It’s Monday and it’s hot, very hot, with not a cloud in the sky. We set off on our bikes to Marseillan Plage. arriving around 11am, just as the shops were starting to open up and tourists were wandering along the main road in various states of undress. With one pair of shorts and my only skirt now too large without wearing a belt to hold them up, I bought a cotton dress for wearing in this hot weather. We looked around a small food market, but decided it was far too hot to cook anything today, so we bought the obligatory baguette (now there’s a tongue twister) and went back to Eileen to finish off the pate for lunch. The hot wind was starting to gust about and Eileen’s awning was really struggling to stay attached at times, but Rodney has fixed up some (washing line) guide ropes to help hold it in place……it’s working so far.
It was so hot by mid-afternoon that we wandered over the burning sand dune to plunge ourselves in to the freezing sea. The only way I could get myself in, was by sitting in the water’s edge and skimming big flat shells across the top of the water. The legs got used to the cold while the top half was still hot, so in the end you had to lie down in the water to ease the body temperature confusion. Rodney did the more traditional approach of walking slowly out in to the deep sea to waist height and then ducking under. Back on the beach, trying to read, we found we were being sandblasted and as everything was slowly filling up with sand: our bags, books, hats and ears, we headed back to Eileen nestled behind the dunes and sat reading in the shade of her awning.
We tarted ourselves up, me in my new frock, and cycled back in to Marseillan Plage for dinner. We wandered around and then picked La Marie Louise Restaurant and ate a €12.90 ‘formula prix’ three-course meal. The buffet entrée was so extensive, more than enough to be a main course and yet we noticed that some diners got a second plate of the entrée! Chicken in a creamy sauce with frites and a dessert of chocolate mousse made for the perfect slimmers meal at the end of the day……!
