Messing about by the river

Thursday 22 September 2022

Nido's parked up on a free aire in the small village of Le Guédeniau, about 30km north of Saumur.  It was a short hop today as Cathy had her online Welsh lesson until 2pm, so we didn't want to drive too far after that.

Leaving Dampierre yesterday, we drove about 7 minutes along the road and parked up in the Troglodyte village of Turquant.  We'd stayed on the aire here on a previous trip, but for today we stopped in a large car park a bit further on for the day, although it can also be used as an overnight park-up.  We had a good wander around the narrow lane before walking up to the high-point with a well-marked route taking us around the vines, which I'd guess are very close to being ready to harvest. The regular information boards told us the history of the village, how the caves were used to store goods from the ships moored along the Loire and that Turquant was once a port, until the river silted up and receded from the dockside.  The caves were also used to grow mushrooms as the dark, dry atmosphere with an all year round temperature of 14'C made for perfect growing conditions.  Small chimneys on the surface by the vines were ventilation shafts down to the growing caves and it was even possible to reach them from the vines on the surface via steep steps (now firmly closed up).  We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out before moving to our next stop which was only about 7km away - a Camping Car Park site at Villebernier, across on the northern bank of the Loire.  There were forty pitches but we joined only five other vans, so there was plenty of room to spread out and hook up to the electric.  It also came with free wifi, which saved some of our own mobile data.  After dinner we took a walk along the riverbank towards Saumur as the sun was dipping.  We watched hundreds of white egrets fly in to roost in the trees on the opposite bank, looking like white handkerchiefs draped on the boughs. 

This morning after showers and breakfast, Cathy set up for her online Welsh lesson, so Salty and I had a walk in the opposite direction along the river, watching the shoals of small fish darting around much larger ones cruising in the clear water.  We crossed the road and had a wander around the small village of Villebernier.  The kindergarten school was displaying its weekly menu on a board outside, something we've seen in other French villages.  The choice of food given to these young 'uns puts the UK (with their dinosaur nuggets and processed plastic food) to shame.

Cathy was done by 2pm and the van serviced, so off we went, via a food shop at a huge Intermarché.  I stopped at the garage to get some LPG but it's only available when someone is in the payment booth, so not today. We're not desperate but if I see somewhere to fill up I will.  We pulled into the aire here and had the place to ourselves.  The sun was beaming down; yet another clear blue sky with uninterrupted sunshine, very little breeze and a comfortable 23-25'C.  After tea and cake (why not!), I had a little wander around the immediate area - the small fishing lake and the outdoor village hall with BBQ (the French are very civilised when it comes to socialising outdoors), whilst Cathy had a nap after the academic rigours of her first Welsh lesson of the new term after a three month break!

We had a good pre-dinner walk around the village.  It has a very homely feel; bar/restaurant next to the church, a boulangerie and the houses made of the light coloured sandstone so common in this area.  Many of the houses had cave-like basements, some open to the road, showing stacks of old wine bottles, demijohns and jam jars on the floor.  We'll probably stay on tomorrow morning, so I can get a bike ride in and Cathy can have a lie-in then give the inside of the van a good clean without me under her feet!

Turquant caves - now shops and artist studios

Evening walk

Saumur chateau

Roosting white egrets

Morning walk

The small fry are doing well

Where do I sign up for school dinners!

Billy no mates

Small fishing lake in the village close next to the aire

Outdoor village hall

Lavoir

If it rains....

Fantastic Caves and an empty river

 Tuesday 20 September 2022

Nido's parked up on an aire in Dampierre-sur-Loire.  It used to be a municipal campsite, so there are no pitches, just park where you like, under the trees or in the sunshine.  Its €6 per night including services (no electricity); the servicing point to empty the loo and grey tank and fill up with fresh can be accessed without entering the aire.  It's about a mile east of the town of Saumur.

The last couple of days have been fairly quiet, with short hops to the next park upa.  Sunday was admin day.  Before we left Romagne Cathy emptied out the mats and covers and gave the van a really good clean, while I did the emptying and filling when we moved over to the service point. We found a Super U with a laundrette to do our fortnightly (and last of this trip) laundry session.  What should have taken about an hour took three times as long though! It's great having so many outdoor launderettes in France, many available 24/7.  The downside is they all seem to have their own, unique complex instructions as to how they work!  This wasn't helped by my thinking the 18kg washing machine was a dryer, so we sat there for half an hour waiting for the other washing machine to finish.  Once I'd worked this out I then realised these machines were cash only payment.  So we had to drive off to find an ATM!  Luckily there was one just around the corner so, once the instructions had been translated , we fed our €10 note into the machine, received our change and all was good.  Forty minutes later, the washing was in the dryer and turning.  I'd pressed the button for medium heat, but it took a couple of drying sessions to finally work out there was a particular sequence for selecting the heat, which entailed starting the dryer first, then stopping, then selecting the heat!  But three hours later the washing was all done, folded and put away.  

Sunday night was spent on a free aire at Saint Loup-sur-Thouet. It was a good spot in a long grassy field, but with some road noise, which died off later.  The next morning Cathy and I had a walk around the town and its medieval buildings and narrow lanes, before he moved on.  The plan was to spend the next night in the town of Thouars and explore the medieval walls and centre, but Salty was starting to get a bit freaked out by the noise of the vehicles (he pretends to be tough with other dogs but really is a bit of a softy!), so we opted for a much quieter stop in the countryside at Le Coudray-Macouard, parked up amongst the trees.  We've actually stayed here before - back in October 2014.  

After lunch and a snooze we all went for a walk, along some lanes then into explore the village.  This is another lovely place to wander around, with honey-coloured sandstone buildings, narrow lanes and high walls.  Some of the houses even have caves underneath.  Back at the van we ate and spent a quiet night, waking to a chilly morning but again with clear blue skies and the promise of a warm, sunny day.

This morning we stopped off at a Decathlon store.  We'd never been in but had heard good reports from others using them in Europe.  This was a large store that had pretty much everything you need for outdoor life - clothing, boots, climbing, kayaking and canoeing, cycling.  We've been looking for some outdoor and walking clothing for some time and found everything we needed at a reasonable price - think Go Outdoor prices but much better quality.  Cathy prefer to buy men's tops and jackets as they're longer in the body and have loads of pockets!  A huge Le Clerc hypermarket in Saumur - within a big shopping centre - was next door so I popped in for a couple of things.  It also had a Culturel Centre (technology stuff) and, if we've been at the start of the trip, I'd have bought a REGLO data sim to go in the Mifi - 120 Gb for €15.99.  We're getting by on the SMARTY SIM with 12Gb per month (plus our Tesco phones with 12Gb each) but are having to watch our usage and we have no capacity to catch up on our favourite YouTube channels.  I've had a couple of online meetings with Môn SAR and Cathy has two online Welsh lessons before we go home  We should have enough data, but some additional interweb juice would have made life a bit simpler.

After lunch we took a walk along the cycle path that runs alongside the Loire, heading east towards Saumur.  It was quite shocking to see how low the river is.  On the section by the path it was completely dry and we were able to walk on the riverbed which, in normal times, would have been 6 - 8 feet underwater.  Even the navigable section of the Loire looked very low.  Worrying times in this year of drought and a further indication of climate breakdown.

The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and snoozing, watching the tree creeper birds and a couple of lively horses in the field next to us.   We enjoyed a lazy dinner tonight will be halloumi burgers, sauté potatoes and green beans.  We still have a craving for pizza and/or chips; we're still looking for the next pizza machine!  We'll also be tucking into moules-frites when we get to the Normandy coast in a week or so. 

Our evening walk took us in the opposite direction to this afternoon's along the cycle path running adjacent to the road.  There was a low wall that dropped down about 20 feet, with steps down at regular intervals. It was clear this was once the original quayside with ships tied up alongside and the steps down to lighters to move goods around.  The houses on the opposite side of the road were made mainly of sandstone and some were built into the cliffs and caves.  We took one path up and disappeared into an amazing maze of cave tunnels, with houses tucked away, the path slowly making its way up until we came out on a huge vista of vines as far as we could see.  As the sun started to set, we stood and soaked in the atmosphere. We had no idea these paths and caves were here; sometimes it's good just to follow your nose.

Saint Loup sur Thouet

A long-closed boulangerie

Dampierre sur Loire

There should be about 6 ft of water in there

Even the main Loire channel is well down

Now I know why the people in Le Courdray-Macouard are so happy!

We found these amazing caves on our evening walk from Dampierre

House with a pool and caves!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not much water in the lake and the best baguette so far

Saturday 17 September 2022

Nido's parked up with a couple of other vans at an aire in the village of Romagne, in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. We're next to some excellent sports facilities for such a small village, although I suspect it's used by the surrounding villages too.  There's a full-size rugby pitch, football pitch, tennis courts, pavilion (village hall) even a toddler-sized running track.  This is yet another free aire - free services and free 5A electricity.  I don't know how they do it but thank Monsieur Mairie and the people of the commune of Romagne.

We left the lakeside aire and continued or slow meander north east.  On the way we went through and got lost (because the satnav took around the place a few times!) in the Cité de Clairvivre, near Salagnac. It was a strange looking place that had lots of small apartments spread around a number of huge, multi-storey buildings.  At first we thought it might be some of old holiday camp (think Butlins in the 1970s) or perhaps a university campus.  The title on one of the main buildings confused us even more - 'Centre de Re-Education Professionelle' -  what is this place?  A bit of googling solved the mystery.  It was built in the 1930s to accommodate those (and their families) affected by lung damage during the First World War and also tuberculosis. It had 200 single rooms, 175 apartments to accommodate 340 patients and their families, a hospital and pharmacy and all the amenities necessary for small town life. In 1937 it also helped wounded Spaniards from the Civil War.  In 1980 it changed its purpose and now supports disabled adults.  It provides them with assisted living accommodation, helping them to learn to live independently, as well as teaching them the skills they need to learn a trade and find a job.  Today it has 220 housing units, helping 450 disabled adults with a staff of 330 professionals.  What an amazing service to provide and we'd never have known about it if the satnav hadn't thrown a hissy fit.

Another very positive note for Cité de Clairvivre is it provided us with our best baguette so far on this trip!  Cathy spotted the boulangerie sign down a small lane as we drove out, so I pulled over and popped in to buy 'une tradition.'  The baker uses a wood fired oven and this made a real difference to the taste and texture of the baguette.  The crust was crisp and the inside light and tasty.  All baguettes will now be measured against this one!

We stopped at a lake near Saint-Mathieu for lunch but there wasn't much to keep us there (apart from scoffing that amazing baguette!) so we moved on to another lake - Barrage de Lavaud (aka Lac du Haute Charente) - parking up with several other vans.  This is a man-made reservoir and when full holds up to 40 million cubic metres of water - that's a LOT of water!  However, with the prolonged drought in this area, the level looked to be about 25 ft below the norm, so perhaps only at 30% capacity.  We walked down the sloping sides of the reservoir, most of which was now covered in weeds that had taken advantage of the lack of water to grow and seed.  When full I would imagine it's quite a sight, but its emptiness made it look sad and neglected, with no sign of the wildlife that you'd normally associate with such a vast expanse of water.  Nevertheless we walked some of the perimeter before returning to the van for supper.  Somewhere close by a farmer had set up a bird-scarer, which fired off like a cannon about every ten minutes; Salty is petrified of any loud bangs so he spent the rest of the day cowering in the van and even treats couldn't entice him out.  Only once the bangs stopped at sunset did he move from his corner to eat his supper, he wouldn't even leave the van last thing for a wee.  

This morning it was chilly as I woke before sunrise and took him out (finally) for a walk.  The bird-scarer hadn't yet started and as the sun started to rise, the mist over the water drifted and slowly dissipated. A quick granola breakfast and we were on our way further north.  We had just under half a tank of diesel so I used the Gaspal app to find the cheapest source of fuel.  France currently have a nationwide 30c per litre reduction on fuel and Total have increased this by another 20c, making their fuel effectively half-price.  I found a Total fuel station on the app about 20 minutes up the road, selling at €1.569 per litre - bargain!  The trouble with such a deal is that everyone wants to benefit and as a result, Total garages have been fuel-less and closed for several days!  This must have hit their profits as now they're not making any money on fuel.  Sure enough, when we got there wooden pallets were blocking the entrance.  The next cheapest was an Intermarché supermarket at €1.719 about 9km further on, so I filled up there.  It took us about another hour to reach Romagne.

We parked up in one of six pitches, separated by low beech hedges and I unpacked the EHU cable to plug into the free electric supply.  The socket was the standard 2-pin socket found in most French homes, but I have an adaptor cable for this.  But one thing I've learnt is that these sockets sometimes have the polarity reversed.  Because of this difference in wiring, any of our appliances connected to the mains socket outlets in the van will be live even if switched off at the socket.  For this reason I also carry a plug tester, which I plugged into one of the 3-pin sockets in the van; this showed that on this supply, the live and neutral were reversed.  I also carry a reversed polarity adaptor cable so plugging this into the 2-pin adaptor and then into our EHU cable sorted the problem out.  When checked again all 3 lights lit up on the plug tester to show all was now correct. Some say reversed polarity isn't an issue and won't affect appliances or safety.  But I'm not a qualified electrician and I'd rather err on the side of caution.

Once set up and lunch eaten we headed out for a walk.  Wandering around the sleepy village  we soon found the church and village square.  As well as the usual Mairie's office, there was a library, a community-run shop (open Friday - Sunday), boulangerie, hairdressers, bar/tabac and auberge (restaurant).  All of this plus extensive sports facilities.  We took a route out of the village before turning off onto a rough track running through empty, dry, dust-bowl fields and then forest.  Although the wind was cooler than we'd felt recently, the sun was hot so we were glad of the breeze.  Back at the van, Cathy made a tortilla while I researched where we might head for tomorrow.  Showered and fed, we retreated to the van for a tea/coffee and patisserie.  This time it was mille-feuille - very tasty with crisp pastry layers, rich custard filling and a sweet icing toping - a good 7/10 on the Patt scoreboard.  

So another relaxing day and hopefully a quiet night.  We're certainly sleeping better now the nights have cooled down.  I wear a jumper when walking Salty in the morning but am still in shorts and have been every day we've been in France.  I wonder for how much longer...

A very low reservoir

They'd normally be swimming by now

Just at sunrise - mist in the valley

Free park-up, free water, free electricity

2-pin adaptor and reversed polarity adaptor

A doer-upper in the village square

Apéro Hour

Thursday 15 September 2022

Nido's parked up with seven other vans at a free aire by Lac Rouffiac near Angoisse.  It wasn't until we arrived that I realised we'd stayed here before, in May 2018.  The lake has a sandy swimming beach, watersports and fishing and is popular with school groups, with a type of 'Go Ape' in the forest trees around the edge.  

After a bit of a mammoth food shop in Sarlat, we arrived at our park-up yesterday in the tiny hamlet of Lorserie, close to the village of Nailhac.  It was a bit of a gamble as not much was said about it in the Camperstop book and it had no reviews on the Search for Sites app, but we were really glad we took the chance.  The aire was a free, private one on the property of a farmer and his wife.  Their main crop is walnuts and the aire was parked right next to a large walnut tree plantation, with more trees providing us with shade.  We had the place to ourselves when we arrived.  There was a sign asking us to check in at the house before settling down, which I did.  The lady was very welcoming; she spoke only French (but then why wouldn't she!) and my French is basic, but I got the gist of make yourself at home and I'll see you later. The weather was lovely - warm and sunny with none of the humidity of the past few days.

We set up camp, had a spot of lunch in the warm sunshine and took Salty for a walk along the very quiet road and then down a track past forest and fields.  On our return a couple of other (French) vans had turned up.  A short while later an old red Renault pulled up - the farmer.  He invited us up to the house for an aperitif at 6.30pm, so we spruced ourselves up a bit (ie had a quick wash and put on clean tops!) and presented ourselves up at the bungalow, along with the campers from the other two vans.  We were led into a long wooden shed-like building with a long table and fold up chairs.  The farmer (I never got to know his name!) brought out several bottles of what looked like (and indeed was) homemade wine of various types.  We were at a bit of a disadvantage as he spoke in fast French to the others, but we picked up little bits of what he was saying.  A short while in, two ladies came in; they had come to collect some paté and of course had been invited to stay for an apéro.  One was English so we were able to get a bit of translation of what was going on.  He was telling us all about what he farms (mainly walnuts and cattle) and how it's been a difficult year with the drought.  He also spent a lot of time explaining how me made his aperitif wines.  The first - Vin d'Épine - is made with the macerated green shoots of Blackthorn (sloe), wine, sugar and eau de vie.  It was very moreish!  He then tried us on a similar one that had a slightly different taste.  The last was much darker and a bit more of a challenge to drink, but we managed!  Now, we'd not eaten so we were all a bit squiffy by now, which I'm sure helped us better understand what was being said as the night went on!  They also make paté, foie gras and various jams and confits.  We had a guided tour of his kitchen which was at one end of the long shed.  It's fair to say it probably wouldn't have passed an Food Safety Inspection!  But clearly their produce is popular and I don't think they've killed anyone with food poisoning yet!

A couple of hours later, we all toddled back to our vans, wishing each other 'bon appetit.'  I don't know what the French motorhomers ate, but after all that hooch, all we could manage was beans on toast!  When I took Salty out for his final night-time walk, it was completely inky black outside.  The stars were everywhere and the milky was was clear to see. It was silent and cool at night and we all slept like logs.  Before leaving we walked up to the house to thank our hosts and bought a bottle of their Walnut Wine, a fortified wine that was very similar to Port; we enjoyed it for tonight's apéro. 

On arrival at the lake we took Salty for a quick walk before returning for lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the lake - about 4 - 5 miles in total - through thick deciduous forest which protected us from a few short, sharp rain showers. The last time we stayed here we ate steak and we did again tonight.  We sat outside well into darkness; its very still and quiet outside and the owls stared calling very early on. 

Walnut tree aire

I think it's a while since this bread oven was flashed up

Checking out his galley

Not sure it would get any food hygiene stars though!

Swimming beach at Lac du Ruffiac

Tired pup after a long walk

Apéro from the farm