Where's Bertie? His wheels have not turned. He is still in the heaving beachside Aire at Capbreton.
Weather: Bit of a murky start, with the sun eventually burning through about noon. Hot afternoon.
After posting last night's blog I Googled to see if it was a Spanish public holiday. That gave us our answer as to why Capbreton is full of Spanish vans (lots with children) just now: Thursday was a holiday, thus they have a long weekend.
As it went, last night was not as bad as expected. The group using the VW van in front of us as 'party central' went out before 11pm, thus the music stopped. The next we heard from them was when they got back and all stood outside chatting at 3.48 this morning. By 4.35 all was quiet again and the next thing I knew my alarm was going off.
Fortunately I was up when the bread van arrived at 9am. Unfortunately I wasn't dressed and in the time it took me to change my pyjama shorts (covered in cartoon sheep - not going out in those!) for shorts suitable for public view, I found the queue for bread extended half the length of our row of the Aire - and that is quite a distance. It was a little comfort to look behind me a minute later and see that the queue now extended the whole length of the row. I guess I wasn't the only person caught still in their nightwear.
With everyone seemingly buying at least €3 worth of goods (I saw one person with six baguettes; the options were baguettes, croissant and chocolatines, all priced at €1 each), that baker did a roaring trade and I reckon they must have just about sold out.
Realising that it's possible we may leave France before Monday, and as I have the ability to hold a conversation about buying postage stamps in French, but not in Spanish, haste was made to write a couple of cards to my Gran, and to make it across town before the post office closed at lunchtime. It was market day in town, so that waylaid us on the way back, along with the perusal of a couple of menus, although we didn't succumb - we are saving ourselves for some Menus del Dia in Spain.
Back at the Aire, we acknowledged that, being as crammed as it currently is, it's not the nicest place to be. It seemed likely that all other Aires on our route south would also be brimming, due to the Spanish holilday, but resources were scoured and I came up with a few viable-looking options. We resolved to leave just as soon as I had taken advantage of the electric and cooked a couple of meals.
As you may gather from the title and 'Where's Bertie' above, we didn't leave. Whilst the food was cooking, the neighbour, on the side of our main door, left and were soon replaced by a British van. As the British van had its door on the British side, it was facing ours and thus we got chatting*. By the time we paused for breath, the 'party van' was clearly packing up to leave, which tipped the balance towards us staying, even if it didn't make our little patch of crammed car park any more attractive.
Crochet in the sunshine, reading in the sunshine, a bit of research about where we may go in Spain, and a run just as the sun was dipping low and the temperature dropping, completed our day.
I know it's warm in the UK this weekend, and the warm spell is over here too. From temperatures of low- to mid-twenties all week, we were up in the high twenties today. As I type this at 9pm, we still have Bertie's door and his skylights open and it is still 26 degrees in here. Sticky night ahead, methinks.
(*Our neighbours stop off at this Aire for a couple of nights each year on their way to Spain and were taken aback at how busy it is. They've never seen it like it - which confirms that it is just the Spanish holiday that has caused a blip in its popularity for the time of year.))
Weather: Bit of a murky start, with the sun eventually burning through about noon. Hot afternoon.
After posting last night's blog I Googled to see if it was a Spanish public holiday. That gave us our answer as to why Capbreton is full of Spanish vans (lots with children) just now: Thursday was a holiday, thus they have a long weekend.
As it went, last night was not as bad as expected. The group using the VW van in front of us as 'party central' went out before 11pm, thus the music stopped. The next we heard from them was when they got back and all stood outside chatting at 3.48 this morning. By 4.35 all was quiet again and the next thing I knew my alarm was going off.
Fortunately I was up when the bread van arrived at 9am. Unfortunately I wasn't dressed and in the time it took me to change my pyjama shorts (covered in cartoon sheep - not going out in those!) for shorts suitable for public view, I found the queue for bread extended half the length of our row of the Aire - and that is quite a distance. It was a little comfort to look behind me a minute later and see that the queue now extended the whole length of the row. I guess I wasn't the only person caught still in their nightwear.
With everyone seemingly buying at least €3 worth of goods (I saw one person with six baguettes; the options were baguettes, croissant and chocolatines, all priced at €1 each), that baker did a roaring trade and I reckon they must have just about sold out.
Realising that it's possible we may leave France before Monday, and as I have the ability to hold a conversation about buying postage stamps in French, but not in Spanish, haste was made to write a couple of cards to my Gran, and to make it across town before the post office closed at lunchtime. It was market day in town, so that waylaid us on the way back, along with the perusal of a couple of menus, although we didn't succumb - we are saving ourselves for some Menus del Dia in Spain.
Back at the Aire, we acknowledged that, being as crammed as it currently is, it's not the nicest place to be. It seemed likely that all other Aires on our route south would also be brimming, due to the Spanish holilday, but resources were scoured and I came up with a few viable-looking options. We resolved to leave just as soon as I had taken advantage of the electric and cooked a couple of meals.
As you may gather from the title and 'Where's Bertie' above, we didn't leave. Whilst the food was cooking, the neighbour, on the side of our main door, left and were soon replaced by a British van. As the British van had its door on the British side, it was facing ours and thus we got chatting*. By the time we paused for breath, the 'party van' was clearly packing up to leave, which tipped the balance towards us staying, even if it didn't make our little patch of crammed car park any more attractive.
Crochet in the sunshine, reading in the sunshine, a bit of research about where we may go in Spain, and a run just as the sun was dipping low and the temperature dropping, completed our day.
I know it's warm in the UK this weekend, and the warm spell is over here too. From temperatures of low- to mid-twenties all week, we were up in the high twenties today. As I type this at 9pm, we still have Bertie's door and his skylights open and it is still 26 degrees in here. Sticky night ahead, methinks.
(*Our neighbours stop off at this Aire for a couple of nights each year on their way to Spain and were taken aback at how busy it is. They've never seen it like it - which confirms that it is just the Spanish holiday that has caused a blip in its popularity for the time of year.))
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