Saturday 20th August 2016 – travelling in France after the Eurotunnel

This is the start of our new 5 week motorhome holiday. After the EuroTunnel at 2.30pm we drove in France for about 4 hours to an aire on the coast at Saint Valery en Caux. We arrived a little late at 5pm but the aire was already full, although if one van was not taking up 2 full spaces there might have been a space! So, 10km down the coast to the aire at Veulettes Sur Mer (GPS: 49.852350N, 0.601540E). A pleasant stop over right on the seafront in a small town. Cost should have been €6 per night but no-one arrived to collect the money even though we didn’t leave until 10.30am the next morning .

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Sunday 21st August 2016 – Beautiful Loire

Another long drive to get down to the Dordogne. French toll roads are expensive and are never in a hurry and the smaller roads make for better scenery. The weather was damp and very windy so the van was pushed around the road as we drive.

We stopped for lunch at the aire at Nogent Le Roi (GPS: 48.650510N, 1.529050E) which we have stopped at over night a couple of times when visiting Versailles. All the services are free including EHU! But no overnight for us this time as we had more miles to travel.

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We arrive in the town of Blois (GPS: 47.586480N, 1.326480E) around 6pm. The city centre aire costs €8 per night inc services and wifi so we walked into town and had dinner at a restaurant. There is a beautiful chateau in the centre and nice walks down by the river and the weather was now much warmer with clear blue skies.

Monday 22nd August 2016 – Lego furniture and a harp…

We had been recommended a few stops on the way to & through the Dordogne and the next stop was Château de Cheverny. We bought tickets and had a tour of the chateaux. Oddly many of the pieces of furniture has been recreated in Lego bricks! There was also a large Tin Tin exhibition which we didn’t visit.

Who doesn’t love a Sunflower? We love them and especially love fields of them. Last year whilst we found tens and tens of fields of sunflowers we were about one month later and most were over, limp and sadly staring at the ground. After driving away from Château de Cheverny we found our first proper field of sun flowers.

Next is our first experience of the France Passion network. We bought the book a few weeks ago with the idea of something different. This first stop certainly was different. It was at a vineyard at Verneuil Sue Vienne called Les Vignerons de Verneuil (GPS: 45.83697N, 1.13280E). We pulled in to the farmers yard and the farmer came out and spoke excellent English and he tells us that we can either stop here in the yard or drive around the corner and sleep amongst the vines – of course we chose the latter! It truly was amazing. Superb views across the valley, a clear night where we easily saw the milky way and wonderfully quiet.