October roundup and November preview

The big news for October is, of course, that we are no longer in the UK! Having originally planned to try and stay in Devon until at least after Christmas, we actually got fed up far sooner - for various reasons - and jumped on a ferry last week! We are now in Estartit in Catalonia where it is gloriously sunny. Lots of walking, cycling and exploring await us. We've both been paddling in the sea, lazed on the sandy beach watching surfers, and Dave nearly went swimming!

It's not all been perfect weather though. Nothing like the storms back home, but high winds a couple of nights ago resulted in this strange leaf phenomenon. All foliage was blown clear off our pitch except for this leaf pile that accumulated itself between our car and caravan.

Blogwise, I passed two significant milestone this month. My 50th consecutive daily post on Artisan Rainbow featured the vibrant red Cork And Chalk Board by LEBU Furniture pictured below:

And my 500th (count 'em!) consecutive daily Literary Flits book post featured the brilliant new Joss Sheldon novel Money Power Love. If you're looking for an engrossing and thought-provoking read, Buy This Book!

Looking forward to November, I anticipate writing more travel posts on this blog. We plan a mix of new-to-us campsites and revisiting some at which we have stayed before. At the moment our plan is to be in south west France over Christmas, but that might change with the weather forecast!

I want to make a concerted effort to improve my French. I've forgotten so much since A level (all those years ago). My cunning plan is to slowly work through translating my older travel posts into French. When I get myself up to a reasonable standard and speed I will start writing new posts bilingually. I need to find a French keyboard app for my Fire tablet though. My current English one doesn't have any accents. Any suggestions?

While I google the answer I'll leave you with these two views over Estartit harbour from our hill walk yesterday ...

It's so much warmer in Spain!

Almost exactly 48 hours after our ferry arrived in Cherbourg on Tuesday afternoon we crossed over the border from France into Spain. We're now at Les Medes campsite again - the same place we left from in March - having retrieved Bailey from the Caravan Parking Ter storage just down the road. They did a good job looking after our caravan over the summer. Plus it was washed and spruced up ready for us to collect today. We spent a good hour offloading everything from the car and remembering what goes in which cupboards! We seem to have a problem with the battery not charging properly which is a bit of a worry, otherwise all is good.

We had a smooth journey down: Ibis Budget hotels in La Roche sur Yon and the Cite de l'Espace, Toulouse, a good meal at CourtPaille in La Roche and superb pizza at La Villa des Oliviers in Toulouse. I highly recommend des Oliviers 'Donna' meal which is a half pizza with a green salad followed by a Cafe Gourmand (coffee with three mini desserts) for 14 euros. We've seen the Cafe Gormand idea before in France and wondered yesterday why it hasn't caught on in the UK. We were lucky at the Toulouse hotel. Having not booked ahead - for the first time ever! - we arrived to find it fully booked. Disappointed, we wandered across the car park to as at the pricier hotel next door but, before we got there, a guy came running our of the Ibis to say there had just been a cancellation so there would be a room for us after all!

We're staying at Les Medes for a few nights to get back in the caravanning mindset then will head off to pastures new. Possibly Banyoles ... it's great to be back on the road!

A Torquay lunch and a Poole Airbnb

Elaine's Airbnb, Poole 

I'm blogging tonight from Elaine's Airbnb in Poole, Dorset, where we are holed up awaiting our ferry to France in the morning. The main draw of the place for us is its proximity to the ferry port - a two minute drive to the end of the road! It's nice here too with a well thought out space which is a bonus! We've a large room with an ensuite shower room at one end and a little sitting area at the other. Elaine provided a range of teas and coffees plus there's croissants and fresh fruit for breakfast. The only downside is a couple of teenagers in the room overhead, but I can tell that they keep being shushed and hopefully they won't want to stay up chatting too late!

Dave and I are both excited to be off on our travels again. We had planned to stay in Torquay until after Christmas, but trouble with the next-door neighbour (now finally evicted) was stressful, plus a family bereavement means we're keen to put a line under this summer. What better way to do that than by cramming the car full and following the birds south for the winter!

We did organise ourselves a little treat before departure. Frognel Hall is a wonderfully named hotel fairly near to our flat. From the road it has an interesting roofline with many chimneys and we've often been curious about the place. Well last week, flyers were delivered advertising their Sunday lunches. We thought we would take the opportunity to enjoy a roast dinner and have a nose about. Stephen and Amanda are gracious and friendly hosts and Stephen cooks up a very good lunch. Dave had roast beef followed by blackberry crumble and I had the veggie option which was goat cheese tart, then bread and butter pudding. It's all charmingly traditional. We even took coffee in the lounge with the wood stove going. If you're in Torquay any time soon, get yourself to Frognel Hall for your Sunday lunch!

Frognel Hall