Sunday7th July- Limogne Market day

Jennifer awoke early and went for a walk whilst Noel enjoyed a few more zzz’s and then we enjoyed a bacon and egg and tomato breakfast, nothing like being in France, and then headed off to the Limogne market which was really buzzing.

This is a great little market to visit as mostly locals selling and also buying and we were able to get some nice strawberries, cherries and an excellent melon which will be devoured over the next few days.

We went to the usual café and enjoyed a beer and then in the very hot sun

Walked back to the car and headed to Carjac to see if there was a laundry as we do not want to use the site equipment which is old and we don’t want to give the owner any more cash.

A pleasant drive to Carjac and we found a newly equipped laundry which we will use in the next few days and then back for a cold sausage an bread lunch.

The afternoon comprised of swimming, going on the internet for email and then back for tea. En route back to our van Mike and Paula ( the couple from Birmingham) could not wait to tell about how the site owner had totally embarrassed  himself with a set of French regular customers who keep their caravan nearby and it was delivered last week for placing on site. Unfortunately he had placed the wrong caravan on the site and went to get theirs only to hitch it up, but not properly, and start moving only to find the caravan dropped off without his knowledge and it was blocking the road with the French couple extremely angry. Eventually he got the correct van on site and then tried to move the wrong van away and had the same problem in hitching and after moving off the van came loose and was rolling backwards uncontrolled and nearly smashed in to French couple caravan. At the same time a Dutch elderly couple arrived and he without checking properly backed his van into a tree, all of this happening within ten minutes, Mike and Paula could not stop laughing whilst the site owner had been totally embarrassed in front of 20/30 campers and went off in a huff, serve him right.

We passed British site workers who watch Andy Murray at Wimbledon and so we joined for a few minutes to see him finally win before heading home for a light tea.

Well this is the last blog for a couple of weeks as over the next two weeks we shall be just shopping, sightseeing, reading, cycling and eating and drinking and nothing really interesting for the reader.

We shall start again as we leave here to head up to Le Havre on 20^st July to meet our American friends from Austin Texas with whom we shall be touring France with for ten days.

So that’s it for the moment.

Update- Just heard that site owner damaged the French couples caravan when moving it, b great..

Saturday 6th July- More caravan cleaning and then a BBQ

Noel decided to clean up the outside of the caravan which had got quite dirty really and this took quite a while as it was getting very hot and showing about 35 degrees by early afternoon.

Then some reading and rest and then Noel continued cleaning the bits that were now in the shade and the result is very satisfying. The afternoon was spent relaxing and in the late afternoon the couple from Birmingham that we have seen here several times before came across for a chat for about and hour and some and then at 6.30 pm the BBQ went on and we enjoyed some Toulouse sausages with some nice rib eye steak, beautifully cooked and washed down with a really excellent Cahors wine. Gosh this is a tough life.

Friday 5th July- What a strange man

The owner of this site is a little strange and our early exploits with the electrics and move your car on to your own pitch were stupid and know at about ten am Jennifer decided to hand the bedding up put side for thirty minutes to air. Whilst I was away collecting water the owner who was walking by came and TOLD Jennifer to remove it immediately and stay on your own pitch. Bloody cheek, it was only going to be there for thirty minutes or so as nobody arrives on site before lunch and the site was only 20% full.

When I got back Jennifer was upset and so after a little while I went down to reception to find the owner only he was not there and so I gave his wife a hard time and demanded that her husband come and apologise to Jennifer when he gets back. She was rather sheepish then defensive bit it does take two.

Needless to say we have not seen him hardly since so let’s wait and see what happens. We did consider moving to another site but we do like this place and why should we inconvenience ourselves for this idiot, anyway let’s wait and see what will happen.

Thursday 4th July- Time for lunch

We decided to do a big shop and have lunch in Villefranche–de-Rouergue which is one of our favourite towns in the area and we have used a particular restaurant there for lunch for years and so off we headed and arrived just around lunchtime. En route we stopped off at a Hotel we have booked some friends at for the end of the month to take a quick look and it is right opposite St Cirq La Popie and is a lovely place and we are sure they will enjoy it.

The place was packed with locals as usual plus some extras as they were making a film in the streets around the area and also there was a special evening function being planned for Thursday/Friday and Saturday nights with fireworks and over 50 famous guests??, but not for us. They were also filming a snogging session in a local bookshop much to the amusement of the owner.

After lunch we did out usual walking the streets around town and then Noel decided to get a haircut as it was getting a little shaggy and hot and so we found a barbers previously used and wash and cut later and ten kilos lighter we left.

We did some shopping in LeClerc and then drove through the beautiful countryside in to little villages with some amazing old buildings and then a did a diversion back to Carjac to buy some more of that delicious cake.

So dinner tonight was cake with strawberries and crème fraische, can’t be beaten.

Much warmer again this evening and the weather seems set for a 

Wednesday 3rd July- Looks like the weather is good

The trouble is that when you fall behind in writing this blog you tend to forget what you did in the last hour let alone in the last week.

Anyway the weather has improved significantly with temperatures shooting up plus 30 degrees centigrade with lovely blue skies. What is nice that at night the temperature drops back again back to 16 up to 18 degrees and cool enough to sleep well.

Anyway, we did another little trip in on Carjac which is a lovely little town and had a cup of coffee in the main Hotel and then found this lovely shop selling all sors of pastries and cakes and we tried one which was delicious. It was a fluffy pastry with apple and some other stuff but tasted great and made a mental note to try again.

Spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the inside of the caravan which had got a little dirty but less than one hour later all was clean and we got rid of the ants which had found the sugar.

We had some nice salmon pasta tonight, really good and looking forward till tomorrow.

Tuesday 2nd July- Let’s sort the power out.

The site allows six amps per pitch, so I reset the control panel to allow only six amps and again we were having problems and then the site owner and his electrical handyman arrived and found out that in the box of four plug sockets, the old French type with only two pins, one was working normally, one was broken and two were on reverse polarity and this was the problem. We changed to the working one and everything has been fine since.

All this happened after we were having a late breakfast and trying to enjoy our croissants but never mind. We then spent some time sorting ourselves out and early afternoon enjoyed some great pate and a sleep in the relaxing chair until the site owner arrived saying that the rain storm due tonight would now come around 3pm with winds of 50 mph, so be prepared.

The new owners of this site have really invested and they have improved pretty much all of the infrastructure without ruining the effect and the views etc.

At 3pm nothing happened and again at four, five and six but we made ready and eventually the rain came but it was not to heavy and no wind at all hardly.

As we had been warned about a storm Noel kept checking until about 1pm and then gave up, oh well that’s camping.

Monday 1st July- The sun is shining

We took all the D roads down to Perigeaux and this took about ninety minutes as we were a little worried about one town near the site where the truck route is pretty much like the car route but just avoiding one corner.

Once we reached Perigeaux we joined the motorway East and joined the motorway South near Brive and at about 2.45 we arrived at Larnagol.

We checked out the pitch we had booked and then got everything set up in the heat, it was about 29 degrees centigrade and we even got the awning up after losing buckets of sweat. Then we discovered the power problem, the powered site connection kept breaking and after lots of fiddling we lit the gas heater instead of using the electric, and let’s sort it tomorrow.

We were both a little tired and then decided to test the snacks in the bar area which were great.

We were both so tired that sleeping was a little challenging plus the fact it was a good ten degrees warmer than we had experienced elsewhere.

Sunday 30th June- Getting ready to move on

It was a bit grey again this morning and after a bit of shopping in the local Inter-Marche which was quite busy considering the known fact that the French do not like shopping on a Sunday. We hit the British counter and bought three packs of bacon, just in case we can’t find it anywhere else, and then headed back to the site.

We sorted the caravan ready for travel the next day and then suddenly the sun came out and we could enjoy for a while including eating outside for dinner, something we could not do for the past days.

We paid the bill for the site and the receptionist gave us a good discount and even said that after six nights we could get one night free, oh well next time perhaps

A quiet evening was spent reading and an early night as we wanted to leave as early as possible the next day for Larnagol.

Saturday 29th June- Brantone is a lovely place.

It was grey and overcast again this morning as we left the site going South via Nontron to Brantone where we arrived around 11.30, just in time for a cup of coffee in this very nice little town which is located right next to a river. We were parked  very close to the fire station and firemen were getting their hoses out but we continued looking up river where there was a group of guys in canoes were heading down river towards the firemen who then turned on their hoses and covered the canoeists with great showers of water. The hoses were so powerful it was pushing the canoes to the side of the river, clearly this was a planned exercise but fun to watch.

We had a cup of coffee and then walked around town and noticed that there was a boat trip available later at about 2pm and so continued walking then had lunch followed by not a bad ice cream and then went back to the landing stage to find the boat trip had been moved to 4pm. Oh well better luck next time.

We drove around and visited another site that we had seen on the web and it was not bad with the exception of a group of six Brits boozing away outside their tent with the music going full blast, not sure why the neighbours did not complain as I would have.

Leaving town at about 2.30 it started to rain a little and then later quite a lot and we headed for Martheon which looked like an interesting place to visit but with the heavy rain not today. We continued along some of the smaller roads and noticed there were lots of security people standing around as their appeared to be a cycle race of some sort but we did not see any cyclists anywhere. When we got back to Montron there was a little stage set up for a presentation it appeared to be.

Once home in our van we had a nice cup of tea and as our plans for a BBQ had been thwarted by the weather once again we decided just to have the sausages and some French type baked beans and then we gave in and got some ‘frites’ from the takeaway.

We watched mission impossible tonight whilst the rain clattered down, the Irish girl serving the bar and takeaway said it would improve tomorrow but let’s see as the weather has been a complete disappointment.

Tomorrow will be an easy day getting ready for our departure on Monday morning to Larnagol in the Lot Valley.

NO PHOTOS UPLOADED THIS WEEK AS THE INTERNET CONNECTION IS VERY SLOW AN ALSO EXPENSIVE HERE. SHOULD BE BETTER NEXT WEEK WE HOPE  

Friday 28th- We should have been sitting in the sun

But unfortunately the sun did not appear apart from a few brief moments. We decided to go for a walk along the river which skirts the site, this site is actually very nice and we are enjoying our stay here that is apart from the weather.

In the afternoon and not long after we got back from our walk the sun went behind the clouds and it started to rain, light at first and then quite heavy later on but hey ho, this is caravanning.

We had purchased some lamb steaks which had been marinated and they were excellent. A little light reading tonight and ready for an early night.

Thursday 27th June- King Richard the Lion heart we are on your tail.

We left the site around 10.00 and took a very large journey largely following a tourist route of where Richard the Lion Heart had been in his past years pillaging and whatever they did in those days. En route he built several rather nice castles in some lovely locations which we stopped to photograph. Jennifer did her usual brilliant map reading job taking us to places down country lanes etc. and avoiding any large towns which there were not to many in this area. We arrived in St Yriex-la Perche where we located a large Casino store where we purchased prepared salads for lunch and then down to the nearest lake to eat it.

En route here we had passed mile after mile of forest and lakes up and down hill and so this lake and location were almost expected.

Across the lake was another Municipal site which looked quite busy by comparisons with others that we had seen and all the grass was clean and tidy and everything was well organised with a nice walled city nearby. We continued through the country every now and again stopping for a photo until we reached a lovely town called St Jean-de-Cole which was a lovely little village and one of France’s best villages. And then on back via Nontron where there was a large funeral taking place, and then we tried the so called truck route via Piegut-Pluviers ,as on the way out it looked a little bit tight to take the caravan through, should we decided to go this way to the Lot Valley. However the truck route was equally as tight and so we have pretty much decided to retrace our steps when leaving going back North about fifteen miles so that we can find a main road with plenty of space.

Wi-Fi is expensive on this site and they want about £ 0.90 per hour and you can only use the Wi-Fi at the bar or reception but outside where its often diificult with the sun. They really should do better and when I get a chance I will write and complain. We had also looked for free wifi during tre past few days but were are in the middle of nowhere is suppose and so tonight we will have to pay at the bar.

Jennifer is now reading up on Richard the Lion Heart who was, not only, listen to this, King of England, though he only spent seven months of ten years in as King of England, he was also Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Anjou and Nantes and Lord of Brittany, so just a few titles to cover all his crusades protecting his homes in France, a bit like the Brits do today. He was also cut up when dead and his various bits and pieces sent by DHL all over France.

Tonight Jennifer is preparing Salmon pasta with leak and broccoli tonight before we are heading off to the bar for some internet work.

Wednesday 26th June- Take it easy day

The weather is still not what you would call warm yet but never mind we did a walk around the site after a late breakfast and Jennifer did all the washing in the site machines as we seemed to have almost run out of clothes whilst Noel sorted some of the caravan storage areas and found out why the water pump was a little noisy in that the connector on the outside of thevan was not fully tight and this was causing some air to enter the system causing the pump to be a little bit more noisy than usual. In the afternoon we wnt down to the local very small town called Montbron to the supermarket and were surprised to find an English section with Heinz Baked beans, Yorkshire tea etc and in the freezer sector under a large Union Jack were backs of English back bacon which wont be cheap but will be purchased anyway for later consumption.

We had purchased some large salmon steaks and also some prawns as a starter and Noel cooked the Salmon which had with salad sitting outside under the Gazebo with a glass of Borgogne white and then retired to the caravan as it was getting cool and spent the rest of the evening reading. Tomorrow is a sightseeing day.

Tuesday 25th June- Heading for the Dordogne

We left the site about 0930 with Jennifer taking the first stint with a mixture of small D roads on to eventually the N roads via Loudun of rather starnge fame, if one remembers the film ‘The Devils’ which was based on the strange goings on in the church with cardinal Richelieu, however we took the bypass and did not see any naked nuns.

Once we got close to Potiers we changed and Noel took over on the grounds of expecting heavy traffic on the periphque only to find it was pretty quiet and then and on to Angouleme but we took side roads to save time and we reached the site of ‘Camping Gorge du Chambon’ which although a Castels Chain site it has a good reputation. The roads to site for about one mile are pretty much single track so heaven help you if two caravans should meet. We parked up and walked around the site which is split in to two sections with one section have larger pitches than the other section. The smaller size pitches there seemed to be rather a lot of English cars but in the larger pitch section it was much quieter. However when walking around the site we did notice loads of motorbikes of various types and then we found what looked like a good location with its own water, electric and waste connections and was a large size but also came complete with a an outside open gazebo with large table and chairs for six, plus a refrigerator and BBQ, just the ticket we thought but of course this would be one of the more pricier pitches.

The ground sloped both ways which always makes it a challenge to park the van with the wheel look in the correct position after putting on a small ramp so that the caravan is level both ways. But anyway about one hour later we were all set up and enjoying a nice cup of tea.

We had already decided that tonight we would for convenience sake try the site restaurant and it turned out that it was BBQ night, mainly to attract the many bikers, perhaps 40 of them, but anyway it was reasonably cheap but was not particularly good but the bikers seemed to enjoy it. They seemed a starnge looking bunch really to much interbreeding between the Harleys and BMW’s I think.

So back to bed and the red wine was not the best we have had and so we both enjoyed a little wind in the night.