Hello From The Herault

On 22 Juillet we moved from Anduze, south west to the wine lands around the Herault region.  It was intensely hot as we arrived at our new municipal campsite where we ‘enjoyed’ a lunch of Crackerbreads avec rillette de poulet as we waited for the campsite office to open.  The boys running the site came over to let us know they’d opened for us, but were then horrified that I’d terminated my delicious lunch early just so that I could check in!  The site was fine (although no pool) however we’d pitched on top of a giant ant nest and below the same species of raspberry-like fruit tree as in Italy (see earlier blog) so that by the end of our short duration we had a bug infestation, our floor mats were covered in sticky fruit and the top of the van & awning were splattered in berry-poo!

To escape the intense heat of the site, we ventured up to St-Guilhem-le-Desert, a pretty village set deep a river gorge where the R. Verdus flows into the R. Herault to do a spot of canoeing.  As the youngest member of our party was only just 4, ‘Rapido Canoeing’ allowed us to tackle the cliff course ‘a tranquil section of river’ for 4 hours, although being France they shrugged and told us we could take as long as we liked.  We spent an idyllic few hours slowly paddling upstream (although ask the boys and they will tell you of the ‘great speed’ they advanced towards the river’s source!)  We passed a river cafe with sun loungers and little round tables sunk into the water, and a sign telling of boisson froid in the apres midi. 

We disembarked just short of an old mill and wiled away a couple of hours eating, chatting, swimming in the reed beds, throwing bread and ham to the local fish population (we enjoyed a surprise visit from a fresh water crayfish/ lobster who found the ham most delicious!).  Unfortunately I was still incapacitated with my knee injury so couldn’t partake in a cooling dip but it  did mean that I could be the official photographer for the day.

On return to camp and after tea we watched ‘Waking Ned’ on the DVD as the children hadn’t seen it (although I think we enjoyed this umpteenth viewing just as much) and made sure that we had an early night as tomorrow the Famille Johnston would be joining us on la grande vacance!