Wet room

The wine press at the entrance of Camping Le Pressoir

Luxury. This site actually has a wet room in the shower block. It is a fully tiled room, 12 ft by 9 ft, with toilet, wash basin, large headed shower and wall mounted fan heater. It is brilliant!

On Sunday we went to the market at St. Seurin sur l'Isle. It was a fabulous French market selling everything. I just love French markets.

The vine.

Currently, in the vineyards around St. Emilion, they are completing pruning the vines. You can still see fires in the fields as they burn the cuttings. One or two strong vertical shoot are left growing out of the root stock on each plant.

Then they walk along each row of vines and with a gun clip the shoots to the horizontal wires that run along the lines of plants.

Moving on.

Last Saturday we left Orgiva and drove up Spain to Aranjuez, just south of Madrid. On Sunday we drove round Madrid and on to St Jean de Luz in Southern France. It was a long drive but the roads were very quiet because it was a Sunday. Croissants for breakfast next morning before we set off on the shorter drive to the St. Emilion area. The site is in the middle of the vineyards next to a small chateau. The area is very attractive and we have just been exploring close to base as we recover from our long drive. Today we went to St. Emilion itself, a beautiful old style village where every shop seems to be an exclusive wine merchants. We had coffee in the square, 7 euros for 2 coffees. We had to come back to the caravan for a lie down to recover! Ann still looks rather pale and she hasn't let go of her purse since we got back. Never mind the weather has been lovely so far and we are enjoying the change of scene.

BANG!

Two Fridays before Good Friday the people of Orgiva celebrate Santisimo Cristo de la Expiacion Day. On the Thursday prior to this the statue is taken down from it's place in the church. To celebrate this they set off fireworks.

We went up to town and found that a section of the main street had been cordoned off and they were busy setting up the fireworks. There were 3 strings of fireworks between 2 poles, each with 10 fireworks on. We were standing by the barrier but as lighting time approached we were moved back about 5 yards.
At midday the fuse was lit and approximately 1,000 bangers went off in less than a minute. It was the loudest noise I have heard in my life. The explosions went down the first line then back up the second and so on. As they neared us you could feel the shock waves in your chest.
The noise was actually painful but it was over in a minute. Those that were new to the experience just turned to each other and swore in disbelief with a look of shock on their faces. It was great!

Out and about

On Thursday we walked up to Orgiva market. It was interesting and a lot more varied than Conil's. It had a large quota of English accents selling various products amongst the Spanish but we enjoyed walking round.

On Friday we drove to Lanjaron. It didn't look too appealing at first but as we drove through we decided to stop. It turned out to be a typical continental spa town. Some lovely hotels, but a lot of faded opulence. It was being heavily renovated as well. We saw a new park being created and the main street was dug up and being pedestrianised. It should be lovely when it's finished.

On our way home we called at a dam on the Rio Guadalfeo. It was spectacular as a lot of water was being allowed out at the base.

On Saturday we went to Motril and on the way back we were pulled over by the Guardia Civil. They checked our papers but seemed concerned about 'Residencia Papers'. I think you need these if you are in Spain for over 3 months. There are a lot of Brits living here so that was probably why they were checking.

Old-timers keep fit.

Pensioners Playgrounds.

It seems that every town and village in Spain has a Pensioners Playground. We first saw one beside Conil a couple of years ago but now they are everywhere.

These two are in small villages near to Orgiva. They are in the open air, often with fabulous views, but rarely used in the winter in our experience.

They are meant as keep fit areas for senior citizens and they are very good. I read on the internet that there are now 2 in Britain. The first opened near Manchester and one has opened in Hyde Park this year. I don't know if they will be very appealing with our weather.