Villelongue-Dels-Monts, near the Pyrenees

Having spent 15 years on Waterdog we decided to take a few months away from the barge during the worst weather this year. We researched a lot of places but finally settled on an area to the North of the Pyrenees and close to the coast, half an hour south of Perpignan. Lawrence's job allows him to live wherever he can get convenient flights to Norway so we also researched flights and trains from the south of France to Paris. Girona (Spain) was good for Ryanair flights and Perpignan had TGV access to Paris CDG if flights were a problem. We settled on a small cottage in a village called Villelongue-Dels-Monts, in the foothills of the 'Alberes' good for walks and cycling and only 14km from the sea.

Three days travelling in our car and visiting friends on barges brought us to Argeles-Sur-Mer. As we passed through the central mountains and descended towards Narbonne the sky turned blue and the temperature rose to 16°. We hadn't really come south for warm weather but a 20° rise and the opening of the sky had the right effect on all our spirits. Tilly was glad to be out of the car and on the beach, for some reason she got over excited and ate sand!

Over the following weeks we heard reports of a big freeze going on in the UK and Beglium and felt glad to be south in the sun.