Day 32 - France

Our first full day in France and it was a little bit stressful. We’d spent the night at an aire which was lovely and quiet, but there’s absolutely nothing around, so after a quick breakfast we were on the road by 9:30. Poor Marla was not so happy to be getting back in the van for another day of driving, she was shaking for the first few minutes but was happily taking treats so we knew she wasn’t that upset with us. We had a choice whether to take the toll roads or not. It would be a 2 hour trip with tolls, or 3 without so we thought we would see how scary the French toll system is.
Turns out it wasn’t that bad, it was a system where you just pay for the bit of road to have used rather than take a ticket and pay for the distance travelled (which is what ended up costing €80 for 20 mins the other day!). Our total cost by the end of the day was €10.70 on tolls - so not too bad.

Our initial destination wasn’t actually the campsite but a supermarket. As we are now in France we couldn’t resist stopping at the Carrefour on the way. This turned out to be a bit of a nightmare as Google maps wanted me to park in the multi story which had a height restriction, so we drove around in circles a bit until I found the outside car park - which also had a height restriction. Weirdly right next to the entrance was another entrance that said Camping Car on the floor, so I drove in there.

Charlie hopped out and raced off to find the shop entrance. Being Sunday it was only open until 12:30 and we were now at 11:45 - having lost time trying to find a way in…. I parked up and me and Marla went and found a patch of grass for a wee (her not me!). Charlie came back and we headed straight over to the campsite, excited as the email confirmation said we could check in from 12! We arrived to find a sign saying reception is shut from 12-2 for lunch…. Not very helpful.
There were other motorhomes and caravans that arrived, got out and wandered around then got back in their vehicles and drive into the site - so I thought maybe I’m missing something that says to go on in. So I got back out the van and wandered around and found the door to reception was actually open. I popped in and chatted to a man who said they would open at 2 but we were welcome to have a look and see which pitch we might like to have. As it was now lunchtime and it was raining, we went back in the van and had some cheese and bread for lunch.
When more people arrived and drove through to camp, we thought maybe it’s more of a ‘pitch up and tell them after’ place. So we wandered in, found an empty pitch we liked, filled with water and parked up. When 2pm came I wandered over to reception to find it absolutely heaving.
There were about six couples, and many dogs, all ahead of me with three people behind reception. But with language barriers and carnage of some people had already pitched up into others reserved spaces, it was quite a while before I got to the front. When I did, I was given a pitch number that was different to the one we took a fancy to, when I asked to change I was told no. So off I went to park up on my pitch, unfortunately a Dutch couple had decided to use it as a parking space for their car and caravan while they booked in, and then a car and caravan arrived to pitch up where I was parked. As I say … carnage.

We finally got onto our pitch and it’s ok, but all rather dusty and there’s a lot of mosquitoes about, but it looks clean and we have a dog beach and forest to explore.

First things first, I needed a shower. It’s been a while and I feel like I have cartoon stink lines emanating from me… and then I made Charlie have one too so we both smell fresh! Then onto laundry so we can have fresh PJs and bedding. It’s reasonably priced here so we have done a full wash and tumble.

We have tried, and failed, to recreate the delicious limoncello spritzes we had in Italy.
Somehow before dinner have finished a bottle of fizzy wine and the limoncello we opened last night is half gone! Eek.

Dinner tonight was a ready meal, that we didn’t set on fire (bonus). Charlie had a spinach and ricotta lasagne, mine was the same but with courgette. Charlie bought it as a bit of a joke because he keeps ending up ordering meals out with lots of courgette - which he hates but I love. Joke was on him as my meal was delicious!
We also had a bottle of Cote de Rhone on the side, it was delicious. It’s been a bit of a running joke between us about how strong wine is. I say a good bottle is 14% (as my favourite is about that strong), and he said he’s never seen a bottle that strong. Well… he came back from Carrefour with three bottles of Cote du Rhone, all at about 14% 😂 and absolutely delicious.

This evening we have listened to a few episodes of Just a Minute - old and new ones and all very funny.

I’ve been brave and gone and found the outdoor washing up area in the dark. There’s a lot of crickets about, it sounds super tropical outside and it’s lovely to be in shorts and tshirt all day and feel a good temperature!

Sorry for the lack of photos - it’s been one of those days!Read more