[ France - November/ December `08 ]


I had to drive a long way before i arrived in Thonon in the middle of France at Mélanies place. From there we started together our windsurf-trip to the Mediterranean. The following 5 weeks we were searching for wind & waves...




Méla in the car, La Madragues close to Almanarre, Sundowner in the Camargue


Our first stop was Hyeres, where the wind was waiting for us. We could use 4.2 and 3.5 - but still overpowered! The Mistral was blowing with full power! But only for one day - the next day the wind dropped. So we had enough time to find a nice appartment and to relax a bit in the sun. The next days the wind didn't  want to come back and so we were cruising around and visited almost all beaches between Hyeres and Montpellier.



Stucked on the beach in the Camargue...


One highlight was our trip to the Camargue. The Camargue is a very nice region close to Montpellier with long empty beaches, flamigos and wild horses! Especially in wintertime there are not many people in this area, just a few fishermen and thats's it. The wind was not strong enough to go on the water, but still we wanted to look at a spot named "Beauduc". Our problem was that we didn't find the correct way - so we tried to drive along the beach. After a few kilometres our search was stopped and we stucked in the sand... Mince alors! It took us about three hours to start again and just before the sun went down we could reach the road again - big luck, 'cause during the night it was fuckin' freezing!




Surfing in Palavas, Partytime in Montpellier, La Grande Motte


The next days we spent in Montpellier, where Mélanie was finishing her studies. We met some people, had some partys and a nice time! One day in the late afternoon Mélanie could catch some nice waves and had a good surfing-session with her longboard in Palavas. The next day the wind came back - this time from the south. At first we tried La Grande Motte close to Montpellier, but the wind was to onshore. That's why we moved to Le Boucanet, where we had a good session in the waves with side-sideonshore conditions.



Surfing in Le Boucanet, Eole


The next day the wind dropped again and just a bit surfing with a longboard was possible. After some more days in Montpellier we moved to Leucate, where we could live in an appartment close to the spot Eole - one of the best freestyle spots at the Etang de Leucate!




Eole/Leucate rocks!


In Leucate we spent the last two weeks of our holidays. There we had good wind - sometimes enough for 3.5 again. So we had some really nice freestyle sessions in Eole and a good time! Just at the end - almost at x-mas - it was pretty cold and less fun to go on the water again. Thats's why we moved to back Thonon, where we spent one day in the mountains and i tried snowboarding for the first time in my life before i was drinving back home to Germany the next day.

So finally you can say that we had a fuckin' nice trip through the south of France with good conditions and enough adventure! Yuhaaaaa! 


            


Text: Mirco
Fotos: Mirco, Mélanie