Saturday 17th July
I still need to write and send a card to Gordon and Pam at Home Farm1. Today, we went to E.Leclerc at Cogolin for food, which will hopefully last us through until Tuesday, so we don’t have to fight through the throngs at the Casino on Monday. I also needed to buy various tools etc. to mend the broken bed (I really do not remember that). A hand drill @ approx. £4.00 was needed and bits, also about £4.00 (these turned out to be too small for the drill). I bought brackets and screws but will leave these now for Stephen. The bed had been bodged before, but is now more secure than it had been. We will just have to be more careful with it.
We had brunch at the caravan before setting out for our daily visit to the beach. As I have forgotten my book (see yesterday’s entry) I am writing this and reading all the documents and leaflets in my hand bag (??), just for something to do. I have also been thinking about the various schemes I need to plan for next year2 and perhaps I can make notes now. I managed to work out a calendar before it was time to leave at 17:00pm.
Took Emma to see a beach (lol – I guess that she had refused to leave the camp site with us before now), had tea. Sue felt a bit cold, but it’s still mild and light at 21:00pm.
Sunday 18th July
We stayed by the caravan until 13:00pm today as Sue wasn’t feeling too well. I sunbathed outside, it was very hot. I write a letter to Cameron in and amongst. We went to the beach later and it was hot, hot, hot. I finished reading MORT and began to read SOURCERY. After tea, we drove out to look for a Sunday paper, without success3. Bought petrol in Saint Tropez.
Monday 19th July
We went to St. Maxime today and parked in the port car park. The town is quite nice and we spent a couple of hours walking around. We had a drink in a bar on the ‘front’ and read the morning papers (yesterday’s Sunday morning papers). We stayed in St. Maxime for lunch as it had clouded over and had begun to rain. My main course was a ‘house special’ salad and consisted of mixed leaves with dressing, bacon, fennel and small, deep-fried ravioli. We then drove straight to the beach in La Blanche4. The sun was hot but still very much overcast. When it rained, we simply put the towels away and sat it out. It took us 50 minutes to get back from the beach because of traffic.
John Denton from Quarry Garage5 had been while we were out. He left a note to say he would be back tomorrow.
We went back out to the Casino Hypermarket (we never learn, it’s Monday again and busy, busy, busy, even after 18:00pm) and came home with a hot chicken. Some chips from on-site and there we are – tea.
Today, we saw two tornados. I was out at sea, swimming out by the buoys, when I saw a column of sand blowing onto the beach from the car park. The sand was blowing up in the air along a path about three metres wide. As it hit umbrellas, bags and rubbish, it blew them up in the air as well. It looked as if an invisible, petulant child of a giant was throwing a tantrum as it walked down towards the sea. When it did reach the sea, it turned sharp left and marched on down the beach past Neptune and Liberty café/beaches, throwing mats and umbrellas in the air as it passed. A little later, we had both been in the sea when something similar happened. This time, we were able to sit, along with everyone else unaffected, and watch the spectacle from the beach. One brolly was thrown at least 20 metres in the air and was kept aloft while the wind marched quickly down the beach. Again, as it hit the sea, it turned away from us, but the brolly blew back towards us and landed point down, right by the couple sat alongside us.
Frightening.
1 – We had a caravan at that time, which stayed on a farm near York. http://homefarmyork.co.uk/
2 – At the time, I was employed part-time by Dewsbury College as a chef-lecturer. Each year, schemes needed updating/changing and whilst this was often done by full-time members of staff, we were quite a small department, so I pitched in.
3 – In those days, it seemed to take an age for the English papers to reach the Riviera. Nowadays, in Spain anyway, they seem to appear as quickly as the English editions. But also, nowadays I never want to buy one – all the news I need is on t’internet.
4 – I’m struggling to find exactly where this beach was today. The nearest place I can find with a similar name is Plage de la Bastide Blanche.
5 – Quarry Garage is where we had just recently bought the car from.
My even older Holiday Weblog 