{"id":744,"date":"2012-06-24T20:52:30","date_gmt":"2012-06-24T19:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=744"},"modified":"2025-11-23T05:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T05:55:17","slug":"behold-the-mediterranean-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2012\/06\/24\/behold-the-mediterranean-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Behold The Mediterranean Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday did turn in to a very lazy day for me.\u00a0 I caught up on lots of computer stuff and read an old magazine, while Rodney cycled all the way down to the coast at Portiragnes Plage. He wants to know how many London plane trees there are along the full length of the Canal du Midi and also all over France; it seems to be the most predominant tree around here.\u00a0 But we do wonder if they\u2019re renamed as ‘Paris plane trees’ in France.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Along the Canal du Midi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

When he got back we had another swim in the pool and lazed around on the sun loungers.\u00a0\u00a0 We cooked up a storm at dinner time with all four rings on the cooker going at the same time, might not do that again as the pans only just stayed on top by holding the frying pan near the edge.\u00a0 However, the end result of steak in a mushroom and onion cream sauce served with pan fried crushed potatoes, creamed spinach and steamed carrots was delicious.<\/p>\n

A late shower before bedtime provided the evening’s entertainment.\u00a0 The restaurant next door had a band playing live music which rather clashed with the piped music that was playing in the amenities block, it was all a bit conflicting\u2026..!<\/p>\n

This morning we packed up and set off to see a bit of Beziers and spent some of the time watching boats travelling through the nine locks on the Canal du Midi.\u00a0 Rodney helped grab a rope at one point, when a boat in the top lock went a bit adrift with the rush of water entering.\u00a0 He tried to explain that they needed to put a couple of turns around the bollard, I think the sign language worked\u2026.?<\/p>\n

\"\"
The nine locks section on the Canal du Midi at Beziers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

At lunch time we pulled in to La Tamarissiere and\u00a0strolled along the breakwater up to the entrance to the harbour.\u00a0 Then we\u00a0had a picnic of pate with bread that was fresh out of the oven, while sitting beside the estuary.\u00a0 We\u2019re now wondering how many, of the 30 million plus baguettes cooked each day in France, actually arrive at their destination intact; we\u2019d nibbled nearly half of ours before we got back to the fridge for the pate.\u00a0 Over the nine weeks here, we have noticed numerous people walking around with the knobs of their baguettes missing\u2026\u2026it has to be done!<\/p>\n

Mid-afternoon we pulled in to Camping Le Paradou at Marseillan Plage and parked just 10 metres from the sand dunes and the beach.\u00a0 The electricity worked, the wi-fi is free (that\u2019s a new first!!!), the amenities block is quite swish and the sun is shining.\u00a0 We set everything up;\u00a0gas on, electricity on, fan working, vents opened, groundsheet pinned out, awning opened and secured, washing line set up, sarong over the door to keep any mozzies and flies out, fridge switched to outside power, oh, and seats pushed forwards to create our new space that we have christened as our study area.\u00a0 It\u2019s strange, but it was only when we were in Biarritz that we came up with the idea of pushing both seats as far forward as they will go (rather than just rotating the passenger seat.\u00a0 The table top then fits behind one seat and you can sit on the flap behind the other, it\u2019s brilliant and gives us more space to manoeuvre inside. It also provides Rodney with a bedside table at night.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Our new study area in Eileen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finally, at 4:30pm we donned the swimmers and walked over the little sand dune to the beach.\u00a0 It was very exciting to think that we were now on the Mediterranean and the sea was a\u00a0beautiful greeny blue.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when we went in for a swim, the water was surprisingly rather chilly, so yet again, I failed to fully\u00a0dunk myself, but the brave Rodney did.\u00a0 I\u2019ve promised him I will tomorrow\u2026.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday did turn in to a very lazy day for me.\u00a0 I caught up on lots of computer stuff and read an old magazine, while Rodney cycled all the way down to the coast at Portiragnes Plage. He wants to know how many London plane trees there are along the full length of the Canal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8162,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions\/8162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}