Well we’re still in France, currently 50m from the med and its sunny. Wind has gone which is annoying as I want to get the kite out! Pleasant spot so will chill here for the day/night.
Week 9 blog is HERE and if you want to see the entire trip index then click HERE.
Hard to believe we’re on our 64th day of the trip and we are only around 1/2 way through it!!! Wow.
Week 9 started a bit misty but we went on a long walk into the Gorges past some waterfalls and up the ravine. The walk was probably endless but our snowboarding aches prevented us going too far. After, we headed slowly to Pont-en-Royans where we anticipated staying the night, but we just had lunch and left due to the area having far too much evidence of cars being broken in to. Instead we headed to an aire in Saint-Jean-en-Royans which was okay for the night. 
The countryside and horizon in this part of France is quite spectacular – flat plains with huge canyons and rocks – loads of walking and cycling routes which all seem well sign posted. Next time we’re here….
The following day took us to Romans-sur-Isère (bit of a nothing place) then down to Montélimar famous for its nougat which, obviously, we had to buy a load. Montélimar seems to be undergoing a revamp and the centre was very smart and had a busy all-sorts market. There is a Palace des bonbons et du Nougat which has a big shop, but also loads of play for the kids. Not much for adults bar sweets. After a big shop we ended up in a small medieval town called Viviers on the banks of the river for the night – very old-world and very pretty.
Our great view of the river and the surrounding town on the hill was obscured by dense fog that sadly lingered all day making it flippin’ cold. We left Viviers and headed to Alès which had a decent free aire which we made use of by having a hair-cut and good shower! The place itself was another “okay but not worth a detour” type place. For the night we headed just down the road to Anduze which is a very old small town with tight and interesting streets.
From Anduze we visited Sauve and then down to the old walled city of Aigues-Mortes. Both were fairly impressive but again lacking in atmosphere due to the time of year. Aigues-Mortes must be very popular in season as there were “no campervan” signs in most places, and where they allowed you to park it was around €10 just for parking. We parked about 1km outside in Hyper-U and walked in along the river (back exit from Hyper-U). We then headed to the Med to see if the sun was out, but sadly it remained hidden and the air remained cold. So hot tip: Don’t expect good sun in Feb in the south of France!
We overnighted at Sete quay which is a permitted motorhome area, but in truth it was a cross between a lorry park and a pikey site – thus we selected our corner carefully! Last time in the area we missed Sete, but this time explored the old town and the canals, and it was a pretty place worth visiting. Sadly though, the Sete to Adge road (N112) has been rebuilt and there is nowhere to wildcamp – whereas previously there were 100’s of spaces for vans right on the med. We eventually tucked in Le Grau-d’Agde but I’d say especially in season the area is no longer motorhome friendly (too much previous abuse no doubt). It was nice to see the sun again with waves gently lapping the beach, but still isn’t swimming weather here.
W
ith the morning set in mist, we headed to Béziers which looked okay from an outside photo, but was fairly tatty inside. There was a “yellow footprint walk” which shows the most interesting parts, including a superb “mirror” shop. You’ll know what I mean if you see it! We then headed on slow roads via Sauvian and Sérignan that looked okay, down to the beach Valras-Plage which wasn’t really that special. We continued on really rough (un-named!) roads to Narbonne-Plage which could’ve been anywhere really, then through to Gruissan which we liked – a large modern harbour, some modern tourist bits, and an interesting and small old-town with small (very) castle. A peaceful place for the evening.
The night was very calm, but in the morning the area lived up to its name “Aire des 4 vents” – so we left to Narbonne which itself was okay with a couple of good views and shopping streets, but nothing excited. For the night we ventured to Port-la-Nouvelle which again didn’t excite but sorted us for the night.
As usual it appears we are visiting places at the wrong time! There is quite clearly a middle ground between peak season and mid winter when places can get an atmosphere and liven up without being over full. February in the south of France probably doesn’t do a lot of places justice. So we end week 9 with a mixed view of the last week.
Click to go to week 10
Fortunately my man-flu has abated, but now Mel has a bit of a cold. I’ve told her to man up and get on with it – which she is doing and still having lessons with me. The lessons are getting interesting, we’re learning some new tricks and improving our technique, but I seem to have ripped my trousers in the bum – think the coccyx 
protector has poked through. Mel is covered in bruises though – none inflicted by me…
This week, Valloire is hosting an international snow sculpture competition, and over the last week or so they have been building solid snow “cubes” throughout (5m tall). Today the competition started and the work looks very manual and difficult, and the pictures they are apparently going to build look stunning. As usual for France, a complete lack of health & safety with guys climbing over the top with chainsaws with the public walking underneath. Still – no one died today!
With our lessons continuing, our instructor is teaching us how to do “railies” which is sliding over, well, rails. The first person to attempt it (a Dutch girl who is pretty good) came a cropper and appeared to bend her back over the rail! Ouch. Lessons will continue…
And continue they did – we both attempted 3 different rails with mixed results, but I managed to do a couple unaided and after the class I did all 3 in one go! No one was watching so sadly no evidence of that. Bruised knees from previous attempts on the rails though – you pay for mistakes heavily…. We also got introduced to “Boarder-cross” which is snowboarding over a course similar to a bike course, e.g. bumps, rises, banked corners etc. I absolutely loved it (despite flying over the top of one of the banks). Really fast and challenging and difficult to maintain high speed. Mel however hated every minute of it and almost broke her wrist. But apart from that….
Our final day of lessons saw us repeat the boarder-cross in a race in pairs – I lost due to an early slip, but still great fun. Will need to do some more of that! We also learned to do some of the “blue” jumps and actually get some real air. Bizarrely Mel enjoyed this part of the park and I even managed some nice jumps and landings. I hope these skills transpose well to help my Wakeboarding jumping!
After our lessons we decided to have a day off and rest, but this turned into a couple of days as Mel was feeling and sounding rough coughing most of the night. We did a tour of the sn
ow sculpture competition which had some impressive works – the photos don’t really do them justice.
For the following few days, Mel was still recovering from her illness which was obviously more than a cold, and annoyingly after it had almost gone we both got struck with sore throats. Great! But even so we managed to continue our routing of boarding, playing in the park, and eating and drinking well. I’m doing okay in the park, landing most jumps and not getting any bruises from the rails, but far away from being close to being any good. Some of the youngsters are just so natural at it – and sadly we’re not.
The snow is still getting bare and its getting close to the time to consider alternative opti
ons…
Well, famous last words and all that. After another good day on the slopes and in the snow park, I did a few good jumps, did the rails and didn’t have any problems at all. Then on the last jump of the day I did the mini jump well, then did the bigger one where I did a better Ollie than normal so jumped a bit higher and further…. No problem – landed okay but almost instantly caught my heel edge and smashed into the ground and did a summersault. It was my biggest fall leaving me winded for 5 minutes before I could move, and on inspection I have damaged my shoulder/neck muscles and also my back/bum/pelvis. A few days off required no doubt, but no lasting damage. The helmet and impact shorts most definitely helped…
After a day off with Mel going out by herself, we decided that we would leave Valloire on the Monday morning and head SW and just see what we find. 
On our last day we did have one more boarding day and I managed a couple of hours even though I could hardly turn my neck – and if I’d fallen on my backside it would have hurt like **** – but as it was we survived.
We paid our campsite bill of €1090 – eek! Worked out at just under €21 a day (or £17) which I guess we can’t complain about. Annoyingly, the “long term reduction” doesn’t include discount on electricity or tax, and even this “resets” after each price change (e.g. over Christmas) – so the bill was about €90 more than expected. Overall though, considering it has been a very functional place I don’t think we can complain much. Though we are looking forward to a few aires and wild camping to allow us more drinking money!
So bye bye to Valloire – our home for 7 very pleasant weeks – and we will be back.
When leaving Valloire we found out how important it is to have good preparation… The van started fine which was a miracle on a 5yo battery, but the rear brake drums had seized. We managed to drag the van to the tarmac but this didn’t free them up – so had to use the jack to take the wheels off and clout the drums with a big hammer. Fortunately we had all the tools and a CD workshop manual to confirm the nut torque settings. Sadly one of the tyres is looking a bit rough from the drag.
Then filling the van up with water (it had been drained) – we had a “hissing” from the Malaga 3E hot water boiler as well as the pressure pump cutting in. So, good job we had the PDF of the manual with us and the phone number of their tech support! 10/10 for Propex Heatsource support though – the guy that answered was superb and suggested the gasket had gone loose due to cold, so told me how to fix it as well as give me details of spares. Fortunately I also carry spares to enable me to isolate various bits of pipework so this did us till the evening stop.
So – good job we have the toolkit – all taken apart and fixed – and both problems potentially major issues. Phew.
Anyway, our evening stop ending week 8 was in a small place called Cognin-les-Gorges. No other reason apart from it was the right distance from Valloire in the direction we wanted, but on googling the place there appears to be a stunning gorge walk – so after a night of wild camping and some beer we finished week 8 in anticipation of a good morning walk.
And its soooo nice to have running water and waste again!
Click HERE to go to week 9
Today I managed to get a couple of final hours of boarding in – pelvis and neck sore so wasn’t that fluid on the board, but I survived!
Lovely day here today but no fresh snow or any forecast, so we’re heading SW slowly towards Montpellier via all the little towns and villages and just see what we find!
Valloire has been good to us and we would recommend it for a ski or board trip. We’re quite looking forward to coming back in the summer to hit the mountain bik (VTT) trails.
Here are some poor pics of todays fun at the snowpark.
No animals or humans were overly hurt during the taking of these pictures….
Sadly, here in Valloire there has been little snow of recent. Pretty much the town is clear and the slopes are getting a bit icy and are very hard and packed snow. The forecasters keep getting it wrong too – WE WANT MORE SNOW! On the bright side, our French is improving and also we’ve had training in the snow park (which is in great condition). So if there is still a shortage of snow we’ll have to resort to practicing railies and jumps! (Watch this space for some video….)
There has been a load of snow in town, albeit in the form of a snow sculpture contest. Some stunning sculptures (more pics can be seen in our album HERE)
We’ll have to see what the snow does from here to see if it is worth staying another couple of weeks or to move on to the Pyrenees.
Below is one of the ice sculputres for last week – clearly modelled on Mel! 
Our week 4 – 6 diary has been uploaded to http://www.doyourdream.co.uk/trip-reviews-and-details/trip-08-snowboarding-sahara/weeks-4-5-and-6-valloire/ - not that interesting I am afraid as we’re not doing much campervanning – just boarding!
First real damage today 
Ripped my trouses – think it is the impact shorts body armour that caused the damage. Bugger.
Yes – had our first bloody injury here. Nothing too serious. I dropped my razor when shaving and it cut my finger. It would not have been so bad if it wasn’t a Gillette Fusion 5 blade job – so 5 parallel cuts and a lot of blood. Could be worse.
I’ve also got man-flu. No women understand this, but I’m man enough to keep boarding through it though, of course, too ill to do housework. Got a tickly cough left and a few aches – though not sure all are man-flu related.
Sadly, its nice t-shirt weather here – clear skies and warm. This is of course having an effect on the snow, and with no snow forecast for the next week its not looking great. Some of the slopes are very hard and icy which makes it difficult for us (at our standard at least). There is a sprinkling of snow on top which helps, but it does mean some big offs….
There is one lovely long run with the last 600m or so being undulating, so you need to carry speed into it in order to make it to the end without having to “snowboard-shuffle”. So today, got the hill before it right, aimed round the 90′ corner that you need to be quick round only to find it being sheet ice. Cue a good test of all my saftey gear – though I did sprain my wrist and am a bit sore Almost every boarder fell off there (bar the annoying experts).
So pray for snow – we need some….
(And thank goodness for Nurafen!)
Edit: Next day, Mel who was pain free, got wiped out in style by a female snowboarder. Poor Mel now has whiplash, sore neck and shoulders and can’t bob her head any more. Thank goodness for our stock boxes of Nurafen!
Wow. What a contrast.
6-7cm of snow yesterday and the slopes are superb. On top of that they are fairly empty as people are back at work. So today was an excellent days snow boarding. I spent most time with Mel coaching her (like I’m an expert!?) down some reds – and she seemed to change into a boarder today actually riding the board with great control.
The only downside was on a chair lift with 3 seats. Mel normally takes the middle, me the one on the right. Today though, she slipped before getting on so I helped her up then as the chair came she took the right hand seat…. Meaning my arm that was about to hold the seat got caught and there was no where for me to go apart from spinning off into a pile of snow….
Bizzarely Mel didn’t actually realise where I’d gone – she must’ve thought there was an invisible 4th seat… Only another bruise for the collection.
Did a bit off piste today in fresh powder which was most excellent, though you have to keep moving fairly fast else you sink (like wakeboarding). I looked like a snowman at times, but it was excellent.
Off to bar tonight for live music – so come on everyone get over here and join us!!
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