Steve & Rosemary Blasdale

French Camping 2023, Day 14 Vallon-Pont-d’Arc

Posted on September 12, 2023 by SteveOctober 23, 2023

12th September 2023

Overslept today. My phone had run out of electricity overnight. Not sure why, so no alarm. Rosemary says her phone was also low. My phone was on the excellent free wifi that they have at the campsite. Looking at the wiring alongside the roads, I think most of France is now on fibre to the home. Presumably a much easier task to complete in France with their overhead cabling.

We packed up the van in the dry and at 11.am headed down to the Ardeche. No toll roads on the route, adding a toll would increase the time of travel by several hours. The trip took in the main motorway down south, and then turned off heading across country towards Le Puy En Velay (which we’d visited last year). Never quite reaching said town as we headed further South into the Ardeche. Here we had a spectacular downhill drive for seemingly ages. I wonder what percentage gain in battery charge you would have by the time you reached the bottom.

Stopped off at a shop in Aubenas, ‘Le Jardin Provencal’ for a few provisions. Large selection of local wines, meats, fruits and vegetables. R was not impressed by the quality of the fruit, she had to sort through loads of peaches to get ones that were not damaged.

Hey ho and onward we travelled arriving at Vallon-Pont-d’Arc at our targeted campsite of Rives d’Arc. We arrived at 15.30. I say campsite, they call themselves an ‘Hotel de Plein Air’. Yes, it is mainly chalets, and many newer ones, because you can still see the hookup points in areas where there had been camping, but now it is chalets. R was taken by some of the chalets on the east side where they looked very smart and were built amongst some dense vegetation for privacy. It reminded her of the smart lodges in Namibia. The company appears to have recently bought another large field which they have planted out with trees but so far no buildings. The place has a couple of restaurants, two pools and a small store.

We set up in a reasonable area, not too far from the shower block, bought a bottle of pink from the onsite shop and settled down for the evening. The onsite shop sold beer, wine, several varieties of bread and also had fresh fruit and vegetables. It did not close for lunch!

French Camping 2023, Day 13 La Garandie

Posted on September 11, 2023 by SteveJuly 16, 2024

11th September 2023

Rain at some time before 7am. I was forced outside to ensure the induction hob was not getting wet. Of course the rain immediately stopped.

I set out for a walk over 3 volcanoes. They were Puy de la Rodde, Puy de Charmont, and Puy de Vichatel. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the track for the first volcanoe, and only have the track from the top of Puy de Charmont. Odd because I was using the app in tracking mode to see where I was going. Somehow I deleted it, or it was not saved. The first hill, there was no official route to the actual top. Easy long walk, then some off-piste walking to get to the top. A tree! Going back easy paths in the main.

On to the next peak, I had to walk through a local village, a short interaction with villagers and their dogs, cut short with my “Je ne parle pas le Francais”.

Followed the the path to the next volcano. This one seemed a straight up and down. The peak on the map does not coincide with the actual height point where there was a desolate pile of stones.

Then down a steep gradient, blocked by a felled tree. Walked across a road, and then a gradient up to a third peak. This was a gentler walk up.

I saw nobody on this walk so far other than the two women and their dogs. Nobody else.

There was now a ground level walk back, during this I saw another 4 people on paths nearby, a cyclist coming from the opposite direction, and a rucksack carrying woman heading in my direction

It was about 12-14 km for the walk. Somehow, I lost part of the track on the phone, so I can’t be entirely sure.

Shower today, my feet well beat up and dirty.

Supper was puy lentils, sausages, onions, red pepper. Another one pot excellent meal on the induction hob.

A Belgian VW T25 parked next to us. From the 80s which has been in the family for 25 years.

The French girls were very much quieter tonight, or we dropped off from tiredness.

All washing up completed as we are moving on tomorrow.

French Camping 2023, Day 12 La Garandie

Posted on September 10, 2023 by SteveOctober 22, 2023

10th September 2023

Quite cool in the morning, the higher altitude does make a difference makes a difference. Breakfast of Pain Au Raison and cereal. I am in trouble, apparently, I should have eaten the Pain Au Chocolate.

This region has a large number of small extinct volcanoes. Several within easy walking distance of the camp site. The first on the list was Puy de la Combegrasse This vocanoe has two peaks and is not covered by trees. There is a well-defined pathway up. There is also an observatory on the way up, so the skies must be dark, despite the campsite.

A small number of groups of people made their way to the summit, where there was a good view of the Puy De Dome. Paragliders were flying around above the Puy De Dome, where I have flown once before. Later we saw one paraglider near to us, whether it had flown from Puy De Dome or elsewhere, we don’t know.

Cheese and bread for lunch and planning our Tuesday getaway when the weather turns worse.

After supper, breast of duck, pan fried divided between the two of us, the par boiled potatoes are then fried in the duck fat, while the duck rests, then after the potatoes are cooked and removed, the juice of a tangerine is added to the pan and reduced for a sauce. Unfortunately, a separate saucepan was required to boil the green beans. All done on one induction hob, one saucepan and a frying pan.

If I was converting a van today, I would definitely install a lithium phosphate battery, solar, and an invertor to generate 240 volt AC and an induction hob for cooking, totally dispensing with gas.

After supper I walked back up the hill to the observatory to try and take some pictures of our galaxy. A sight not often seen in the UK. I was yet again amazed at how good my Android mobile phone is at sky shots.

Yet to download process, and backup the pictures from my camera. Actually, I could probably have done that, the internet at this site works well on the mobile phone, though the laptops seem to fail. No issue; can hotspot from the mobile phone. I do believe the French have got their act together and have rolled out FTTP (fibre to the premises) in quite remote regions.

Back from my nighttime walk well past 11. Thankfully most of the lights at the campsite are off, except the blinding light that is switched on by the motion detectors at the entrance.

Some young French girls kept us awake until midnight with chatter and laughter. Oh, to be young again.

French Camping 2023, Day 11 La Garandie

Posted on September 9, 2023 by SteveOctober 22, 2023

9th September 2023

We upped sticks today, packing away. Our Scottish friends were on their way also. Amazing how wet the underside of the groundsheet was, this despite the heat and lack of rain. It had rained a few days before we arrived.

We decided to use the toll road but headed first to the Intermarché HYPER at Montpon Menesterol to buy diesel and groceries. It looked like a big supermarket, but actually was quite small with a rather poor selection of beers and food. But we managed to load up with several days of food and drink, and made our way to the motorway, heading for the volcanoes.

The trip was fast, although we did stop for a picnic lunch. The service station was so full, we parked on the grass. Nice to see so many electric vehicle chargers. Some though were being used for parking by ICE cars and not for charging . I suspect the occupants were lazy and wanted the shelter of the canopies. I refer to this situation as the chargers were ICED.

There were a number of wildlife bridges crossing the Motorway, they were significantly wider than a road bridge, and arched. The trees and bushes growing on the bridges looked very well developed. Some of the bridges were wooden clad with reliefs of animals.

We arrived at the camp site Camping Volcanoes in the small village of La Garandie, near Aydat and Lac d’Aydat We were expecting great things, this site was a ‘Nature Site’ with composting food waste. It was rather short of electricity points, and some were miles away. We were setting up and suddenly realized we could not connect to the power, we were too far away, so we moved to another spare pitch. We watched the same situation unfurl with other campers. The next arrival to us found his cable could not reach, he was replaced by another van with a longer cable. Another van arrived and found that there were only 3 sockets.

Now we see why this site is not an ACSI site, it was expensive, had no loo paper (getting more common again in France) and no guarantee for an electric hookup. This was a pretty poor show. We are booked here for three nights. I don’t want to drive out for the day in the van, someone would probably nick our electric connection.

The campsite had quite a few hikers and cyclists staying in small huts or tents. We saw an elderly couple leave the next morning with their rucksacks. The campsite has one of the GR walking routes running right by it.

On the way to the campsite, we went on to Aydat. The small town was heaving with people. Being a warm, sunny Saturday had brought out thousands of French, presumably from Clermont-Ferrand.

Like so many campsites, there is too much artificial light, and you have to move outside the site for some darkness. Then you are blinded by the gateway motion sensitive arc light as you leave and enter. Still, I believe I saw the milky way.

France - La Garandie

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French Camping 2023, Day 10 Rauzan

Posted on September 8, 2023 by SteveOctober 17, 2023

8th September 2023

Steve took an early morning walk to a nearby lake, Base de Loisirs de Blasimon, 6km away. The walk was mainly on small roads through vineyards, and pleasantly wooded areas. At least two of the vineyards had family burial tombs located near the roads.

As I left Rauzan, I walked past a breakers yard. All very high security fences and CCTV. One of the gates opened and you could see 100s of cars awaiting their fate.

The last stretch of the outgoing walk was on a track leading down to the lake. I arrived at the lake, it had three arms, each dedicated to different activities. one was nature, the second for fishermen, the third for recreation, swimming etc, with a white sand beach.

The first leg, the nature area, had a few moorhens in the very weedy waters. The trees surrounding this section of lake were turning into some beautiful autumnal colours.

I walked back to the van for lunch and a swim in the afternoon heat. It reached 32C in the shade. The phone is suffering in this heat.

Tonight, the world-cup enthusiasts were watching the first rugby match.

The background Video shows the activity in the campsite composting bins.

French Camping 2023, Day 9 Saint Emilion

Posted on September 7, 2023 by SteveOctober 17, 2023

7th September 2023

Quite a few motor homes packed up today, having stayed just the one night. We quickly got our camper ready for the drive to Saint Emilion. This entailed unhooking from the awning, while keeping most of our cooking utensils etc inside the awning. A few items in the campervan needed stowing away, the passenger seat rotated, gas, water and electricity disconnected, and the roof lowered.

We intended to arrive early in the cool of the morning and before the crowds descended. We were successful in this. The drive took us on the route we came in, across the river using the very same bridge. The same roadworks were ongoing. The French were resurfacing a very good quality road. Well, that is by English standards. We drove through St Emilion, aiming for a car park, which turned out to be for coaches only. We ended up parking on the side of the road which we had come in on. At least we were facing the correct way to be able to make a quick exit.

The walk to the centre was not far, and the village was still pretty quiet. I took the mandatory pictures looking across the tiled roofs of the buildings below.

So many shops were selling expensive wines, complete with multitudes of weird implements to uncork the bottles. There were also differing ways to preserve the undrunk contents of a bottle. (That last item in my view is totally useless, when do you have an unfinished bottle of wine?) Some bottles were mind-bogglingly expensive.

We left without lunch and stopped at a Lidl for provisions and lunch goodies including beer. It was yet another warm day.

French Camping 2023, Day 8 Rauzan

Posted on September 6, 2023 by SteveOctober 17, 2023

6th September 2023

Today we had a walk around the town of Rauzan itself. Rather a quiet place. A little ambling around the place, stopping to look at the estate agents and the boulangeries. There may at one time have been three boulangeries, but today the two. The third was now a barber. We visited one as well as a small Lidl/Aldi where a bottle was purchased.

We visited the castle ruin. Three girls on duty and just us two touring the castle. By the time we had left there were plenty more tourists including a group of very loud Italians. Climbed to the top of the tower., 109 steps, plus at least another 20 from ground level. Good views, including the local cemetery. I was to view the cemetery from close up on my afternoon walk.

Back to the van for lunch. I then went on a 5 mile walk through the vineyards. Very few roses are now grown at the end of the vineyard rows. I did find 5 examples. The grapes looked very ripe; it must be getting towards grape picking season.

All went well with the walk until the route took me down a path through a wood. The path did not appear to exist, this was definitely jungle country with thick bamboo to fight through. Made it out near the exit point with a leap over the ditch.

Back at the campsite I took a swim to cool down and remove the grime from the walk. The van floor had proved so hot, that R had dug out the indoor slip-ons normally used when the floor is cold!

Supper tonight was rice, prawns and vegetables.

We had a chat with the Scottish couple behind us, they had already visited St Emillion where we were hoping to go tomorrow.

There were also a few Irish people in the campsite, they were here for the rugby world cup.

French Camping 2023, Day 7 Rauzan

Posted on September 5, 2023 by SteveOctober 21, 2023

5th September 2023

Showers, breakfast and off to see the Château de Château-l’Évêque on the way to our next stop outside of Bordeaux. We followed Jen and Bev, but there were some odd navigation decisions, and so we went our own way. We eventually arrived at the Château de Château-l’Évêque, sometime before Jen and Bev. We parked and went on a search for the Château. It was closed, closed for the week. A small handwritten note on the gate was all that told us it was closed. Why had they not updated their Google maps business listing with the closure dates, or their website? Both of these had been checked by us. We had a coffee in the village and bought some sandwiches. Rosemary handed over our spare CD-player mobile-phone mount, hoping this would help to raise the phone up higher in their car to use Google Maps. We all said our goodbyes.

We continued our journey to Rauzan, stopping for our sandwich lunch at Montpon-Ménestérol, R discovered it wasn’t easy to dispose of the wrappings from the sandwiches. One large bin required a special card to be used. We’d heard about these; they entitle residents to use their local tip 20 odd times a year. Stopped at a supermarket at Castillon-la-Bataille. Arrived in Chateaux de Rauzan in the searing heat. Booked into a pitch for 4 nights. I went for a swim to cool off. Steak for supper with potatoes, and fennel. Cooling a little after dusk.

Our reason for visiting here was the site is located in posh wine country. We would visit Saint Emillion and hopefully Bordeaux. The campsite sounded nice with the mention of nearby Caves, walks in the countryside and the chateaux,

French Camping 2023, Day 6 Puymoroux

Posted on September 4, 2023 by SteveOctober 21, 2023

4th September 2023

After breakfast we headed out to ‘Le Vieux Moulin’, in Chabanais for lunch. It’s a smart French restaurant where we had the plat de jour. I went for the meat option, Rosemary, Bev and Jen went for vegetarian. Despite it being a Monday, there were a few other diners. We had an excellent meal, and some nice beers to go with it.

On the way back to Jen and Bev we stopped at another reservoir, called Lac de Saint_Mathieu. We had seen this before when it was empty. It had had a leak, been emptied and now fixed and was full. We order a coffee from the café ‘La Grande du Lac’, a British run café. This part of France is quite full of British, and British owned businesses. There is a campsite here, so could be a place to stay in the future.

French Camping 2023, Day 5 Puymoroux

Posted on September 3, 2023 by SteveOctober 21, 2023

3rd September 2023

Morning was bright & promising. Showered & breakfasted by 8.00. Rosemary went to a car boot sale with Linda and purchased another two flat irons. She uses them as book ends. We set off to Jen and Bev before midday, stopping off to purchase some wine before the supermarkets closed at 12.30, and arrived at Puymoroux in the afternoon. The van was parked in the drive and connected to the electricity. (Not strictly required, the battery should keep the fridge running for at least 4 days, but good to have.) We sat in the garden under the shade of a tree and chatted, while playing with the dogs. Supper was an excellent BBQ cooked by the man of the house, with numerous vegetable sides prepared by Jen.

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