France

We nodded off and drank coffee in equal measure on the ferry, there wasn't much else to do and, even if there was, we wouldn't have had the energy. It was a lovely day for it, and so we spent most of the time in the sunshine on deck.

Could have been worse, at least I'm not drooling

When we landed at Dieppe, we found our second wind and settled in for the long drive ahead. We drove for a while expecting that the Aires would make themselves known as we went along. That didn't happen and we ended up at a motorway services for a toilet break, well, we still didn't know how our toilet 'worked'. After a while we realised that, for this day at least, it wasn't going to happen. We decided to bed down for the night and start afresh the next day. 

We spent the night, unmolested, at the service station, although I don't recommend that you do the same, just in case.

Day one under our belt, such as it was, and out first dodgy 'wild camp' to boot. Not bad for beginners. The next morning, somewhat refreshed, we consulted the ACSI app and made tracks for our first bona fide site.



We were not prepared for how far away from, anything and everything, these places could be. All the same, we had no real expectations so it wasn't until we looked back some weeks later, that we realised how poor that first site was. I won't name it because these things are subjective and, after all, there were a few other people on the site who seemed happy enough.

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We spent only one night there before setting off to a site on the banks of the Dordogne. Camping du pont de Vico.
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It was a sight to behold. Some of the pitches faced out across the river and, I'm sure had it been July or August, they would all have been taken.  I might get used to this if all the sites are this lovely!

Reception & Bar. Clever planning!

As it was, we didn't see this until the following morning because after checking in, we got chatting with the guy running the bar, which resulted in a couple of pastis, some lively banter and, before we knew it, it was dark!

We drove on to the nearest pitch and settled in feeling very relaxed and ready for our first proper sleep since we left the UK.

This will do for tonight

The next morning we had a go at emptying the grey waste and, finally figured out how to get the toilet cassette out of it's slot, for emptying. It's on wheels and has an extending handle to pull it along with, who knew?!

Next, we had a walk down to the river and immediately decided to move the van, quite right too. Who doesn't want a view of the river in the morning?

It's easy to move when you only have 2 chairs!

The site was really quiet, there was only one other couple on there. I guess that mid to late September really is the low season. In fact, it turned out to be a bit of a race against time for us as our ACSI book showed that a lot of the sites would close their doors at the end of September, until the following Spring.

The River Dordogne. Peaceful & calm yet deserted.

We decided to spend a few nights and try to work out how everything worked on the van at our leisure, besides, Sues' birthday was a couple of days away, and I hadn't even got a card!....Read more