Post It from Campsite Comangès, Argelès-sur-Mer, Languedoc-Roussillon, France 4th June 2013

We arrived here on 3^rd June after a very pleasant drive along the coast road from Vilanova Park up to Calella before heading inland to Gerona and Figures. The views at the start were good, at least that is what Sharon told me as I could not enjoy them because of the hairpin bends for miles before we got to Barcelona. Traversing Barcelona was easy on the coast motorway and I enjoyed seeing some familiar scenes as we passed the Olympic sailing village area. The winds picked up as we neared the border and we almost did not recognise Le Perthus. We were last here about 24 years ago and there were no parking bays along the shopping street and no indication it was pay and display parking, we got a ticket!

The campsite in Argeles was easy to find and not really what we expected, more grassy (or weed covered) and many more trees than we expected meaning quite a lot of the vacant plots would have been a struggle for us to get onto. The facilities were all there but not of the same standard we had become accustomed to in Spain but never the less clean and fine for this short stay. We had decided to just spend two nights here and revisit a holiday destination from 24 years ago, we did not recognise the place at all and I put that down to the passing years. Argeles village was quite pleasant and we enjoyed a stroll and a coffee. The beach area and marina was quite nice and even the rows of pizza restaurants and tourist shops around the centre were not too much of a scar on an otherwise excellent prom. I was surprised that it was forbidden to wind surf or kite surf from the beach throughout the whole year as the beach was largely empty.

The other big surprise for us was the high cost of things in France when compared to Spain. Many things were double the price across the border, coffee, beer, fresh salmon and menu of the day to name a few. The bread was good though and I looked forward to having more of it on our way home.

A pleasant surprise on the campsite was meeting David Klyne from the forum. The first Caravan Club member we had met all holiday that actually used the forum, there must be a message there somewhere. We had a good chat over a glass of wine with our respective wives and it was good to meet someone I had previously only conversed with online.

Overall it was a good decision to stop here and I did not realise how strongly the area identified itself as being Catalan with its Spanish half. Tomorrow we are heading for Millau and plan to stay until the weekend whilst the sun is shining before the rain starts, according to the forecasts, then a quick journey back towards Calais.

Regards, Roy