Today we arrived at Congenies, in Le Gard, the Languedoc-Roussillon region, and are camping in the garden of the Quaker Meeting House. The driveway is short but very steep with a sharp bend in it and we got the caravan jammed up against the hinge of the iron gate that sticks out from the the wall. We were so occupied with trying to avoid scraping the caravan against the wall on the other side that we didn’t pay attention to the gate. This caused a bit of a stir because people were just leaving the carpark at the same time and we were blocking the exit. It seemed that going either forwards or backwards would see her further jammed and damaged. Eventually, with the help of Dave the Resident Friend, some thick cardboard and willing hands to help push the caravan away from the gate, we managed to free her and move onto our pitch. We have had Titania for six years and this is our first scrape so we haven’t done too badly (fingers crossed). If she had been made of fibreglass rather that aluminium the damage would have been more dramatic.
Excitement over, we were soon settled in a lovely, peaceful spot in the corner of the garden. We will be here for nearly a month so we’ll have time to settle down for a while in the French countryside and explore the local cycle routes and lanes.
There is just one other occupant of the garden, and that’s another Eriba. It is being stored on behalf of a couple who stayed here last week. There was a bad storm on the day that they left to go home to the Auvergne, so they left the caravan here for safe keeping.
As you can see, it’s not a bad place to be.
Titania in her new home for a while Her first scrape
The Quaker Centre garden
Kaki ripening in the autumn sun Titania (right) with a new friend, another Eriba (left)
This evening we went for a lovely walk in the early evening sun with Judy and Dave, the Resident Friends. The main crop in this area is grapes for wine production and the vines look so beautiful at the moment; full of autumn colour. It seems that almost every village has a massive building housing wine production for the local wine cooperative. The Languedoc region accounts for one third of France’s total wine production and the average annual wine consumption per capita here is 55 litres. We are told by locals that we can get a really good Merlot from the cooperative for €1.10 a litre if we take our own container. Needless to say, we will be taking this advice.
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