...we settled down in Camping Campéole Les Amis de le Plage on the Ile de Ré. We never planned to come here, but here we are. I am pleased to take a break from driving. We have travelled over 900 miles in the past six days. In a car that would not seem so far, but driving the Moho takes a higher level of concentration, especially as the trip involved crossing the inner suburbs of south London, then hundreds of miles on French 'D' roads where the speed limits constantly change, there are roundabouts every 5 or 6 Kms and every village tries to outdo the next in the Baroque elaboration of its traffic calming arrangements. To top it all yesterday's thundery downpours were some of the most extreme conditions that I have driven the van through. Oh, I do feel grumpy!
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| At first it was simply a bit tricky to see out of the windscreen... |
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| then it got worse. |
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| Chateau Gontier, nice free aire, lovely riverside town on the Mayenne (France has gorgeous rivers, don't you think?) |
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| Nice Hotel de Ville... |
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| Across the Loire by one of its smaller, less well known crossings (Ancenis). |
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| "My, those cherry pickers are red." (uuual standard of in-cab savvy banter...) |
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| Arrived - coffee, Belgian chocs (thank you Jackie) and Gill looking really quite gorgeous. |
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| Campsite path to the beach. |
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| Love the sea... |
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| and camping beside it beneath the pines. |
However, though the forecast is not especially warm, tomorrow is expected to be very sunny. Where we are staying has miles of bike tracks to explore and a coastline of long beaches backed by beautiful maritime pines. I expect a good night's sleep and sunny tomorrow will restore my spirits. The plan, to pedal to St-Martin-de-Ré, find a café overlooking the harbour and have a couple of noisettes. Small pleasures are where it's at.
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