Holidays!

So I am now on holiday through Spain and France finishing up in Milan, Italy. Things have not been too good. On arriving at Barcelona a warning light lit up, the one saying something about the water not getting to the engine but when I looked everything seemed OK. After a day in a garage the circuit is OK just the switch which is wrong, that will have to be put right in September. Then the clutch went, 3 days to have that done. Well, it is not too bad when you are in Sitges at least there is the sun, the sea and a good time. Elisabeth and Michel were great putting us up, and putting up with us for some extra days. The next few days were uneventful but interesting: Barcelona, again, Cadaques and the Figures but during our visit to the Dali museum somone or some people decided that they would take a look in the camper and broke a window and took anything of any value!! So a morning on to the insurance and the police and an afternoon having the window replaced!!! Just not what I signed up for this summer!!! I can't download my photos from the camera to the mac at the moment so although there are plenty of photos they are still on the SD card!!

Playa del Meurto, Sitges

So this is a Google maps picture of the Playa del Meurto at Sitges, the gay naturist beach. On my trips to Sitges I like to come here and yesterday was no exception. It seemed closer than usual, which is great in the heat, but something has changed! At least 1/3 of the guys on the beach were wearing a pair of trunks.   This is a NATURIST beach, so if you choose to come, be a naturist. If you do not want to show it all, that's fine, there are great, gay, textile beaches in town too.

Something else I learned about the beach yesterday, I don't know if it is true, but it is Spain's oldest naturist beach, since 1930!!

From the 9th-13th July has been Sitges' first gay pride! Strange that his town, the town of tolerance has only just had its first Gay Pride. Perhaps this has something to do with trying to get more people to come as, according to a bar owner, visitor numbers have been dropping off, as places in Croatia seem to be becoming more popular. Just looking around Sitges, I get the impression that there are fewer people. I missed the pride parade so perhaps it was a little different on Saturday.

Time for the beach!

The New world champions - Spain

I am not a football fan by any means but yesterday evening I arrived in Sitges to stay with some friends and of course the TV went on for the final. Everything was quite all around until the goal and thee was a sudden roar from the town - very strange. At then end there were fireworks and horns and the like. It is always good to win.

The sea is calm!

Saturday 10^th July

The sea is just so calm today. The storm that was forecast happened during the night and so once again a wonderfully beautiful day. I went down to the beach at around 11h30 and came back around 14 for lunch and to stay out of the sun for a time. There are more people as there is no wind.

Camped: Europ 2000 Marseillan Plage.

Well will it or will it not be sunny today?

Thursday 8^th

I am writing these reports a day late never mind. So I left la plage des Aresquiers and went to Balaruc where I had decided that I would have a new radio fixed into the camper. The old one could no longer play CDs, not that I have any in the camper at the moment, and can also read mp3 on a flash drive. Although, I don’t know how it works yet!

Later I arrived at Camping Europ 2000 at Marseillan plage. I usually don’t go on campsites as they cost so much but this one is right on the beach and it is clean, squeaky clean. (That is the first time I have seen that word written!) The ‘bloc sanitaire’ smells so hygienic and is hygienic. There seems to be someone in there most of the day making sure that it stays that way. Also this is the place that we as ‘boys’ are welcomed to at any time of the year. It is where we came this year at Ascension.

After setting thing up I decided to go to the beach. I had forgotten what the beach is like at this time of year and it was crowded!! Well certain parts of it are. I like the sea here, not too deep and it seems clean whether it is or not is another matter!

Being an only man on a campsite where there are so many people in fact feels even lonelier than stopping in the middle of nowhere. Noone stops to talk, they will reply to a ‘bonjour’ but that is that. I wonder what it will be like when Istvan is with me? Last year at Ballaton people spoke to us, will they do that here? We’ll see.

Time to go off to the beach for a couple of hours before it gets too hot, it is already starting to get warm. Bye.

Il a plu un tout petit peu ce matin! Quelques gouttes c'est tout, et le ciel est devenu nuageux mais je suis resté un bon moment. Me voici sur le net du camping, c'est bien je trouve qu'ils offrent ce service gracieusement. Bientôt je vais retourner à la plage pour les derniers rayons de soleils.

On voit souvent les mêmes têtes mais on ne se dit rien! Peut-être je devrais être plus 'talkative'. Je lance les trucs de temps en temps, il faut plonger directement, pensez-vous qu'il va pleuvoir beaucoup? mais sans succès. Je pense que les gens en generales ont trop peur que parler veut dire sexe et ce n'est pas le cas! Bon l'autre chose que je voulais partager c'est des photos de la plages, il y a une partie de la plage juste à côté de notre section (gay) des échangistes où on trouve un monde enorme dans un tout petit partie de la plage. Quand je suis arrivé hier il y avait une partie de la mer où il y avait un monde! Une photo peut dire mille mots donc la voici.

Ceci est la plage direction Sete et Marseillan

La secteur échangistes!

I don't want to be judgemental but when the police give out PV (fines) of 80€ to gays for being in the dunes and all sorts happens on the beach with this group, well, it seems a little unfair! But is life fair? No of course it isn't.

Camped: Europ 2000 Marseillan plage

Summertime and the living is easy!

Thursday 8th

Still nothing concerning the job application. I think that I have been overlooked. Tant pis, that's life although I know that I would have made a really good head of department! 

So, today I am off to Marseillan plage for a couple of days. Enough time to get the fridge cold as there will be electricity and to spend some time on the beach swimming and sunning myself. Then I shall be off doing a little tourism in the area between here and Barcelona. 

I need music in the camper, so will have to see about having a new radio and aerial fitted so that I can receive well and play some of my stuff.

As you can see from the posts below, I have changed the size of the photos so can now upload them easily. As far as I can see I have not lost clarity but I am no expert. I heard the 'cigales' for the first time yesterday and here is a very bad short film just for you! Well it seems that you are not going to get the vidoe as the video link in blogger will not open for me and I am having problems uploading to Youtube! Technology!

If at first you don't succeed:

Wednesday 7^th

Shit, shit, shit! Amina had invited me for a tagine tonight and I had completely forgotten. Miguel rang around 5pm to remind me, but 300 kms away from Lyon it was just not possible for me to go to have a tagine! I really feel bad as this is not the first time that I have completely forgotten a date. I really should not drink: no that is not possible or I should write things down. I would have waited around in the region, I would have gone to their place today and swam in the pool. I really must not do this sort of thing again.

All that said, I am so happy to be down here with the smell of the sea, or the étangs! I have spent the day at les Aresquiers have a look here 'La plages des Aresquiers' 

I got up and went to the France Passion place which was OK to buy some Muscat but the welcome, well lets say I have had better! Oh that is just so cliché! Let’s say that she was a bitch! So I decided not to stay there and that my places just here there and everywhere are so much better! I had decided that today was going to be a beach and bike day so I went to Vic la Gariodle or whatever, and parked up and took the bike to the beach. The beach was just great even better than Marseillan plage but the big down is that without a bike you have to walk for about an hour to get to the ‘gay’ part of the beach. Not that I want to have sex or the like, but I do like to be amongst my brothers!!

Around 2pm, 12 with the sun, I came back to the camper and went to find a McDonalds. My idea was not to eat but to use the net; I did both! And I can still feel the meal. They must put something in the food that doesn’t go well with me. At the time of eating it goes very well, it is just later.

I am reading a book called ‘Stonewall, The riots that sparked the Gay Revolution’. It is fascinating. Of course it takes the US perspective, but I would like to know a little about the Gay revolution in France and in Britain. It was only a few days ago that I went into Thierry and Jean Pierre for that saying that they don’t mind accepting everything that has come from the Gay Revolution but that like so many others they do nothing to help – not even come out! Not that I have done that much, but I have come out to family, friends and work! I could do more. It is only by doing things and being bolshy that anything comes about. We don’t need to get killed anymore, like some of our elders who have helped us. We just need to be there, to be out and to say YES, I EXIST and I am no different to you.  The book is really interesting as it talks about homosexuality and society in 1940s to 60s America and how this lead to GAY LIBERATION!

There is a poem which says so much about a time when, like now even, there are few role models. It’s about young kids who have run away from home because they are not accepted and have to prostitute themselves to live.

I sell my love for dollars,

If you can spare the time,

A hug is but a nickel

A kiss is but a dime.

I’ll go to bed for twenty,

All night for just ten more,

Now don’t get the idea

That I am just a whore.

For if I didnet sell my love,

Where else would it go?

I have no one to give it to;

No one who’d care to know.

So open up your wallet

And show me what yo’ve got.

And whether I should love you

A lttle or a lot.

This was a poem published in V, a San Fransisco publication of the late 60s and was called: The Hustler.

William called! Great to hear from him. Next year sailing in the Med?

Camped: Just near the entrance to Les bois des Aresquiers

Tuesday 6^th

I took it slowly this morning, waking up, reading, having breakfast and going to a McDonalds to find an internet connection. There was one at the McDonald’s in Annonay but I didn’t have much battery so couldn’t really stay on long but enough time to have a look at my emails and to put something on my blog. I then went down into the valley to another McDonald’s where I ate something and spent a little more time on the net. On leaving I had made a decision: I would not hang around Lyon in case of an interview, I would leave and come down here to the south. In fact I am in a place called Vic la Gardiole In fact, I had made up my mind to try out some of the ‘France Passion’ places. I went first to Beausemblant but it was in the hills and was not what I had expected. I had expected a field and there was a sort of just parking area with tar! That was the thing that made me come south.  In France I never take the motorways with the camper, it is just so expensive but the national roads are just slow and today, packed with traffic. I should have arrived here at 18h25, I got here 3 hours later! The journey was not without some events;  a driver of a lorry who seemed to be going to sleep but in the end was reading something going at 100 kph!! I also stopped off at a ‘France Passion’ place at Bagnols sur Cèze to be greeted by 2 dogs neither very big but both very vicious! I was getting out of the camper and the smallest growled, showed its teeth and went for me. A lovely welcome, I must say! Needless, there were no campers there. I turned around a left the place hoping to crush the vicious creature, but without an success!

There are just so many roundabouts now in France! From almost none 30 years go to at least 100 from north of Valence to here, with at least 50 of them in Nîmes!! Oh yes, and I tried the net again at the McDonald’s in Roumoulins, ??? and they DO NOT HAVE THE WIFI and I bought a coffee! However, the McDonald’s in Nice as you enter from the north does! Thank you. What will tomorrow have install for me?

By the by, Looking at the map I have found the name of the mountains which run just to the north west of this region –Montagne de la Gardiole. Added to which, what I see from here thinking it is the sea in fact, is not it is the a number of étangs’ ‘swamps’ is the translation but they are not really swamps, they are not lagoons either as there is no enterance to the sea, no that is not true there is an entranct to the sea at Carnon Plage, so they are technically lagoons. The Canal du Rhone Runes through them. The train runs along them too and I remember reading once that it was during a train ride to Narbonne that Charles Trenet wrote ‘La Mer’. It was his inspiration.

Camped: Just off the National Vic la Gardiole

At last the Med!

Although I arrived yesterday it was really quite late. This morning the traffic woke me up and so I went to see the France Passion place. It was the car park of a caveau, not really the place I wanted to stay in so I bought a bottle of Muscat and moved on to Vic la Gadiole parked up the camper and took the bike to the beach where I spent the morning. A little later I shall find my way back there, it is just a little hot at the moment. I'm uploading some photos onto picasa at the moment but it is taking ages and I would like to get back to the sea as it is now past 4pm so as the sunshines around 14h so it is getting a little cooler.

My photos are a little big, I am going to have to make them a little smaller as they will not upload but the photos from today are at picasa: I'll put the link up tomorrow, I can't wait any longer!

http://picasaweb.google.fr/Simon.McILGREW/LesAresquiesFrontignanFrance#


Tomorrow I am going to Marseillan Plage. I have booked in at the campsite so should be able to make my fridge cold!!!! It is really a pain that it is not working on the gas!

I am following a blog 'Dancing with Crazy' and saw this photo today, quite funny!

Just noticed

Looking at my photo of the Abbaye de ND des Dombes, I see that it is a little like the entrance to Birkenau camp! The two buildings on each side of an arched entrance!

Anyway, I spent this morning reading by the Lake and thought of going around the lake again but... I am now going to try to find the first 'France Passion' camper area but have just passed by McDonalds so popped in for a 280 aux oignions and a net connection. It is really beginning to piss me off that CPE can't say if they are going to invite me for interview or not and when. I can feel it in my bones, I will be in Barcelona and they'll then ask me for interview! I suppose that is life or is it? Do others have problems like these?

Summer holidays

Monday 5^th

I have spent the day around the camper. I got my bike out and went for a short but very energetic ride! Read, ate and have now come to the Crêt de l’Oeillon high above the Rhône and Rhône Valley. I am not sure what I am going to do now. There is a lake a little further on which looks interesting so I might try to make my way there.

Well, what a lovely lake: It is a reservoir for the fresh water for Annonay. The dam (barrage) was built and opened in 1867! There is a lovely one-way road around the lake where people walk, jog, cycle and ride their horses. Apparently there are 2.6 million litres in the lake!

I had hoped to see Christian, we haven’t seen each other for so many years but this is not a good time for him. His Mum is in hospital and just had a scan and they will have the results tonight. He is going to pick up his dad from the ‘Maison de repos’, where he has been convalescing after a kidney and ‘rate’ oh merde, I have forgotten the English translation! I know it too! So we will not be seeing each other just now, another time then.

It is a lonely life in a camper – alone! But I am trying to do all I can to make it feel less so. What? Well, I am reading and that really helps because you have tens of people with you. Yes, I don’t say much in fact I don’t think I have uttered a word to anyone today. No, that is not true – I have said ‘bonjour’ to people I have passed on my bike! I think that my lot is to be alone, to live and spend my life alone. All of this started when I was very young and sent to school. I give the impression of an outward going, confident person but that is not me. I find it difficult to speak to those I don’t know. After my time with Lynn, I spent 5 years alone, and then I have spent the last 2 years alone too. Yes, Istvan is part of my life, but we spend very little time together, living in 2 different countries. How strange listening to France Musique and to find a programme on ‘The Sound of Music’, which is opening, at Chatelet next Sunday, and in English at that!

Camped: On the left bank of Lac de Ternay

Sunday 4^th

I had realised that I had had so much to drink or was it just the Champs at the end of the evening. Anyway, I had slept in the camper outside Marie and Robert’s place. It was Michel, Robert’s brother arriving for lunch that woke me! We had a leisurely, and for me non alcoholic lunch. I could still feel the alcoholic poisoning in my system. I decided to leave around 16h and to make my way down the Rhône to the Ardèche. I have come to the ‘Parc National du Pilat and spent the night near a little place called ‘Bassin’ just outside of Le Pelussin, the middle of nowhere.

Camped: Bassin, Loire

Saturday 3^rd.

This evening I am meeting up with the gang in Macon and we are going to eat Frogs! The meeting place a restaurant le Bouche??? at St Laurent sur Saône. I dcided to have a look around the Dombes so went to Versaillieu first where I had lunch. I wanted to be by an ‘étang’ but it isn’t easy, if nigh on impossible to get the the water’s edge. I carried on to the monastery of Notre Dames des Dombes and visited the place. It is no longer run by Cistercian Monks but by some multidominational group. It offers retreats to people who feel that they need a little peace and quiet and makes all sorts of things from apples. Chatillon sur Chalaronne was my next port of call, where I visited the parc of the town which was once the garden of a rather nice country house. Today I got the impression that it is some sort of horticultural institute. The weather had been really hot and muggy, so it was a welcome change when the storm broke! Thunder, lightening the lot! A yet only 10kms away at Macon and St Laurent, not a drop fell. It was around 17 when I finally arrived at St Laurent and got my bike and found the restaurant. I then decided to have a ride around St Laurent and on the other side of the Saône in Macon. There is a really good esplanade been created there. There are also the markings for the 2 greatests floods, the worst is 1840 when the river rose some 8 metre above its usual course, and 1955 at 7 metres! I also found out that in the past St Laurent was the limit of the Dukes of Savoie territory and the Holy Roman Empire. The evening was not uneventful! A lovely meal just the end was a bit of a letdown! We finished the evening in St Priest with a bottle of bubbly.

Camped: St Priest

Friday 2^nd July

After taking a lot of time and getting everything done I finally left the flat around 15h.  After going to St Jean Automobile to pick up the stuff that has been there since the crash with the Punto, I then made my way to Meximieux to see the Insurance company. That now seems to be sorted out, I just need Thierry to complete the forms when they arrive and to get everything sent off to the expert. As I was not far from Montluel, I rang and was asked to stay for something to eat.

Camped: Port Galland