A village called Broglie

Another even longer drive of 250 miles has taken us within 180 miles of Calais. Started looking for aires at about 6pm and found a very likely candidate outside a fire station near an oldy worldy village called La Sap. Just about to 'settle in' when the firemen (and women) came out and started doing circuit training along side the parking area accompanied by music from a portable CD player.- 'time to go said Zebedee'. Found an even nicer village 20km further on called Broglie with an aire on the site of an old railway station. The station buildings are now refurbished as the local library and the goods yard is a landscaped aire for 8 camping cars. Very nice for 5 euros, has security guard, toilets, water and just a short stroll for fresh bread in the morning, with friendly neverlanders and french motorhomers for company as a bonus. However, its a bit cool this evening. I think we must be getting close to England.

The Vendee

Had a fairly long drive to the Vendee to a camping cheque site called La Yole near St Jean de Monts. A very British style site with Canvas Holidays, Keycamp and Eurocamp all well represented, not to mention those independents who had booked with Caravan Club. Rosemary bought an English newspaper from the site shop and so a Thai chicken curry cooked on 'the jamie' did not seem out of place. The walk to the beach and back was just 'back to back' campsites of a similar nature, although most seemed empty. Every other voice was British but at least there were no full English breakfast signs or Cornish pasties in evidence. The area has changed a bit since we bought Mark and Katie here when they were young 30 years ago.

Ile de Oberon again

Walked into Le Chateau (the name of local village) along the coast road despite it being nominal 2.5 km away and a hot day. By the time we looked at its ruined chateau, the port and the market we had done over 6 km. Even had a 'quel courage' from french neighbors who we saw cycling in both directions! But we did get some sardines and mussels to cook/bbq and the pool was warm and the beer was cool!

Next day we decided to drive round the Island to the lighthouse and La Cotiere a pretty fishing village which was heaving with weekenders having sea food lunches. Stopped on the island for a final night at The Remparts, an aire type camping site on the outskirts of the Le Chateau which was 99% motorhomes.

Ile de Oleron

We chose to stay on the Ile de Oleron for the weekend and made for the camping cheque site (La Bande) via the coast road thru tiny villages and ports. The ports are now mostly for pleasure use and each one had a very good motorhome aire along side its small marina. Noted for future journeys! Arrived at site during lunch hour so went off for a snack and had a most interesting lunch experience. The nearby oyster and mussel 'producture' has a small restaurant cooking mussles the 'aglade' style. This involves arranging lots of mussels on a square plank covered in foil then covering the mussels with pine needles and twigs. The whole lot is then set on fire (with blow lamp!) and when it goes out the mussels are cooked. We had to try these of course with some frites and wine. Very nice but blew the Sunday lunch budget (maybe). Eventually returned to the site and found a nice pitch with sun and shade for the weekend. It has free wifi and I am sitting writing this in the warm sunshine with a glass of wine. Excellent pool with warm water, so that's tomorrow taken care of as well.

Moving back to the coast

Did not have any luck fishing in Beauville. It was a nice lake but too big and deep unless you have the time and bait to tackle it properly. So we decided to move a day early and make the most of a rather grey day to chase the forecast sun to the coast over the weekend. Rosemary found a really nice aire on the municipal picnic area in a small village on the Gironde and we had it to ourselves. Right next to the village 'minimarket' too - so very convenient. To get there we had a pleasant, long, drive thru the Lot region (Agen, Villeneuve sur Lot) and then down the Dordogne from Bergerac to the Gironde estuary. I walked down to the old water mill to stretch my legs. It was 1.5km thru the woods and same back along road later. Both sides of the road had fields full of either sweet corn or sun flower plants. It would be quite a sight later in year.

Beauville - Les 2 lacs

Made friends with Gladys again once we were near our intended stop at Les 2 Lacs for a couple of days fishing. However when we still going up a steep hill and she announced we were 1 km from our destination doubts returned. Lakes are not normally on hills. But sure enough we arrived at the camp site entrance 500m from the village as described and then all become clear. The camping is at the bottom of a very steep winding hill in a lovely sheltered valley another 500m from the entrance. There we were on our own (how many more times do I have to write that) but quickly become acquainted with the dutch owners in the restaurant/reception which has been built between the swimming lake and fishing lake. Apparently this was becoming a popular leisure destination with locals including Brits who live in the area. We had a lunch time bbq so I could have an evening fishing. The lakes are also home to hundreds of frogs and I have never heard so much noise as soon as it gets dark. I think it goes on all night - at least it had stopped by morning.

Rocamadour

After leaving Sarlat we picnicked on the way to Rocamadour which Mike fancied seeing before we left the Dordogne area. We arrived late afternoon at the top of the canyon (with Margaret navigating again - GPS not to be trusted) where the chateau, sanctuaries and old Cite are stacked on top of each other clinging to the side of the canyon. As it was our last night before parting we had dinner at a restaurant with a sublime view over looking the site. The flood lights even came on to complete the picture as we finished our meal. We decided to have regional specialty menu which consisted of turkey giblets salad with walnuts and pate followed by duck and chips, goats cheese and ice cream. It sounds much better in French of course and was actually very nice indeed. The next morning we said our farewells to Mike and Margaret and they departed for a long drive to the Loire valley 'to do chateaus' on the way home. We were not going so far and decided to go down to the car park at the bottom of the canyon and visit the cite site before we left. We caught the little train to the outer gates and walked thru the old cite (gift shops!) and up the 197 stone steps or the 'Le grande escalier, (better in French again) to the sanctuaries. Then walked up the way of the cross which turned out to be the pilgrim way down to the cite from the top of the canyon. The chateau was not open to the public so we had no option but to walk all the way down again. We set off south towards the Lot valley where Gladys (the GPS) navigated us to a non-existent motorway junction and then up a farm track - where's Margaret!

Dordogne and Sarlat

The first objective of seeing some of the Dordogne was achieved in the short drive from the aire on the canal, via Bergerac, to a large camping cheque site on the bank of the river. We passed several picturesque castles/chateau on rocky crags overlooking the river en route, before we reached the site near Montfort. We chose two pitches just over the hedge overlooked by a huge rocky crag (photo opportunity) for a relaxing day with no driving. Rather cloudy day with a little rain overnight but cleared up later for short stroll along the river where we saw a kingfisher and eagles/buzzards soaring overhead. The following day we drove into Sarlat parking outside the old town and walked down steep pedestrian way. Very attractive old buildings with lots of restaurants offering regional dishes mostly duck, walnut and foie gras based. Rosemary bought me a rather chique wooden duck for my collection from one of the many little shops.

Spain to the Dordogne

Last day in Spain was rather cloudy so we made the most of the day by putting in a longish hop of around 180 miles back into France. Although this was mostly A8 motorway (but with tolls) it did involve negotiating both Santander and Bilbao's Friday afternoon traffic. Not a pleasant drive. A detour thru San Sebastion was a big mistake as it had nowhere to park two motorhomes, but at least we found a large Eroski supermarket to stock up on food and diesel before crossing the border into France. We had an ice cream (first and last in Spain) and pressed on to stop over night on a camping cheque site near St Jean de Luz. We ate outside but it thundered and rained overnight. Frenchman cheered us up by telling us there would be storms all weekend. Although it was wet again we left 'the storms' behind us as we headed north East towards the Dordogne and Mike found us a very nice Aire for the night by the Garonne canal just of the D733. Just got there in time to take the last two places. We had coffee and croisants at the local cafe/shop in exchange for our free night before the last 75 miles to the Dordogne.

Leaving the mountains behind for a Spanish village

After two excellent days and nights in the mountains at Potes we departed the way we came (ie white knuckle run thru the Hermidas gorge) and back onto the coast. Stopped over at San Vincent de la Barque for a lunch break before proceeding to the camping cheque site at Camping Santillana. This is less than a km away from the centre of the touristy village of Santillana del Mar. It has a history of being the home of wealthy Spaniards and has many well preserved villas and a monastry. Many of the buildings are now up-market hotels, trendy boutiques or restauraunts. We walked down the steep back road and found it rather quiet (ie lack of tourists) but still very picturesque with balconies full of brilliant geraniums. We had a simple sandwich lunch and walked back up the hill. The evening has turned rather cool and overcast and it looks like the weather is going downhill for a few days just as we are about to head for France.

Fuente De

Feunte De is the 'end of the road' from Potes and a comparitively gentle drive of 20Km to put on another 3000ft before reaching the wall of rock that is Feunte De (literally the fountian of the River De). We have been staying on La Isla camp site, a super friedly place (with lots of Brits) which has views of the Picos and all the usual site facilites including a restaraunt which we tried tonight. The final leg of the journey is a 3 minute trip in the cable car and is a single exhilerating lift of 800metres to the top of cliff face. There were still patches of snow, despite the hot sunshine, to entertain the youngsters (and the geriatrics!) so we achieved another of our objectives of making a snow ball in the Picos. We sat on the terrace on the edge of the mountian at 6000ft sipping coffee and eating muffins (how terribly English!) while we took photos of the view and the eagles circling overhead.