I had good night down the pub last night watching England lose again! I watched it with a couple of lads and girls from Manchester, they had very broad Manc accents but all of them also spoke fluent French. Funny to listen to.
We took the doggies for a walk before we left, the water was so clear and inviting. We liked Port Vendres a lot, a very nice little town ...
We set the Tom Tom for Sete, but also decided we had better find a vet for Geoffrey the cat. He has no ears because of skin cancer, he has skin cancer on his nose but that isn't too bad. What is bad is about two months ago a growth started on his eyelid. We took him to a vet in England but he said it would be a very dodgy operation to remove it, plus he is 23 with an overactive thyroid, so he jut told us to keep an eye on it (no pun intended). The bloody thing must like the heat as it started growing really quickly - it was really big on his eyelid and looked like his eyeball was hanging out. Elaine was bathing it numerous times a day when suddenly it all dried up. Great, we thought, 'till a couple of days later when the middle fell out leaving this stinking oozing puss-y mess! Once again Elaine has been bathing it but it stinks of dead tissue. So today we found a very nice vet who gave us some stuff to bathe it in but basically said there is nothing you can do about it, but bathing it as the flesh is dying. The first thing he said when we went in was, "Do you want me to help him on his way!" We don't at the moment because he is still eating and drinking and purring away and is showing no signs of distress.
Talking of distress for some reason this chap tried to drive across a salt flat, which are generally quite hard on top with the dried salt but if the salt gives way - oh dear ...
All of a sudden we crossed the Canal Du Midi! We had a quick look at the map only to see that it finished (or started) very close to where we were ...
So here it is the start/finish of the Canal Du Midi ...
You have to traverse the lake, go through Sete then you are in the Med ...
So here it it guys, the starboard marker! We looked out for NB Matilda Rose, but didn't see them, they are still probably a few
On the bottom left of the pic is a sunken boat ... it's about 50m from the start (or finish) of the canal ...
Next stop was Sete city centre, this lift bridge crosses one of the many canals ...
It looked a really cool city so we tried to find a park for the night ...
We stopped here first, but there was only parking for two motorhomes and they were taken. One of the motorhomes belonged to a very well spoken English chap, who said we could park across the road at the camp set up by the alcoholic Poles or alternatively there was a spot around the corner where the pikeys live in their vans…..We said thanks but no thanks and unfortunately had to move out of town. This is only the second time in over six weeks that we didn't manage to find a decent safe looking 'mooring', so no biggie.
The bridge was up that we drove over earlier ...
We left Sete driving over yet another canal ...
We found the last free spot in an Aire about 15mins drive outside the city at Balaruc les Bains. There was another one just around the corner but it was full...
We went for a walk down by the Lake, Sete is on the other side ...
We had to have a pic by the Tromp l'oeil painting by the lake side ...
Apparently the chap on the roof on the top left of the pic is Salvador Dali ...
Balaruc les Bains is a very strange place! We went for a good walk around, it was very strange, there were lots of people wandering around the streets all very well dressed, but there seemed to be bugger all there. We found a casino in a carpark that looked well out of place but that was it…nothing, no bars no restaurants no shops, yet there are 3 Aires here for motorhomes! Then it got stranger, I noticed an empty plastic drink bottle on a car aerial, and thought, naughty little French kids, but, no, loads of them have plastic bottles attached to their car aerials ...
In the pic below 5 cars have bottles on aerials! They were everywhere ! So, is it Swingers advertising that they swing or doggers advertising that they dog ... or is it to stop seagulls crapping on the roof?
We are now in Remy de Provence (but more of that in the next blog) - but we have wifi here so have just published yesterday's post! We now realise why Balaruc les Bains was so popular ... it is a centre for Thermal pools and mud ... we were parked up right next to the Hesperides thermal bath, so we did experience a bit of it while dunking our hands in it last night ! We had no idea it was such a big do ... apparently 35,000 people go there each year ! Well, what do you know :)
Here is wherre we were ... parked up in a car park ... not really an Aire !
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