13th September 2024

Another cold, windy day. Sun was about. I was up early and walked out of the campsite to the marshes at 8.00am. Unfortunatley, without a long walk, 8.00am is the earliest you can get out, There are many dog walkers at this time, (frightening the birds) and the sun is already quite high. Quite a few herons and egrets were fishing along the ditch, The ones close to the sea were tame and never moved. The further away you get, the more wary they became, and it was impossible to creep up on them.  Out  on the lagoon there were some Flamingos close to the shore, but as I approached they moved away.  Not a very successful birding drip.

Walking back along the fence, the numerous dragonflies patrolling the fence had been replaced with house martins / swifts / swallows. They were gorging themselves on dragonflies in the lee of the fence.

R was doing the washing and was having difficulties paying, so I rushed back.  Then a call she was successful and had paid by contactless, Why does she insist on plugging the card in and tapping the number.  It is not more secure. Mind you a washing machine that needs a credit card for payment, is new to us! Later we went back to put the washing into the tumble dryer.

After washing and drying we walked into town, visiting the Friday market.  Lots of tat and knives on sale, along with vegetables, salt, chicken, cheeses and meat.

Buying nothing we started a search for a restaurant. Using Google maps we did a compromise on Google ratings, the food type, and whether anyone was eating there today.

We in the end chose the ‘La Cour’ where we had Ricard, pink wine, baked mussels with cheese and a salad. R’s starter salad caused a bit of confusion, it was a main course salad so I also tucked in. Mains I had a bull steak, while Rosemay opted for a more veggie dish, while she muttered about leather handbags being easier to eat than bull. No puddings (no room!), but an espresso and a local Camargue Pastis each.

Back to the campsite, via the small supermarket for the next few days’ food.

Still windy. Noticed some food bags in the van had been chewed. R said this was friction wear in travelling. I was not so sure. We had also started to hear sounds from behind the sink. Tonight I spotted a mouse in one of the cupboards, but it rushed over the top of the back board and disappeared. Later I saw two mice come out from under the fridge. They disappeared quickly underneath again. Not good.

During the night we could hear then scrabbling around.  The wind also rose, and eventually we dropped the roof down, so we could get some sleep.  The other VW at some time during the night did the same thing.  The wind on the Meteo France was gusting at well over 60k.