Fishing our way to a French hideaway - April 2019

Puy-l'Eveque - France

Before leaving Portugal we stopped at a roadside cafe, a very 'local' one and had THE BEST, obviously homemade Pastel de Nata (Portuguese custard tarts) to date!  When in Rome ....

In order to get to hour next sit in France, we needed to cross back through Spain.  James had some fishing buddies from the UK staying at their holiday home in Medellin.  What a sweet little village this turned out to be.  

We fished and frolicked in the quiet countryside by the water for a few days until it was time for us to head north again.

Tony on one

The big one

A pretty barbel

We had planned to camp and fish our way through northern Spain but the weather turned really foul and we ended up having to stay in hostels/hotels.

Snow in the mountains even!!!!

 Stopping for coffee along the way we parked beside a fellow Freelander

Traditional Tapas in the middle of nowhere

The middle of nowhere ;-)

 We stayed a couple of nights in a hotel in Tordesillas.  Even though it didn't stop raining, it was nice to have a bed again after a few nights on the sofa!

Street murals of Tordesillas

We lucked in when we arrived at Sansol the next day, a village on the hillside that caters mostly to the walkers of Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage walk (that is now mostly a tourist trail) from France through Spain.  While we waited for the woman to come and open the Airbnb room we had booked, we explored the entrance to the trail at the bottom of the road and spoke with a few of the walkers passing by .... offering our own brand of verbal encouragement.

 Our accommodation turned out to be a peach of a place that we had all to ourselves.  The owner lived up the road, so wasn't even on site.  It was a really lovely traditional Spanish finca.  We had a couple of people stop by who were doing the walk and looking for somewhere to stay but obviously wanted a more budget bed for the night.  We invited one young woman in for a cup of teas as she was looking for food and thought we maybe had restaurant.  She hadn't reckoned on the fact that all shops in Spain are closed on a Sunday.

The view from our finca

Church bell tower

Church doors

The next day was to be our last in Spain so we headed to the supermarket to stock up on cheap wine, olive oil, chorizo and other Spanish goodies we love when in Spain.

A trolley fit for a uni student ;-)

 Our last night at the Spain/France border was the quintessential opposite to the luxury of the previous night.  A cheap and not so cheerful bunk bed!

It was more comfortable sitting in the car watching the world go by, even if it was raining.

And so it came to pass that it was time to farewell Spain and head to our next housesit in the midi pyrenees.