We’re back to blue skies and sunny mornings. Yesterday was just a blip.
We watched all the different birds wading on the sandbanks of the Loire -cormorants, egrets, gulls enjoying the morning sunshine before we set off south.
We were doing a big jump today, but still stuck to the smaller country roads rather than big dual carriageways or motorways. The countryside was mixed with woodlands, opening up to small fields and then big, wide industrial sized arable fields with big skies and big clouds. We were now looking out for boar as well as deer when we passed along wooded roads. The latter part of the journey became a bit monotonous – becoming flatter and with long straight roads that went on for miles. We were glad when we stopped.
We were heading to Gencay first, as apparently there was a market there – it was only about 40 minutes away which would be perfect. Gencay turned out to be a tiny hamlet, possibly even a village of scattered dwellings, in the middle of nowhere and not a soul about. It was evident that there was no market here. We concluded that we had been led up the garden path and slightly disappointed, continued on our way.
We stopped at Chatellerrault, hoping to visit a chateau, but hadn’t really looked into it properly – getting too laidback. So we just we ended up sat in the Van, googling nearby chateaus, finding them either closed, privately owned, no dogs allowed or we had driven past them. Fail. So we went to a Biocoop store instead to stock up on food and then headed south again.
https://www.tourisme-vienne.com/en/webzines/chatellerault
The roads round here were not the best. They were either breaking up along the edges or had been badly patched that the Van rattled like mad (not sure what’s worse -our potholes or these bumpy highways) and we jiggered in our seats – there were many signs marked “chaussee deforme” and they weren’t kidding. We also noticed that the villages added mini roundabouts and didn’t seem to let people be aware of it – well, at least not Apple Maps. We were informed by Apple “to go straight for the next kilometre” but three roundabouts had been surreptitiously added so you had to be one your toes a bit! Perhaps Apple was aware, but with so many roundabouts in France, had gone all French and downed tools.
We came across a little town called Chauvigny and would of just driven through it until Hubby spotted a roadside sign declaring that this French town was twinned with the very English town he was born in! So when we hit the town centre, we parked in one of the copious car parks that made up the square (which were all full of vehicles, but where was everyone?) and had a little wander in the sunshine. The temperature had dropped from the giddy heights of 28 degrees to a sobering 17 today, but out of the wind it was quite pleasant. We looked in the shop windows before heading to a nearby patisserie to get sandwiches (6 euros each!!!! Ouch, though the Pup got some form of pastry – God knows what it was – from the shop assistants which she inhaled with gusto). We strolled back to the Van with our booty and made a cuppa.
https://www.tourisme-vienne.com/en/webzines/chauvigny-incontournable
We carried on with our trip, passing through little towns and villages decorated with pink umbrellas and bunting -the whole area was behind Breast Cancer Awareness as it was October. It was fabulous to see whole communities sending out the message. We passed through Gencay, a large town and the true home of our missing morning market (it was too far from Montsoreau to get there in time). Finally we were coming up to Ruffec, our home for the night, the campsite a little way outside of the town. The satnav took us on the scenic, yet tortuous route to get there and we rocked up outside a campsite that reminded us of a Carry On film. We did hesitate outside briefly, but this was our spot. We parked up under trees in a site with more static homes than tourers – it looked like it was more residential than holiday. But it ticked a box and the sanitaire was probably the best so far – loo paper, a toilet seat and lid rather than bare porcelain, taps rather than push buttons and clean, though as usual was a bit tatty around the edges.
We had a little bit of downtime, the Pup did a few rounds of zoomies and she and I went for a waddle to check out the rest of the site. A little while later, we waddled down to the River Charente.
We walked down the hill and came across a very pretty area. On one side was a restaurant (closed today) overlooking mill ponds – we discovered an old watermill at one end of the restaurant and it all started to make sense. There were a series of bridges that allowed us to cross the mill ponds and the River Charente to a big field – a big sign declared the area as a sporting hub with bike routes, fishing, walking and other sporting activities. We strolled under the trees to the riverbank and watched fishermen casting in the river. Spotting a wooden building opposite, we retraced our steps and found the canoe/kayaking base (closed for the night) but again with a board showing where you could kayak to, the distance and the time. We wandered around a little more – it was very pretty surrounded by trees and the little waterways, all very peaceful. With our stomachs starting to rumble for tea, we headed back up the hill to the Van and settled down for the night. It was quite cool, autumn definitely now settling in.
Tomorrow we are heading to Bergerac.
