9th September No Parking!

After last night's huge 4 course dinner, wine and having been up since 4am we both had an excellent night's sleep. Asleep by 10pm and only woken at about 6.30am with that high pitched 'nnnngggg' mozzie buzz around my ear. A dive and under the covers and I luckily avoided being breakfast for the bug. The cockerel then started his morning call so it was time to get up for a very traditional French petit dejeuner.

Coffee served in a bowl, orange juice, french bread and a choice of 3 jams as well as local honey. There was dandelion jelly (this was a bit of a novelty and absolutely delicious - which we were told takes about 400 dandelions to make 6 pots), fig and raspberry jam to choose from.

Patrick suggested an alternative route for us to take on our journey south going through the Forêt de Tronçais. An 11,000 hectares of oak trees, lakes and mushrooms! A very tranquil route to the autoroute.

Today's grumble. Why do some women queue in the loo and don't try the doors if it's not clear if they're occupied or not? Huge queue in motorway service loo and when I got to the front and tried the doors there were loads empty aarrgghhh!😬!

Through the French/Spanish border.

Anyway the journey to the apartment was pretty uneventful and after stopping for coffees and food 4 times we arrived about 6.30pm. One huge difference to our normal arrival at this time of year was the distinct lack of parking spaces. Santa Margarita is heaving! Perhaps it's weekend tourists, the hot weather or change in the holiday season? No matter what it is, it's currently like being here in the summer so we're relieved we didn't come last week!

We feel like we're one of the locals as we were warmly welcomed in La Cassola our favourite restaurant. Now 3 courses later and feeling slightly stuffed I think we'll have to restrict ourselves to maybe a meal out once a week. Otherwise all good intentions to reduce our waistlines will go down the pan.

Tomorrow is Sunday so we might head to Roses market or possibly a swim. Maybe I'll see how I feel in the morning before committing myself to plunging into the sea.