Two Go For Cheese

[Ingwe]

Le Malzieu-Ville looks a nice spot.

The photos (apart from Mrs Ingwe) are Mende by the way. Le Malzieu-Ville will be tomorrow, hopefully.

 

[pagey]

Great pics and thread

 

[Littlewheels]

Great Thread with some amazing photos my apologies for going slightly off piste earlier.

 

[TinaLes]

Thanks again DBK another great informative read with pictures to boot. Like most I guess, I spend as much time searching on Google Earth Street View to find your park ups As you can imagine reading your thread, plus other info provided about the towns on Google can take a few hours.
The other great news for me at least, is while we may be stuck here back in Blighty, I can retire to the kitchen for the next 16 Saturday nights, and not be forced to endure Strictly Come Dancing, as the wife, and many other millions consider to be "Essential Viewing"
So once again thanks for providing a much appreciated interesting alternative.
Cheers.
LES

 

[Bucket]

We’ll be watching with interest DBK, on our way in a couple of weeks to the Alsace and Vosges…….Can you find the best/nicest/cheap/free Aires please?

Just back from that region. I can't recommend Munster enough. Lots of pitches, most with ehu. All services, even warm showers. And now totally free. See my recent review on Campercontact (Parthianshot). Munster cheese is famous too!
We stayed at a number of vinyards where tasting was encouraged but otherwise free. The Aire at St Die was agreeable and only cost €8.

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[DBK]

N

Just back from that region. I can't recommend Munster enough. Lots of pitches, most with ehu. All services, even warm showers. And now totally free. See my recent review on Campercontact (Parthianshot). Munster cheese is famous too!
We stayed at a number of vinyards where tasting was encouraged but otherwise free. The Aire at St Die was agreeable and only cost €8.

Thank you, irritatingly we must have driven through Münster but didn't stop there. A place to return to I think.

 

[weemalkie]

We certainly had it in France. Was a bit of a test that our French friends had for us. Can’t stay in the same room but very mild tasted- when holding your nose.

 

[MartynSuz]

Fantastic picture! If/when you get to Jura, you must try the Comte of which the area is renown. To me it always tasted far better there than back in the UK.
I could never decide if it was the surroundings there that influenced my taste buds or they kept the best for themselves?

Omg Comte is sooooo good even out of the supermarkets which will offer several different ages.

 

[weemalkie]

Beautiful photos and interesting narrative DBK. Thank you (also Riverbankannie.)

We’re at Millau and went for lunch in the market. We’re both cheese lovers but currently we’re collecting local honey. Mostly as gifts for our neighbours but keeping plenty for ourselves.

At the restaurant, we had a dish that is prepared for two. It is a whole baked cheese Mont d’Or served with two types of ham, sausage, three large boiled potatoes and a small salad. €32 and a quart of vin rouge to wash it down with.

Tomorrow is an Ultra-Marathon (100kms) at Millau and the site we’re on is filling up with runners and their support teams. We hope we can leave ok tomorrow. We’re heading to Barjac tomorrow and then onto Saint Flour. We saw the latter thirty years ago and promised we’d return sometime. We’re also bagging rivers for wild swimming. SWMBO has so far swum in the Dordogne, Tarn, Dourbie and hopefully the Lot and Truyère. View attachment 668533

Like your user name. Did you by any chance work in Zambia?

 

[weemalkie]

Loving this thread everyone and I’m busy noting all the places I should be visiting. We are currently in Mens in the Trieve and heading south next week. Planning to visit st croix du verdon and wondering if anyone has driven the whole route through the gorge du verdon. We are in a 6m Motorhome and have been informed it is very tight driving particularly if you meet someone coming in the opposite direction! Any one with opinions / advice would be appreciated.
Keep up the great info.

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[Ingwe]

Like your user name. Did you by any chance work in Zambia?

No, South African born and bred. Wife however born in Lusaka, Zambia (when it was Northern Rhodesia). And you?

 

[Ingwe]

Just arrived at Malzieu-Ville aire. Quite full but still plenty of spaces. Free EHU, but water and showers, that are listed on Park4Night, are locked and look like they have been for some time. There is an honesty box for donations towards the cost of the leccy. We want to pay something so that the amenity is continued.
Being 12:45 on a Sunday, everything is closed and most restaurants etc are also closed on Monday. So, after a cuppa and a snack of day-old bread, we’ll go and explore this lovely looking village.

 

[DBK]

Loving this thread everyone and I’m busy noting all the places I should be visiting. We are currently in Mens in the Trieve and heading south next week. Planning to visit st croix du verdon and wondering if anyone has driven the whole route through the gorge du verdon. We are in a 6m Motorhome and have been informed it is very tight driving particularly if you meet someone coming in the opposite direction! Any one with opinions / advice would be appreciated.
Keep up the great info.

There are two roads you can use, one on the north side of the gorge and one on the south. I suggest the south side on the D71 for a first trip, not least because the sun will be behind you for the best photography. If you east to west you will be on the side of the drop! There are few short tunnels but nothing to worry about.

The north side is higher and more popular which means more traffic.

 

[Ingwe]

Well, we’ve had our walk around Malzieu-Ville. It’s Sunday afternoon and is as dead as…………….something dead. Not even a cat!
It turns out that this pretty ville’s claim to fame is the despatching of a wolf which terrorised the village by eating a hundred of its citizens. This all happened a long time ago (when the shops were still open) and one can cut the wolf some slack if he’d happened by here on a Sunday, feeling a bit peckish and finding nothing or no-one. No wonder on Monday, still finding everything closed, he gobbled up a young milkmaid going about her chores.
After about a hundred of such unfortunates a famed wolf hunter from t’up north was sent for. He arrived and and after a major hunt, slew the big bad wolf. He skinned the unfortunate loup and then offered the skanky, manky pelt to the King. As a result, he was beaten up and told to go back t’north. There, in recognition of his brave deeds, he was awarded 72 livres. So all’s well that ends well. This is what we gleaned from the little story boards posted round the village.
It is very pretty but we’ve seen prettier and more interesting villages. Trouble is, there are so many lovely places to see in France, one gets a bit blasé.
Now that we’re back in the van, had a cuppa and chockie biscuit, it’s just started raining. On to Saint Flour tomorrow.

 

[DBK]

Well, we’ve had our walk around Malzieu-Ville. It’s Sunday afternoon and is as dead as…………….something dead. Not even a cat!
It turns out that this pretty ville’s claim to fame is the despatching of a wolf which terrorised the village by eating a hundred of its citizens. This all happened a long time ago (when the shops were still open) and one can cut the wolf some slack if he’d happened by here on a Sunday, feeling a bit peckish and finding nothing or no-one. No wonder on Monday, still finding everything closed, he gobbled up a young milkmaid going about her chores.
After about a hundred of such unfortunates a famed wolf hunter from t’up north was sent for. He arrived and and after a major hunt, slew the big bad wolf. He skinned the unfortunate loup and then offered the skanky, manky pelt to the King. As a result, he was beaten up and told to go back t’north. There, in recognition of his brave deeds, he was awarded 72 livres. So all’s well that ends well. This is what we gleaned from the little story boards posted round the village.
It is very pretty but we’ve seen prettier and more interesting villages. Trouble is, there are so many lovely places to see in France, one gets a bit blasé.
Now that we’re back in the van, had a cuppa and chockie biscuit, it’s just started raining. On to Saint Flour tomorrow.

View attachment 669325View attachment 669326View attachment 669327View attachment 669329View attachment 669330

We are heading for St Flour tomorrow as well. Might see you there!

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[Ingwe]

We are heading for St Flour tomorrow as well. Might see you there!

That would be a treat! Not many Baileys in France so we should stick out like a sore thumb! Hope to meet you. We’re aiming for the camping car park called Camping de mon village de St Flour, Les Orgues.

 

[Spriddler]

What this is meant to be I've no idea, I thought elephant at the time but duckling might be better. I've no idea the significance of the orange ball either.

View attachment 667479

I only know that geocaching is to do with finding things but if they are supposed to mean something.......

Canard a l'orange?

 

[DBK]

That would be a treat! Not many Baileys in France so we should stick out like a sore thumb! Hope to meet you. We’re aiming for the camping car park called Camping de mon village de St Flour, Les Orgues.

That's where we are heading - Les Ogres ! We should be there just before 1400 as we have to a bit of shopping first.

 

[Ingwe]

That's where we are heading - Les Ogres ! We should be there just before 1400 as we have to a bit of shopping first.

Excuse my poor spelling. We also have to do a shop en route. Drive safely.

 

[DBK]

Excuse my poor spelling. We also have to do a shop en route. Drive safely.

Your spelling was perfect, calling it Les Ogres was just my weak joke. Will we find Shrek there?

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[weemalkie]

No, South African born and bred. Wife however born in Lusaka, Zambia (when it was Northern Rhodesia). And you?

Worked in Kitwe for 4 years. 73-77. Best 4 years ever- and that was in spite of the almost daily shortages. Rhokana mine lab. Spent many an ingwe!!

 

[weemalkie]

There are two roads you can use, one on the north side of the gorge and one on the south. I suggest the south side on the D71 for a first trip, not least because the sun will be behind you for the best photography. If you east to west you will be on the side of the drop! There are few short tunnels but nothing to worry about.

The north side is higher and more popular which means more traffic.

Great give me a lot more confidence that I won’t need to reverse for miles. I was considering the southern route.

 

[Ingwe]

Worked in Kitwe for 4 years. 73-77. Best 4 years ever- and that was in spite of the almost daily shortages. Rhokana mine lab. Spent many an ingwe!!

A now deceased uncle of mine was an explosives engineer working for the copper mines at Ndola (pretty close to Kitwe). Many happy childhood memories of lunches and swims at the club in Ndola, when visiting him.
My Ingwe is Xhosa (and other African languages) for leopard. Loved seeing them in the wild in SA.

 

[weemalkie]

A now deceased uncle of mine was an explosives engineer working for the copper mines at Ndola (pretty close to Kitwe). Many happy childhood memories of lunches and swims at the club in Ndola, when visiting him.
My Ingwe is Xhosa (and other African languages) for leopard. Loved seeing them in the wild in SA.

I’m mixing my spelling. Ngwee - zambian currency but ingwe much better username. And yes great to see them in the wild luangwa valley and Serengeti.

 

[Ingwe]

Conscious always that this is @DBK‘s thread and is specifically about his quest for cheese, I’ll report that we’ve finally met DBK at a camping in Saint Flour. He and Mrs DBK and their doglet Charlie are busy enjoying the sights of Saint Flour, whilst we are enjoying the last of the ginger snaps to celebrate Mrs Ingwe’s birthday. Hopefully we’ll see them on their return.
We first saw Saint Flour in 1990 whilst driving down to Argele sur Mer. We were in a car, not a motorhome and we definitely were not on the A75. From the much smaller road, St Flour looked incredibly romantic seemingly hanging onto the the mountain side. We promised we’d return one day. Today is that day.

We have to say, that approaching it from the A75, it looks somewhat less imposing and, having walked around it, we are a little disappointed. We’ve seen many old French towns and cities that are living, ancient places that retain their olde worlde charm but, and I accept I may be wrong, after all it is all subjective, I don’t feel Saint Flour has.

On the positive side the campsite is good value €12.50 a night with hookup, clean showers and toilets, without seats but with paper. Also, we found a delightful shop selling regional produce that was very enticing. When we went in to have a look, there were three Brit couples all shopping. However, we found only one open bar where we could have a coffee and cup of tea.

In England, if you stop, the person behind starts a queue. In France, if a group of French stop, they start a game of boules. We saw three games taking place right next to each other. We also found what might be a cinema. There were old fashioned film posters in each ‘window’ including one of my all-time favourites, Vitorrio de Sica’s ‘Bicycle Thieves’.

The buildings, very old, seemed to blot out the light and presumably this is intended to keep the wind out. I imagine this place gets really cold in winter. Only 10° degrees today, we over-optimistically put out our chairs and table to sit in the sun. Our neighbours looked at us as if we were bonkers. The chairs have now been packed away.

Hopefully, DBK will have sourced plenty of the lovely Cantal. We shall probably find out later. Anyway, here are some photos of Saint Flour. I apologise for possibly hi-jacking the thread.

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[Ingwe]

The regional produce shop in Saint Flour.

 

[DBK]

Nice to meet Ingwe and Mrs Ingwe today and we did indeed go for a wander into the town and came to pretty much the same conclusion. The Ville Haute is in a striking location, perched on volcanic rock. Lacking a drone I stole this image off the local tourist website.

The aire is just beyond the top left of the picture and on the same level so we didn't experience the calf-busting climb up I was expecting before we arrived.

This is where we are, south of Clermont Ferrand in the Auvergne region and specifically the Cantal Department.

Closer up.

The first thing we noticed was almost everywhere was shut and a glance at a few shop doors revealed why. Hours of opening around here seem to be Tuesday to Saturday and therefore, closed on Monday - today! A few places were open but most were shut and many were also shut permanently.

We have driven through some unattractive towns and villages in the last couple of days and this was another. I don't think the colour of the volcanic rock used helps either.

Typical streets.

And this is the regional products shop Ingwe mentioned.

We didn't go in as I bought some Cantal cheese this morning and there is only so much tripe you can eat.

"Tripoux" is no ordinary tripe. It is sheeps' tripe formed into parcels often with sheeps' feet inside. Yummy!

Mrs DBK wanted me to buy one of these but I think I would end up losing a finger or something worse.

We walked to the point in the bottom right of the aerial shot above. The route went this way.

I think even our PVC would struggle but we did see a small car drive down it.

The view of the lower town or Ville Basse from up here.

But there was a bit of colour in the streets.

Just cut along the dotted line.

The entrance to the aire here is very untypical.

It seems to be all grass which made for tiny bit of wheel spin before we got settled.

Tomorrow we are heading north west towards Ussel, there is another CCP aire near there but we are going to try and stay overnight at a place marked on the map as an "aire de stationnement camping car" but it is not in any app I have. This is the link.

aire de stationnement camping car · Mont Bessou, 19250 Meymac, France

Car Park

maps.app.goo.gl

The reason for going is it is near the top of a hill I plan to operate my radio from. Mont Bessou is a Summits On The Aire (SOTA) hill and interestingly it has never been activated before. There are plenty of unactivated summits in France but they are almost exclusively very high and very hard to climb. This one, perhaps uniquely, is one we can almost drive to the top of. The only downside is the weather forecast isn't brilliant.

I've now announced the attempt on the SOTA website so no backing out now. I will need to wrap up very warmly I think!

 

[Ingwe]

Nice to meet Ingwe and Mrs Ingwe today and we did indeed go for a wander into the town and came to pretty much the same conclusion. The Ville Haute is in a striking location, perched on volcanic rock. Lacking a drone I stole this image off the local tourist website.

View attachment 669948

The aire is just beyond the top left of the picture and on the same level so we didn't experience the calf-busting climb up I was expecting before we arrived.

This is where we are, south of Clermont Ferrand in the Auvergne region and specifically the Cantal Department.

View attachment 669979

Closer up.

View attachment 669980

The first thing we noticed was almost everywhere was shut and a glance at a few shop doors revealed why. Hours of opening around here seem to be Tuesday to Saturday and therefore, closed on Monday - today! A few places were open but most were shut and many were also shut permanently.

We have driven through some unattractive towns and villages in the last couple of days and this was another. I don't think the colour of the volcanic rock used helps either.

View attachment 669943

View attachment 669959

Typical streets.

View attachment 669954

And this is the regional products shop Ingwe mentioned.

View attachment 669960

We didn't go in as I bought some Cantal cheese this morning and there is only so much tripe you can eat.

View attachment 669945

"Tripoux" is no ordinary tripe. It is sheeps' tripe formed into parcels often with sheeps' feet inside. Yummy!

Mrs DBK wanted me to buy one of these but I think I would end up losing a finger or something worse.

View attachment 669947

We walked to the point in the bottom right of the aerial shot above. The route went this way.

View attachment 669949

I think even our PVC would struggle but we did see a small car drive down it.

The view of the lower town or Ville Basse from up here.

View attachment 669944

But there was a bit of colour in the streets.

View attachment 669952

Just cut along the dotted line.

The entrance to the aire here is very untypical.

View attachment 669956

It seems to be all grass which made for tiny bit of wheel spin before we got settled.

View attachment 669962

Tomorrow we are heading north west towards Ussel, there is another CCP aire near there but we are going to try and stay overnight at a place marked on the map as an "aire de stationnement camping car" but it is not in any app I have. This is the link.

aire de stationnement camping car · Mont Bessou, 19250 Meymac, France

Car Park

maps.app.goo.gl

The reason for going is it is near the top of a hill I plan to operate my radio from. It is a Summits On The Aire (SOTA) hill and interestingly it has never been activated before. There are plenty of unactivated summits in France but they are almost exclusively very high and very hard to climb. This one, perhaps uniquely, is one we can almost drive to the top of. The only downside is the weather forecast isn't brilliant.

Brilliant photos again DBK and also interesting narrative. When you say you’re going to park somewhere high tomorrow so that you can use your radio, do you mean your amateur radio? I seem to recall you’re a radio ham. The gear must have changed since I spoke to an American ham on my uncle’s S/W transceiver in the 1960s as it was massive and you wouldn’t take it with you in a van!

Very pleased to have met you and Charlie. We hoped we may have had a glass of wine together but the cool, windy weather has put a damper on the thought. We have abandoned the idea of having a meal out in Saint Flour this evening as neither of us feel much like going out again.

Tomorrow, we’re heading to a campsite on the banks of the Allier in the Auverne. Then onto Chatillon en Bazois for a night and then to Saint Franchy.
Thanks for the thread. Has given us plenty of thought for destinations next year. Also, the idea of a theme is a great idea as it gives some coherence to generally unplanned travels. One year, cheese, the next wine, then whatever.

 

[DBK]

Brilliant photos again DBK and also interesting narrative. When you say you’re going to park somewhere high tomorrow so that you can use your radio, do you mean your amateur radio? I seem to recall you’re a radio ham. The gear must have changed since I spoke to an American ham on my uncle’s S/W transceiver in the 1960s as it was massive and you wouldn’t take it with you in a van!

Very pleased to have met you and Charlie. We hoped we may have had a glass of wine together but the cool, windy weather has put a damper on the thought. We have abandoned the idea of having a meal out in Saint Flour this evening as neither of us feel much like going out again.

Tomorrow, we’re heading to a campsite on the banks of the Allier in the Auverne. Then onto Chatillon en Bazois for a night and then to Saint Franchy.
Thanks for the thread. Has given us plenty of thought for destinations next year. Also, the idea of a theme is a great idea as it gives some coherence to generally unplanned travels. One year, cheese, the next wine, then whatever.

Many thanks and yes it has gone a bit cold with some threatening dark clouds about. We are hunkered down with the heating on. I fear I may have to stop wearing shorts soon!

I suspect a lot restaurants will be closed tonight in the town. They seem to take their Monday holidays seriously here.

Radio kit has inevitably changed massively since the 60s. Mine all goes in a rucksack and you can get radios which fit in the palm of your hand. Modern radios are more like computers and are driven by software.

John

 

[DBK]

Hmm... this is going to be expensive I fear.

For the last 24 hours or so we've detected a faint smell of hot plastic. This evening the Webasto Dual-Top control panel flagged up a failed heating element and of course no hot air was being produced.

A search online suggests a new element is £270 or thereabouts. I guess I could replace it myself but from what I've read they are complicated beasts to take apart. There's a Webasto agent near where we live but the bill will be 4 figures I fear.

The good news is it is working on diesel so we won't freeze to death.

I'll look at how best to proceed when we get home.

(Refills wine glass.........)

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