Motorhome ‘aires’ for overnight stops tend to be functional rather than scenic in themselves, but they’re practical in high season and, if you do some research, they are often extremely well located for visiting local points of interest. This has certainly been the case as we’ve travelled northwards into Brittany. And you immediately know you’re… Continue reading Venturing into Brittany

Closer to camp we have explored along the river in both directions, on foot and on our bicycles. To the north we cycled to the village of Saint-Germain-de-Confolens which sits in a strategic location at the confluence of the Vienne and Issoire rivers. The small, one-street village is dominated by the impressive ruins of the… Continue reading Villages on the Vienne

As usual we’ve been exploring the areas surrounding our campsite base, so we set off on the motorbike to the area west and south of Confolens. The landscape remains very similar – agricultural with small villages dotted about. We headed first for Ruffec which is a larger town on the Charente river. The centre of… Continue reading Exploring the Charente

We’re spending about 10 days at a riverside campsite located in the town of Confolens on the River Vienne, about 25 miles from the house we were staying in. We’ve crossed the border from the Haute Vienne into the department of Charente and we’re at the point where the Charente and Limousin regions meet so… Continue reading Confolens

Last year we couldn’t travel more than a few miles it seemed before coming across one of the ‘Plus beaux villages de France’. The Haute Vienne region boasts only one village that has obtained this accolade and it’s not very far from our base so worth a visit on a day out. Mortemart is very… Continue reading Passe sanitaire – new Covid regulations

The landscape in this region is very different to the areas we visited last year. No hilltop villages, indeed very few hills, and villages are few and far between. There is gentle rolling countryside with huge fields of wheat, maize and, occasionally, sunflowers as well as Limousin cattle. It’s definitely a very untouristy region –… Continue reading Limousin and Limousines

We’ve moved on from Normandy to a much more central region of France to stay at the house of Joe’s friend, Ron, who has very kindly allowed us to use his house as a base during our travels in France. The house is in a small hamlet in the Haute-Vienne department, now part of the… Continue reading Exploring Central France

Bayeux is ideally situated as a base to visit the five British, American and Canadian D-Day beach landing sites – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno. The terrain is fairly flat as well so it has been possible to cover ground on bicycle as well as on the motorbike. We cycled from camp through beautiful… Continue reading Visiting the Normandy landing sites

Rat Patrol, an American TV series, which aired on our b&w tv screen from 1966 grabbed my attention. Set in WWII it featured US Army jeeps in North Africa racing across the desert from dune to dune. I wanted one. The Exchange & Mart, a pre-internet second-hand car (and other goods) paper, came out on… Continue reading How an interest in Normandy WWII history started