.. and A to B Part 3 - Bulls and Roses!

What a lovely stretch of coast!

 Resuming the account of the more static (and drier) aspects of the migration!
There are several seaside towns between Montpellier and Barcelona that are on the Greyrocks list, but a must is the bit near Lattes, so with thirteen nights to play with - the last of which needed to be near Girona - and some places due to close for the season - and the dreaded storm brewing - the decision was Lattes 10, Roses 3 (leaving out this time Agde as being a bit grim with bad weather)!

Lattes is within striking distance of the edge of the Camargue. On the Sunday before the storm we drove to Le Grau du Roi, just over the departmental border into Gard. With the sunshine and what we later discovered to be the morning event it was heaving, and restaurants were very full. As we wandered round looking for a simple bar we began to notice heavy barriers and cowpats, then something was revealed by a notice on the bridge! We had arrived too late  - or was it too early (?) to see the Camargue bulls being driven through town to the beach or whatever else horses, bulls and males do in the streets or on the beach. Extensive research since with Monsieur Google has failed to distinguish the abrivado from the encierro, or the fete votive or re-vivre; let alone establish how much mindless cruelty is involved versus local cultural heritage! Here is some YouTube footage of something similar last year.

Neatly dodging this moral dilemma Greyrocks settled on eating - rather than running with - bull! After the French Sunday lunch rituals were over we went in search of ours and found a beauty on riverside. Click for the Trip Advisor link.

Either side of the big storm we made trips to Palavas - twice, Carnon, and Perols by bike and to Montpellier by tram. With Ruth's knees feeling the effect of a previous day's trudging through mud, on one of these occasions - actually her name day in France - the afternoon's activity was a jolly trundle through the historic bits and banlieues armed with a network map. Very good value and further confirmation that public investment works!

"Yes - there is an R in October!"

Then it was a straight run down the autoroute and over the border to Roses in Catalunya. We stayed for the third time at the same hotel and were given a particularly nice room. The sun shone most of the time, but with a chilly wind, so bike rides were a bit short! In searching for a launderette we saw more of the backstreets of the old town, and were tempted into a modest establishment by a display of oysters. A delightful lunch, and having been given a rose by the jefe a French lady next to us emptied a wine bottle, filled it with water and handed it to us! But next day it was clearing and repacking Yvette (in the rain) for the closedown. Space was tight so the rose was left in Roses!