Eco house
The first is down the coast road about 20 minutes in the hills just outside the village of Fitou – the place the very excellent ‘vin rouge’ comes from... in fact I’m drinking some as I write! Its a place owned by an old deaf Australian guy and has a fantastic view of the sea about 2 miles away. Its a lovely place for 220,000 euro, the only problem is the price is quite high and the wind is very high. Its on the crest of the hills about 50 metres from the base of one of the large wind turbines that dot all the hills in the area. That didn’t bother me in the slightest, especially with the views of the mountains and vineyards etc. However they put the wind turbine there because the wind NEVER stops!
Now this place is an eco house already made, he gets his electric from his own smaller wind turbine and solar panels and water from rainwater collection and a ‘forage’ (a bore). The only thing he has to pay for is gas which he gets delivered in large canisters.
Spider house
The next house was about a 40 minute drive from the coast much higher up in the hills. In the pictures it looked great but it was horrible. I open a cupboard door to find there was no back to the cupboard, it was only about 8 inches deep and looked straight onto a wall of cemented rocks that ran the full height of the house but wasn’t sealed against the outside. The worse thing was the wall was covered with some of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen. Real big black ones that run really fast! The amusing thing was that these spiders were so big they couldn’t fit into any of the tiny crevices that spiders normally disappear into when exposed to the light. They darted from one place to the next... no cant fit in there... lets run over here... no too big... I’ve never seen so many spiders at a loss to know where to hide. I shut the door... both the physical one and the one in my head.
The third and smallest place
The third place was much smaller and needed a huge amount of work but the views were to die for. It was on at 180,000 euro and came with 5 large separate pieces of the surrounding landscape. I could have got it for much less as it had been on their books for ages.
There are two things putting me off;
Although these last two were inland quite bit they are still within easy reach of the sea and that makes them comparatively very expensive.
The other thing is the ground is completely baked rock hard and dusty. You couldn’t grow anything here other than grapes or olives. I think I need to go inland more... into the mountains where it is cooler, cheaper and hopefully more green. I always suspected this would be the case but at least I have something to compare to now.
So shortly after midday I was back in the Landrover and heading for Perpignan. Its less than an hours drive and the first 20 minutes is the bit I’m already familiar with to Fitou. The scenery is just beautiful... all the way down to Spain now, which in fact is only another 40 odd minutes past Perpignan.
Jo and Fred
Now an old friend of mine, Jo from the UK and her French boyfriend Fred are in Perpignan for a couple of days at the end of their stay and I had arranged to meet up. Fred is originally from Perpignan but now lives with Jo in Eastleigh. I said I’d call them once I got to a campsite in the area.
I located many campsites in the Canet beach area, all VERY expensive. The cheapest was 30 euros / night including electric, it was full of kids and sun burnt parents and they had a big noisy pool area. The sanitary block was one of the worst I’ve seen. I didn’t get to choose my spot, they were almost full so I took what I could get. 30 minutes later and I wouldn’t have got anything. Thankfully Jo and Fred turned up shortly after and rescued me.
My tour of Perpignan and the resorts
We drove in Fred’s car into Perpignan centre. Again... a very lovely place. Very picturesque! Is it another ancient walled town with a huge gateway to a medieval jail dominating the centre. You enter the gate into an area full of cafes and bars with tables and chairs littering every back alley. Jo and Fred are really good friends and it was nice to relax and talk in English again. We headed for a bar recommended by Fred and sat outside in the sun with a cold well deserved beer. Since I had given up on the blog I hadn’t bought my camera and so have no pictures to show. I’m not generally big on photos myself.
Later on that evening we drove down to a couple of the seaside resorts a few minutes further south. Argeles sur Mer (on sea) in particular was really busy. The French holiday reason is now in full swing and everyone it seems comes to the sea. We parked the car, found a bar with some comfortable seating and watched one of the Dutch world cup games. Judging by the sea of orange T-shirts there is a huge Dutch contingent in town.
Now this is the first time since I left the UK I have not had to think about driving, or where to stay, where to park, or what road to take. It was so relaxing and comfortable being shown around that I soon found myself feeling quite sleepy. It had been a really long day. I think Fred wanted to show me around all night and ordinarily I would have been well up for it, I think the early start, too much sun, too much of everything has taken its toll and you don’t realise it until you relax a bit. They dropped me back at the campsite about midnight. I feel asleep with my clothes on.
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