Monday 30 May.
It was a day of travelling. We weren't in a rush to get anywhere, the plan was to get over to the UK a week on Thursday that was when Moira had booked us onto the campsite in Cardiff. Margaret works from home on a Friday but she thought it would be a rush to get over the Channel and drive to Cardiff by this weekend. Our first destination was going to be Mont San Michel for a few days. This is where I want to walk to from St Michael's Mount in Cornwall and there might be some information about whether it has been done before. We will spend a couple of days there before booking a ferry to cross from Calais to Dover. The distance is over 600 km to Mont San Michel so it would take at least 2 days. Moira selected an aire about half way where we planned to stay the first night. It was in the village of Mirebeau, north of Poitiers.
We got up at about 6:30 am and showered, the water was nice and hot and the toilet block spotlessly clean. There was some muesli left in a container in the 'van and we had that for breakfast with a cup of tea. There was Yorkshire tea bags in the cupboard and it was the best cup of tea we have tasted since leaving SA. It didn't take long to get everything packed away and the fresh water tank filled. We were on the road just before 9:00 am.
The Tom Tom GPS took us back much of the way we had come on the train, towards Bordeaux. It was all on very minor roads, they were quiet enough but twisting and turning with some tight bends. I had to take it easy especially as the weather was still showery, some very heavy and the roads wet. After about an hour we came to a large shopping mall where we stocked up with food etc for a week. On the way out I filled up with diesel at the filling station. There is a lot of industrial unrest in France at the moment with lots of strikes. One of the major problems is a shortage of fuel, so I intend to keep the tank as full as possible.
Our route didn't take us too near to Bordeaux but kept to the slow minor roads until we picked up the N10 dual-carriageway north of the city. This was much better now and it was fast going all the way to the next big city, Poitiers. Soon there was a convenient service area off the highway where we stopped for lunch. Now we had a good supply of food there was nice crusty French bread, one bit with Camembert cheese and the other spread with pate. Its good to be in France again.
As we came off the N10 to get onto the by-pass around
Poitiers I spotted a MacDonald's and immediately pulled in. We bought an iced cream and made use of their WiFi. We both downloaded the 'Telegraph' and I posted my blog. On the road again and once round Poitiers it was the D347 to Mirebeau and our aire for the night. The road was a single carriageway again but mostly straight and I made reasonable time.
The aire seemed familiar and we thought we must have stayed there sometime before. One thing that was a surprise was that there was an electric hook up. It turned out a bit expensive when the man came round for the money, €12, but at least we had power to cook and watch something on the Freeview box. Another small campervan arrived later, so we weren't on our own in the aire.
The weather had been intermittent showers all day, some quite heavy and it continued into the night. Moira made a lovely chicken curry for dinner, another first since SA and strawberries with yoghurt for dessert. When the washing up was done we read the newspaper until about 8:30 pm when I made up the bed and connected the Freeview box. We watched an old 'Rumpole of the Bailey' which was good and another 'Only Connect' quiz, before getting to sleep.
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