Had a cracking shower this morning.
It had taps! Hot and cold taps(not a push button in sight) so you could regulate the temperature yourself and have no time limits! Lets just say that I had a lovely, long and very hot shower and enjoyed every single minute of it.
It seems that this campsite is part of a farm which has diversified, as I spotted who I presumed was the wife, in the orchard walking around with a contraption (basically a little wire basket attached to a long handle) collecting fallen walnuts off the ground. It was very simple, but very effective method. It was a very nice campsite.
We didn’t really have a plan today apart from head south and see what we tripped over, stopping if we saw anything of interest. But before we left Cahors, we had two jobs – to see if we could replace our step’s switch and to pick up some food (including a well deserved box of Bonio’s for the Pup). So we drove to the large retail park on the edge of Cahors, that we passed yesterday and found the campervan place. Unfortunately, they needed to order parts so that plan fell apart, so we nipped across to the Intermarche where I did a quick raid and returned, flushed with success with two boxes of dog treats amongst other culinary items. We were ready for the next part of our adventure.
We left Cahors behind and found ourselves back out into wooded country – it looked like someone had thrown an arboreal blanket over the countryside. It went on for miles and was fabulous. We kept on the smaller roads as usual passing through scattered towns and villages. Finally the trees began to peel back, revealing tilled fields of brown earth in a gently hilly landscape. We kept spotting quite a few birds of prey, some sitting aloft the electricity poles that endlessly run along the side of the road, looking for the next meal. We chatted that we had hardly seen any any roadkill or actually any animals for that matter, though a deer ran across the road in front of us yesterday. We came to the conclusion that in a country so large, with the population so spread out and the roads so quiet, you would have to be a very stupid and unfortunate creature to meet your end under the tyres of a Renault or Citroen, especially when you’re surrounded by all this square and very green acreage.
The land was starting to flatten out as we passed by Agen and became more agricultural with bigger fields. It seemed that we were traversing the bottom of a very flat plain or extremely wide valley. The earth looked very dry and it looked like it hadn’t rained very much here at all. We skirted a town dominated by two tall cooling towers which we had seen miles away – it reminded us of The Simpsons.
We passed a few speed cameras on this route (some of the roads were long and straight and just begged a bit of speed). French speed cameras come in all shapes and sizes and are hard to spot – they don’t paint them bright yellow with a warning symbol that they are lurking in the vicinity – well, the French do, but their idea of vicinity is anywhere between here and the next town, some 14 kms away.
Our plan of doing short hops in this part of France was starting to fall apart as this area wasn’t really floating our boat – it was pleasant enough, but after yesterday’s magnificence, it just didn’t hit the spot, so we just kept on going. But first we needed a cuppa and a bite. On this trip, we discovered that France isn’t big on roadside lay-bys on country roads like we have in the UK and this road was severely lacking. We drove for miles, even searching for car parks in any communities we drove through. Finally we lurched onto a dusty, gravelly area which constituted as a lay-by, but not an official one – other road users had done the same thing as it had a bit of litter scattered around. Any way it did the job and feeling better, we carried on – we started driving down avenues of elegant plane trees, offering welcome shade from the sun – it was saying 24 degrees on the dashboard.
We were aiming for Tabres now, under the mistaken belief that it sat on the Canal du Midi where we had holidayed years ago and would do a quick revisit. We then realised that the canal was way north of us and we were thinking of Trebes. Muppets. The satnav kept skimming the outer suburbs of big towns, thinking we would appreciate the change of scenery and a bit of excitement negotiating city roads and local motorists. We were starting to feel tired, but as we passed Villecomtal and dropped down a hill, the Pyrenees appeared on the horizon and we got a second wind.
So we carried on, getting excited as the Pyrenees got nearer and nearer, poking their summits through stubs of white cloud. In the brilliant sunshine, they glowed a deep hazy purple. We clipped Tabres and Lourdes, with their gawdy business and retails parks, ugly advertising hoardings and wondered why us humans have to desecrate such beautiful surroundings. It was especially jarring at Lourdes as the Pyrenees suddenly reared up with the town abutting the first big hills.
The next part of our trip became a bit of a blur as we hadn’t booked a campsite. The one we had been aiming for was firmly shut so we started to research other campsites and headed off to find them also fermee. One place claimed it was open, but on our arrival we were told “Non” despite us seeing campers already in residence – we couldn’t argue in French, so left with a hint of desperation creeping in. There were a couple of aires in the next town, so we checked them out – one was just a large tarmacked car park, but the second had a barrier, facilites and a solitary British camper sitting in the corner. Our first foray into aire camping! We negotiated the barrier and parked in a bay, put the kettle on and took a very deep breath. That was a touch stressful.
It was alright actually – it had a toilet (clean and with loo paper), washing up area and a Van ablution spot. We overlooked rooftops of the town and huge peaks. We met our neighbours coming back from town and exchanged pleasantries. With the night closing in, the mountains were a stunning backdrop. We were nestling at the foot of several peaks that loomed over us, lights of houses twinkling – there were a few lights dotted in the lower hills and we wondered how you got up there. Tired by the day, we headed to bed early and fell straight to sleep.
