At last! We reached the Med!

Admittedly by car over the last 60k!

Aftet another croissant breakfast, kindly  provided after an early morning croissant run by John, the Xmas dinner party of Sheila, Peter, Trish and myself, piled into John’s VW van. We headed for the beach south west of Montpellier. We had a brief hunt for a beach that allowed dogs (actually it didn’t, but I didn’t see the sign till we left!). Topay is still limping with a sprained right ahoulder, so we yrailed bejind.

As we walked up the ramp to the beach, this deep blue band appeared on my visual horizon. It took a few seconds to sink in, but after 2 months of travrl from the Atlantic, I had reached the Meditaranean. I felt a atrange mixture of relief, pleasure and sadness. Relief that I had achieved snother goal: pleasure in the vibrancy and intense blueness of the sea; sadness that my adventure was coming to a close.

Happy went mad in the sand! Topsy temporarily forgot her sore leg and torr around with her! Later they wete chased by a pair of Alsatians and again Topsy fled for her life!

Paddling along the water’s edge, I spotted ahells that had been washed up with the tide. So I have collectef a bag-full of scallop shells, the symbol of the pilgrim on the Route de St. Jacques. I intend to send these to all the kind peoplr whom I have met on my “balade”, as the french call my walking journey.

I bought everyone an ice cream, and queued up amoungst the naked men from the nudist part of the beach. Some very mis-shapen bodies that really did not need to be on display!

We then piled back into the van and headed into Sète and parked along one of the canala. John found a small square with a series of restaurants, so we all had a beer with a late lunch. We stopped off at a supermarché on the way back to stock up for tonight’s dinner. John heated up his “plancher” or barbeque griddle and did pork and fish which was excellent. We retured in off the courtyard for aperitifs and coffee. Di produced about 18 different types and a brandy/armangac tasting session evolved. I rolled outside with the dogs for a final spend before collapsing in bed.

Another great day.