Windmills & wine

markpierce said:

Just serve me the wine, please.

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Is that a glass of one of the delicious Sonoma white wines ?

Desolee Pilou.
the Faugere is a local red from near St Chinian.
If you like white how about a dozen huitres with some Picpoul Pinet ?
We are going to Spain by car tomorrow and I'll give your regards to Mt Canigou and the Clos St Georges.

Yes IR, I meant about MarkPierce's photo.
Definitly agree for huitres with cooled Picpoul, where that ? I suggest in Sète !

Very kind of you, please pass my regards to Canigou, my birth area. 2 weeks ago I was in Prades for the funeral of my uncle, Canigou was wearing its long snow's coat, always watching over the Catalans .

My favourite place for the huitres would be Aigues Mortes in the square, after that Sete, Gruissan or Collouire.
We will go shortly on Le P'tit Train Jaune while the snow is still on the mountains.

Irish Rambler said:

My favourite place for the huitres would be Aigues Mortes in the square, after that Sete, Gruissan or Collouire.
We will go shortly on Le P'tit Train Jaune while the snow is still on the mountains.

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Great ! So you will be boarding from Villefranche de Conflent (so close to my birthtown) to Latour de Carol, crossing 650 engineering structures...

Exactement.
We usually get off at Bourg Madam and walk over the bridge into Spain.

As you all know we're moored in Narbonne after our European adventure which you can now see on Amazon Kindle or Kobo.
In this part of the world at this time the local people have fete's to herald the start of spring and have fun before the tourist season starts.
Most small towns have a fete which usually lasts a week with various events culminating in a grand parade. Each town has mascot which could be a horse, bull, cockerel etc. some are quite heavy and can take six or eight young men to carry them and make them 'dance' to the music of the bands. Confetti is showered on everyone by the people in the parade as they pass by.
Large towns like Narbonne choose a theme, this years theme was 'The Middle Ages' and events were run all week along that theme, both for fun but also to help educate the young in history and a lot of effort is put in by the town itself and various voluntary bodies.
Unfortunately due to possibility terrorist activity there was a heavy police presence and roads were closed off to stop any ethnic person spoiling the fun.
Here are just a few photo's for you to enjoy.

When you've had an adventure cruising from Dunkirk through 'Windmills and Wine' and arriving at your destination been occupied modifying the boat, you tend to get a bit of cabin fever.
I hope I'm not annoying or offending the moderators with this following post.


Having just changed the car we decided to give it a bit of test run.
Between France and Spain is a range of mountains known as the Pyrenees, there are a few minor roads which cross it the middle which are blocked by snow for 6 months of the year, basically there are 2 main routes, one to the North of the Pyrenees and one to the South. See the photo.
In the middle of this mountain range is a tiny landlocked country called Andorra.
It's mountainous, has hot thermal springs and snow for 5/6 months of the year. It's jointly administered by both Spain and France (rotating every 6 months).
Before France and Spain joined the EU it was a very well known 'offshore' banking capital, it still enjoys especially low tax rates on goods/fuel etc and many French and Spanish visitors go there for ski-ing in the winter months and to buy cheap tobacco and spirits.
I know it sounds strange but there's lots of water up there in the mountains, this is used to provide hydro electricity for everyone and the warm thermal spring were used for many years by the locals.
In the main town of Caldea they've now built an ultra modern complex with Swimming pools, Roman baths, Steam rooms, Sauna's, Beauty/Massage service etc.
We used a site called Groupon to grab ourselves a deal with 2 nights in a hotel and 4 hours at the complex including a massage for 180 Euro's for us both.
We also found there a totally unexpected, magnificent Scale Model Train shop, I've never seen such a volume of working models and scales, it's not my thing, but if anyone's into working model railways they can be found at info@basarvalira.com , bear in mind there are no trains in Andorra which made it more of a shock. photo's.
Beside the tourist office is a statue of a girl making lace. photo.
Copper stills are used to make perfumes, these of course can be put to other uses and we saw 96% proof alcohol on sale !
Air dried ham is a speciality of this region and this shop is also a bar where you can get air dried ham based tapas with your beer.

Following on from the previous post here are a few more photos.
An old photo mounted outside the tourist office.
An old Andorran house, scarcity of land here means its at a premium, this house will be renovated.
More modern apartments in Caldea, the capital town in Andorra.
Very early model of 'Stephenson's Rocket' train.
You have to be careful what you say when speaking in English because most people can speak it and overhear you and some words have different meanings and you could be misunderstood.
This old lorry is an ex British army 4x4 Bedford RL which after serving the British army well went on to have a second life and was used for years with a snow plough, it also has winches for getting stuck vehicles out of the snow. Note the yellow turret on top of the cab, this was where the passenger stood up and operated a Bren gun (machine gun) on a rotating turret. She's now retired, still running sweetly and can be pressed into service in an emergency.
I've never seen a snowmobile pull into a service because most people can speak it here station to fill up before. photo.
Self explanatory photo means you can taste any of the wines and Liquors on sale here, we counted 40 different varieties on sale direct from a wooden barrel, you could buy it in a plastic bottle up to 5 litres volume. Plus countless bottles on display.
The highest bar/restaurant in the whole of the Pyrenees is Fra Miguel here in Andorra, it was first opened in 1940 and serves thirsty skiers in the winter and car drivers/hill walkers in the summer, on the opposite side of the road is a ski lift and the filling station where the photo of the snowmobile was taken.
As a point of interest a normal bag of crisps swell up like a balloon at this altitude.

Apologies if I was off post but I thought it may be of interested to you.

Thanks IR, I enjoyed the posts. I must get there one day....

Your very welcome Brian.
Andorra's well run, neat, clean and tidy, the people are very friendly, helpful and a delight to visit for a cruiser crew.
We understand many people from all over the world may never get the chance to experience it, its still part of our cruising adventure and we like to show what's within reasonable reach of cruiser skippers/crews to avoid the crew getting 'cabin fever', rather than just arrive in port and be unaware of what's available on your doorstep.

I drove from France to Portugal via Spain, and vv, crossing the Pyrenees. I remember going through Pau in France. We overnighted In Burgos,both ways, the cathedral is massive and contains the tomb of El Cid.
Going through the Pyrenees feels like being on the very top of the world. I suspect it`s more fun in a nice MB than a rented Peugeot, but it was lots of fun for an old ex rally driver.
Thanks for the great pics.

Your welcome Bruce.
I was a bit afraid that if it wasn't strictly 'boaty' it might annoy the TF team.
I know that part of the country and you're spot on its very nice, I didn't see El Cid yet but its on the list.
The electrics on my old MB died so I treated myself to the 320 with 'sport' mode, yup ! couldn't resist playing a bit on the switchbacks, there's teeth marks on the passengers side and I now know some new French swear words, had to go easy to stay married.


I'm trying to show readers from other parts of the world there's lots of interesting things to see close to the waterways when cruising get the most benefit and make the whole experience interesting.

For all the kind people on TF who've given their support and followed 'Windmills and Wine' I'm pleased to say that after a few false starts from slick salesmen we ended up doing it ourselves and now have a book version available from Amazon.
We were at bit shocked at the publishing costs and I can assure you that my rewards are small.
The main thing was to get it in print and available as a good read but more importantly as a reference book for others wishing to do something similar. If you are kind enough to buy either the e book or the paperback a 5* rating would be greatly appreciated.


Now I have to fess up to dropping a monumental clanger !
As you know I'm trying to show you things which are easily available to anyone cruising this area to make the whole experience enjoyable for all the family and any friends who visit.
I laid out an itinery to see the Gypsies shrine, Roman theatre, Roman amphitheatre, Pont du Gard Aqueduct, filled the car and off we went.
300 kilometres later we arrived at the first place of interest and I said to the missus 'Bring the camera cherie' to which she replied 'No dear you get it, you packed it'.
Silence as reality set in, camera was still 300 k's away on 'Snow Mouse'.
A few choice words under the breath.
But I promised I would so I will.


Ever been to Spain ?
A favourite place for British package holiday tourists for many years as they head south for a little sun and a very popular place for 'stag' and 'hen' party's getting up to all sorts of antics on their last days of freedom. For us this resort is one of the places we haven't visited on our cruises down the Spanish coast in our boat as there's no marina and she who must be obeyed doesn't like anchoring out.
Here's a few photo's of a resort called Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava.


1, Early season and not many on the beach.
2, ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
3, The Spanish people are devoutly religious and this is the pretty church in Lloret de Mar.
4,
5,Sangria is Spanish red wine mixed with fruit juice, served chilled with chunks of ice and fruit.
6, Wherever you go there's an Irish bar and yep, I went in and enjoyed a taste of home, couple of pints of Guinness.
7, Narrow streets mean that car aren't allowed into the town centre and the locals use scooters to get around.
8, the usual tourist gee-gaws
9, As well as this lovely model of the Titanic this shop sold a wide range beautiful brass sextants, clinometers, old blocks and memento's of sailing ships, compasses and lots of model ships.

The kind people who followed our journey last year will remember we came down the Rhone valley and followed the Rhone a Sete canal.
At that time we didn't get time to explore the Rhone delta but a super summer cruise shows our route, the grey line on the map.
We visited Les Saintes Marie de la Mer (Saint Mary of the Seas) there is a church holding the remains of saints.

According to legend the Romans cast out Mary Jacobea and Mary Salome and their servant Sara putting them out to sea in a small boat with no oars, apparently they were many days at sea and their boat was cast up on the shore and once ashore they dug for fresh water. By a miracle on this dry sandy shore they found an underground vein of fresh water, thought to originate from the river Rhone.
Mary Salome was the mother of St's John and James, Mary Jacobea was the mother of the other James and Jude. these ladies were sainted later.
Their servant girl Sara, known as the black saint was adopted as the patron saint of the Tsiganes people, known variously as Gypsy's, Romany's, Guerrier's or Pikey's, some of the names these people of no fixed abode are referred to. They all gather here once a year on the 24th and 25th of May for a pilgrimage when the statue of Saint Sara is taken down to the sea along with the saints boat.
A church was built on the site where the fresh water was found, it is now surrounded by grill and has a glass top, this water is used as holy water.


Photos,
1, Route
2, Apologies, bad photo in the crypt.
3, Saint Sara, the black Saint.
4, The Saints Mary.
5, The church.
6, Saint Sara.
7, Bells.
8,The coffin containing the bones the two Saint Mary's are kept up here and once a year they are brought down with great ceremony for the pilgrimage to the sea, and returned afterwards and secured in place.
9, looking seaward from the church roof in the direction the Saints arrived from.

The Rhone delta was formed from silt washed down and much of the area is covered in salty marshland. This region in general is called the 'Camargue' and is famous for its white horses and semi wild bulls, being marshy there's quite a lot of rice grown where possible.
Yes I know technically there's no such thing as a white horse, they're called greys, but to everyone here they're white.
These horses are also semi wild and roam free over the winter and then rounded up, many are used for pony trekking and herding the bulls. Horses form a significant part of the culture, unusually they are born brown and the turn white around 5 years old.
The bulls here are lighter and more agile than the Spanish bulls and their horn grow vertically as opposed to the Spanish horizontal.
Bull fighting still takes place and supposedly none are killed, instead they hang trinkets on the horns and the matadors have to hook them off the horns.
Both the horses and bulls meat is eaten locally and because the animals adapt to the marshy salty vegetation the meat is stronger than normal cattle beef..
When the Saints Mary's coffin is taken to the sea (previous post) its escorted by these Gardians on horseback in full local costume.
Photos,
1, Gardian.
2,3, Camargue bulls.
4, Camargue horse.
5, Poster advertising a Camargue horse festival.

I'm pleased to say that Amazon.com have just made available 2 print on demand paperbacks, 'Encore' covers the trip from Ireland to Dunkirk, see the post 'Ireland to the Mediterranean Part 1' here on TF.
'Windmills & Wine' covers Dunkirk to Narbonne, just type book name ' ' by Geoff Woolley, search.
I hope you enjoy them, a 5* rating would be very much appreciated.
Thank you everyone for your support.

When we came down the Rhone last year the P'tit Rhone was shown on the charts as being blocked to navigation below St Gilles lock.
I didn't wish to experiment with the current behind in case I got into trouble, determined to have a look I tried another method.
Leaving the port of Le Sainte Marie a la Mer we entered the river by the sea entrance and cruised up to see what the obstruction was and it turned out to be a ferry cable across the river.
We were able to keep to the side of the river and limbo under it.
This free ferry service is a small paddle wheeler.


Photos.
1, Ferry cable across the river.
2, Ferry,
3, Peculiar shaped local house, the rounded end is built to the predominant wind direction, logical in a way.
4, Horses and bulls dominate life here and the cross local to this area.

Hi Irish Rambler.
Have tried to find your book on Amazon and it does not appear anywhere I can see.
All I get are people trying to sell me windmills or wine Help please.

John

Rebel said:

Hi Irish Rambler.
Have tried to find your book on Amazon and it does not appear anywhere I can see.
All I get are people trying to sell me windmills or wine Help please.

John

Click to expand...

I found it...

https://www.amazon.com/WINDMILLS-WI...8-1&keywords=geoff+woolley+windmills+and+wine

and

https://www.amazon.com/Geoff-Woolley/e/B005AO8TJK/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Thanks Al.
Bought it!!

John

That's never going to work; Aussies driving on the wrong side of the canal, going into the wrong side of the locks, complaining about the lack of Foster's...Gawd it would be a shambles!

Following on from our visit to St Marie De La Mer and then up the P'tit Rhone we arrived at the junction with the main Rhone river, there we turned South wards heading back down river and towards the sea again.
En route we arrived at the town of Arles which is the limit of navigation for hire cruisers, having moored safely out of the main current we set off to explore this fascinating town.


As we're art lovers we wanted to see 'Van Gogh's bridge' as its known locally.
Its proper name is Le Pont De Langlois Aux Lavandieres
So first we went by ships bike to visit the bridge made famous by the painter Van Gogh (photo).
Many artists came down to the South of France to paint because of the clear light.
I'm told it had nothing whatsoever to do with cheap wine, pretty girls and the easy living lifestyle.

Now for the piece de resistance of this trip.
The Roman theatre in Arles.
It was built in typical amphitheatre design for acoustics and featured even that far back moveable scenery.
This was done with a series of blocks, pulleys and slots large enough to handle backdrop scenery. The required scenery was slid out of its slot on rollers and then hoisted into position.
They even had a curtain which unlike the modern version which comes down the roof, the ancient Roman theatre's came up from a slot in the floor.
The aristocracy sat in the front circle and depending on your station in society, further back.


Photo's.
1, Arles Ornate cathedral.
2, Exterior wall of the Roman theatre.
3, Interior showing the stage area (still used today for outside performances)
4, Size of the theatre,
5, If you look at the exterior wall of the amphitheatre you will see several arches. these were built in such a way that different classes of people were segregated in the theatre, they never mixed either arriving or leaving.
6, Preserved outer wall

Just a short walk from the theatre is the Roman amphitheatre, probably one of the best preserved in Europe.
These photos are for the benefit of anyone who may not otherwise have the opportunity see them.


Photo's.
1, Roman arena.
2, Internal structure. The slots in the stones were used for scaffolding during building and repairs.
3, there are any passages like this for entry/exit to various levels.
4 & 5 general structure.
6, Arena seating.
7 & 8 The arena.
9, Structure.
10, Description.

Now for the gruesome bit.
As you know The Romans pitted Gladiators against one another so here a few photo's.


1, This explains the Amphitheatre's role.
2, Gladiators.
3, The town of Arles is situated on the banks of the Rhone river in the South of France.
4,This is mold used for brass or lead.
5, This is the mold, and the brass bell it made.
6, This is the exterior of the mold.
7,This young fella was using an adze, Viking boat builder favoured this tool for shaping wood.
8, Ooops ! If you turn this photo.
This is an early food operated lathe.

Looking around some of the weapons recovered from this area you can see they were a pretty gruesome lot.
These various artefacts have been preserved and brought out from the museum for 'open' days. Teachers take classes around early in the morning, to see and take part, in the live exhibitions to make their education more interesting.


Photo's.
1, Various Pikes and Halberdiers.
2, Pretty vicious looking close quarter weapons of destruction.
3, A selection of arrows.
4, These arrows were used to disable horses by cutting the sinews and arteries to dismount the rider.
5, An early crossbow.
6, Before hydraulic cranes were invented these wooden cranes were used for building the Coliseums and Theatre's.
7, Metal helmets for mounted cavalry.

Do you remember when we came down the river Rhone I spoke of the Knights Templars castles ? I also mentioned them again when we visited Aigues Mortes. When living in Ireland our family home was in Templepatrick, which is where St Patrick and the Knights Templar rested and watered their horses from the well on their way to the crusades. Hence the name.
Since Dan Browne's 'The Da Vinci Code' there've been many conspiracy theories with a liberal use of the literary licence regarding the Knights Templar using scraps of history to bolster their stories.
One such describes a castle with an inscription carved into the stone lintel over the doorway, the castle is called Chateau de Blanchefort.
Our cruiser was moored in Arles and we'd had some time generally lazing around in the sun I got a bit fed up with inactivity so I decided to take a closer look.
This Chateau is up in the hills and I could see nothing of interest but undertook the steep climb anyway, at the top there was simply a pile of stones with an outline of a watch tower, no carved lintel and it was certainly no Chateau but the climb up and down was a good excuse to blow the froth of a couple of welcome beers.
Another theory relates to Mt Arrarat, the supposed resting place of Noah's Ark, as a young soldier on a reconnaissance mission (its only 12 miles from Russia) I climbed Mt Arrarat and apart from a vague outline in rocks resembling the shape of a hull there's nothing there either.


Following that disappointment I wanted facts and another excursion took us to La Couvertoirade.
This fortification is the real deal and was one of the Knights Templars bastions, it's being slowly renovated to its former glory and is in fact run as a small village with it's own mayor and residents must agree to show the outer structural parts of their homes for visiting tourists to view.
This Templar fort was self sufficient and also gave succour to passing Knights.
The Knights Templar invented the travellers cheque system and were the foundation of banking(they were honourable unlike today's offerings).


Friday the 13th is today considered unlucky, this dates back to Friday the 13th when the French King Phillipe in collusion with the Pope had the Knights Templar rounded up and killed on that day.


I was unable to upload photo's in this post due to IT gremlins and will put them in the next post for you.

Apologies for the slow upload of photo's, its an IT problem. Will do asap.

Still very interesting travelogue with much great information. Thank you for that.

Next week I will bring a boat from Marseille to Barcelona. She is a stunning & immaculate TSMY - twin screws motor yacht - 63' Camper & Nicholson with twin Gardner engines.

My plan is to stop in Séte, Port-Vendres, then direct from Port-Vendres to Barcelona :
August 1, stop in Sète, ETA 5:00 PM
August 2, stop in Port-Vendres, ETA 6:00 PM
August 3, direct to Barcelona, ETA 11:30 PM
If you are around Sète or Port Vendres at that time, you are more than welcome aboard, just PM me.