Millau - Massif Central

Lovely morning again, but with that came the confirmation of bad news - Spain is in emergency measures and some towns and villages outside Barcelona were being sealed as a precaution against the virus. We did one last walk of the beach before we departed fairly early to fill up on diesel and gas. Our intention was to cross into France sooner rather than later. As we approached the pyranees there were Gendarmes gathering on the border.

At the time of writing we were right, and the news reached us around lunchtime that Aircraft en route to Spain were returning to the UK mid flight as the President gave his announcement to his country. We know Spain pretty well - apart from the times Al spent here in his youth, of course we have both spent some time in Spain, both with Mum, Bill and other family and friends. We have also visited several areas via the cruises we have been on. We know the restaurants pretty well in Javea and have made friends there - it really is sad to think of what lies ahead for these lovely people and the businesses there.

And as I write this, we receive the news that France is in lockdown so we will only be able to access Aires to get home which we are going to do as soon as possible. We have to access a vet prior to boarding the channel tunnel so we will do that on Monday with the view to catching the Channel Tunnel on Tuesday night.

Having given all the bad news, we had a fantastic drive again from Perpignan, Narbonne, Beziers and, of course, the Massif Central. I don’t know how it happened but we found an Aire in the town of Millau where the beautiful bridge that straddles the gorge there has been built, designed by our own Norman Foster and a french guy - together they designed a beautiful thing. And Alan remembers the Gorge from when he travelled to Spain with his parents and sister over 50 years ago - I know my sister in law Julie will be jumping for joy that Alan actually remembered something to do with his childhood 😂😂😂

So there are photographs on social media to look at, but they will mostly be taken from the cab as we will no longer be able to linger - we need to get back to the UK now and brace ourselves with the rest of the world to see how things pan out and how quickly this situation can rectify itself. Take care all - we will be back tomorrow hopefully a lot further up this beautiful country. Nighty night

The photo tonight is one of my favourite graffiti creations - there is a lot of graffiti here and most of it is very artistic indeed - I think you will agree