The South Called
Michel has family living further south in France than we do. Right down on the Mediterranean coast where the summers are sweltering, dry and busy. Where the flora and fauna is different, able to cope with scorching heat and no rain. In August it is where a lot of the population of France heads for holidays. We live in the south-west, but not the Mediterranean region and tend not to move far from home during July and August. We have all we need to enjoy the hot months comfortably. And we don’t like busy places, not these days.
The last time we went south in August was in 2013, before we lived here full time. We took off from here and headed to the Cevennes region for 6 days of camping with Renae, Susie-Belle and Twinkle. The Cevennes is a beautiful place, with stunning scenery, wild rivers, waterfalls and not many people. We loved it and will return, perhaps later this year before winter sets in. Or next Spring. But in the campervan, not a tent.
For us to go south in August makes little sense. We are here all year round and can avoid the hottest, busiest time of year to travel. But, south we went last week for 6 days in the campervan. Where temperatures at night didn’t drop below 24 celsius and day time outdoor temperatures were nudging 40.
We needed something fixed on the van for our upcoming trip in September to Guernsey. (More on that in the next blog). Of course, there are local places we could have gone to fix it, but, well, this is France in August and everything was shut, or shutting down for the month when we called. So we rang a family member who knows about these things and he said come down, I’ll fix it in five for you. That’s how we came to be travelling south in the heat and hustle of a French August.
The dogs were stars. Absolute stars the whole time. We took the cooling aids we know work for them, including ample cool mats, frozen thingy-me-jigs they enjoy and were sensible about parking up in the shade etc, etc, I’d done hours of research before we left to understand how people in hot countries manage to live in vans. Nowadays the research is easy and common sense makes it doable. I don’t deal well myself with excessive heat, so there’s no way the dogs will come to any harm when it comes to living in hot conditions.
The heat was one challenge. The different people and places where we were staying were another. Again, the dogs shone. Cerise especially did well. She didn’t enjoy the van when we first got it (see more here.) And no sooner had we got it, than Covid hit and travel was disrupted so we couldn’t get into the swing of it with her. Then the storm last year caused enough damage to keep us off the road for most of the year. So it was a pleasant surprise to see her actually enjoying the van, not just tolerating it. And she showed no anxiety around the various different people we met and those we stayed with. Her recent progress is remarkable, it has definitely accelerated. As noted by Michel’s niece who commented on it having last seen Cerise a year ago.
We stayed in the heart of Avignon for a couple of nights, taking an early morning walk around the historic city. The dogs enjoyed the ground level smells, we took in the history and were back home by 9am as the heat was already rising.
Next an onward drive to Montpellier for a night with more family. It was far too hot and busy and noisy for me and the dogs to venture out at all, opting to stay home while Michel went to the beach. The next day we started making our way home. Back into the countryside we went, heading slightly north, away from the holidaymakers and parched landscapes. France is a big country and a few hours drive along twisty off-the-main-highway roads north from Montpellier, still kept us in the hot, but not quite so hot, south of France.
Staying near Cahors for our last night, we found a perfectly peaceful spot in a tiny, ancient village.
With a shady walk from the van we took an early morning leg stretch the next day, before the last couple of hours drive to home.
In total it was a long drive – 1315 kilometers – to have a small thing fixed on the van. Which took not much more than 5 minutes. But it was the perfect excuse to explore France. And France is most definitely worth exploring. It is beautiful and varied and stunning in many, many places (And a bit too hot in August on the south coast). It was also a trip that proved good preparation for our small island trip next month. Where we head north. Where I hope it will be cooler, but not too cool!
