OK, just to counter the trend of “too much IFR content”, here’s a few photos of a nice, short “down to earth” (well, not quite) VFR sightseeing flight I just did in Southern France.
Background: whenever I travel somewhere by airline, I still try to get an hour so of flying in at some local aeroclub or flying school. Early this week, drving through the Roussilion region, I passed through Lézignan-Corbières, a nice, relaxed town halfway between Carcassonne and Narbonne. Here’s a map.
The town’s airfield, LFMZ, is a nice sleepy VFR airfield with a nice 1000 metre asphalt runway. Unfortunately, even though it has an AFIS, this field is “french only”, so that will rule it out for most here. Anyway, with Perpignan (LFMP), Carcassonne (LFMK) and (LFMU) the region has three excellent (yet more plain vanilla) airports for people coming in from abroad and unable to speak french.
Besides an aeroclub, there is a company there named “FlyZone” that has an AOC and does everything from skydiving to panoramic flights and flight instruction. As the waether was totally gorgeous, I walked in and shortly after, I was set up for a flight with one of their instructors in their DA40…
Excuse me in advance for the average quality of the photos, they were taken with my vintage iphone4… 
In addition to the DA40, they have a 206 which they use for both skydiving and panoramic flights and we had to get it out of the hangar first.
Here she is, F-HABJ. This is a 2003 model, which has been upgraged to the Thielert 2.0.
I have previously flown DA40s a couple of times and even though I don’t like them aesthetically, I remembered that they flew nice and offered good visibility.
An honest, modern four seat aircraft.
Being a 2003 model, this one still had the standard six-pack. Not too much in terms of avionics, but I actually prefer this over other VFR aircraft which are loaded with heavy, useless radios, merely reducing the useful load.
By the way, for people more used to Lycos and Continentals, it still feels a little strange to go flying in a four-seater with only 12 gallons of fuel on board (which is what we did), but in the end, this is more than two hours with the 135hp Thielert…
Start-up is obviously a bit different, too. Waiting for the “GLOW” light to go out…
After departure, we climbed to 3000 feet and flew on a heading of 130 degrees, towards the sea. Once levelled-off, we set 70% power, which yields 120 KIAS (~126 KTAS) at only 5 GPH. Not bad.
Reaching the shoreline, looking south, towards the spanish border. Despite the frontlight, the Pyrenees can be seen a bit.
This place is called Gruissan.
In the old part of town (Gruissan-Village), the houses are forming a circle around a castle.
Looking north, Narbonne-Plage and in the very distance, Cap d’Agde.
Turning inland. The sky was almost as blue as the sea.
The green field in the centre of the photo is Narbonne airfield (LFNN).
A few shots of the city of Narbonne, a place which I also visited on the ground and I can say it is absolutely beautiful.
On the way back to Lézignan, we crossed a stretch of the famous “Canal du Midi”.
Joining a wide righthand downwind for runway 08 at Lézignan.
Mont Alaric.
The valley of the river Orbieu and a village called Fabrezan.
Fabrezan in detail.
Turning onto a wide base.
Long final.
75 on final and 29% “load”.
After landing, we taxied back to the hangar. Interestingly, the instructor told me they do the classic two-minute idle turbo spool down. I didn’t remember this was standard on the Thielert engines.
There we are.
As I mentioned above, great weather for a little VFR bimble and rather a pleasure to be back in a DA40.
Envy :-))
Great report, thank you. I may be even more envious than Alexis, as my last two attempts at flying looked like that:
Yesterday: Driving to the airport, discovering that a/c battery is empty, connecting the charger, driving back
Today: Driving to the airport, discovering that charging didn’t work, taking the battery to the workshop, driving back
And this on the first two flyable days after a fortnight of fog ….
I have been to the region Boscomantico describes a few years ago. I vividly remember massive low-level turbulence on the way from the coast to Carcasonne, but also that Carcassonne looks wonderful from the air. And best thing, you don’t notice the thousands of tourists from up there 
.
@blueline: time to learn about hand propping? Saved my day more than once
I vividly remember massive low-level turbulence on the way from the coast to Carcasonne, but also that Carcassonne looks wonderful from the air.
Indeed. The stretch from, say, Marseille all the way down to Perpignan does seem to be very windy about 8 days out of ten. Yesterday was one of those rare days when it is comparatively calm.
And best thing, you don’t notice the thousands of tourists from up there.
Oh yes. That is exactly the reason why I chose to go and see Carcassonne on a weekday, late morning, in February. That was rather pleasant. Never would I go there in summer.
@ achimha: I gave it a short thought. But since I never handpropped before, I thought “better an unplanned day in the home office than an unplanned day in the hospital” . ..
