Aires, Aviaries & Automobiles

So here is blog post 15, and we are now well into our 12th week away. This week's post, again on a Saturday finds us on a campsite near to the Le Mans race circuit where we will head to tomorrow. Still, we have a whole week's worth of material to go through first!

Last Saturday saw us in the Alps, and at camping Belledonne in Rochetaillee. After Jase came back safely from his ride, we enjoyed the afternoon sunshine while looking at our various options for the route north for both the Dauphine bike race and the Le Mans 24hr. We had a fair few miles to cover (263 according to Google) but a good week to do it and plenty of pit stops. That evening we had a massive thunderstorm so headed inside for cover!

Sunday morning we had planned to get up early, hoping the storm had blown through and have our final ride. Unfortunately, at the alarm call it was still very overcast so as we'd planned a bit of an ascent, we had a more leisurely morning until the clouds cleared at bit. Once the weather was playing ball, we headed from camp and towards Villard Reculas which is a hilltop village some 1,463m high. Our base was down around the 700m mark so it was a brisk 14km climb! Took me about 1hr45m in all, but with a few stops, some gummy bears and a lot of helpful encouragement, I made it! 751m of climbing in total with some sections around the 10% mark as well! The views at the top were fabulous, although I couldn't help wish it had been as clear as the previous day. Hey ho, that's the mountains for you!

Once back at camp we had a shower in the newly installed block which had been competed just in time for the Dutch invasion I mentioned last week. Now, as keen readers will know, I am becoming something of a shower connoisseur, and would give this one a strong 3/5. Nicely designed with places for your bag, towel & bottles, and interestingly set with a timer & countdown - this is good as you don't have to keep button pressing and know how long you've got (yes, it turns out a minute is long enough to shave your legs!) but there is a downside - as the shower effectively locks from re-use once your 6minutes is up, and won't re-start for a further 5minutes, you can't really wash down after yourself, plus it inevitably leads to queues! I did feel for the owners having their brand new shower block looking quite such a state literally within hours of finishing it!

Monday morning and an early start, it was still fairly cloudy but warm. With miles to do, we were planning to try and offset the costly fuel in this week's budget by getting some free overnight stops along the way. The first day's journey took us down from the mountains and to Villars-les-Dombes where we had spotted a free Aire in the car park of a bird park. We arrived around lunchtime, having made really good time. So, after a spot of lunch and it being our wedding anniversary this week we decided to dip into the treat fund and have an afternoon with the birds. It was a brilliant afternoon - so many different species of birds, with many up close and personal. The park has been cleverly organised into geographic areas, and then birds associated with that area. It's design was so clever you almost felt as if you'd been to the actual place, with such attention to detail. Our favourite birds were the Hummingbird, Penguins and Owls. It is always a bit of a shame to see birds with clipped wings or in aviaries, but on the flipside, much of the work being done is to preserve the species one way or another. Plus, with so many native birds - Cranes, Egrets and Herons also nesting around the site, it must be a good environment.

Despite a bit of rain for the evening, we had a quiet night with some 20 odd other vans in the Aire. I doubt many of them visited the park as well, but for us it was a great day indeed and worth a visit.

Tuesday morning we headed across to see stage 3 of the Criterium du Dauphine and at the top of the 3rd category Col du Fut d'Avenas. We arrived in plenty of time and grabbed a spot in a layby surrounded by other cycling enthusiasts. After lunch, our French neighbours (we think having spotted us setting up our TV!) wandered over and started chatting. They spoke no English at all, so it was a bit of a challenge but we got by! What was even nicer was being given a lovely glassful of the local Beaujolais wine, followed by a whole bottle to take away! Apparently this is the youngest wine they make in France - tasted all good to me! Once the wine was drunk, they all moved onto coffee and another neighbour came along handing out homemade cherry clafoutis! Lovely (once you'd realised the stones had been left in.....!)

All too soon the race came and went - got a few good shots but despite being at the end of fairly stiff climb, they still went past at ridiculous speeds!

After seeing the finish of the stage we headed back down the hill and through some amazing Beaujolais countryside to meet up with Rusty and Kay in preparation for the team time trial the following day. Having received instructions of their stopping place, we headed across to find them set up right on the route and by a stunning lake with plenty of room for us. After a quick pasta dinner, we headed up lakeside with the bottles of bubbly we'd been saving since the Alsace and spent a fabulous evening swapping stories with Rusty, Kay, Willy, Gilbet plus new friends Paul, Adele and Bob.....all until the rain started! Back in the van Jase and I watched the thunderstorm roll around, hoping it would clear for our day roadside.

Wednesday morning was bright and dry and we awoke to the sounds of Rusty preparing camp for race day - banners duly erected, we whiled away the morning chatting and generally catching up while the teams came past on their practice run. Big thanks at this point to the lovely Morris's who had taken points from the blog a few weeks ago and brought us some great mature Cheddar cheese and Old El Paso spice mixes, plus a replacement tap we'd ordered -all very much appreciated, thanks both! Now a team time trial is a first for us, for the non cycling fan, this is the same idea as the time trial we saw at the Tour of Romandie but each whole team go at the same time in a chain gang style - think team pursuit from the track but on the road, if that makes sense?! We also had a nod to my Nan as it would have been her birthday today (6th June) and had a "help yourself" lunch with Rusty and Kay, oh and of course, we raised a glass too.

The main event started at 1450 with teams coming past around every 5 minutes or so, and Team Sky coming in for the win.

The pack up then began, and we had to say goodbye to the gang as they were heading towards the mountains for more cycling action, while we were Le Mans bound. We had picked out what looked to be a free Aire in Givry about an hour up the road. We found this one with no troubles, and parked up - about 20 spaces available to motorhomes and it was fairly full by late evening. Definitely one of my favourite Aires - properly signposted, nice and quiet with a sweet little village to wander around - this one boasts a round town hall - why not I guess!

The budget was looking a bit more under strain this week, with a €40 overspend, thanks mainly to 2 fuel spends to get the mileage done. We'd done our best to even this out with the free sites, but it wasn't too be. However, looking at the finances more from a longer ranging outlook, we should be on about £2,500 by now and we've only done around the £1,800 mark so it's not all bad for getting on for 3months away.

Thursday morning and it was a warm one already - and today was our 15th wedding anniversary. Over breakfast we had cards from my very thoughtful mum and dad, plus a homemade effort from Jase! Our route today was another free site at Sully-sur-Loire. The journey looked fairly straightforward on the planning session, but turned out to be anything but! We had junctions that didn't exist and roads that were too narrow for our van - however, once we had a quick stop and re-plan, things started to fall into place. Our lunch stop was our favoured supermarket (Super U). We did a quick pit stop there for some essentials, and then headed to the site which was right next to the Chateau - simply stunning and very apt as our wedding had also been in a castle! The Chateau was also right on the banks of the River Loire, and while we were driving over the bridge we were lucky enough to spot an Osprey catching his lunch! Once parked up we had a lovely wander around the grounds and the small town. Jase got his hair cut (first of the trip) in a very stylish but cheap barbers - I was a bit worried what sort of style he might come out with, but it was €10 well spent and well timed with the weather hotting up by the day!

Friday we woke fairly early after another lovely quiet night in the Aire at Sully - this is one definitely to be recommended & will be on our list to return to later in the summer. After another final shop (and this one will be the last until after Le Mans), we headed on the 3hr journey to a camp site at Yvre L'Eveque just outside the Le Mans area. We needed to recycle the van, washing etc before we head off grid at the circuit for 8 days - this will be our longest yet, although there should be a few facilities on site so it should be easier than Roubaix road side back in April. On the way we spotted Jargeau which is twinned with Corsham where Jase grew up, so we stopped there for a wander around. It was a very pretty place which had some similarities to Corsham, not least in the number of hairdressing salons! We did love the recycling of an old UK phone box into a book exchange!

Once at site, we picked a nice spot with plenty of room for the washing line. Good facilities though and a reasonable price, plus it's fairly quiet. Spent the evening listening to an audio book as too hot in the van!

And so to today, Saturday. We had a nice lazy morning, although pottering about getting all the jobs done. The van is now clean, the washing finally dry (it's been heavy rain on and off all day, but very warm still) and the cupboards have been reorganised. We had a bit of a treat this morning with a historic car rally passing literally at the end of our pitch. There must have been multi-million pounds on the road - Jase's favourite was the Porsche Spyder 550 which he reckons has a £6million price tag, whereas I liked the nice blue Mercedes Gullwing. Certainly got us in the mood for the week ahead. I'll apologise in advance of next week's blog - it will definitely be late (probably no electricity til next Monday) and might be a bit one dimensional! However, I will try and put as much variety as I can - I am sure the weather will play a part!

Finally, it's question time and we have two this week. The first comes from my brother-in-law Mike - what do we listen to on the longer road trips - Radio, CDs, MP3, Spotify etc. Well, we only tend to have music on if the route isn't too navigationally challenging - that's one of the trade-offs with being off the motorway and taking the D-roads - you do have to be on your game for each and every turn. I don't get to say "straight on for 50clicks" very often! However, when we do have an easier day, we tend to go for one of my old IPhone with a generally ok, but occasionally odd, playlist! It has a wide variety from the cool (in our opinion) - Jack Johnson, U2, Take That right through to some stuff I must have downloaded on a whim - Wham, Now that's what I call Comic Relief etc. I do believe we even had a bit of Band Aid earlier this week! Gives us something to laugh at though!

Second question has been posed by the lovely Kay Morris - what annoyances do we each have and how do we deal with them. This has been a tricky one and one we have discussed at length during the week. We both have annoyances of course (no one is perfect!), but we don't think they are any different to the ones we had at home and each has learnt to deal with over the course of the last 22 years! There have been stresses and the odd spot of bickering - although I'd like to think it's less than you'd expect for two people in a relatively small space 24/7. The key for us so far is to deal with it quickly and move on. There's no room in a VW T4 to hold a grudge or sulk, believe me! Plus, there's always the option of a bit of "quiet time" while in the shower...........!

That's all for now, see you all next week.

Til then, stay safe all

J&J