For those of you who aren’t motorhome owners, several countries in Europe have books/website/apps that have been developed to bring together local producers who wish to offer the goods and services to motorhome users, whilst at the same time allowing them to stay over night.

The French version is called ‘France Passion’, and I have previously mentioned several Vineyards where we have stayed, and over the years we have also stayed on goat and dairy farms where they are cheese producers, chambre d’hote – where they serve meals, and much more. The French version is far more varied and fuller than most, although the UK, Italy and Spain also have similar ‘communites’ that you can join…. we have joined all of them at different points and learnt so much about farming and local produce… some of which we understand, some of which we just nod our heads and smile nicely… there are lots of stories that we could tell of amazing experiences that we have had along the way.

This year however, we have probably visited more than normal, even though many of the producers are out of reach for us as they can’t accomodate a motorhome of our size.

Our first stop was Chateau Beaujac, another new area for us where they grow the ‘Negrette’ grape. The vineyard was beautifully tranquil and a lovely setting to stay overnight but the wines that we were offered to taste on the day weren’t quite to our taste. We opted to buy a couple of wines we hadn’t tried in the end and have since opened one of the bottles, which to be fair isn’t bad… so we may go back after all despite having said we probably wouldn’t revisit.

Stepping away from the Vinyards for a moment we found a nice Aire to stop at south east of Toulouse, in a little town called Bram. Not a huge amount in Bram but it was very peaceful, on a lake and next to the Midi Canal.

As the foot was still restricting the amount of walking, cycling was great…. despite the cold! So, we took advantage of cycling one direction to Castelnaudry – the birthplace and ‘world capital’ of Cassoulet and the lingot bean, which is more like a small butter bean than a cannelini bean as it has a less firm and fluffy texture.

We found a tiny little local bar/restaurant which had good reviews but a very limited menu. I called ahead to let them know that there was one weirdo coming who didn’t eat meat and despite obviously not understanding the fact that someone in this part of the country didn’t eat meat….they couldn’t have been more accomodating. The cassoulet, I am told, was excellent… Lingot beans, Duck Leg, Toulouse sausage and pork amongst other things… naturally accompanied by a salad to lighten the load. I opted for the baked camembert – possibly not healthiest option but who doesn’t like a bit of melted cheese?

We popped into one of the producers before we cycled back and bought some additional cassoulet and lingot beans just to see us through the winter!

The following day we cycled the other direction along the canal into Carcassonne which was slightly further – 26km each way. A beautiful route winding its way along the canal, even better accompanied by blue skies and sunshine.

Leaving Bram and the canal behind us we reverted back to France Passion and local producers, revisiting Chateau du Lac, a vineyard in Sigean where we last stopped in 2019 and enjoyed their wine.

Once again, it didn’t disappoint – this time they had added to their portfolio of red wine with a new grape mix. It is a beautiful area on the estuary, next to the wildlife park – another small producer that we will continue to return to when passing this way, although it is ripe for mosquitos so we need to pick our dates carefully as to when we visit!

We then moved on to another – just to break the pattern of vineyards – which was an incredible Olive Grove and press, who take their, and the local producers’s olives, press and bottle them and also sell a wonderful selection of the local produce in their shop. They mainly sold everything relating to olives …from the olive itself and its oil – naturally, through to biscuits, tapenade and much more… this ended up being one of our most expensive ‘stop overs’ – despite being free to stay. We stocked up on our extra virgin olive oil for the next 6 months or so, and will definately be back for more, most probably in the spring as they were just in the process of harvesting this years produce.

Moving slightly further North, we wanted to spend some time in Provence, and with many of the campsites now closed, Keith found a great Aire on the edge of Fontveille and The Alpilles.

The Aire was spacious and we ended up staying four nights as there was so much to do in the area… and if we had known, we probably would have stayed the Sunday too as the market looked incredible!

We headed over to Arles on the first day, passing the Montmajour Abbey which is huge, then had a lovely walk round Arles, finding some lovely little eateries and boutique shops along with its Ampitheatre. The town is beautiful in a shabby chic sort of way, and has a really interesting mix of architecture, definately deserves a little more time to be spent here exploring.

We then took the oppportunity to cycle over to Saint Remy, which we knew from both some friends and also Marcus Waring’s time in Provence, had a market on a Wednesday.

Saint Remy is also beautiful, although more touristy … or best said, less of the ‘shabby’ to go with the ‘chic’ than Arles. It is picture postcard and you can see why so many people visit… but being more ‘shabby’ than ‘chic’, we preferred Arles!

One of the things we didn’t know was that Bouillbalasse comes from the Marseille area, and as we weren’t too far away, we found that one of the restaurants in Fontveille itself specialised in it… so we thought we would try.

The Bouillbalasse was nothing like the one that we had tried elsewhere, and instead of being served in a bowl with everything already assembled, we were presented with the fish before cooking and then each component was served seperately for us to combine.

The five different fish were cooked to perfection and we were presented with a huge bowl of fish soup, seperate potatoes, home made bread croutons and Rouille (allioli)… and told to combine as we wanted. Everything except the fish was replenished as and if we wanted more.

Full of delicious warmth we struggled to decide which of the desserts was best placed to finish off the meal, but both opted for the ‘Omelette Norwegienne’ – better known as Baked Alaska…and oh, what a treat! The raspberry sorbet inside helped cut through any sweetness.

Deciding to stay one more night, we cycled over to Beaucaire, although got distracted en route by a huge number of donkeys in Tarascon so didn’t actually make it. It is fair to say we have hit the season of Christmas markets…and this one was quite spectacular. A huge parade with donkeys, horses and camels along with a large Christmas market where the focus in this area was miniature models, mostly hand crafted… if you like that kind of thing.

Having spent slightly longer in Fontveille than planned, we moved on on Sunday to a little town called Codelet on the Rhone where they had a lovely Aire.

They also apparently have lots of issues with flooding looking at the huge walls and gates surrounding the town…. not to mention the pipes hanging over the walls which are obviously used to pump out any of the water than does get in! Quite industrial unfortuntely, so although no rain forecast – just really high winds – we decided to move on the following day to find another beautiful vineyard….

We do like wines from the Cote du Rhone, so we decided to try out another new area and were not disappointed. Keith had found another small producer from France Passion ‘Domain Rozel’ – the three children are the 22nd generation of wine producers…. one not to be ignored!

The area that they have set aside for campervans is beautifully tranquil, down a track by the river… we decided however, that with torrential rain forecast and the ground already a little ‘moist’, to stop and walk the last bit… a lucky escape! Although turning around wasn’t the easiest feat, it was far better than getting stuck… or was it? With hindsight, the wine was pretty good, we could have stayed longer!! Great wines, lovely welcome and the wine store is almost full now…. another one we will be returning to.

Another hop further up the Rhone and we arrived at ‘Champagne’….not that champagne though. It was another Vineyard, although this time far bigger than the last one. Domain Desirat has a huge selection of red, white and rose wines and alongside it a big Aire that they have established for campervans…. needless to say we were the only ones staying that night.

Once again, good wines and a beautiful area to explore and walk amongst the vines once the mist and fog cleared, but probably not one we will return to simply because we like to support smaller producers where you can hear the passion in their voice when they talk to you.

This brings us almost up to date, as we arrived in Chatillon sur Chalaronne four days ago and here we have ended up staying… It is a pretty little medieval town, with an incredible historic market hall which is bustling on a Saturday morning. Too cold and damp the last couple of days to get out on the bikes as the fog and mist barely disappeared, although we did manage to get a couple of shorter walks in as well as explore the market. Today however, the sun came out and we even got some washing done before heading to the Christmas market in the Medieval market place, and then out for a lovely wintery walk.

And we have a couple of new recipes for you this time round …
– Prawn and chickpea curry – a really quick and easy one which is full of flavour
– Artichoke and sundried tomato stew – quite a nice winter warmer… I added a bit of fennel and switched out the greenbeans for sprouts, but very tasty

And as I have been a little slack in updating the blog over the last few weeks the map covers a little more ground….