A New Adventure in France

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 stage whispers and sign language are the order of the day. The motorbike was loaded onto the trailer the previous evening so that gives us a head start. To access the roof box the pop-top is lowered so that beds and chairs can be put away and we can make a start on taking down the awning for which Claire has a step by step list from a YouTube video.

All goes well until the deflation of the air beams (no tent poles for us) which don’t deflate fully to the desired air-free flatness, even after we’ve rolled around full length on the dew damp material – there is no way this is going back in its bag. So it gets stuffed in the back of the van as is, but we figure it will be put up again in a few hours anyway.

It’s amazing how much noise undoing a zip makes but we’re hoping the noise of the hot air ballon burners inflating in a nearby field and passing overhead masks our racket. We are all packed away and on our way just after 9.30 a.m., so a good job done.

Conclusion: all in all we’re happy with our efforts but more work needed on packing the awning away. 7/10 must try harder. (We subsequently found how we can use the pump fitting to help with deflation.)

We travel about another 250 miles further south to the Lot region which is located to the south of the Dordogne and north of Toulouse. Our first site is Anglars-Juillac which will be our base for a couple of weeks to explore the west of the region. The campsite is again directly on the river and is a small site with just 25 pitches. It’s run by a Dutch couple and the campers who have spoken to us so far, and helped unload the bike, are also Dutch. We pitch camp again without problem. We’ve deliberately planned to spend decent amounts of time at each site and to use them as a base as the putting up and taking down of the outfit takes time and energy. We also recognise that we’ve been blessed so far with good weather and there will no doubt come a day when we have to do all this in the rain.

Our first day proper at the site is spent getting our bearings, finding local shops, etc, and exploring the locality by bicycle. This comes after a very relaxing breakfast overlooking the river. The landscape has changed as we moved further south, from agricultural land with huge expanses of wheat fields and sunflowers in the Loire, to rocky cliffs and outcrops, walnut trees and vines in this region. The vineyards are dotted with the small stone buildings that housed tools or provided shelter from the elements to the vignerons when they stopped for lunch or even spent the night there. We discover the nearby village of Prayssac, accessed via beautiful iron bridges and then follow a recommended cycling route through the vineyards. We have still to start sampling the local wines but will write more on that later, as well as about the food.

Prayssac is quite an attractive village with all the necessary amenities and a choice of bars and restaurants. The Covid precautions in shops and restaurants seem a bit more lax down here and, with so few people, it’s hard to imagine how they have been impacted (or not). We’re keen to use and, hopefully improve, our French while we’re here but wearing of face masks is not really conducive to striking up conversations, but that may change as more holidaymakers arrive. At a bar a couple of days ago, out of curiosity and in the interest of speaking French, we asked the bar owners what the stance is on the traditional French greeting – faire la bise. The response was a Gallic shrug and a reply of ‘On sait plus’ – nobody knows! Another customer was more certain that it isn’t allowed but we’ve seen lots of instances of it in the village today. Anyway, we won’t be trying it any time soon!