Two Go To France (2022)

[Manic]

We used a GPL ( lpg) at a super u and when I got there say the pay booth was shutdown, I thought the won’t be doing the gas anymore but to my surprise it was still working at the pay at pump , you had to use the normal pump no 7 and select pump 8 for gas and it was only 0.729€ and the Revolut card worked on pay at pump ( which it hasn’t previously)
I’ve been using this website Lenny HB said about

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[DBK]

We let the Sanef Tag take the strain yesterday and it brought us north of Toulouse to an aire near Cahors on the river Lot after about a 200km journey from our last location.

I was sorry to leave the Hautes-Pyrénées as it was a striking area and we must return with more time on our hands some day.

It was hot when we arrived here and it didn't take much discussion before deciding today was going to be a "lazy day" as we call days when we don't do anything more strenuous than a short dog walk or a wrestle with a bottle of wine to get the cork out.

This is where we are now.

And closer in.

The CCP aire is beside a sports pitch. There was a practice session in the evening yesterday but it wasn't noisy and I enjoyed watching them.

But it has been warm, two thermometers said it reached 33°C today. Time to deploy the Endless Breeze! And yes, Charlie's water is in the sun in this photo. We moved it into the shade afterwards.

The site is beside the Lot but access is limited. Charlie just chucked himself in and emerged covered in mud! A quick rinse down at the service point soon restored him to a state where he can share the van with us.

 

[DBK]

I haven't updated this for while, mostly because, we haven't done a lot.

We have spent the weekend at the CCP aire at the Lac de Saint Pardoux a little north of Limoges. This is a fairly busy aire close to the A20 motorway which is major route south through France. We have seen a few UK motorhomes but most only stay one night before moving on. From a conversation with one of them most are on their way to Spain I think.

On the way here our route took us past another SOTA summit, the Signal de Buausoleil, a heavily wooded 588m high hill which you can drive to the summit of on some reasonably narrow roads. Fortunately we didn't meet anyone coming the other way.

At the summit there was even somewhere to park.

Under the SOTA rules you can't operate from or next to a vehicle so I set up a short distance down a path. Apologies for the knees!

Time was short as I was doing this just before lunch but I managed a reasonable number of contacts including a few "summit to summits" where both sides were on top of summits.

This is where we are now.

And closer up.

It's an artificial lake of course, formed by a dam but is a very popular place. There are lots of paths and we have done some walking exploring them. Broom is in full flower everywhere.

There are several beaches which I suspect are made from imported sand.

Charlie jumped in the water to cool off at every opportunity.

There was nice sunset last night but I missed the best of it by about a minute. Sunsets don't linger!

Not shown on Google maps is a new pedestrian only bridge which joins one side of the lake near the aire to the other side.

The bridge has signs on it which threw me at first.

In the UK we would say "Cyclists must dismount" but here it is "Feet on ground" which you can't argue with. The photo above is at another bridge near the aire with the same signs.

 

[DBK]

I forgot to include this photo of the aire here. Shady, but not completely so, moving your chair a few feet finds the sun, and vice versa if you want shade.

 

[DBK]

It was a Laundry Monday today. I had located an Intermarché supermarket nearby with washing machines but when we arrived one of the two machines was broken and there was a queue for the remaining one. So we did our shopping anyway then consulted Google Maps and found a laundrette. Google Maps is clever, even though we are in France entering "laundrette" in the search field reveals those around you. The clever bit being the French don't call them laundrettes of course. The problem with these non-supermarket laundrettes is parking a MH near them can be a challenge. We got moaned at by a trader for taking up 3 parking spaces outside her shop. She seemed happy when I said we would depart après vingt minutes.

On the subject of shopping, if you are in France and like cheese look for this one.

It is Maroilles, the producer is Faquet but others make it so just look for Maroilles on the label. You can get some very bland soft cheeses in France but this one has real flavour. It reminds me of Stinking Bishop* but without the stink. Recommended.

We arrived at tonight's stop a little after 1400 so it was a late lunch even by our standards. We are at the CCP aire at Chaillac and it's a corker. This is the view from our pitch.

These maps show where we are.

There is path around the lakes which we took to walk off lunch.

Why is there so much mistletoe in France? It is rare to see it in the UK but very common here.

The small lake to the south of us was alive with dragonflies, this is a male Broad-bodied Chaser. There were females of the same species laying eggs. It's a poor photo as taken with my phone at maximum zoom.

Damselflies were even more numerous. This pair are enjoying an intimate moment.

This rubbish video shows up to 5 pairs laying eggs in the same patch. It was fascinating to watch.



North and west tomorrow!

* Évêque Puant in French I think.

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[Zoobec]

It was a Laundry Monday today. I had located an Intermarché supermarket nearby with washing machines but when we arrived one of the two machines was broken and there was a queue for the remaining one. So we did our shopping anyway then consulted Google Maps and found a laundrette. Google Maps is clever, even though we are in France entering "laundrette" in the search field reveals those around you. The clever bit being the French don't call them laundrettes of course. The problem with these non-supermarket laundrettes is parking à MH near them can be a challenge. We got moaned at by a trader for taking up 3 parking spaces outside her shop. She seemed happy when I said we would depart après vingt minutes.

On the subject of shopping, if you are in France and like cheese look for this one.

View attachment 618848

It is Maroilles, the producer is Faquet but others make it so just look for Maroilles on the label. You can get some very bland soft cheeses in France but this one has real flavour. It reminds me of Stinking Bishop* but without the stink. Recommended.

We arrived at tonight's stop a little after 1400 so it was a late lunch even by our standards. We are at the CCP aire at Chaillac and it's a corker. This is the view from our pitch.

View attachment 618851

These maps show where we are.

View attachment 618855

View attachment 618854

There is path around the lakes which we took to walk off lunch.

View attachment 618850

Why is the so much mistletoe in France? It is rare to see it the UK but very common here.

View attachment 618853

The small lake to the south of us was alive with dragonflies, this is a male Broad-bodied Chaser. They were females of the same species laying eggs. It's a poor photo as taken with my phone at maximum zoom.

View attachment 618852

Damselflies were even more numerous. This pair are enjoying an intimate moment.

View attachment 618856

This rubbish video shows up to 5 pairs laying eggs in the same patch. It was fascinating to watch.



North and west tomorrow!

* Évêque Puant in French I think.

That cheese looks very ripe! Idk why there is so much mistletoe in France, we’ve noticed the same on our travels around Brittany.

 

[DBK]

In yesterday's entry I finished by saying we would be travelling north and west today. I was half right, we went mainly north with a distinct lack of westwardness, if there is such a word.

We have come to Montrichard on the Cher river. I'm not sure of the origin of the name, cher means expensive in French and there is no river called Sonny around.

The Cher is a tributary of the Loire which lies to the north of us and the Cher joins the Loire a bit west of Tours, not from here. The plan tomorrow is to follow the Cher down stream and then down the Loire. This will be a very westerly direction.

This is where we are now.

To reach here we drove on some very rural roads, letting Google Maps choose the route, which it did taking us along many "white" roads as I call them as that is the colour they are in the Michelin road atlas. You can do this in a 3.5t PVC but I wouldn't recommend it in anything larger.

The route took us through the La Brenne area which I had spotted beforehand on the map but was new to me.

The lakes are Medieval fish ponds. There is at least one other similar area in France with lots of small lakes which is better known although the name of it escapes me at the moment.

As always in hindsight we should have stopped off here as the place is famous for bird life. Somewhere to return to.

We walked into Montrichard this afternoon. It was hot, around 30°C and of course Charlie needed cooling off. He found the sort of place to do this he enjoys - as muddy and weedy as possible!

The Cher had an interesting role in WW2 as it was the border in these parts between the Nazi dominated north and the French run Vichy France in the south. Downed pilots on their way to Spain and those fleeing the Nazis for other reasons were helped across the river by sympathetic locals.

We came across this memorial, I don't think it's a grave, near the aire.

What I understand from the inscription was he helped a lot of people over the border, 84 in one night is mentioned.

A little further downstream from here is the famous château at Chenonceaux which we visited in 2017 when I took this photo. The châteaux is essentially a bridge over the Cher and it was used as such for those escaping south with the connivance of the owners. There's a CCP aire in the grounds there now.

Montrichard must have been a busy port on the river once but the lock where Charlie swam is now disused and the river is choked with weed.

The old bridge is attractive.

I suspect the building on the far bank was a customs or toll house.

The centre is worth visiting, there is a large castle just above the town but it was too hot to walk up there.

We are enjoying the warmth this evening, sitting out under the awning which we have wound out as a few drops of rain fell briefly but it has now stopped.

 

[DBK]

A change of plan brought us to the river Loir today. Although this might look like a typo, the Loir is not a mis-spelt Loire. Its waters do eventually flow into it after joining the Sarthe which then becomes the Maine at Angers before finally joining the Loire.

We are here at a aire at La Flèche near Le Mans.

The aire is beside a large lake, a former gravel pit I suspect. Charlie cooled off in it several times on our walk this afternoon.

Several paths run around the area.

The water in the lake was very clear, unlike the Loir which was the usual turgid green we have seen so often. Agricultural run-off I guess.

Tomorrow is potentially going to be a busy day as I want to do some SOTA radio work from more than one summit. Unfortunately, the forecast is for light rain and the atmospheric conditions for radio work are curious. This screenshot won't mean anything unless you are a radio ham but what it shows is odd. Bands which normally can be relied on to work in the say are now described as "poor". I shall have to see how i get on tomorrow.

 

[irnbru]

1 1/2 hrs east of where you are is Vendome. Its a lovely town, well worth a visit especially along the riverbank.

 

[Spriddler]

Thanks for posting what is an enjoyable relaxing and informative read.
That Charlie is a rascal and he does seem to love his swims. You can almost see the joy on his face and he seems use his tail as a rudder to steer with.

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[DBK]

I managed two SOTA summits on Thursday, I had lined up a third but the temperature in the van dropped sharply when I floated this suggestion during lunch so I quietly shelved the idea.

I won't bore you with details but this map of one of them includes a first for me, my first Summit to Summit using Morse Code. It was with Christoph DL1CR/P who was on the summit of the Thüster Berg in North Germany.

We stayed the night at the aire in Ambières les Vallées. The town is built on a low hill above the Varenne River.

We walked up into the town and from the town walls took this photograph. The aire is to the right of the church tower.

Yesterday we drove to the coast and the aire at Viviers sur Mer, not far from St Malo.

We've been here before but it was about 5 years ago and something has changed about the aire as we can't remember it although we do remember the shop on the front where we bought some mussels.

The town overlooks the Baie de Mont Saint-Michel and has a very active shellfish industry.

They use extraordinary machines, half truck, half boat to tend the shellfish.

The shop, which also has a restaurant attached, didn't have any mussels for sale, it was the wrong season they said and the restaurant menu confirmed this with a note which said mussels were only available after the 1st of July.

Undaunted, I bought a dozen oysters this morning and cooked them for lunch. I'm a huge fan of cooked oysters and I recommend you to try them.

And to that end here is the recipe!

A bit of preparation is needed first. Take about 70g of butter which has warmed to room temperature and mix in two finely chopped cloves of garlic. Wrap this in clingfilm to make a sausage and put in the fridge to chill, or in our case the freezer compartment for 30 minutes as we had left it a bit late.

Open the oysters and put them on the grill pan which has been lined with foil. The foil isn't essential but it makes washing up afterwards easier. Then take out the butter and cut it into 12 pieces.

Add one to the top of each oyster.

Put under the grill for about 10 to 12 minutes until they are starting to brown and are bubbling. I had to turn the pan around halfway through as the middle and rear rows cooked quicker than the front row.

When cooked they will look like this. The smell during the cooking is mouth-watering.

Then serve and eat with crusty bread.

When the meal has reached this stage...

...bring out the grill pan and mop up all the juices in it with more crusty bread.

There are many variations of this recipe, you can add Parmisan cheese, paprika and many other things, but this very simple version worked a treat.

The sea goes out a long way here so there was no chance of cooling Charlie off in it, but he was able to improvise in a muddy creek. This was of course followed by a visit to the MH service point for a thorough shampoo and rinse down!

 

[Outdoors Dad]

That cheese looks very ripe! Idk why there is so much mistletoe in France, we’ve noticed the same on our travels around Brittany.

Because there's lots of frogs to kiss.........great thread thanks for sharing

 

[Alan Atkin]

Hope you have a nice trip. We are off for the first time in 2 yrs to Roscoff. May 13th We travel approx 30 miles east to a municipal campsite " St Efflam" right on the coast lovely campsite free heated indoor pool large enough to have a good swim, ehu ,free showers etc. Super U in Pletin les Greves with fuel and gas 2km away Lidle 1km same direction. Campsite just 100 ydrs from beach, beautiful bay, good restr' Sunday market every week, we have stayed here several times and always been very good. 15 euros per night incl ehu but that was 2yrs ago Motor home dealer and service centre on the way to Lanion enough of me ranting hope you have a trouble free trip
Alan

Just returned from a week in Brittany. beautiful weather. Ferries going and coming back were only half full no one checked us for food etc just passports and covid pass and straight through update to my earlier reply the cost of the camp site has gone up by 3 euros a night to 18 about £15 all in without ehu 15 euros ( £12 )but to be fair they have done quite a few improvements. We bought wine in Lidle just euro1.99 a bottle and was pleasently surprised with the ones we tried needless to say we stocked up.at £1.64 a bottle.