Pip Greenwood

Chucking it down again this a.m. but as we left Verteuil, it settled a bit, so we parked up for a little walk and found a Bricante open. We left with a crocodile-embossed leather bag. Thankfully, John left the actual crocodile in the shop. It was tiny, a strange withered shape, and gave me the creeps.
The shop was run by an English Londoner who'd been running it for 5 years and lived above it. He told us 35% of the town are British, plus lots of other nationalities live there. It was a really lovely place and the chateaux rooves were in amazing condition. We did hear a few people speaking English.
I had located a campsite near to where a friend of ours lives, by the side of the Loire, she is around and available tomorrow, so we journeyed up in that direction. Again, pouring down. Spain was extreme in its lack of laybays or ways to get off a road for a break, and today, we found France to be not much better. They must all have very strong bladders!
I rang the campsite on route to check they had space. They didn't speak English and I managed in French. They open on 1st April not 1st March as stated on Park4night! So we searched for Aires to empty the toilet and stay over. The first didn't have emptying facilities. The second did so we used the services but the parking was on too much of a slope to stay overnight. The third one (where we are now) is not an Aire but a very nice layby, which, as it turns out, is a mere 5 minutes drive from Aileens.
It was a strange day as on top of the campsite issue, I'd forgotten that we had colds and cancelled the visit as we didn't want to pass them on. But as we're so close, Aileen suggested we drop by anyway.
We'll see how things look in the morning.Read more