At the start of week twelve and after only five days in Switzerland, it seemed strange to wake up in France again and in a huge city.  As Rodney rustled up scrambled eggs for breakfast, we could hear the local industries starting up.  We drove up the D52 beside the Rhine, but we couldn’t see the […]

On Tuesday morning and we packed up and said goodbye to the campsite with the best views so far; mind you, it was also the most expensive campsite so far, but absolutely worth every cent.  The sun was shining again on the mountain tops; I know I really will miss this place and I cried

We started the day with a load of washing; it has to be done.  Rodney paid and put the washing in, then I went up to load the dryer. The lovely ‘ageing hippie’ on reception, when I asked for directions, suddenly climbed through the window rather than through a door and insisted on helping me! 

Rodney woke early and took a photo from our bed of the sunrise just catching the tip of the Eiger. Then while cooking and eating poached eggs on toast we watched the sun, the clouds, the showers, a little bit of everything, moving around the majestic mountains.  We saw the gondola move slowly up to

After the first night in ages snuggled up under the quilt, the rain stopped and we woke to a view we hadn’t realised was there.   It didn’t last long, the clouds came in again and we couldn’t get a good picture of the Reichenbachfalls, so we put some ‘luft’ in the tyres and drove

I had to start the day with another lovely warm shower in a little wooden hut on the top of the hill; such a pretty spot and a good shower too.  Then we headed due east along the Rhone Valley towards Brig.  About 5 kilometres out of Sierre we suddenly noticed that the roadside apricot

We managed to leave Sevrier at 8:35am with big plans to cross the border in to Switzerland.  I had my money on not making it, as there is still so much to see in France. We drove through the beautiful Gorges d’ Arly from Ugine to Flumet; what a great name for a village, I’d

Rodney cycled off early for croissants and pastries, which we ate with more of my apricot jammy sauce stuff for breakfast. We needed a catch-up morning, so some washing was done, the blog and photos were updated, one cupboard was emptied and re-packed and finally at 11:30am we both set off on our bikes.  We

After a quick bowl of cereal, a very quick shower in Eileen and a fast lock down, we set off at 8:20am to get to Annecy as early as we could.  The camping car parking spot at the top of the hill by the Basilica de la Visitation had us concerned that we were a

A large group of German teenagers arrived late at the campsite and despite trying to get ahead of them by heading to the shower block at 6:55am I ended up in a 20-minute queue for a 2-minute shower. I should have waited because when Rodney went over later, all three showers were empty…hhmmph!  Ah well, it’s

Mushrooms on toast started the day and we were off again.  First stop was in the very centre of the hilltop village of Moustiers Sainte Marie, where Rodney managed to pull over long enough to enable me to dash in to the boulangerie to buy today’s baguette.  Unfortunately, a tour bus then offloaded a huge

Rodney has requested that it be noted that the removal of our toilet waste and the grey waste were the smelliest so far.  It is so hot here with temperatures well above 30˚C for about ten days straight, that ‘it’ must be cooking in there……. no comment……  He was very glad to get back in the

Little did we know, we had parked under an apricot tree and it was an apricot tree that was overladen with ripe fruit.  The noise of an apricot landing on Eileen in the middle of the night is quite disconcerting and even more so when one bump is followed by more bumps in the night.  When

It’s now week ten and still we keep moving around France………it doesn’t look like we’ll manage to squeeze in any more countries; so much for being a tour of Europe!  We feel like we are constantly on the move, we don’t often seem to stay in one place for very long and yet we seem

I’ve just had to stand under a cold shower to cool down enough to concentrate on tapping out today’s blog.  For those of you wearing woolly jumpers as you read this, sorry! We set off on our bikes at 10am this morning; we really should have started earlier, when the day was cooler.  We decided

It’s Monday and it’s hot, very hot, with not a cloud in the sky. We set off on our bikes to Marseillan Plage.  arriving around 11am, just as the shops were starting to open up and tourists were wandering along the main road in various states of undress.  With one pair of shorts and my only skirt now

Yesterday did turn in to a very lazy day for me.  I caught up on lots of computer stuff and read an old magazine, while Rodney cycled all the way down to the coast at Portiragnes Plage. He wants to know how many London plane trees there are along the full length of the Canal

On the second day of week nine, we left the very busy campsite at A L’Hombre Des Microcouliers in Trebes and parked Eileen just outside the walls of the medieval city of Carcassonne.   We each paid our €8.50 to go inside the castle and ramparts and discovered that although there has always been a castle,

We drove north through Condom in the rain and arrived at Dave and Jane’s stunningly beautiful home near Gazaupouy late in the morning.  The house and the garden are so lovely, I was scared that if we stayed the night we would never want to leave.  They served us lovely cheeses and pates out on

At 1:30am, a huge wind blew over Eileen, waking us both suddenly from our sleep.  We leapt out of bed and closed the skylight and the hatches and then lay there chatting and listening to the howling noise outside.  Rodney tried to tell me about the different winds around the world but in our sleepy

Friday started off a little cooler, but soon warmed up, despite being a bit breezy all day.  After breakfast, we toddled off down to the beach again and, as the tide was out, we walked out on to the rock jetty.  From the end you can see Biarritz and quite a long way down the

It’s raining again, it’s so wild and woolly, I’m really glad we’re not in a tent like so many people we see around us each evening.  We drove further south yesterday to Biarritz and found a parking spot on the far side of town above the Plage Basque, very close to the Musee de Chocolat

After listening to the rain most of the night and all morning we packed up and left the campsite at 11am.  We crossed to the other side of the harbour and found a parking spot in Hossegor.  I managed to find a pair of comfy black sandals to replace the decrepit ones I have been

I did a little dance this morning, the bathroom showers here are wonderful.  There is a choice of hot, or cold water, or a mix of both.  The water comes out continuously, no button to keep pressing, no card to put in and out of a slot, no time limit; my hair washing session felt

Yesterday ended badly.….  I perfected a very creative and tricky manoeuvre of getting off the bed, by getting my foot caught in the top sheet and diving shoulder first to the floor, jamming myself between the wardrobe and the fridge.  It resulted in another addition to my personal injuries list and a very sore left shoulder and

No more villages today for us, we chose to have a lay day.  We lay in bed till very late and then spent the day catching up on ‘stuff’. Rodney fixed up a small hole in Eileen’s exhaust pipe, while I sorted and labelled all of our fast increasing collection of photos. We got a

We’ll start with the technical details; we filled up on diesel and gas on the outskirts of Sarlat-la-Canéda and then parked Eileen in an Aires de Service for a couple of hours.  We roamed around the incredibly busy market which was absolutely full of Brits, all making themselves heard in a variety of accents.  

We were woken well before the alarm (the numbers must have got lost in translation somewhere) by a phone call at 5:10am …….”yes we can fly this morning and we will pick you up at the campsite gate at 6:20am”.  So having kept Eileen in a ready state to leave early, we didn’t need to,

It’s Monday 4th June, so someone is turning 60 today and he’s decided that it is now time to stop turning tricks on his bike in skateboard parks….. We were woken early by the mobile phone ringing at 5:30am.  In our sleepy state neither of us got to the phone in time to answer the

Our beloved Roddles turns 60 today and thousands around the World have turned out to help him celebrate this momentous occasion…   There were fireworks to open the proceedings…   The rain didn’t keep the crowds away, they all wanted to be there to wish him a happy 60th birthday.   …and you couldn’t keep

After a lazy day yesterday, we packed in more villages today.  It rained most of the night so we weren’t inspired to make an early start.  By the time we left the campsite it was 11:30am so with the boulangeries closing at midday for lunch, we made a desperately quick dash in to La Bugue

Our speediest departure yet!   We managed to get up, have breakfast and prepare Eileen for departure in exactly 2 hours.  That still sounds like a long time to me, but we cannot seem to do it any faster.  We checked out of the campsite at Les Eyzies and drove to the other side of

No hangover, phew…., but we did have a bit of a lie in to get our anniversary off to a good start. The cycle ride in to Les Eyzies-de-Tayac was fun.  The cycle path/walkway on the bridge over the river was laid out like a roller coaster, three ups and three downs and a lovely

My wife is too drunk to write the blog tonight, so I have been delegated to fulfil the daily duty. We opened a bottle of the finest regional Rosé that one can buy for under €2 for dinner, and after only one glass, she is a mess!! The day started with what was an early departure

It’s now the last day of our fifth week and we’ve decided we need to spend it slowly.  So the very short cycle ride in to Brantôme and a stroll around the few streets was just nice.   We bought a lovely little dish painted with poppies to put oil and balsamic in for dipping

The Dordogne area of France is calling us, so we decided to get nearer to the area.  We stopped off at a large hardware store and spent some more euro on a longer electric power cable and connector, so we can now stretch to 25 metres if the need arises.  I also got a little

We picked the wrong day for our first breakfast outside; a sea mist rolled in gobbling up the sunshine, just as we sat down to eat.  Then it was sadly time to say goodbye to Le Bois Plage En Ré.  Eileen took us further on down the island to Ars En Ré for a stroll

Eggs for breakfast heralded a slightly earlier start to the day.  We cycled through Bois again and crossed to the north side of the island.  We cycled past endless grape vines and then found ourselves out on the salt marshes.   There were lots of birds; herons, ducks, waders, etc. and there were endless lovely

Today was a beautiful day.  The wind had dropped and the sun has shone all day long.  After a slow start, we got on our bikes and cycled across the island to the village of St Martin de Ré.  On the way there we chanced upon a market in full swing in the village of

Well, having spent so many days recharging our own inner batteries, we cleaned up Eileen and drove her down to Sion-su-la-Ocean for a short stroll and then back to St Gilles for a long stroll around the now deserted town. When the showers started up again, we ate a snail (no, the pastry version), dropped

Well we finally found where all of the people are hiding in France.  They’re all in St Gilles Croix de Vie.  The shops are all open, even on public holidays, Sundays and Mondays.  As the weather has turned yucky again, we’ve chosen to stay on here for a couple more days.  Plus we wasted a

On the 15th we checked out of, perhaps, the best campsite so far.  The ‘best’ label may only be based on the fact that we could get wi-fi while sitting in Eileen; we didn’t have to go and sit in a tent, or a reception office, or a chilly room, or even the local McDonalds. 

Yes it has been a lovely day.  We drove over to Savonierres and then cycled along the River Cher to Villandry.  There are now poppies flowering along the edge of the rape fields adding extra colour to the rural scenes. The Chateau de Villandry was completed in 1536 and is the last of the great

Sunday, another sunny day, brilliant !!!! After a slow start we went for a drive around the area, through Pont-de-Ruan and Saché to Azay-le-Rideau where we had a prix-fixe lunch, that’s main course and dessert for a bargain price.   Our next stop was Ussé for a tour of the Chateau d’ Ussé on the

Je vais tres heureuse!  Yes, very happy!  More sunshine to spend a day strolling the streets of two major towns on the Loire riverbanks.  First we drove to Amboise, parked Eileen, purchased some blood oranges and in a lovely little shop purchased an apron, in the hope of less clothes washing after cooking!  At 11:30am

On Thursday 10th May, out of nowhere, we woke up to a sunny 27˚c day!  We dived down to the bottom of the storage to pull out our summer clothes and set off for Chaumont-sur-Loire further west, on the other side of the river. The chateau is really very pretty and is participating in the ‘Festival

We never got to watch a movie last night because, as I was posting the last blog, I met Caroline and Callum from 100 kms north of Bourke in Australia. They’ve taken time out from their cattle property and are travelling with their three children, Callum (10) and twins Grace and John (8). They’ve been to Dubai,

Well, the Chateau de Cheverny really was quite stunning inside and it wasn’t overly large.  I think I could live in a chateau that size, but I’ll stick with Eileen for now.  It is supposedly the chateau that is Captain Haddock’s humble abode in the ‘Adventures of Tintin’.  He was looking out of the window