Well the time had come. It was time to say farewell to The South of France. It had given so much, a nice place to stay, sun, laughs, relatively decent accessibility, music, a cute dog next door and most importantly great chocolate! No Golden Eagles though. Dad still won't admit that what we saw was a sparrow, I'll just have to take his word for it.
The owners son had told us there wasn't anybody coming in straight after us, so we could take our time leaving. We knew just how long it took to get to the hotel though and wanted to get there in daylight, as driving around Paris at night was a nightmare.
The weather wasn't very good, in fact it was raining at times. I was glad to be leaving this hell hole to be honest, back to the sunny green hills of ol' blighty. We made it to brit hotel privilège without any hiccups and made it just before we started to lose light. I went upto the room and wanted to turn the heat up as it was quite chilly, but the air con didn't work this time, as I eventually found out. Unfortunately the air con unit was too high for me to read the error code. I had to lift myself up on the arms of the wheelchair. The bed still looked as warm and cozy as last time though, so I didn't think it would be too much problem.
When I got up for breakfast it was raining quite hard and the journey to Le Shuttle was accompanied by the wipers swishing across the windscreen.
On the final leg of the French part of the journey, we started passing a huuuuge convoy of black London cabs, there must have been a hundred of them. There were English ambulances, English police vehiclles and other support vehicles. The convoy wasn't always one car behind another, sometimes there were a few bunched together and then a gap, so this convoy seemed to go on and on. I saw that Magical Taxi Tour was on the side of the taxis, so I Googled it - www.magicaltaxitour.com - It's a charity that provides an annual three-day trip trip of a lifetime to Disney® Paris for over two hundred children suffering from a range of chronic, debilitating illnesses and life-limiting conditions.
They contribute the £1,500 per taxi needed to feed, transport and admit the convoy to Disneyland Paris. The taxi drivers give their time and use of their vehicles for free. Everyone on the trip is a volunteer. Source:https://www.magicaltaxitour.com/about_us
It made sense why some of the cabs had kids with huge foam hands waving at us. Some of these children wouldn't be able to make a trip like this because of their need for medical assisstance. This is a charity I had no idea about. The cost must be monumental and something that will bring great joy to them.
We crossed the channel, England thought it was in competiton with France for rainfall and when we got onto the motorway it said "hold my beer" and really showed us what it does best.
Oh well it's not like most of the clothes I took with me (including my pride and joy Napoli football top with Maradona 10 on the back), that I had put in a black bin bag to wash when I got home had been mistaken for rubbish and thrown away. Sorry, my mistake it was. Oh well it's not like I had left my limited edition Dan Henry 1972 Maverick watch on my bedside table at the hotel. Sorry, my mistake it was.
At least I managed to raid the supermarket before we left. Told you I had a problem 😏
I could get used to this. A lot of our time was spent here, where else could we go where we could bask in the sun, drink beer, eat chocolate... as I'm writing this I'm realising that these aren't unique activities to our villa and we could do this anywhere else. I loved being here though, I was completely independant. I certainly don't disllike being pushed around - I am very grateful. It is my reluctance to have an electric wheelchair afterall, that means I need to be pushed. I'm sure everybody would prefer if I changed.
Most days would start by having brekkie and sitting outside by the pool. There were two ways out here. One way had a step while the other took you through the back door, which was completely flat. Not having to ask if I can come outside and cooming and going as I please, is something that can't be under estimated. It was quite a musical house and upon spotting a vacant guitar I thought I'd remind everybody of my musical prowess. I treated them to some Pink Floyd. I wanted to see if I still had it. I nailed it.
A guy came to look at the pool. An English guy, so I took advantage of the common language and made small talk. "Fantastic weather, is it always this nice?" I asked "Hmmm, not really" He replied, noticeablly not matching my enthusiasm. "It can be very windy and it's rarely this hot. I couldn't help but look at the two excuses for white man legs poking out from his shorts. It looked like he'd coated his legs with varnish. I suspected he was being a typical brit and moaning. I looked at his toes poking out from his sandals, they were just as varnished. I was sure my suspicions were correct. "Do you get Golden Eagle's here?" I enquired "Yes, they're not common, but you certainly see them here. You tend to find them around mountains and warm weather"
"Oh right. Maybe it was then."
Definately what we saw
A few days earlier we were driving back from Pézenas and saw a large bird hovering in the sky. "Eagle!" Dad exclaimed while pointing at the sky. I scrambled for my phone and attempted to flick it onto camera and take a picture all before the car drove past it. "F*** P*** A***. I didn't manage it, but fear not, I have found an accurate depiction of it online. He assured me what he saw was an eagle. He could have pointed at a sparrow and shouted "eagle!" and I wouldn't have known any better. But maybe he was telling the truth after all.
Pézenas was a lovely little town that was mentioned in the blue folder of 'places of interest' found at the villa. This had immediately become our favourite place to visit. We came here a few times during our stay. It looked exactly how I imagined the South of France would. All the buildings were a pale yellow/brown colour. They even leave disabled car park spaces for people who are disabled. Well, every parking space was taken when we were trying to park, it may have just been coincidence that this space had become free at this point. At home most disabled parking spaces are free, but we couldn't read the instructions, so to be safe Dad went to pay. A French gentleman told us it was free before he paid. However, since Brexit a UK blue badge isn't recognised in many EU countries, including France. Replacement talks were set up and ministers agreed to negotiate individual deals with EU countries to recognise British Blue Badges, but these have stalled over the past year with no decisions being made.
Pézenas was clearly quite a popular town but it didn't seem to be very touristy. Any time I heard people chatting they were speaking French.
Rolling around the main town square was simple, everywhere was smooth asphalt, there were drop curbs everywhere. There were quite a few restaurants and shops in the back allies, but some of these were up steep inclines and cobbled streets. They aren't inaccessible as long as you are with somebody to push you around.
We stopped at Le Pezanes for lunch on what turned out to be the hottest day of the holiday. When we got back to the car it was reading thirty six degrees! Once it moved out of the direct sun it dropped to thirty one. But still, thirty six! We sat outside - as did the rest of the customers. I went into the empty restaurant to go to the toilet and it looked like wheelchair heaven. Everything was on one level, the floors were smooth and the tables were nicely spaced out so you could easily fit the wheelchair through. The toilet even had those rarest of things, a toilet seat!
We came back a few evenings later and ate at a street restaurant called Royal Glacier. It was in the side streets off the main square, so it was a bit of a push getting the wheelchair there. It was by no means wheelchair friendly. There were a few tables and chairs outside and then two or three steps down to get into the restaurant. I could only see the entrance which opened directly into a bar area. I dn't know if there were more seats inside. The food was lovely. Instead of chips they had thin slices of potatoe that looked like they were sauteed.
We consulted the trusty blue folder again and saw that d'agde was a forty five minute drive and was right on the coast. We fancied a paddle in the meditarranean sea. We packed our bucket and spade, put on string vests and knotted handkerchiefs on our head and set off. Fans of
The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X might recognise this name. I didn't. Cap D'agde is often mentioned, as Dom Byrne went on holiday to D'agde as a child and claimed he didn't know it was home to a nudist colony. To be fair to ol' baldy, I didn't know either. It's not obvious just walking around the place. In fact as we drove in I was already thinking of leaving. To say it was unimpressive is an understatement, to say I thought we were in Baghdad would be more accurate. As we got closer to the beach it did change into a nice fresh and clean looking place. It felt like a tourists town. We parked in a car park by the beach. It was more than suitable for the wheelchair. Everywhere was smooth concrete and the path that ran alongside the beach was very wide. The path had the beach on the left and a large grey hotel or shopping mall on the right. There were several restaurants littered around, with outside sitting areas with people sitting under parasols shading from the sun. We looked at the menus and there was virtually nothing for the vegetarians and vegan. Or me the normo...
sorry meat eater. I'm not a big fan of sea food. We would eat back at the villa and take advantage of the outside sitting area.
The penny dropped when I started seeing life size cutouts of Dom and sandwich boards with his face on promoting Cap D'agne. I do believe him now when he says he didn't know this was the biggest nude resort in Europe, but he's certainly making sure everybody else knows.
Our final visit was to Gorges d'Heric. It was mentioned in the trusty blue folder. Words like 'breathtaking' and 'beautiful' caught our attention, but those words don't do it justice. It was another gorgeous day, there wasn't a cloud in the sky again - the car was reading twenty-four degrees. On the drive there my ears were popping again. Well, I couldn't hear as well until I swallowed and they would temporarily clear, but quickly block again. I've never understood why this is called popping.
We were transported into a western again. Surrounded by brownish, orange mountains. I could just imagine a Golden Eagle hovering above one of the peaks, but strangely now I was looking, there were non about. We arrived and started the long climb up. Once again I was regretting not having an electric wheelchair, or in this case a powered wheelchair. This was steep! Fortunately I was with three people who were willing to take it in turns pushing my carcass up. You do not want to miss the views of this place though so you could hire a powered wheelchair from Limitless Travel.
The difference between a powered or electric wheelchair is generally what you're going to use it for. An electric tends to be for general use. You use it get around, but may not have the strength or stamina to self propel. They require regular charging because the battery needs to be able go for many hours. This sort of terrain would probably require a powered chair. Something with off-road tyres that has a short term battery that's only purpose is to get you up and down the gorges. A powered wheelchair often falls under the umbrella of electric wheelchair, but that's just semantics. Just be clear what you'll use it for when renting it.
Limitless Travel have got a fantastic website. It should be your company of choice when looking at booking a fully/partially accessible holiday, a coach holiday, cruise holiday, beach holiday etc. They even provide a carer should you need it, so you don't have to rely on family or friends who may be unavailable when you wish to travel. You can just use them to hire a wheelchair to use on holiday. You will need to phone them and be ready for questions like measurements from one hip to
the other and your body weight and height, as well as the terrain you'll be encountering. It's handy if you aren't going to need the chair all of the time. Most people will, but you may be able to have a manual chair to get around in and a powered one for trips like this. Then you could rent one specifically for this.
Anyway back to the hike. Gorges d'Heric is huge. it's about four kilometres from the car park to the town of Heric which is at the top. Fortunately the old rail bed had been converted to a road. The gorge is surrounded by high cliffs and peaks with spectacular views around each bend. The road was littered with people going up or coming down, most with hiking gear on and/or hiking sticks, hats, hiking boots and sunglasses. And here was us, without any hiking paraphernalia and pushing a wheelchair. I wonder if they could tell we were tourists?
We probably went about one third of the way before relenting and coming back down. What we had seen was spectacular though, and reading the reviews on-line it leads to a largely old ruined abandoned town. The nice cold beer I had when I got back back down to the car park, meant I wasn't sorry to not go any further.
We arrived at about 17:00, and parked on the opposite side of the road next to a field. Dad went across the road to locate the key. There seemed to be an issue getting the key box to open. Unfortunately the property was surrounded by 6ft walls and an iron gate, I think it would successfully thwart any attempts to get in, so I waited for Dad to open it. Fortunately he did and we moved the cars into the driveway. I stayed in the car as my wheelchair was under a pile of other things. I've always found a good way to get out of the unloading, is to be in a wheelchair, it seems to do the trick every time 👍.
As you can see it's a shabby little place, they've tried there best to make it as nice as possible, but you can only work with what's put in front of you. <-- I'm hoping you can detect my sarcasm.
We entered through the back door of the property directly into the kitchen. Waiting for me was a handy chair to use in the bathroom when I had a shower. It was a kemode. Not quite a shower chair, but they get a 'B+' for effort. A kemode looks like a shower chair, but it's made of metal rather than plastic, has the lack of a hole in the seat so you sit in a pool of water as it can't drain anywhere. Oh and there's a bucket so you can... erm... you know, ah, you get the point.
Let me show you around. Not all of it, if you want to see everything go to South France Villas
In the garden is a heated swimming pool. Surrounded by tall greenery, trees and you can only get to the garden through the large driveway gate. There are no other houses or buildings over looking you. There is a bungalow next door, but whoeveer owned it was out all day meaning their dogs were left out to greet us whenever we came back.
Inside, the kitchen, living room and dining area are open plan.
As you can see space was not an issue, I had to try really hard to bump into anything. There isn't a carpet in sight, the whole downstairs has a ceramic tiled floor. There are a few rugs around the place, but they are quite thin and don't cause an obstruction to wheel over. Behind the camera is a large kitchen that spans most of the width. There is a large island in the middle of the kitchen. Most importantly - and I wouldn't be surprised if this was a stipulation Dad gave when speaking to Caroline at South France Holiday Villas. THERE MUST BE A CLEAR ROUTE TO THE FRIDGE SO TOM CAN GET CHOCOLATE. I would imagine this was mentioned before the requirement of wheelchair access.
I have a bit of a chocolate addiction. If I had to go from one side of the room to the other I would stop by the fridge for some chocolate to nibbble on the way over.
There was a TV with Netflix on it. A TV, a comfy sofa and a free run to the fridge.I might have binge watched an Angel Di Maria documentary, during my holiday... oh, and a few bars of chocolate.
Follow me upstairs and I'll show you the Pièce de résistance.
There is a lovely little sun terrace up here, well I say little, but it's actually huge. The villa is called the Moroccan Paradise, which I'd imagine is because of this area. It's not heavily influenced by Morrocan decor, but it's certainly more prevelant up here. It's a perfect little sun trap. Unfortunately it's kind of pointless unless you're in a medittaranean climate... Oh right, my bad. Well, it's pointless if you're surrounded by loads of noisy neighbours... Oh right, my bad.
Onto my room. I was excited to see this, it was after all adapted to make it possible for us wheelchair folk to holiday here as well.
I did a bit of research this time. I had learnt from the mistakes I made last time. South France Villas are the brokers who were renting this villa and they only specialised in this one area (South of France). They allowed the user to search properties 'suitable for reduced mobility', which isn't a website feature that's unique to them. However villas only appeared on this site if they are approved by South France Villas. In my experience sites like booking.com allow accomodation owners to choose this option even if their property isn't suitable. Most property's on southfrancevillas.com have a personal reccommendation by one of the South France Villas employees. I was sceptical as to the authenticity of this though, it's easy to say you've been somewhere, when you haven't. However I happened to view Belle Villa de Ginestas which was personally recommended by Caroline (the broker who was working on our behalf.) It has a long detailed description of the layout, along with rooms that are not suitable for any form of mobility device. Not only had they marked villas as 'suitable for reduced mobility' but they had told you specific rooms that weren't suitable for wheelchairs. The photographs of the property looked fantastic, I had a good feeling about South France Villas now and I trusted them.
The room I would be staying in was lovely. It was another sitting room, but one of the sofas was a sofa- bed and it was very comfortable. The en-suite bathroom did suffer from many of the same issues as Brit Hotel Privilège, however this property is only listed as 'suitable for reduced mobility'. I realise this might sound a tad hypocritical as Brit Hotel Privilège also claimed the same. But, they had gone to the effort of showing a PMR graphic, which I think could land them in hot water if somebody has an accident in a PMR room, especially if that ice rink of a floor is involved.
Anyway, the owners son came to see us one morning and asked how I was managing at the accomodation, as I was the first user since the downstairs room was repurposed. That was greatly appreciated and is a large influence on my opinion of this accomodation. He even pointed out that they may need to look at the gravel drive way, as it's an unneccasery difficulty for a wheelchair to navigate. This wasn't pointed out to him, as it was merely an inconvenience, he pointed it out. This propery is listed as suitable for reduced mobility,- not suitable for zero mobility.
The shower wasn't behind a screen or shower curtain, so the whole bathroom became wet when I used it and I had to dry the floor after each shower. The shower head was completely out of reach. There wasn't anything to hold so I could transfer onto the toilet. I was able to hold onto the nearby towel rail, but I'm sure that's not what they intended. The floor was slippy - not quite as slippy as Brit Hotel Privilège - as the tiles offered some friction. Some bath matts would be useful. The bathroom mirror was to high to use
