For anyone who remembers our 2022 autumn trip, it started with a parking ticket on our own driveway whilst we were loading Evie! So this time we took the precaution of a friendly note in the windscreen and parked well back from the double-yellow lined entrance just in case.
Whether it was these cunning tactics, or just that the warden hadn’t made it round we’ll never know, as by the time we headed off for Newhaven the windscreen remained clear of any parting gifts!
Arriving at the port with the sun making an appearance through the clouds, we embarked for the first time ever in Evie without being pulled over for a cursory ‘security’ check inside and in the boot – woohoo! Clearly an auspicious start to the adventure across La Manche.
Or so we thought…
For the first time ever in any of our campers, we were stopped and searched by the Douanes/Customs at Dieppe on our way in! Apart from the brief delay, it was no big deal (no checking of fridge for all those contraband dairy products!), and we were soon on our way to our first stop, again, as with the summer trip earlier this year, at the free Aire in Auffay, which although only providing four official emplacements, had a space for us in the summer (and there is a big car park adjacent if needed, so the risk is minimal!).
By morning the rain which had been battering the English coast for much of the time leading up to our departure, had found us in France, putting paid to our plans to take a walk into Auffay for a coffee and croissant – as well as our customary picture of the pitch! (As it happened, exactly the same one as last time, so if you feel cheated, there’s one from May!).
As we were able to make (for us) a relatively early start, and we managed to navigate around Rouen without incident (hurrah) we managed to get a little further south than usual on our first day’s driving, which meant we were able to try out another (free) Aire at Vierzon. And by now the sun was shining!
Situated on the banks of the Cher, this Aire was new to us, and as we pulled into a fairly narrow strip of recently dried out muddy track and an uninspiring parking area overlooked by a block of flats, it didn’t look like one we’d head back to!
However, as we didn’t want to travel any further that evening, we found a spot away from the flats and adjacent to the river, behind a couple of French campervans and decided to give it a go.
We were next to a small park, the other side of which was a hydro electric station that the French are particularly good at building on their network of rivers, and, as it transpired, the gentle sound of rushing water lulled us both into a good night’s sleep.
In
After a quick stop at a nearby Intermarché, where we stocked up on the usual fabulous French clichés (celeri remoulade, cheeses, pate, wine…) for our onward journey, as well as filling up Evie at the bargain rate of €1.90 a litre for diesel (we had seen it at €1.99!) we headed south at the start of the free A20 Autoroute, with no clear idea of where we would reach by the end of the day, simply trusting that at ‘fifty is thrifty’ mph we would get a fair way along it.
As it happened, we made it just south of Montauban the other side of the end of the A20, aiming for a small town called Nègrepelisse, where Mrs B had spotted a free Aire. Checking it out on the Park4Night App, she also spotted that there was a municipal camp site that seemed to only charge €10 a night – so we thought we’d give it a look first!
As we pulled in to the site (about 6.00pm) we were surprised to find ourselves in a queue, with one quickly building up behind us! After the very calm person on reception had shown the people ahead of us to their ‘chalet’ (one of those hobbit-like barrel things) we were checked in and, as we didn’t need electricity, charged only €8.40 for the night!
And what a lovely little site it was! Good facilities and a short walk to the town – which having driven through it to get to the site and admired its mediaeval feel, we decided we’d check it out in the morning. Which we did by driving off the site and parking up in the Aire we might have stayed in – and that looked fine too!
In
After a relaxed walk around the town and learning about its history (including the massacre of Huguenots in 1622 - poignant for Mrs B who has Huguenot ancestors - where the entire population was murdered by the Royalist army and the town burned to the ground) we headed back to Evie for the onward trip south.
After refuelling at a decent by now €1.90 a litre, (fuel seemed to creeping upwards in price daily) we set off to navigate our way around Toulouse – another of Mr B’s navigation challenges the previous autumn…But not before Mrs B had used her well honed witchy powers to ask Mr B whether he had put the filler cap back after refuelling… which he hadn’t – eek! Luckily it was still in the passenger footwell…
Cruising around Toulouse like we knew what we were doing, we continued to make good time in the hot southern sun, not sure where we would be stopping other than we would review it as we approached Foix – a regular stopover where Mrs B has a thing for the lush Mr Big look-alike owner…
Luckily for Mr B, we were making such good time that we decided to head on into the foothills of the Pyrenees, which by now were looming majestically across the horizon, to a small Aire in the village of Les Cabannes where we had first stopped in Daisy the Dodge many, many years ago… Except, as we approached from the north, with the sun still blazing down and the village bathed in sunshine, we decided to risk a climb up the road towards the border at Bourg-Madame to try out another free, and new to us, Aire in L’Hospitalet, with only 7 spaces…
And after a beautiful if slow climb towards the village on the road to the border, we both heaved a sigh of relief to see that we had a choice of three spaces – one of which was right next to the ‘waterfall’ we had read about in the Park4Night App. Which was, less prosaically, a pipe that allowed water from the mountain to cascade into a stream that led into the village! The noise was lovely though (bit of a marmite one we realise) and after a quick wander around (very quick – there are only 89 inhabitants) we bedded in for the night – and slept like babies!
I
Waking to the sound of what we assumed were mountain rescue helicopters, we were treated to an insight into the logistical challenges of living in the mountains, as a small chopper ferried building materials up and over the ridge-line to an obviously very remote location!
With the sun clearly not intending to grace the village with its presence until much later in the day, we grabbed a coffee and croissant at the nearby ‘bar/alimentation’ as a small ‘thank you’ for our free overnighter, and then we drove off to tackle the long slow climb to the Col de Puymoren, which, at 1915m is always a test for Evie’s cooling system…
S&J 01.10.23
PS – apologies for the long delay in posting, we like
to try and find reliable and free wifi to upload, but we gave up, lest we were
on our return leg before posting! And it turned out to be more of a challenge than we anticipated!
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