17th April
Van packed and ready to go.
Arrive in France in glorious
sunshine, surrounded by lush green fields. Spring has definitely arrived,
unlike in Brighton. Drive through very pretty villages for a couple of hours or
so and are very lucky to find a campsite (on a detour) in the small town of
Anet. Funny campsite with lots of caravans that look like they’ve been there
for years; with garden gnomes and everything! We have a pretty spot next to the
river and find a patch of Jack-by-the-hedge growing right next to our van. Eat
this with pasta for dinner.
18th April
Coffee in the sunshine before
setting off for a longer drive (about 6.5 hours). Stop for brunch in a small
town along the way and stock up on food and drink at a huge supermarket. Pete
is having to get used to the French way of driving, this involves tailgating
just inches from the bumper and overtaking at the most life threatening moment;
even the lorries. Again we stumble across a campsite with no problem in a
village called Blet. This campsite is just a patch of grass next to a lake with
basic loos and lots of pretty willow trees. Lovely view of the town which has a
beautiful chateaux and is very stereo-typically ‘French’ . Play Frisbee and eat
dinner in the sunshine again!
19th April
We attempt to buy ‘un baguette’
in Blet in the morning but end up getting told off for trying to park in
private property and haven’t got used to parking the van in the tiny French
village streets yet! Another long drive today with a stop off in a Fromagerie
to get some cheese for lunch. There is a hole in the floor where you can see
all the cheese on the maturing racks. Begin to climb to Ardeche mountains- wow!
Starting to get rainy, feels like Autumn suddenly, but the views of the gorges are
amazing and the villages are beautiful. The roads are winding with hairpin bends
and steep drops on the edge. Begin to look for a campsite but find a lot of
them are quite expensive. Keep driving through the mountains and it starts to
snow. We can’t believe it! We come to a cross roads and realise we’ve taken a
wrong turn somewhere (probably from gawping at the views). Decide to pull up at
the next campsite, despite the price. It seems completely deserted and there is
no one there to show us in, but we don’t want to keep driving so we just set up
anyway. A man eventually comes around to collect our euros and tells us we can
use the toilet in and shower in the chalet next to us. Because of the rain we
have more cheese and bread for dinner.
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