Beside the Seaside

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In Which I'm No Longer In Any Spain

April 27, 2008 by Mike

Port-Vendres

Route: Lloret de Mar - Tossa de Mar - Figueres - Cadaques - Port Bou (France) - Cerbere (France) - Port-Vendres

236 days and a shade under 6,000 miles after I rode into Spain, today I rode out again.

[PICTURES ON THE WAY]

Blimey.

So much has happened In Real Life as well as besidetheseaside.. but that's still enough to make me stop and think. It's probably enough to make the Spanish taxman think too, so I won't dwell on it. But Spain -- and Portugal, lest we forget -- have been, well, unforgettable.

And Spain, bless it's cotton socks, went out with a bang. The road from Lloret hugs a steep, deeply intended coast north to the slightly less-resortified towns of Tossa del Mar and Sant Feliu de Guixols. With this refreshing burst of pre-summer sunshine continuing, and it being a Sunday, half the bikers in Catalonia were on this very road, testing machine and rider against the endless curves and cambers of the coast road.

What they learned was this: they can all ride the corners considerably faster than me.

I *wasn't* overtaken by anyone on a pushbike.. but only because I stopped to "admire the view" once I could feel them breathing down my neck. (I was only pretending, mind: I didn't take any photos for you. Some days are meant to be enjoyed in and of themselves. Sorry.)

The road got confusing for a stage and I found myself pushed inland -- a gentler landscape, smelling of pine and freshly-cut grass -- but it was worth it to stumble across a tiny hilltop village of Pals: regulation castle at the top; the houses and winding alleys clinging to its coat-tails a delicious blend of browns and deep reds.

Then I was back beside the deeply turquoise Mediterranean, the next town the colour of melon yoghurt, the one after that all white walls and brick-red tiled roofs. You become finely attuned to the senses -- sights and sounds and smells -- when you take in this corner of the world on two wheels.

Sorry if you've been rained on today. Honest.

-- which I can say in all honesty because the forecast is for a whole night and day of light showers here too.

I've been softened by a week in Barcelona. That forecast has been nagging at me all day, so when I didn't see a campsite in Cerbere or Banyuls-sur-Mer, the first two communities on the French side of the border, I resolved to stop at the next place that would take me, whatever kind of establishment it was. (I'm quietly confident that France doesn't have the same garishly-neon roadside brothels that are such a feature of the Spanish countryside, so I didn't have to worry about that.)

It turned out to be a small, family-run hotel a couple of streets behind the port here in Port-Vendres -- I'd never heard of it either -- and, because this is my first night in France I treated myself to a bloody steak.. not a patch on the bloody steak I had yesterday (to mark my last night in Spain) but it gives France something to aim for: take the culinary crown away from Spain. (That is, when I'm not cooking up Pasta a la Mile for myself...)

Comments

By karen With | May 2, 2008 10:03 AM

Ab Fab 2 C more pics- Howz about collating em as well. . . .Its fun to c em as randoms but wd B Xellent 2 c em in groups 2222222... ie funny shop signs, from KC wiv Nicky at no 3 breakfast table!!!thinkin of U!!

By Julio Karl | May 6, 2008 9:17 AM

Hey Mike, finally i have to write at least one comment.
I am just too shy to use these systems ;)
Just wanted to say: Enjoy France, it is lovely but so different to Spain.
All the best wishes

Julio

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