2018 anniversary trip 200 / 100 max miles per day for 22 days

[Busman]

We are lying in wait further down already though you are not completely safe yet

Haha got the area around Clermont Ferrand tagged in for today

 

[DavidG58]

Haha got the area around Clermont Ferrand tagged in for today

Watch the weather there Dave that road is seriously high

J7 A75 Montpeyrout is a pretty free aire, if you go it’s not well signposted, follow town signs but turn left for visitor centre and pet farm aire is above the visitor centre

Lovely old village but we only found a rather expensive restaurant, but there is a boulangerie

 

[DavidG58]

Many large ships anchor just off Carro waiting to gain entry to Port St. Louis. La Couronne nearby has some nice sites.

they certainly do Phil

this is my way to prove it and show you the sunshine following the snow we had first thing this morning

weather now looks set well for the day, blue skies and sunshine, Carmargue here we come

always presuming we can get out of the barrier, everybody is having to beg to be released via the speaker option so far today, the barrier actually got left open a while ago but is closed again now with 2 waiting to leave

 

[Busman]

Thanks Dave, got the Aire at Issoire penned in for tonight

 

[Mousy]

Just in case you didn't catch it on the morning thread, I can recommend here. Interesting place with good bird watching, nice restaurants and well placed aire.

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[Taran_Las]

@Mousy​

Isn't there something you should warn David about regarding the restaurant at Aigues mortes?

​

 

[DavidG58]

CC 14617 at Marseillon Plage is worth a stop, all facilities, cheap enough, and right bang on the end of the town which runs down to the huge beach. Loads of great eateries there, the first one you come to is an all you can eat Moulles Frittes place for a fixed price, about €12 if I remember rightly

we are here, arrived after dark so will cook our own chilli in MH, then have a walk into town and see what we could have had in the morning

second time this week the camper contact directions have tried to lose us at the last yard, tried to bring us in down the back of the site, maybe an old entrance, but soon realised, about turn, found the barrier €4 winter rate

Oddly they charge for dumping grey waste, we don't need to but have no idea how that can work, will investigate in daylight, cant see how they can block a gulley

nice site tip thanks Dave

 

[DavidG58]

@Mousy thanks Dawn, we are passed there tonight, but weren't when you posted, a lot of those aires around there got poor reviews on CC, we are now at CC aire mentioned above

 

[DavidG58]

today was truly three seasons if not all four in one day

woke up as shown above to snow actually lying on the ground, within 2 hours had full on sunshine which gave us a lovely drive through the Carmargue, including a few detours to max out the scenery which I hadn't realised how much resembles Florida. The third season was the wind, Bev's weather app had a new symbol which we didn't recognise, but could only think wind, boy did it, like last nights stop, bang on two o'clock the wind went from zero to full tilt, yesterday it continued till very early morning and stopped, today as the app said it stopped at dusk and is now a calm but not overly warm 8C

On our route to here we saw the lot, white horses, black long horned cattle and flamingos

plus a few really good viewings of marsh harriers, a lot like buzzards but more acrobatic in the air and usually darker

also caught on camera a kestrel cleverly sheltering from the wind and what I think must be cranes, long distance away though but 100's of them

will be multi tasking in a bit and load some more photos from phone, but have to post this first then edit


Continued

Some shots from the journey

As we left Carro harbour after grounding rear end leaving aire

Turn left after barrier do not go straight on

 

[Scout]

see you both soon

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[DavidG58]

@Scout

Phil

this is more or less our route home, we might cut across to Limoges, I reckon somewhere between Bonneval (nice town centre aire) and Angouleme on N10 a great road to get south quickly all dual carriageway will be where we meet up

A lot depends your miles per day but 2 days in should get you to Bonneval fairly easily, (220 miles from Calais) so night of 24th? for you, we would be around Angouleme / Limoges on 23rd

How is that for you Carolyn @Jenben where do you reckon you will be around then

 

[Jenben]

Hi David

We’ve just been replanning our route given our delayed start.

In order to hit the ski resorts by Sunday night/Monday morning we need to get somewhere near Clermont Ferrand on the 24th.

So unfortunately it now looks like we’re going to be to far south east to meet up. Sorry about that, but I’m sure we’ll see you somewhere later in the year

Have a safe journey!

 

[DavidG58]

Hi David

We’ve just been replanning our route given our delayed start.

In order to hit the ski resorts by Sunday night/Monday morning we need to get somewhere near Clermont Ferrand on the 24th.

So unfortunately it now looks like we’re going to be to far south west to meet up. Sorry about that, but I’m sure we’ll see you somewhere later in the year

Have a safe journey!

and you two, skiing should be awesome based on the amount of snow we have seen even at lower levels

 

[Chris]

David,

I know you need to drive through it , but I can’t for the life of me think why you didn’t forget France and drive 200-300 miles into Spain. Sun on your faces, friendly people, decent steak and nice beer.

I can sort of see the attraction of France in the Summer but not at this time of year.

 

[DavidG58]

David,

I know you need to drive through it , but I can’t for the life of me think why you didn’t forget France and drive 200-300 miles into Spain. Sun on your faces, friendly people, decent steak and nice beer.

I can sort of see the attraction of France in the Summer but not at this time of year.

one day you will get it Chris, sophistication before bravado

In a similar vein I sort of get Spain, but its so much further to drive

anyway 9C forecast here tomorrow shame we will have moved on

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[Jenben]

and you two, skiing should be awesome based on the amount of snow we have seen even at lower levels

Yep more snow forecast this weekend too. Should be fab

 

[Scout]

David, I think were going to be east of you, were heading for the Saumur route, but if your still around Angouleme we might just cross...

 

[DavidG58]

David, I think were going to be east of you, were heading for the Saumur route, but if your still around Angouleme we might just cross...

will have a look at where you might be tomorrow am in bed now and don’t know that route through Saumur but it sounds like you will be west of us not east if anything. Are you going on toll roads if you watch out around Le Mans they are some of the most expensive in France.

Our suggestion would be Rouen Evreux Dreux Orleans then N10 to Bordeaux

 

[Scout]

will have a look at where you might be tomorrow am in bed now and don’t know that route through Saumur but it sounds like you will be west of us not east if anything. Are you going on toll roads if you watch out around Le Mans they are some of the most expensive in France.

Our suggestion would be Rouen Evreux Dreux Orleans then N10 to Bordeaux

Morning David, we play to do


Rouen, Evreux, Nanocout, le mans, (no toll ) Saumur,(stop Friday night)

loudun, poitiers , then n10 to Bordeaux (mybe Saturday night)

see you in a day or so, hopefully

 

[DavidG58]

Morning David, we play to do


Rouen, Evreux, Nanocout, le mans, (no toll ) Saumur,(stop Friday night)

loudun, poitiers , then n10 to Bordeaux (mybe Saturday night)

see you in a day or so, hopefully

Looks good, we are going to be beatcToulouse tonight, then Bordeaux direction Friday night so Saturday somewhere looks good

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[Scout]

Looks good, we are going to be beatcToulouse tonight, then Bordeaux direction Friday night so Saturday somewhere looks good

were all packed, I'm just waiting for Andrea to finnish work at around 12:15 will be on the road soon after..

 

[DavidG58]

today we bimbled from Bezieres to just outside Toulouse, just under 150 miles a grey and cold day, made worse by the reality that we today turned for home

A large part of the route today retraced last years canal du midi trip but in reverse, although we observed we didn't stop for any canal interludes, mainly due to it being between 3C and 5C, having left a nice sunny but not much warmer aire this morning it was grey all the way to tonights stop at Venerque south of Toulouse, nothing special, disappointingly a long way from the centre of town so they get no benefit from our presence

Arrived and went to look at the river / stream that passes by the aire, which has recently been scarily high, saw a kingfisher fly away, my first for some years, then another bird as yet unidentified, but similar size to kingfisher but much redder, no idea what it was hope to see again in morning

this town has the oddest church I have ever seen and the bells are out of sync which is odd, hopefully they go off overnight

got some other photos on phone again, must find an easier way to merge these


Edit

Photo of aire from last night, met a fellow brit but not a MHF member, he said he had a look but didn’t like the bad language and putting down posters questions for all I told him it couldn’t have been MHF he became sure it was But he has a three year old Pilote with battery issues he will be back

Above are last nights aire

Above just looked nice en route

This is here

Tomorrow we head due north ish

 

[DavidG58]

I should have added to todays travel news, we had a second squeaky bum drive with fuel warning light lit

I have no idea exactly how much fuel we have on reserve, but suspect that 2 gallons might be pushing it, so after coming on I have decided that 25 miles is about my limit, 30 at a push, well we saw nothing, the road from Beziere to Carcasonne isn't the busiest and fuel stops are in proportion

At 25 miles we come across a two bit little garage with no prices (again), although I still have 10 litres in my spare can we decide to treat this little place to another €100 spend on fuel, as before it really makes next to no difference to the whole trip and it is so much better than running out

But as was already written in the script, inside 5 miles we find a proper garage although not a lot cheaper than the €1,58 we paid, best to date has been €1,21, 37 cents / litre even on a whole tank really doesn't hurt much

2 more fills should see us back to Calais now

 

[DavidG58]

we have just reviewed travel and stop over options for tomorrow

https://www.campercontact.com/en/fr...16/motorhome-parking-domaine-de-la-lande.aspx

this one got the vote, I didn't use to like dessert wines but with increasing maturity I have learnt to appreciate new tastes

@Chris (one day so will you )

 

[Chris]

we have just reviewed travel and stop over options for tomorrow

https://www.campercontact.com/en/fr...16/motorhome-parking-domaine-de-la-lande.aspx

this one got the vote, I didn't use to like dessert wines but with increasing maturity I have learnt to appreciate new tastes

@Chris (one day so will you )

No I won’t David.

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[BreweryDave]

I’m worried @DavidG58 that @Scout might be stuck at cite Europe for several days with a hangover and miss you completely

.........nothing to do with me

 

[Scout]

Morning David

Were heading down towards you today,

 

[peterc10]

You have survived a night out with Dave and Jackie and are fit enough to drive the next day?????????? Epic .............. Or they are going soft

 

[DavidG58]

Morning David

Were heading down towards you today,

nice one we will be near Bergerac tonight, looking like tomorrow might be the meet up, depends where you get to today

 

[champers]

David there is a nice aire nr by , sitecode 23802...

There are birdwatchers huts along the park which is there also a restaurant and beach...

Free on the outside of barrier when we were there but longer stays cc needed

We thought it was a lovely spot


Kath

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