Ruisseau du Moulin d’Esleys

What a strange name for a place. Not sure of its origins, and on arrival, all we had was a brief spell down to look at the steely water of the lake before the next lot of rain set in.

After taking a photo of our neighbours tiny electric camper. (Very nice but I'm baffled why it's called 'The family van'), we left the campsite in reasonable time this a.m. and anticipated a food shop at L'Eclerc taking an hour. 2.5 hours later, we returned to the van a little dazed and overstimulated by everything on offer and not always able to find specific things we wanted, e.g., spiced rice cakes. John did a lot of footsteps in search of low-cost patatas fritas in bags. No joy, just expensive ones. He'd got used to them being cheap as chips ( 😉 ) in Spain.
But he did find and bought some 10 year old Armagnac, which is doing his sore throat a world of good.
So, with so many exciting things on offer, we got a bit carried away and had quite a hefty bill at the till.
Had a quick look in a sporty shop and rather liked the funky masks on the manikins. Sneaked a wee video of them.
Apart from the stop-start belt of built-up miles, around Bidart and Bayonne (and later some major downpours), it was an OK drive. Very flat landscape on the whole and lots of monocrop trees. We saw the biofuel plant that they supplied. I've never seen such huge piles of tree-trunks, or the massive piles of bark chippings either.
This is a good spot, it has electricity and the cylindrical blocks recede into the ground when you pay by machine. Self service overnight Aire in effect. All properly signposted from the town. Only cost €8.90 (£7.60) so pretty good. We even have a par-cour gym area across the road for the morning!Read more