17th July- A bit of cloud this morning

It was a little cloudy and overcast this morning but it eventually cleared away over the acres of this rolling site deep in the French Countryside.

The Chateau is owned by Stuart and Sheila Coe who purchased this property many years ago and have turned it into a fine place to visit and enjoy the quiet and the ever present sound of insects and other forms of wildlife. Up and till this year the site had been open to all ages, but after a particularly tough last year where they had some kids cause damage and upset to other residents they decided finally to make it an adults only site. However the word ‘adult’ in France,as according the French Law, means anybody over 14 and that was still too young a person that the hosts wanted. And so now it has been renamed as a Country Club for those over 18+ and this is exactly what they want.

The downside of this is that in Holland, the ‘Adults only’ badge tends to indicate a free sex club of sorts and so they are having difficulty getting the Dutch to book here but we believe that word will travel quite fast. But back to the site which has about 90 placements for caravans, motor homes and tents and about six very nice wooden chalets set in the wooded part of the site and four mobile homes which now look slightly out of place. The bar and restaurant are a very attractive area which overlooks the very large and mostly empty swimming pool which is in itself a great selling or marketing tool. Following the change to all adult they also have started investing in the site again with better site roads, planned changes to the chalets making them more suitable for adults viz no small children’s rooms and a nine-hole golf course planned to open next year. Noel has been asked by Stuart and Sheila to set up a BLOG, similar to this, so that they can communicate in a simple way with their customers to keep them informed of site developments rather than changing an expensive web site. Anyway back to us, late in the afternoon a jolly good swim in the pool prior to heading back for a shower and an excellent ham salad, with yet again some more wine. This really has to stop.

Later in the evening we decided to watch a DVD called ‘Up in the Air’ with George Clooney and although it is a brand new disc direct from Amazon and not even unwrapped there is something wrong with it and it would not start. Fearing that the DVD element in the TV had broken Noel grabbed the next nearest DVD to see if that worked but without looking at what it was. This DVD started fine and is called ‘Das Boot’ a German film made about the U-Boat crews in the Second World War where 40000 men signed up and only 10000 lived to tell the tale. However it was NOT noticed when placing this disc in the machine how long the film was. Anyway we started watching and enjoying the film and it went on and on and on and we looked at the clock and it was almost midnight and so we looked at the box cover and discovered that the film runs for 310 minutes, plus extra’s, and so we still had about another hour to go, so we stopped the film and went to bed. No doubt it will be part two tomorrow.

Finally a few more people have left the site today with the departures outweighing the new arrivals at this moment but as most arrivals are on late Sunday and Monday let’s see what happens

16th July- Another hard day at the office

Not too much to report today really. A brief trip in to Gramat to visit a small local supermarket for some essentials, wine and cheese, we were back home in the caravan by lunchtime and quite ready for the fresh brie and crisp bread laid on for lunch. The sun is shining away and the temperature is a nice 29 degrees of heat.

Following Noels swim and some emailing etc the BBQ was lit to finish off the chicken pieces that had been already partly pre cooked in the oven. With chicken you can never be to careful when preparing and we could have finished it off in the oven but putting it on some hot charcoal adds a certain taste which can sometimes only be described as ‘slightly burnt’ but a really great taste at the same time. Somehow Noel managed to pretty much finish off some cheap wine and so it was a good evening.

Unfortunately, a party of four has arrived with their caravan and tent and load of beer bottles and a dog and set up next to us so we hope that they will keep quiet or I’ll send the missus round to sort em out.

My troubles with the Fair FX prepaid Master card are slowly becoming resolved in that the problems that I have faced are not unique and it would appear as Fair FX has admitted but they are still working on trying to resolve it. Jennifer complains that when life is quiet I turn to checking on things which may not seem important eg.

We have a tracking system on the caravan provided by ‘Phantom’. The idea is that once it is turned on and that somebody, other than us, tries to move the caravan then it will notify us by mobile, we then notify the police and then pass the police ref number to Phantom who will then get the cops in helicopter’s, cars and warships to try and locate it. They say it works extremely well although over the last couple of years it has not worked to well for us and so whilst sitting here thinking about the world in general Noel thought it would be a good idea to ask Phantom to check on his caravan and tell hime where it is. Several emails later that say they GPS system tracker is working well but us as there is no GSM signal it cannot tell us where it is. This does not seem to make sense as if the GPS works why

they can’t tell us where the van is, we were informed that the GSM connection is only to send a message to us telling the van is moving. So my questions to them and pending a reply are , surely a GPS signal can tell you a location but if they say that if there is no GSM (mobile phone signal) then the system is flawed. Assuming there is no mobile coverage over several square miles than one presumes they cannot find it. I am looking forward to their reply.

15th July- Lets have another go

Sorry to bore you again but we must finish the story about our caravan plumbing. We have decided that the existing structure does not work and so following a light breakfast, a little later than usual we headed off to the Bricomarche in Gourdon. Bricomarche is the equivalent of Focus do it yourself.

We searched Bricomarche high and low and found a suitable water pipe and then was just moving to the plastic plumbing section when all the shop lights went out at about 11.55 and then a few minutes later they came on again. We assumed a minor power cut as other parts of the mall were banging away full steam until 1230 and then after a short while a guy came up to us and said in his best French and said, I will say this only once ‘bugger’ off we are closed, well that’s what is sounded like. So we left what we were going to purchase on any old shelf and left the shop and wondered what we can do for the next two hours. Well along the block was an Intermarche Hypermarket and the same chain as Bricomarche, but this shop was positively open for business and so Jennifer started looking a ladies wear and Noel the hi tech section for about 30 minutes and then went next door to the supermarket restaurant for lunch of Pasta Carbonara which was excellent and that killed the next 90 minutes before heading back to the Bricomarche. We collected the stuff we had left and also bought some 4 metre plastic piping, which we asked the guy to cut so that we can get it in the car, and also some connecting pieces. We stopped at a small local store en route home and only bought a cheapish bottle of locally produced ‘Malbec’ wine which we intend to have for dinner at our planned BBQ tonight.

One hour later and all plumbed up we left for the swimming pool, Noel did some emails etc, and one email came back from the credit card company apologising for the problem which they are aware off but so far have been unable to solve and thanks for letting them know, but this still does not give me back an outstanding 100 euros of my money.Lets see what happens next.

We left the pool a little later than planned and decided it was too late for a BBQ and so we would save the chicken until tomorrow night when we have less pressing matters to attend to like going swimming and reading and sleeping etc.

A nice day and the temperature started to drop this evening and so at about 10 pm we retired to the caravan

NB No new photos as we have only visted same places as last year so look at leat year for photos of the area

14th July and its Bastille Day in France

A slightly interesting day today and after an early’ish breakfast we started work on our new fangled waste water and direct water connections and from instant success we went to failure in two short moves and so we have start all over again tomorrow. More details to follow.

The weather here is still great and we spent a bit of time fiddling with various aspects of the van and then did some reading and for dinner we had a very nice prawn and egg salad washed down with a small glass of wine, what again you say, but this is France and everybody drinks wine here. This evening at the bar/restaurant is ‘moules et frites’ but as neither of us are really impressed with Moules and as we had some rather excellent prawns that must be eaten today before they walk off by themselves it was time to say no and so we toddled to the bar around 8.30 pm and spent a very pleasant evening drinking wine in the company of a couple from Leeds, both retired and so we compared travel notes and also the various aspect of caravanning whilst finishing with our mutual thoughts on the UK Government and the world in general and we both agreed that being retired and over here was certainly a good move.

There was a two piece group who played, surprisingly, French songs all evening and they did a very good job for about 3.5 hours with only a short break. The night sky here is as clear as a bell as Stuart has refused to put in camp street lighting as it would spoil the amazing night views of stars and galaxies ( not the chocolate ice cream) . The couple in the caravan a short distance from us have a large, I nearly said periscope, but mean telescope and he is out there most evenings tracking stars and Air France jets.

Out of interest another couple down the road from us have beautiful cat, very similar to our daughter’s , and this cat is taken on his/her lead for a walk each day before travelling to the farthest extent of his/her lead before retiring at night in to his/her own tent.

A rather latish night for us as by the time we got back from the bar we were entering the next day, that does not auger well for us old folk!

13th July – Time to get the awning up

Although perhaps we had tested the wine to much the previous evening we still felt almost well enough to raise the awning.

From previous experience in putting up the awning it can take up to four hours from start to the finish including getting all the bits and pieces in place but this time we started a little earlier than usual after a light breakfast we started and low and behold we did it in nearly three hours. No most people may think this is far to long raising an awning but is rather large and rumour has it can be seen from space as its so large. Anyway by midday we were done, in more ways than one, and had a light but enjoyable lunch.

Then off to shopping in Gourdon about 15 miles away to not only pay a visit to Carrefour for some fish and other food stocks but also to look for some wood, to help prop up the waste water system, and some hose pipe clips to make some changes to the on board water system. Life is never boring with a caravan...

With regard to the waste water although the caravan is higher than the drain there is a certain amount of uphillness (if there is such a word) to address. We found a Building Construction Centre which was great if need four by two but we only needed little bits which found that were used to separate the various bits of wood stacking and so we took five pieces and the man at check out it was ‘Gratis’ what a deal. Then on to ‘Gamm Vert’ a large retailer of all things to do with gardens wheree we were able to purchase our pipe bits. Readers of this blog from last year would possibly remember that when we stayed at the site last time the water pressure at night is tripled to allow farmers to flood their fields and the Groves caravan at the same time. We have now purchased a solution but discovered our water pipe connection is not long enough. Such is life.

At around six pm we headed for the swimming pool and a well earned swim in the perfect temperature until we felt a little hungry and then headed via the ‘heads’ for a nice hot shower.

Tonight’s dinner was Noel cooked ‘Julienne’ white fish together with a nice handful of prawns with a salad and good bottle of ‘Bourgogne Aligote’ nicely chilled in the on board fridge and what a nice evening it was watching dusk settle in over this picturesque site.

Clearly another tough day in ‘Le Lot’

12th July- Where did this rain come from?

We awoke to the slight sound of rain but we were able to get packed up and off site before it became to strong. One hour later it was chucking it down as we headed down the motorway in the direction of Limoges.

Our journey was mostly by motorway and we stopped south of Brive at a parking area to have a light lunch in the caravan and a small ten minute kip before heading South in the direction of Cahors.

After leaving the motorway we went through the country lanes for about ten minutes and arrived at the site Chateau Le Comte in Carlucet and we arrived just about tea time as Stuart and Sheila were on the balcony with tea and ‘bikkies’ to which we joined. After a chat about this and that we headed in to the site and were surprised how busy it was and considerably more so than on our previous visits here. It would appear that Stuart’s decision to change to ‘Adults only’ has paid off and they now call this place a Country Club and later next year hope to have a nine hole golf club as well.

Tonight we had dinner and drinks in the bar, Jennifer tried the Bison (poor animal I thought) whilst i tried the Lamb steak with some pommes frites and a carafe of wine, pretty good we thought

Tomorrow we will put up the awning and do some shopping.. but let us hope it stays cooler for this even as it its quite warm at the moment.

11th July- Last night in this town

The weather is still great and really had quite an easy day and started preparing ourselves for the move tomorrow morning to out new site in the Lot valley.

However this afternoon we went dow to the var to watch the Formula One British Grand Prix which was another good race for McLaren whilst Sebastian Vettel had another bad day in the office. An afternoon spent watching the birds and listening to Ipods and book reading was a pleasant way to spend the rest of the day before a light salad and then off to see the football.

The bar was fairly packed with about 20 or so Dutch, one Spanish couple and a smattering of Brits. The game was rather dirty to begin with Spain seeming to enjoy the majority of play but then the emphasis changed towards half time. Howard Webb who is perhaps one of the best referees at the games and of course the last BrIt to perform did a great job until the very end of extra time when the Dutch thought the sending of was not correct. Shortly after this they went one goal down only moments before the match end. Prior to this time it looked like it would go to penalties and according to the Dutch people around us that the Dutch are worse than the England side and so if it goes to a final shoor out they would most certainly lose. So why they all started shouting at the ref when Howard sent off a player with a red card I cannot quite understand. Oh well that’s football I presume.

10th July-Lets hope it doesn't rain

As we had to move the van this morning to a nearby site we were up at a reasonable time so as to ensure we did not get to hot during the move. But you guessed it as soon as we got outside and started to prepare the van for the move it also started to rain, not heavy mind you but more of an annoying level. Anyway we took about forty five minutes to move and set up shop again and as it was quite grey outside, but not cold, it was a time for the great English Breakfast of eggs and Bacon with a few tomatoes thrown in for good measure. This was followed by croissants and strawberry jam and a a very nice cup of real coffee, not this instant stuff. What a way to start the day.

Let us share with you a couple of stupid things which do create aggravation and could so easily be avoided. Noel has to make a payment on line through Lloyds Banks, yes here we go again. First of all consider the following. The Wi-Fi station is about 100 metres away and just reaches the caravan but can cut in and out if a bird or ant moves and to have this happen whilst creating this payment would not be good. So Noel walked the 100 metres and set himself up with a good reception and logged on to the Bank and started entering the data regarding payment details viz, name of bank, account and sort code etc etc and pressed the last button to confirm transfer when up came a screen with a new set of instructions of online banking which we presume are a security measure against others using your bank details when you are overseas. This new screen said there would be an automatic call to your choice of home or mobile phone and on the computer appeared a four digit number which you would need to enter on your phone to seal the deal. However, not knowing and also not advised about this new system and mobile phone requirements, Noels mobile phone was safely tucked up nice and warm in the caravan. The Bank would call you in 30 seconds and you could enter the number. But as my name is not Michael Johnson or similar there was no way for me to get back to the van and back and wait for the phone to start up.

The phone being retrieved having slowly walked the 200 metres or so I tried again only to find I had no phone signal, Wonderful. So I went bank to the caravan and tried again but this time the Wi-Fi signal kept cutting in and out and although I had a phone signal I could not log on. What a Bloody mess. This all happened yesterday and this morning i tried again with the same result only the phone stuttered in to life and then I lost the phone signal as well as the Wi-Fi signal.

Slightly earlier in the day when trying the signal from the caravan I checked on my credit card just to ensure everything was correct only to find that two payment had been duplicated and then as I was cut off by the Wi-Fi I tried again closer to the signal only to find that I had been locked out of my account and needed to completely re register.

Anyway after an afternoons rest and about four hours after my above exploits my mobile phone sprung in to life indicating I had two voicemails but due to poor signal strength I could not fully understand them, the voicemail sounded just like standing in St Pancras Station listening to the train announcements and the only person who can understand them is the announcer, and so got in the car and drove a couple of kilometres to a hill overlooking the local town and trred again. The two voicemails were from Lloyds Bank asking to me through an interrogation process did I really make a call to them and if so please say Yes and then add the number from the computer screen only I did not have the computer. What a very stupid game this and so it can all wait until all the Wi-Fi demands and mobile phone signals meet a useable quality.

I also had some trouble with the caravan motor mover. It’s a long and annoying story but having spent £ 60 on new batteries for my De Walt Drill and then another £ 80 on a new more powerful Bosch drill only to find that the set up of the mover is wrong. The most annoying this about this is that they came to service the motor movers two days before we left home. They still work OK than heavens.

The weather after lunch time ,turned nice and sunny but not to warm, I guess aound 28 degrees, just nice.

Anyway this evening we had delightful BBQ of Cumberland pork sausages and Costco rib eye steak cooked over some Carrefour supermarket charcoal. Mon Ami it was really good and washed down with some leftover Sancerre.

Tomorrow its the Formula One British Grand Prix and in the evening its the World Cup final where I think Spain will beat Holland 2-0 but let’s not jump to conclusions as I have been known to be wrong on this forecasts. Eg I got the England 6-0 win over Germany not entirely correct

T

9th July -Lets go sightseeing

Having decided to spend an extra day then we felt it would be good to do some exploring of this area. Upon leaving the camp site we noticed several signs indicating an event over the weekend which now appears to be a cycle competition with hundreds of riders blocking the streets and also what with road closures for this event and also because of major road works in Boussac our decision to wait until Monday seems like a very good decision indeed.

Although we can stay an extra couple of days we do have to move to another pitch right behind our current location but that we can do tomorrow.

We headed of for a tour of the Creuze region and through lots of very nice country side which is only a little bit hilly and perfect for the the many farmers who were most active reaping their crops of barley etc. We stopped in a small town for a coffee and bought some bits and pieces for lunch and then continued on to Croussac where stopped for lunch.

It was around 2.30 pm as we headed back via Gueret to the site and stopped of in Boussac to by some charcoal and firelighters which are a necessary part of of tomorrow night’s BBQ.

We cheated and went to the restaurant for dinner and again it was good before walking around the site and stopped to talk to a Scottish couple with two kids who we noticed arriving the other day as their two hitch was squeaking like crazy and as I had the same problem when I first got this van I thought I would chat to them about. He did seem to realize what the problem was in that his dealer had not fitted the correct ALKO tow ball and this has now damaged the pads on the hitch which stop the van moving around which he noticed had started to happen. He was pulling his van with a Land Rover Discovery and here was another guy who was fed up to the teeth with his choice as it has to go back regularly to the dealers for some expensive reason or another, hey ho best to buy foreigh.

Another light show with thunder and some rain, but still not much really no doubt it will start to rain heavily tomorrow morning when we start to move the van to its new site 20 yards away.

8th July- Boy its hot here

The sun was pouring down when we awoke and together with the sound of birds singing their hearts out and so we went outside for alight breakfast of yogurts and Muesli washed down with a super cup of tea and then just sat there as the ducks from the lake paraded around the site calling at each tent or caravan looking for tit bits, very nice.

Our plan was to head in to town and find a supermarket to stock up with goodies such as milk and croissants etc and a Carrefour Market (a small store compared to the usual Carrefour, With the shopping complete we went back in to and set up relaxer chairs where we spent most of today apart from some walking around the site looking at who is there and also taking some photos for the album. I have not started uploading the photos to our Phanfare photo album as you have to pay for Wifi here and so I wait until we reach the next location. The site is quite large and the pitch sizes are very large indeed whilst the site is not so busy just yet compared to where we stayed for the first couple of nights in Northern France. After an exhausting time listening to the birds we headed of to the swimming pool for a while and then back for a light salad dinner washed down with a couple of glasses of Sancerre. We did cheat first and had a small beer and so we restricted ourselves to one glass of wine, or was it two.

Noel connected to the internet but trying to read the notebook screen with bright light is not the easiest but was able to send a couple of short emails and also monitor credit card usage. It was at this time Noel noticed that at the previous site when we had dinner that the lady had a problem with the credit card machine and had to do it twice and so now we have been charged twice. Life is not so simple sometimes.

We are both still a little tired as its so hot and we are considering to stay another couple of nights and move on to Chateau La Comte on Monday and then avoid the extra weekend traffic

Then off to bed with lightning and thunder and the promise of rain but it only dropped a couple of spots overnight.

7th July- Better late than never

We were a little late to get going this morning, around 10.30 am but never mind we should have plenty of time as the route plan says it will take around six hours and approx 290 miles to get to our next destination which is the site at Chateau Du Poinsouze which is near a little town called Boussac.

Our journey took us via Evreux to Chartres where the huge Cathedral dominates the skyline from every direction and then following the fast N road until we joined the A 10 north of Orleans and then connected with the A 71 which took us to Vierzon and finally on to the A20 to Chateauroux and then finally down some country lanes for about an hour until we arrived at Boussac at around 5.45 pm. It was extremely hot today with temperatures showing around 33 degrees centigrade and with bright sun it made it quite a tiring drive. This is the first time we have been to this site, part od our new plans to not always visit the same places, and first impressions were excellent. As the the first thing you need to do when you arrive is visit the wash block and this one is something else and worthy of most sport clubs.

Anyway it took us about an hour to get set up, each site has direct connections for electricity and water and waste water which make life very easy indeed before we headed of the the restaurant for dinner and a nice glass of Bourgeon Aligote which went down well with the ‘fish of the day’

With dinner finished we headed in to the bar to watch Germany play Spain and you could say there was hardly any competition for Spain who pretty much dominated the game and I think Germany only had two shots on goal whilst Spain was sending them from every angle.

Quite a tiring day really and it was still quite hot when we went to bed.

Tuesday 6th July An easy day today

The weather is really great here and the temperature shot up to about 30 degrees Centigrade. We spent the day generally taking it easy with a couple of walks around the caravan site and then in the afternoon a 4 kilometre walk out of the site and up in to the hills. This is nice country around these parts and we passed by a modern horse riding centre which was quite impressive.

Following an early tea we went to the bar to watch Holland play Uruguay and as there were quite a few Dutch in the audience I started supporting Uruguay and when the Dutch goalkeeper let in a typically British easy goal the Dutch around me started referring to 'English Goalkeepers' Anyway the Dutch won and tomorrow night is the Germans who play Spain. Based on the German performance so far I think they could go all the way, but let us see.

And so to bed

Monday 5th July Off to France again

We hate these early mornings but if you want to beat the traffic on Wey Road to extract the caravan and also avoid the morning rush on the M25 then it has to be an 0500 early morning call. We arrived at Dover after an easy run of about 110 minutes and had time for a quick pee before heading on board and breakfast. The P & O usually has a Langhams Restaurant on board their ferries but not this one the ‘Pride of Burgandy’ and so on the fast food self service Restaurant for the full English please with two slices. The boat was crowded with very excited hundreds of schools kids and so we paid the extra to get in the ‘Club Lounge’ for a little peace and quiet.

We left Calais around 1145 Local time and headed towards Liseaux and Camping La Brevedent which is a very nice site with a small lake but it was a little busy and as we had planned to not cook our selves this evening we headed to the Campsite Restaurant and had an excellent meal and not so expensive either considering we also tried the local plonk and also Calvados. It was a very warm evening but overnight it went quite cold and so at about 0200 hrs we were searching for another duvet to heat up the old couple but we slept very well indeed.

We have previously stayed at this site about 20 years ago, and enjoyed our experience and hence our return to this location. Tomorrow we shall take a few photos of the site whilst also take a walk around the area