Grand Theft Auto!

Having finally woken, we made use of the now hot water in the room and sorted our bits and pieces. A couple of trips with bags to Roxvanne and we vacated our room. Checked out we drove straight to our now favourite boulangerie to buy breakfast and something for later in the day, as it was Sunday it was likely everything would be shut by lunchtime.
A pain au raisin for Tre and two plain croissants for me for brekkie, also a seeded brown thick cut smoked salmon sandwich for Tre and a chicken and salad baguette for me and we were on our way.
The route down had been decided on for the scenery, the route home was to get us home relatively quickly without the mountains and also to avoid passing Bordeaux due to the fires and smoke in the area.
We drove through Nîmes, now 1145am, to its outskirts and joined the A9 towards Montpellier where we immediately joined a traffic jam - great!!
Fortunately the traffic lasted about 6km and was slow moving not stationary. The traffic eased and we got properly underway, albeit the weather was strong gusting winds that caught Rox a good few times causing swerving in the lane. Reduced speed and having the windows shut helped - it just meant we started to melt in the cab. We continued south west on the A9 to Narbonne and then onto the A61 north west past Carcassonne and generally towards Toulouse. We did on occasions notice grey smoke across the landscape and the smell of a pit out fire drifting into the cab - obviously a result of the Bordeaux fires.
We swept onto the A62 before stopping at the Aire de Frontonnais Nord to revise our trip further.
Tre during the trip had offered on many occasions to drive, which I had always passed on, for no other reason than I hate being a passenger as I knew I would fall asleep. Tre never does sleep when I’m driving - I don’t know how. She had mentioned also that she needed to drive to improve her confidence. So as we were now northbound and no strong winds we decided now was the time for Tre to take over.
Ten minutes later (Tre says 12kms) we approached a tolls entry point to the A20 north east towards Cahors. We have a tag in Rox that automatically raises the barrier without the need to pay. As we approached the barrier we saw a Gendarme/Douane standing on the island at the end of the barrier exit between our lane and the lane to our left. An older officer, certainly not young, overweight with a tummy that his body armour sat on. Looking totally bored and with both hands tucked into the sides of his body armour with his elbows sticking out. Now Daniel, our third youngest was mad keen on computer games when he was younger, but I hadn’t realised Tre had taken so much notice of the game Grand Theft Auto when he was playing it . . . However she had the moves off to a fine art and on the game would have scored a solid 200 points for her now real life manoeuvre of clipping a Gendarme/Douane elbow with a near side-wing mirror as we exited. It wasn’t that hard and he should have not had his elbows out, so when Tre said did I hit him I just said drive on . . . quickly! We will wait for the French equivalent of a summons to arrive when home! 🙄
The rest of the proposed 1 hour drive passed without further incident before we pulled in again.
Off again we travelled north just past Montfaucon where we then drove west on the D801 to Gourdon then on the D704 to Sarlat Le Canéda which we had intended stopping at. It was a large town which on a Sunday evening was packed with what mostly looked like holiday makers/tourists and we think a night market. Again for about the third time in this trip we were defeated by too many people and unexpected events. On we trotted on the D47 to Les Eyzies which again was a tadge busy but by no means packed. We found a small car park but having exited Rox we saw another car park which was in fact a Pass ‘Étapes site which is a pay car park for overnight(s) with electricity hook ups and for €14. So we climbed back into Rox and moved her 50m down the road, paid our fee and entered to park up. If you’ve not got one of these cards they are well worth the effort to get. There are loads of these sites across France and I’m sure the rest of Europe. Nothing flash, but secure parking and a hook up.
Chairs out we settled in with our morning purchased food, together with some crisps, nibbles and beers and sat and chilled. It was now gone 7pm and we had no intention of going anywhere else. We both caught up with some phone surfing, reviews of last nights concert and I checked I’d had no emails from the Gendarmes with a fine notice! Before long we were ready to call it a day.
Another day on the road, quite exciting at times 😂, leaving about 2 and 3/4hrs tomorrow to home.
We’ve had a fab time these last few days, just the last blast home tomorrow - I wonder who will drive tomorrow 🫣Read more