Tapp's Travels

We are really into short distance towing trips this year.  And the trip to the Côte de Fumel would have been one of the shortest on record if we had follwed the sat nav!  Did I really just say that???!  Instead, we took the route explained to us in great detail by the site.  The crucial bit was “stay on the D246”.  That’s all very well and good until, at one fork in the road, the signs said D246 keep right – D246E, left.  So we went right – obviously!  Well, right was wrong – and that became apparent when none of the promised campsite signs appeared.  The road got narrower and twistier and started climbing what, with hindsight, was the wrong hill out of the wrong valley.  Luckily, after five hours on the single track D246 we found a gateway which was just wide enough to reverse into.  Then five hours back to civilisation.

The D246E was the business.  Proper signs at the appropriate junctions until we were almost there.  When the last sign failed to appear, we stopped at the White Cross Farm.  One of only two places we might be able to turn round.  We phoned the site for assistance and were assured that we were on track.  If we had driven literally just another 100 m, round one more bend, we would have been there!

The biggest, little gem of a campsite.  Big, as in three Ha (30,000 m²).  Small, as in only six official pitches.  Big, as in 5000 m² per pitch.  (For reference, 100 – 150 m² is a fairly sizeable plot!)

(That’s a 180° panorama of the site with all six pitches occupied!)

It’s little, as in everyone is on first name terms, even if we can’t pronounce some them!  The site is run by two lovely ex-Netherlanders, Saskia and Riem.  Here they are with their son Nick who flew in from Taiwan specially to see us while we were there.

They cater mainly for Dutch campers (and now us!).  They also have three gites.  I only mention this because it’s important later in the story!

The pool is the warmest (least cold?) we have encountered yet!  And it has a spectacular view of one sixth of the camping population – us!

We can afford to take things easy – the water-point and the facilities are less than 50 m away.  Some of the far-flung customers have to schedule their visits carefully to make sure they can get there and back before it gets dark.  Most pack a light snack for the trek.

The reason we have come to this wonderful site is to meet Hetty.

A Dutch lady we met under “interesting” conditions almost exactly eight years previously.  That meeting was a whole other story, but as it was pre-blog, I’ll summarise it here.

Camped on a very Dutch site on the banks if the River Lot, there was a tiny enclave of three British caravans and one Kiwi motor home.  We were having (very quiet) parties every evening!  A lone, Dutch camper, Hetty, decided we were having much more fun than all her country-mates and asked if she could join us.  After a great evening, I walked her back to her tent at the very far end of the site.  Just to make sure she didn’t get lost on the way or spooked by a frog and fall into the river in the dark.  And, as I recall, to carry her chair!

Well that was fine and dandy.  I couldn’t possibly comment on the rumour that I was rewarded for my chivalrous actions with a peck on the cheek!. (Well, I can always fantasise!  You may have noticed!)

We later learned a little about what Hetty did for a living.  She worked for the Dutch police and was deployed with the Dutch army on anti-terrorist duties in war-zones with peace keeping forces.  Places like Afghanistan, Sudan, Serbia and Ukraine.  Places where a lot of seriously nasty people were using guns, mortars and IEDs!

The second night when I took her chair back to her tent, Hetty came with me BACK to our caravan, to make sure I was safely home before she set off back to her tent again armed as she was with night vision goggles, her emergency GPS locater, a whistle and possibly an AK47 concealed somewhere on her person.

The third night, she took her own flipping chair back to her tent!

OK.  So that was the background.  I’m not even going to mention how she decorated our caravan with twenty rolls of loo paper on the occasion of our 46th wedding anniversary!

Typical police activity in the Netherlands, apparently.  With her co-conspirators …

Back to 2024!  The first day at the Côte de Fumel, Hetty took us to Penne d’Argenais.  Well, she has room in her car.  Ours is full of awnings and BBQs!.

Penne is a hilltop village surmounted by the Byzantine-Romanesque-style Notre-Dame de Peyragude Basilica, recognisable from afar by its silver dome.

However, the parking was near the bottom of town, some 2,500 m below the summit.  Lovely town.  Very pretty.  Somewhat “gentrified”.  Steep.

Resting for a photo …

… we experimented with Samsung’s special effects and “Magic Eraser”.  The latter makes unwanted things disappear from your photo…

Now you see em …

… now you don’t!  Clever stuff!

There were lots of lovely little alleys (but they must be a nightmare for furniture removers).

When we do eventually reach the summit, several hours later, we found a viewing platform – raised yet another twenty steps.  From here the view of the Lot valley was truly magnificent.

As you can see, our sherpa was carrying the oxygen supplies and the tent!

On the way to the Basilica, we found this small cave.  Allegedly occupied by hermits in years gone by.  Now it’s just a resting place for pelegrins who have just hiked up one side of the mountain – before they wend their way back down the other face on their way to Santiago.  Yes!  We are back on the Camino Trail.

I think if I was going to stop for a rest and a marmalade sandwich, I’d hesitate in the Basilica rather than the cave.  It’s another fabulous building.  And it’s got rows and rows of empty seats on which to relax.

Another day, another hilltop village – Roquecor.  It was Sunday and we chanced on the restaurant La Tête d’Ail.

Sadly, we were ten minutes too late to join the happy throng of more punctual visitors.  It’ll have to be another day.  (It was – and it was really good.)

Anyway, we wandered round the back streets a bit and read a lot about the history of the place.  In times gone by it had clearly been a bustling little enclave with a busy market and flocks of sheep wandering through the centre of town – and people – lots of them!  Now the town only bustles at lunch time on Sundays.  But you have to be on time if you want to bustle!  Maybe it gets a bit busier in high season (14th July to 3rd August?).  But I wouldn’t hold my breath!

The thing about hilltop villages is that they do offer commanding views.  I guess that’s one of the main reasons for sticking settlements onto such difficult places to build them.

Scanning the surrounding countryside from another custom-made viewing platform.  You can always tell when these two are plotting something …

Surprise!

Well, I’m ready for you this time!

A good POINT to end this episode!  But we stayed a long time at the Côte de Fumel.  There are more adventures to report including how we.didn’t celebrate our 900th night in this caravan with thousands of others!

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PS.  Environmentally responsible readers will be delighted to know that we did recycle Hetty’s loo paper!  (Or was the paper nicked from the campsite, Hetty?)