Willows in France

A lazy start again but Jon walked up to town and bought a fresh baguette hot from the oven for our breakfast, nothing like it and needs time to enjoy.  We took Smartie and drove to the car park where we could catch a free shuttle across to Le Mont, avoiding the quaint but very smelly (and costly) horse drawn bus! Having taken obligatory photos of Le Mont we walked through into the building and had yet another ‘wow’ moment. We had expected to find stone steps taking us up and around the ramparts of the building but instead we walked into a sort of Dickensian cobbled street with shops and restaurants of all description crowding the hill upwards as we walked. It was a village within the walls and quite hidden from view of the outside world. Both of us have been amazed at how little we have to pay to look round buildings/exhibitions etc and this was still only 5 Euro’s each which allowed us to then go all through the old monastery, which was huge and dates back to 709!...

Woke late today having been up in the night for bite cream application! Noticed also that we have been sold preventative spray for ‘mosquites tigres’.   I know they have been vicious but I have never heard of a Tiger Mosquito but it might explain how desperately we have needed the cream, my foot looked like a Cornish pasty it was so swollen - not pretty! Anyway we finally got going (not before we noticed one of smartie’s tie down straps had snapped and we had lost the bolt and split pin holding one of the ramps, now being held on by a bent spoon.) Hard to believe but in France the B and Q style store closes for a 2 hour lunch break and doesn’t open on Sundays. We headed towards the North coast as we were hoping to stay at a campsite right by the beach and opposite Le Mont St-Michel.  Failed miserably on that front, arrived at the barrier only to be told we needed an access code to get in, we would have to phone the hotel (what hotel?) and book a place and they would giv...

A day of highs and not so highs! Bad news - only a dribble of water from the taps this morning! Good news - Jon fixed it this evening! Better news - He has totally mastered the art of reversing the trailer! Worse news - number of Super Mosquito bites now 8! In our hunt for the best baguette of the holiday we have been left with a number of odd end bits so they got toasted this morning for breakfast and then we set off for Nantes. It was quite a long journey and we finally succumbed again to the use of a toll road to burn up a few miles and finally arrived at Le Camping de Petit Port at about 3.30. Grabbed a bite to eat and then set off to see a giant elephant! We negotiated the tram system and alighted on L’ile de Nantes and started to walk to Les Galeries des Machines, via the pharmacy for more bite cream and plasters for yet another blister!! Was not a happy bunny at this point. Then we turned a corner and walked straight into a Jules Verne meets Mad Max style exhibition full of g...

Decided a cooked breakfast was in order today as it was a bit damp and miserable but we were still going off in Smartie for a day out. Jon had checked out the map and set the sat nav as he had found an island connected by a 2mile long bridge from La Rochelle. Sounded like a plan, so that’s what we did! Gorgeous little island (or so I thought) as we decided to drive right round it . The first village had a lovely beach, little market stalls and an artisan boulangerie (that’s the bakers for the non French speaking). We walked a while, then back in the car to explore a bit more. Turned out to be quite a big island and we were getting low on petrol with no idea if there were any garages on our route round! Then we spotted one......but it was closed on Thursdays!.......argh!  But our fears were unfounded and we finally (and jubilantly) refilled the petrol tank at another which was open on Thursdays! At the furthest point on the island was a lighthouse, numerous restaurants and gift sho...

Decided to drive down to the town in Smartie this morning as it is quite a distance from the campsite and we needed our daily baguette but also wanted to have a look round the old medieval town centre.  Well, such a surprise! The whole place was absolutely transformed, full to bursting with market stalls and shops open onto the pavement, cafes and restaurants were full and everywhere you looked was the most amazing produce - fruit, vegetables, sausages, cheese, truffles, bread, pastries, meat, fish, olives, nuts, nougat! The list is endless and all taking place amongst truly stunning medieval buildings. We were bowled over and wished we could have stayed longer but our plans had been made, the new campers had already arrived to fill our space and we had to move on! We had a long drive today so opted to use the toll roads, they are really expensive but it meant we were able to get to Fouras (near La Rochelle) in good time. Le Cadoret site had been recommended by a couple we met at ...

The day has come for us to pack up and leave my cousin’s beautiful haven in France and start to make our way back up to the North on our return journey. Mike had talked me through the right way to go, and I had written it all down so we were hopeful of a fairly straight forward trip this time. We were heading off for the medieval town of Sarlat and managed to follow his instructions to the letter and arrived unscathed at Huttopia campsite. Unfortunately the very steep hill to our pitch proved too much for Harvey and the trailer so we quickly removed the smart car and travelled up separately.  Again a scorching hot day so an afternoon in the pool was a welcome treat before a bite to eat and walk into town.  We needed to find somewhere to watch the football, apparently, and this required some thought as to 1. Was there a bar showing the England match. 2. Could you see the screen. 3. Were the chairs comfier than at the campsite and 4. Did they serve lager.  Well there was an...

We were up and ready by 9am this morning, taking the smart car and driving into Aurillac for supplies. Still haven’t really managed to navigate the direct trip as still going up over the mountains and tiny villages to get anywhere! I drove and stayed on the right side of the road without any major incident and we parked up in the old town for a bit if a wander. Bad news! Nearly everything is shut on a Monday so had to go to the supermarket instead! We really are living the high life here, you know!  Back at the Mill and lunch was ready, how lovely.  It was so hot that we all felt an afternoon of doing absolutely nothing was in order, which is what we did and eventually made ourselves presentable for our last dinner with Kay and Mike. She had excelled yet again and we were thoroughly spoilt. A fabulous couple of days filled with lots of laughter and we shall be very sorry to leave but will definitely return.

Woke to a brilliant blue sky and another scorching hot (36 degrees yesterday!) day but we still enjoyed a typical French breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolate out on the terrace before taking Jon round for a guided tour to see everything on what used to be a fish farm back in the day.  It is a magical place, being out in the middle of nowhere, with the sound of water running from the weir through the old system of tanks in the ground, filling the lake and a fast moving river at the boundary of their land.  Unfortunately there were also an enormous amount of biting insects as well which sent us straight to the insect repellent and antihistamine cream! Suitably protected we all piled into Mike’s car and set off for lunch at restaurant overlooking yet another lake, which was owned by a friend of theirs. Seems in France that Sunday lunch is a real family affair and takes a few hours to get through! Gorgeous food and a lovely setting so what if it did take 4 hours, we had ...

Today we are heading even further south to visit my cousin and her husband who have lived in France for about 20 years. It is a another beautiful day (weather has been in the 30’s for the last couple of days) and we are looking forward to staying a while with them. Everything went really well until we got passed Limoges and the terrain became much more mountainous. Eek! The roads were almost all just winding round and round to the top and the winding round and round back down again. Harvey made it up and down two of them but we decided enough was enough and headed for the nearest toll road to help us get where we needed to be a bit quicker. Finally arrived at the Mill at 6pm and Kay had made us a fabulous dinner which we ate outside on the terrace, catching up and getting re-aquainted with a few glasses of wine! Perfect end to the day.

Woke early so walked up to the Châteaux to get a baguette from Veronique the baker, and we had a very pleasant breakfast by the lake, packed up and set off again travelling south towards Poitiers. I googled for a campsite nearby and Lac du St Cyr came up as a lake with a beach not far from the town so we headed for that. Despite having maps, sat nav and google we were almost at breaking point trying to find the wretched place until finally a teeny weeny sign in the middle of nowhere matched one of our google villages! Hurrah!  Worth the trouble as it was a beautiful site by a lake which did indeed have a beach right by our pitch. We had a wander around and finally ended up in the bar on the beach where there were a couple of guys playing quitars and attempting to sing! A fab place to stay and surprisingly great evening.