Paleo Update for 2018

Nomads' question: "Which is more germ-ridden: a long-distance ferry or budget airline cabin?"

Greyrocks ponders this as Ruth very slowly recovers from over three weeks of sore throat and nasty cough acquired on one of the ships used in early June, and having started the Fuerteventura stay in October with something caught on the journey from Barcelona! Bob - predictably - followed on in each case!

So June has not been a great month, but here is the annual rundown on observed developments around town. It is preceded by the Spoiler Warning for those that would rather discover for themselves!

(On the domestic front we can report that after three full seasons our landlords have supplied an ice compartment door for the oldest fridge in town!)

Prettifications

The process of resurfacing the main thoroughfares seems to be complete, and it looks good. A more promising attempt at restricting parking on the Palm Tree Road has been made with fixed bollards, but parking - even at this early stage of the season - is seriously problematic, owing to many more hire cars, building on odd plots unofficially used before, and the unexplained closure of the main car park down near the commercial bakery, We have a second lifeguard post on the Sandy Beach. Interesting work is taking place at the ferry jetty, with a sludge-gulping device moving sand from the ship side over to the shore in front of The Crocodile to prevent the Samaria from going aground. (A little beach is developing there and we asked Georgios if he would be colonising it!) There are some new pieces of artwork around, including a sculpture near the Castello. We had a long chat with Dutch Anton (ex Gavdos) and this sent Greyrocks on its first bike ride, to look at Pearl Cavo near the Camping, where there is a pleasant furnished and managed beach, and on the roadside his re-sited geodesic dome. On the down side the private clinic on the stony side has disappeared.

Tourist-catching developments

Airbnb has taken hold - in spite of dire public warnings from the Tax Police about the regulations and penalties. Throughout the village there are modest old buildings which have been tarted-up and given name plaques. This is - indeed  - the fate of the former clinic! Three free-standing villas almost on the Sandy Beach have been built as part of the Villa Europa empire. Next to the Petrakis supermarket a large building is being noisily erected (rooms, shop extension, ??), and there is a mystery building between Hotel Aris and the "new" harbour, which looks a bit big for a private house and is - allegedly - Norwegian-owned.

Both taxi firms are keen to get into "tours" - one of which - involving wine - interests Greyrocks so watch this space! Diane (ex-Kosmar) now fronts a company - Paleohora Nature - with an office on Palm Tree Road which offers all sorts of aided- but only GPS guided - walking, boat and cycle tours.

Restaurant changes

To no-one's great surprise the concern that was last year in Kapetan Dimitri's former premises has gone! The restaurant has a new name (Parasties - not Parasites!), and has been expensively re-styled. Reports differed, but last night Greyrocks and Olga engaged in research, and a Trip Advisor review will follow. Conversely - to everyone's surprise - Dionysos has re-opened on the Main Street with spanking new decor and furniture after many years closed. Castro - up by the fortress - is now fully functioning and going for the fine-dining niche. Finally - just opened where there was a basic grill/giros at the bottom end of the night-time pedestrian Main Street zone - is Dakos, (named after the iconic Cretan peasant dish), which advertises itself for mezes and raki. Needs a try! All of Greyrocks' favourites are still there and - in fact - thriving!

Weather

The cantina at the end of the Sandy Beach!

Ask a local about the weather and  they will say it was a mild winter, but that rain is desperately needed for both  olives and people! Since we arrived on 8th there has been rain! Not enough, of course to solve the problem, but enough to prompt heated debates about Junes past and present! At first we found it remarkably warm during the day, but cold at night and certainly the sea was too cold for Greyrocks ("never before July 1st!"); but things went "pear-shaped" by the next Saturday, and since then it has been a matter of heavy cloud and occasional short downpours that are unpredictable. The wind, too, has been giving problems over the last few days, so beach-time is down On a couple of occasions we have found ourselves in a lock-in situation at Yianni's cantina, when the bamboo barricade has been placed for wind protection and the rain comes through the roof but the tsikoudia comes out to keep the half-dozen regulars cheerful. On Wednesday the afternoon rain was minimal. but the threat serious as the sky was very dark. In the absence of direct sun  made it positively cold in beachwear in the shade of the main body of the cantina, so six of us moved to the  roofless "annex" which has been recently constructed alongside and also offers shelter from the wind. There we spent hours of otherwise unbeachable time on shared interests:  Paleo accommodation options, Goa, baby boomer personal finance and Corbyn/Bloody Brexit! What else matters, we ask? At some point we were treated to special  tsikoudia flavoured with honey and walnuts. Nice!

Beach conditions
Seasonal concessions were sorted early this time round, so on arrival we found everything in place and very little different from last year. A few more chargeable mattresses for the beds at the town end! The line of three tavernas with beach service  - Palm Tree, Veggera and Atoli -  upping the ante in terms of competition, the really flash "shelters" gone, and the most regrettable blossoming of recreational "water activity" hire - including jet-ski! Grrr!

As last year the entry to the sea was particularly easy (rock-free)in mid-June for those who like cold sea, but the storms this week have shifted a load of sand, and it's not looking good at the moment. Greyrocks will return to this key news as the summer progresses!

Three days and nights on the ocean wave

A new route to Crete this year for Greyrocks:- prompted mostly by the time-shift for the Wedding of the Year! It is based on three tightly sequenced ferries.

Ferry 1: Barcelona to Civitavecchia - Grimaldi Lines - 21 hours  - Intermediate stop: Porto Torres, Sardinia
(Ship being kept in service during re-flooring so some irritating no-go policies aboard!)

It was dark by the time we left port and there were now plenty of passengers. We had a few more mini Proseccos and then retired to our comfortable cabin, which all the better for Bob discovering how to adjust the air-conditioning! We didn't bother with breakfast, and the crowd thinned at Porto Torres. We spent much of the afternoon in the A la carte restaurant enjoying some very good Italian fare and a bottle of Chianti as a delayed birthday meal for Ruth. When passengers had to clear the cabins we found that a guy reminiscent of Raw Sex on keyboards was playing in the main lounge and mature Italian ladies were line dancing (occasionally joined by ragazzi in mocking mode). This took us into Civitavecchia and masked the mobile phone bad manners! Disembarkation was easy, but the first roads down to the Ancona standard in terms of condition, We followed signs for Roma which too s on a very long sweep round, but we reached our booked hotel which was perfect - simple, lift, nice bar with Moretti beer, good WiFi and a charming owner, who introduced us to a regular who is Greek.  We considered popping across the road for a pizza but didn't, and we also got away next day without breakfast as we had a serious drive ahead and another ferry to catch!

This would be Greyrocks' longest (planned!) daily drive for the year. It is autostrada all the way to Bari and pretty well signed for interchanges, but getting round Naples in the morning rush hour was hairy, and later the us and downs quite impressive but time-consuming. Comments on Italian driving and service stations have all been made before, and the approach to the port of Bari isn't easy, but we found ourselves in the fenced off area with hours to kill in the sunshine, hoping there was a bar. There was, and we had plenty to watch as a huge German cruise ship was nearby and the punters were returning to it - many on hired bicycles!  We embarked with ease!

    Ferry 2: Bari to Patras - Superfast/ANEK - 17 hours  - Intermediate stop: Igoumenitsa

This is not the largest or newest ship in the fleet and - apart from the cabin - few places to escape from what we encounter every time on the Adriatic route: loud, vain, and numerous US students! But we know they are likely to get off at Igoumenitsa! We ate our decent dinner in the self-service surrounded by them. Ah well! Superfast have a new internet price so we had a few hours with that, and time passed, but we couldn't get a GPS location for determining exactly which lump of land we could see. We were off quickly. In the outskirts of Patras at traffic lights was a group of organised very young Roma children begging aggressively. Welcome to austerity Greece! The well-trodden route to Piraeus is now complete but the toll booths are working so the journey is broken into about six segments at about EUR 2 each. It was also very light on traffic through the afternoon - until after Corinth.

 On the outskirts of Athens we stopped for the cheapest diesel and then went to our "usual" area for a late lunch. There was not much choice this time and we ended up at the first on the shore, where we had our first Amstels and our first Greek salad which came in a strangely deconstructed form with feta separate and doused in olive oil - with no table bottle thereof. Later we realised this was due to the latest self-destructive legislation in Greece. Read all about it! The next post will consider how it is being implemented in distant Crete! Textbook navigation to the Crete quay of the port this time! With - again- ages to kill we parked judiciously and went up to the "usual" bar - which has been tarted up but is still very friendly. We turned away ten different itinerant vendors of watches, chargers and sunglasses. Then we returned and were allowed on board quickly just after 6 pm.

                         Ferry 3: Piraeus to Chania - Blue Star/ANEK - 9 hours
The ship was not the monster one we were expecting but one from the Blue star fleet. This barely mattered except for the absence of an outdoor bar with gyros, which is an ANEK sine qua non! We watched the dockside activity and amongst it was the arrival of two coaches with primary-age children and a few disengaged staff. We discovered our cabin was surrounded by theirs! This was perhaps a vestige of the changed ship and inappropriate cabin number - but it was Hell up there! When challenged as to where any supervising adults might be found we were told they were "eating"! Next morning was more or less problem-free. We watched a very tedious but clever manoeuvre of a juggernaut, and were off before sunrise. We took the coast road to Tavronitis and found a bakery with parking for a restful breakfast. We arrived in Paleo at about 9 am.

  

Braving Barcelona!

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Just a nibble as free tapas!

Barcelona is a big place!! With this in mind we chose to have two nights somewhat outside at Castelldefels. We had stayed there many years ago and knew it was OK for parking, has a nice beach with bars and getting into the city by bus:- something we had planned for the Sunday - is straightforward. That is all true, but we had near disasters on each of the three days involved. On Saturday we set off in great weather, crossed into Catalunya and picked up the motorway for a wide northerly sweep round the city. Naming of roads starts to get a bit tricky. (AP, B, A, E etc) We had Bob's list of distances on each and there was a dispute at one point over whether we had gone far enough. We need a good road atlas for Spain and somehow have never bought one. We became convinced that we had seriously overshot a junction and so came off at the next with no idea where we were. The upshot was a huge, hot extended tour on non-motorway roads, we later discovered to be officially pretty! Eventually getting to Castelldefels we could see the Ibis but not get in! Frayed nerves, but a decent place to stay! We went off for the afternoon walking alongside the Olympic Canal from 1992, marvelled at the Cable Water-skiing and found a crowded but friendly beach bar. As Rajoy had just resigned we toasted a socialist government - of sorts! It was very sunny, the sea was almost inviting and we had a great couple of hours, but decided not to eat but take the bus back up to the centre of Castelldefels for an early supper. Alighting at a random stop we found just the place: Bar 101 - unpretentious, spacious and with a long menu of tapas in Spanish rather than Catalan - so intelligible to Greyrocks! We walked back to the hotel sparing only a minor thought for the weather forecast!

With Rajoy out - maybe!

Next morning it was raining! We killed time but it got worse, so we grabbed an umbrella and headed for the bus stop - only to see the expected bus pass as we walked. We lurked in LIDL and caught the next. It is a 40 minute ride, but interesting and very cheap. It also became very crowded and we were pleased to get off at Placa de Catalunya - except that it was now torrential rain, so we ran into a brasserie we know nearby and had a couple of disappointing tapas. It rained all day, which made Las Ramblas an obstacle course with umbrellas, puddles, and lost, loud and bad-tempered tourists (So unlike our good selves of course!) All bars and cafés were full. This was not nice! We thought of the Contemporary Art Museum and would even have paid. We argued about its location and arrived to discover it closed at 3 pm on Sundays. It was 3.15!  More bar-lurking (a very nice one!) and the bus back. A driver gave us wrong information about two very similar bus routes and we had to walk  a long way other end to change buses. By then it had just about stopped raining. Devoid of ideas and the will to explore we went back to Bar 101 and sat inside for freebies and some warming dishes.  Next day would be Ruth's birthday and "Things can only get better!"

Barcelona: 3 - Greyrocks: 0 (half-time)

The day would have an odd form as we were to catch a ferry at 10 pm. There were several options, and we chose the worst. We wanted a fairly early dinner near the port, and we needed to plan for navigational problems and not exploit free parking at the hotel for an unreasonable time.  So we checked out at 12, left the car for a couple of hours whilst we did a supermarket visit and walked down again beside the canal to the beach, ate our sandwiches and went for a quick drink at the same chiringuito. (There we met a British boy having his birthday too - his First - Ruth's a somewhat larger number !) Then we went back for the car. Even in the telling the naivete of the next bit is staggering! We managed the route as far as the port entrance with little trouble, so decided to go right up to the terminal - in case we could - perhaps - park and walk. Of course we couldn't! We had picked a few Trip Advisor recommendations open all day on Mondays. Mostly they were in Barceloneta. It was a June afternoon: pleasantly sunny after an appalling Sunday. Chances of parking an over-height GB-plated car with all the travelling worldly wealth - for a reasonable price -  in the crime capital of Europe somewhere two paranoid geriatrics would feel comfortable about or could observe throughout a leisurely meal? Exactly - how dumb to have even considered it! So we drove on looking for other beach-side spots and came upon a space near a chiringuito. Never mind TA and the special occasion  - this would have to do! And Ruth's review says it all  - except the "lucky escape bit"! R could not initially get the machine to accept a debit card as it should. and we debated taking the rick of being without a ticket. After getting change and help we settled at a table with a view of the car, Whilst Bob was in the loo a towing lorry arrived and the guys looked particularly carefully at Yvette and her very valid parking ticket. A close shave!

We took sequential walks along the very pleasant prom and then headed back to the port, prepared for a long and tedious boarding process. This time, however we got the documentation sorted instantly an were beckoned aboard, found the cabin and the bar and that they had cheap Prosecco and the prospect of adequate WiFi in the morning. Equanimity was restored - but next day it would be Italy!

The Best of the West of France:- A Finale of Sun, Wind and Rain!

Une éolienne

Last May when Greyrocks visited George and co near Confolens we were drenched and reduced to fishing out our warm clothes. They had only been in their new bungalow for a few weeks and the huge garden was untouched! What a difference a year makes! Now we could be accommodated for a couple of nights, the lawn is verdant and there are vestiges of the 1500 bluebells planted last year. And we could sit on the terrace in the sun! We didn't do much other than catch up, eat and drink; but we went to Lesterps as before for a great lunch, and en route stopped at a local landmark. Around George's hamlet are slogans decrying "éoliennes", and he asked if we knew what that was about. We didn't  and could only think of harps, but they are wind turbines and they are springing up like mushrooms around the area, which is causing great controversy, especially as a test rig has been erected very close to neighbours. Near Lesterps one can get very close to some of the six or seven there and hear the weird sound of the rotation. A complicated issue! In good weather we also took a walk up the hill in St Germain for a view of the river (Vienne) and the whole town.


As planned we set off  on the Friday heading south and spent the night just off the A20 in Montauban. We had a bit of an issue with the printed map and which exit to use, but got to the hotel early to be told there was no prospect of dining there as they had a coach party. Thus we went out on foot round a commercial zone designed for cars and found a mall that was brand new where we wiled away some time until Poivre Rouge opened with its Friday special of a seafood buffet. Then back to base, and next day a run south, round Toulouse and over to the Mediterranean coast to our final stopover of a week at Le Brasilia in Canet-en-Roussillon.

The best campsite in France?

This was out tenth stay and we are usually there nearer to the beginning or end of their season, When we arrived there was glorious sunshine, and with it also being the half-term holiday in England and Wales it was very nearly full! We had one of the cheapest mobile homes, but were surrounded by expensive ones, and little modest Yvette was parked amongst  vehicles with GB and D plates, most of which looked like they were designed to invade Poland!  As the week progressed Ruth became intrigued by the fact that 90 percent of the German ones had the same crest. Mr Google identified it as that of Baden-Württemberg, which was having its Pentecost School Holiday. So: not the most tranquil of times there - particularly round the wonderful pools and in the bar of an evening - but good fun and a seriously jolly atmosphere!

Greyrocks' first full day started sunny and we set off on bikes for Ruth's first such jolly in France for two years. She did well in the circumstances and we made it to our late lunch booking - described on TA! Whilst waiting we heard thunder, then saw lightning out at sea, and by dessert time there was torrential rain. Ruth said in her best French: "Tant pis! etc.. but you are open all afternoon aren't you?" only to be told they weren't and were about to close! The rain stopped and we got ready to ride back. Malheureusement, with wet pedals, wet sandals and a confidence crisis Ruth couldn't re-mount so wheeled the bike back alone! The weather was dodgy for the rest of the week, so we had a day out at the nearest big Carrefour buying wedding table covers, and a day in St Cyprien, and several rides together around the marina and along the promenade. Swimwear was not deployed at any point! But we did have a relaxing and comfortable time, and a last blast for four months of French food and lifestyle!

The Best of the West of France - Part 2 - Another Pleasant Isle

Greyrocks' next port of call was Île de Ré off the coast of La Rochelle. We had espied it in the distance from both La Rochelle itself and much earlier from La Tranche, but had avoided it as expensive and a tourist trap. Both are true - but less of an issue off season, and Fuerte friends Pete and Stella from Jersey had done a good job singing its virtues, so we booked a week in a mobile home on the Municipal campsite in the capital, St Martin.

It is reached by an impressive bridge (EUR8 return) and as soon as you reach the other side the pace of life and scale of infrastructure decreases. We were there from Wednesday to Wednesday and two events are worthy of note! First we had the Pentecost long weekend - (Oh No - not another French May Bank Holiday!) when a site we had thought quiet turned into a venue for an entire youth football team and entourage with little sense of civilised behaviour. (They did clear out on the Monday, Praise the Lord!) and then bizarrely the wedding of Harry Windsor to Meghan, in that Ruth remembers hiding from that of Charles and Diana in La Rochelle in 1981 in another life!!

So, what is good about the Island? Here are some elements:

Geography and Zoology
There are bays, lagoons, dunes, points, marshes  and some fantastic beaches. Camping is very popular wherever there is beach access. The island is well-forested and there is a real sense of caring for the environment. Because of the overall size it is possible to see a great variety of everything in a short trip. In the fields (and modelled in every gifte shoppe )  are the local (hairy) Poitou donkeys, and in the North-East there are numerous and interesting birds!

Seafood
Oysters are extensively harvested and farmed,  and along with mussels formed several relaxed lunches for Greyrocks. It is possible to have a degustation of the oysters at the many production sites  along the North coast. They both go down very well with the local wine! Prawns of various sizes figure a lot too, and we had some beautiful ones beside the marina at Ars-en-Re on our only car tour day. For dinners in St Martin Ruth also had some miniature skate wings, and a fine white fish risotto.

At Le Phare des Baleines

Cycling
Undoubtedly this is the best way to get around! The cycle routes are well signed and it is mostly flat. We had our own bikes, of course and Ruth is slowly regaining confidence, but hire shops are everywhere. We saw every possible variation on the basic form:- many tandems, many trailers meant for children but more usually with a dog, Dutch style front "tubs" for children, one similar but with a full-grown woman in it, some recumbent/standard confections, and all manner of devices connecting child bike to adult bike. Greyrocks made several excursions - including to the southern side, where feet were dipped in the sea, but we are more Med-people (or Arabian Sea) than Atlantic and were quickly out of the water! There were bathers - some even not in wet-suits!

A week was just about enough, but we would go again with some changes. The busiest day (sunny Sunday in the long weekend) was "too much"  in terms of tourism. The thought of July and August there is unbearable! There is quite a sense of pandering to rich Parisians, and we encountered some hostility to us when we were identifiable as Brits - particularly when in the car with GB plates - but not when speaking French in bars and restaurants where people were charming. We wonder if there is a general feeling that the place is "full".

We would have been happy, also, to return to the same campsite off peak until departure day!! We use at least three mobile homes per year and have done so for ten years and have never had a complaint about the cleanliness on leaving until this time. What a ghastly woman! Ruth had to walk off to calm down and avoid her! En route to the bridge we had an angry "Priorité à droite" incident, so left seething!