Wednesday 21st May Sigean to Narbonne

The weather is cloudy and a bit rubbish today, but we’re not bothered as we’re off to the city! We take small diversion en route to check out Peyriac, but we park up in the aire and are immediately told off, for no evident reason, by some interfering old French A-hole so we don’t even bother turning the engine off and just leave. We find the aire in Narbonne without incident and a very civilised affair it is indeed: Carrefour enorme and Mcdonalds around the corner one way and town a ten minute walk the other – with a free bus if you need. For some reason every other camper is parked on one side of the car park and it’s just us and one other on our side – what do they know that we don’t know??

The weather is looking ever more threatening so we decide to go straight into Narbonne before it gets really bad – the forecast is grim for later. Narbonne is beautiful even when overcast, the place des Halles is a wondrous place full of yummies and small little bar café type places where you can sample the wares and enjoy the paper at the same time – very civilised. Unfortunately we are not civilised to join as we have two wagging dogs waiting patiently outside, we buy something unidentifiable and delicious for us all to share on the wall outside.

After ‘lunch’ we wander around Narbonne enjoying the sights, it’s got a really lovely feel to the place and despite its long history has a distinctly boho and young vibe. Jon finds his niche…

We pop into the ‘Le France’ bar for a swifty and discover we have fallen into the most popular bar/restaurant in town it would seem. Everywhere else is quiet, but this place is packed and continues to fill up. When we see the plates of food that are coming out of the kitchen we are not surprised.. they look and smell heavenly! Norm practically turns himself inside out trying to inveigle his way inside. Anyway… rain threatens so we decide to beat a retreat to Valerie. This turns out to be a good decision as shortly after our arrival chez nous the weather takes a serious turn for the worse – severe weather warnings are issued to the team and we batten down like mad… 100kmh winds ahoy!

It turns out this is serious wind. Sitting in the powder room (proper posh here) the van is being rocked from side to side. It is actually akin to being on a boat. After a prolonged stint I begin to feel seasick such is the violence of the wind. Such is the gravity of the situation I decide to call a second severe weather warning to all on board. Troops informed we all hunker down and ride out the storm. Admiral Norman seems completely unperturbed and oversees operations from the Bridge, valiantly assisted by Anouska

As the storm continues to rage on, not everyone has the stomach for the conditions it transpires. Able Seaman Moo flees below decks and hides under the table for the duration. Sea legs not with him yet we assume.

Fellow camper van types are all in the same boat (ahem); satellite dishes are being lowered at pace, awnings reeled in, everybody parked up in a row resembling tiny armoured armadillos – perhaps this is why everybody was parked next to each other… shelter? We watch on the news that he wind has knocked out the electricity in 28000 homes, severe weather warning indeed. Hard to believe we’re on the med!