nice to get to the beach and only do a few pumps and the kites are ready to go. One day we thought the day was going to be a write off as it was so so windy and even Tot the owner was out on a 3.5m Cabrinha kite in what must have been 40 knots of wind but luckily it calmed down a bit and we managed to get out.  

We had the whole place to ourselves for a couple of hours which was amazing and towards the end of our session my Julie started shouting and pointing at another kite in the distance so I went to investigate and sure enough it was Julie from the bread stall who had kited up to see us so a quick wave and a few tacks along the beach all together before we headed in and packed up after yet another good day. 

When we walked out to the point the other week we spotted a few mountain bikes doing the route so one day we cycled down through Leucate Village then into Leucate Plage and up to Cap Leucate round the point and back down into La Franqui.  While we were taking a steady ride along the tracks we could hear a bike coming from behind and low and behold it was a Lapierre tandem with a couple on it with all the gear on, it was pretty impressive to see this going up & down some gnarly terrain at speed so after a quick photo and look at the tandem they simply shot off down the tracks in a cloud of dust.

Normally the beach here is a no go for cars/motorcycles etc etc but as silly season is here the french ignore all signs and decide to try their luck at driving down the beach which is fine if you stay on the hard stuff where all the land yachts bomb about but as you can see some go a little too close to the soft stuff, not sure if this one had been there all night as this was first thing in the morning and he was there the best part of the day until a huge 4x4 came along and pulled him out, this was just one of many vehicles that got stuck this week but luckily for this one the wind didn’t change for the beach to flood.

There’s an old French couple here with a very old caravan and a Talbot saloon car both of which are in mint condition and very retro.  I got talking to the old boy who speaks a little English and he told me that he has 9 Talbots,  he told me this one is 33 years old and was given to him by a friend whose husband had died but as she didn’t drive the car was no use to her.  He reminds me of my Dad a bit as he is always tinkering about and the other day he had the car jacked up and was lying underneath it fixing the exhaust that was blowing a bit so I lent him some blocks to put under the wheels as he had it balancing on a couple of rocks!! I guess parts for the car are hard to come by these days so some exhaust paste and metallic tape will have to do! 

Not a lot else to report this week, but you never know what the next day is going to bring so watch this space.

J&J

x

Beach, Eat, Sleep & Repeat..........

Bonjour,

Can’t believe it’s that time of the week again, it’s certainly true to say that time flies when you are having fun.  We have decided to stay here at La Franqui now until the end of July and maybe even longer as we have no rush or agenda to keep which is nice.

Well as forecast the weather has sorted itself out and the sun and blue skies returned but the wind did not relent and we continued to have very strong Tramatona winds so have been out having fun out on our small 6m & 8m kites again.  We can’t believe how windy this place actually is, it’s like Tarifa all over again but just on a much smaller scale and less crowded but it’s just crazy as even walking along the beach can be a real workout in the head on wind !!!!

The last couple of days though the wind has switched to Marin so not as strong which to be honest is a welcome relief, we love the wind but sometimes an on/off switch would be very useful.  It’s been nice to just have a chill out on the beach, swim and watch the world go by and we have found a nice little spot all to ourselves by a huge piece of drift wood. It’s getting hotter too and the next few days are forecast to be between 35-39 degrees so being by the sea is the place to be with the sea breeze.

We are the only English people at the campsite except for a guy called Phil a land yachter from Southern Ireland who arrived a few days after us and is here until late August so it’s nice to catch up with him now and then and have a couple of beers and talk about the day’s events.  He has said I have free use of his kite buggy and land yachts in exchange for a kitesurf refresher lesson as he is a bit rusty so that will be something different to try.  Some evenings there is quite a gathering at Phil’s with some of his French neighbours so it’s nice to chat and try out our French and the other evening they were all getting ready for Bastille celebrations (14th July) with their bunting and this attractive wig which I thought quite suited me, as they say when in France do as the French do, viva la France !!!!!

They really celebrate Bastille here in France and have fireworks so we took our sand chairs and refreshments and went and sat down on the beach and watched them, they were amazing and we could also see the ones from the neighbouring towns all along the coast, something we will remember from our travels for sure.

We were also invited to our neighbours to watch the World Cup Final as he had set a TV up outside and was rounding up some of the people from around the campsite, although we don’t really follow football we thought we’d join the party anyway even though we were the only English people.  He’s a French-Morrocan guy from AgadIir who comes here every summer for his holidays, he doesn’t speak a word of English but again we seem to get by.  He goes into the village everyday to play Petanque and then comes back with bottles of wine that he has won.  It was quite funny the other evening as when he came back to camp he waved two bottles of wine at us and I shouted to him “champignon” which Julie quickly told me meant “mushroom” in French, we did laugh but I think he understood I actually meant champion not mushroom!!!

We have met so many nice people/families of all nationalities during our travels and it’s always quite sad when their holidays are over and we have to say our goodbyes - we have quite a collection of addresses and invites now so maybe one day we will be able to work our way through them. 

Even though we have been here now for just over 3 weeks the scenery and sunsets here at La Franqui are amazing and the local french girl (who is also a kitesurfer) who runs the bread stall on site is also simply amazing!!! It was funny that after a few days of me going to get bread and croissants each morning my Julie sussed that something was making me quite keen to go so I said come and meet her she is really friendly well when they both introduced themselves I couldn’t believe it, they both have the same name as she is also called Julie!

We have been doing a bit of up-cycling recently too as I have acquired some unwanted grey vinyl awning roof material so am going to make a set of wheel covers out of it as everyone else seems to have them to protect their tyres from being damaged from the harmful UV sun rays and they are a fortune to buy for something so simple.  Julie came up with another fantastic up-cycling idea too to make some beach pillows out of the internal bag of a 5 litre wine box and I must say they are perfect as you can adjust the size/height by simply adding or releasing air from the tap the only thing is when deflating at the end of the day to put them away in your back pack you tend to get a strong waft of rose wine!!

That’s all for this week.

J&J

x

What Happened To The Weather?

Bonjour a nouveau,

Well we have had a mixed bag of weather this week which we think is linked to the beginning of the French holiday season and also a few friends visiting France from the UK (mentioning no names!!) and bringing the typical UK summer weather with them eg sun followed by thunderstorms.  

We had some lucky escapes too from the worst of the storms which seemed to pass either side of us with reports of large hailstones in Carcasonne and Narbonne, Narbonne is only 30 miles away, which smashed car windscreens, house windows and also wrecked a lot of vines in the wine growing regions of France, everybody you speak to says that this is not the norm for this time of year, but after looking at the weather it does look like it’s getting more settled over the next few days and into next week and the blue sky's are back.

We have seen pictures on walls in surf shops and bars here of the whole of the beach/salt flats flooded for as far as the eye can see which is caused when the wind changes from Tramatona to Marin which for some reason brings 2 metre waves which breach the beach and flood the surrounding area.  

It is such a spectacle to see but really strange to walk out of the campsite one day to a huge beach then the next to walk out to a huge lagoon for as far as you can see.

La Franqui is well known to be the wind capital of France and this week it has certainly lived up to it’s title, most days the average wind speeds have been 50 to 90 kilometres an hour (30-55mph) so it’s been small kites only, 5m & 6m and some serious smiles all-round and aching arms even if the wind is a bit gusty at times, but the locals say you do get used to it but the last few days it’s been too windy to kite at all!! 

Due to the beach/salt flats being swamped and slowly draining away the campsite has had a lot of very frustrated land yachters sitting about because as the flats dry out it becomes very slippery so as they try to go straight all that happens is they get blown sideways and end up covered in mud so most days as we walk out to go kiting there are people tinkering with their buggies/yachts ready for when it dries out which with all this wind won’t be long!! 

As usual we always cook around the van as it’s nice to sit outside and watch the world go-by while we do our dinner with glass of wine in hand and as it’s now holiday season there are a few small takeaway vans that visit the site a few nights a week i.e. pizza van, rotisserie chicken, fresh fruit and also a couscous van.  While I was cooking a mixture of grilled meat on the plancha hot-plate the other evening Julie piped up and said do I fancy some couscous to go with with it so I said OK go and check it out, well 10 minutes later Julie returned with two massive plastic tubs and minus €12 and she then explained that you know when you are just too far in to say no as the over excited French bloke had done one pot of couscous and then an even bigger pot of vegetables and chicken in some sort of stock which included carrots, celery, white beans, gherkins etc etc and then to top it off a small pot of chilli paste.   I was a bit baffled to know how we got all this when we only wanted couscous but Julie said he didn’t speak a word of English and her French wasn’t good enough to back pedal so it was easier to pay the money and walk away, to be far it was very nice anyway!

Au revoir for now,

J&J

x

Six Months Gone & Enjoying Every Minute.....

Bonjour,

Welcome once again to the weekly Blog.

As we write this it’s almost exactly six months since we left the UK, it’s flown by and we have enjoyed every single minute, let’s hope the next six months or so don’t go too quickly just like when you get to half a tank of fuel and the second half always seems to go much quicker……we certainly are very lucky to be living the dream.

We have decided to stay here at La Franqui camping, as we said before we went and looked at some other sites but they just didn’t tick all the boxes and also the kiting conditions and beach here are fantastic. When the wind is off-shore it is super flat and you can tack along the beach for miles and always know that if it does all go wrong there is a rescue boat on hand to recover you and your gear and then when it blows on-shore you get some serious waves to play in/on. We have been out a few times in the last week but a few days ago it was on-shore, mid afternoon and the wind really began to kick in so we grabbed the small kites (5m & 6m) and walked down the beach, it must of been blowing 30-35 knots, everything and everybody on the beach was getting sand blasted by the coarse sand so we decided to give it a go as it looked amazing.  As we began rigging the kites the bloke who runs the kite centre (Tot) came along the beach on his quad landing people that were now overpowered on their bigger kites as the wind just kept building, he pulled up by us and said be careful as the waves are getting bigger, I just said it’s fine just like the UK, to which he replied yes but here is hotter he was right it was 32 degrees so out we went into the angry Med it was brilliant.   I came in for a break after a while and while standing on the beach Tot came back along smiling and giving the thumbs up to Julie and I as we were amongst only a handful out (I think we have earnt his respect and shown that we know what we are doing). That evening after getting us and all the kit rinsed off we headed into La Franqui and found a lovely bar overlooking our playground and treated ourselves to a pint and a bite to eat, or should I say a very large bite to eat!!!! 

The campsite has begun to fill up a bit more day by day but the majority are land yachters and kite buggy dudes as the beach here has a huge salt flat area which goes for miles but most of the land yachters are old boys then you have the buggy dudes who are also old boys but think they are young dudes (no comments on this).  One in particular who was pitched up opposite us was a 75 year old french guy in a motorhome with matching trailer with all his land yacht kit in, he was a real character chatting away to us on a daily basis in french and Julie and I only getting the odd word here and there but you always seem to end up laughing together. He unloaded his yacht and put the parts together and fitted the pod to the chassis which had F16 printed on it getting ready to rip up the salt flats then he disappeared into the motorhome then reappeared in a flight suit as if he was Top Gun, Julie and I just looked in amazement and I had to grab the camera and get a picture of this La Franqui legend, we didn’t catch his name but we called him Pierre after the famous french fighter pilot (some of you might know the joke about Pierre…!!)

We have been out exploring on the mountain bikes/motorbike finding some amazing views and scenery as usual.  After talking to a fellow motorhomer he said there was a path that led out from the village along the cliffs over looking La Franqui then round to Cap Leucate then onto Leucate itself. 

We did this one morning and when we reached the point we were greeted by 3 paragliders playing on the thermals on the point (must learn when I can) it was amazing to watch them and brought back memories of our paragliding in Meribel.

We have bagged ourselves a nice pitch which offers some protection from the Tramotona wind and also the Marin wind but as you can see we still have to secure stuff down with large rocks and bungees as you never know which way and how strong it’s gonna blow!!!

Still no “Campsite Cat” here but Julie found this little fella who belongs to a French lady in a caravan, apparently he’s a Rag Doll breed and only about 4 months old.

I am going to leave you all this week with this funny story (but not at the time) that happened to us the other day. There we were kiting quite happily up and down without a care in the world with our lovely little Decathlon beach brolly protecting our stuff from the sun on the vast beach when we decided to come in for a drink.   Just as Julie landed my kite the wind decided to rip the beach umbrella with the sand anchor attached and begin to propel it across the salt flats then with that Julie SHOUTS at me, THE KEY, THE KEY then I realised that I had attached the camper key to the frame under the brolly while I was getting changed into my wetsuit but had forgotten to put it round my neck and tuck it down my wetsuit as I normally do so it took off with the brolly.   So with that I began to run after the tumbling brolly still in my kite gear across the salt flats hoping that a land yachter or buggy dude would see it and catch/stop it but surprise surprise no, then I began looking how far is this going before it gets wrecked or caught on something so I can catch it up but Decathlon build their brollies too strong !!! After well and truly running out of puff I just watched it carry on tumbling into the distance while I walked trying to keep sight of it hoping the key was still attached, thinking why oh why didn’t I put it round my neck, then it seemed to stop tumbling so I began to run again then finally reached it as it come to rest in some bushes about a MILE from where it had took off and to my relief the key was still attached unbelievable and the bloody brolly only had a slight slice on the material with no other damage…then I had the mile long walk in the head on wind past all the land yachters & buggy dudes who were probably thinking nutter why did he go all that way for a cheap brolly not knowing that my motorhome key was attached…WON’T DO THAT AGAIN (take a look at a La Franqui beach picture, add a mile, that’s how far I ran & walked!!!)  

Once again we were forced to go to the little bar in the village for a pint to get Wi-fi to post this blog, cheers everyone, enjoy!

J&J

x