A New Adventure in France

We haven’t mentioned the important French public holiday this week – Bastille Day on 14th July. Celebrations were obviously more muted this year due to Covid-19 but most villages seemed to be marking it in some way. We were in the local village of Prayssac at lunchtime and a band was playing in the village… Continue reading Final few days at Anglars-Juillac

We’ve enjoyed cycling through the vineyards over the last few days, following smaller roads to see where they lead, and admiring the soft gold stone buildings in this area. At many crossroads there are beautiful crosses – they may been way markers for pilgrims or guardians for the vines. In the commune where the campsite… Continue reading Wine – well we are in France

Sunday. A brocante (flea market/ boot sale) is advertised in Puy-l’Evêque a riverside town about a 12km cycle ride away so we decide to make that the focus for a visit. It’s a beautiful and renowned town that was once an important port on the river for transporting wine to Bordeaux. It’s known to us… Continue reading Sunday Flea Market

This is our motorcycle. Over the last three years it has carried us on various adventures through France (including Corsica) and Germany before we had our camper van. It has also taken me, in the company of my fellow biker Andy, further afield to Romania via Austria, Hungary and Slovenia. It has a one litre,… Continue reading Another in an occasional series – Wulf

Thursday. The day is set to be a scorcher and we decide to head off on the motorbike to explore further to the west of the Lot. Our first waypoint is Villeneuve sur Lot, about 60 kms to the west of our campsite. Satnav takes us on a scenic route, mostly good but more about… Continue reading Venturing further west

Our campsite at Anglars-Juillac is also the location for hire of kayaks, paddle boards and bikes in this area so we decided to hire kayaks for half a day and see some of the scenery from a different perspective. As we had breakfast overlooking the river, our fellow camper, Rob the Dutchman, returned from another… Continue reading Messing about on the river

Chilly’s 750ml water bottle We bought this before we came away thinking it would be good for cool, refreshing drinks on our walks. It keeps liquids cool or hot well enough BUT it is about the size, shape and weight of a 40mm cannon shell and is determined to fall from an upright position as… Continue reading An occasional series about things that are useful….. or not

After getting our bearings on our first day here, we’ve been exploring a little further afield on bicycles, motorbike and our own two feet. We’re surrounded by beautiful medieval villages, variously described as bastides and bourgades. Many have hilltop locations and their purpose was primarily to survey and defend the River Lot. Several also served… Continue reading Life at Anglars-Juillac and sampling French delicacies

Objective: With minimum fuss and injury make the camper van ready for the road and the off by 10.30 a.m. Our next stop will be the Lot river valley. Alarm sounds @ 0600. Time for a quick coffee whilst allocating tasks. All must be done as quietly as possible to avoid waking fellow campers, so… Continue reading Striking Camp – what goes up must come down…

Although the title of our blog is ‘Exploring the Lot Valley’, our first stopover is the Loire region and we won’t be arriving in the Lot area until the end of the week. After our early departure from the UK we slept very soundly despite the unfamiliar surroundings and riverside wildlife. During lockdown we’ve been… Continue reading Settling In…