Monday 28th September

Somehow Ann managed to wake up and then wake me up in the early hours of this morning to watch the total eclipse of the moon. We were wandering around the rest area in our night clothes and it was very cold indeed.

The moon changed colour.

The moon became dark and red as totality approached. Unfortunately when the eclipse was total my camera wasn't able to take photos due to lack of light. By this time we were very cold indeed and when we got back into bed it took us a very long time to warm up.

Got up late this morning due to moon watching in the night. Beautiful sunny day. Headed into La Chatre to do supermarket then south through Montlucan and into the Auvergne. 

South of Montlucan we were involved in a very scary incident when a car suddenly swerved onto the wrong side of the road and was heading towards us at high speed. We managed to avoid a head on collision by taking to the right hand grass verge. We're really lucky to have survived.

We are staying tonight at St Eloy les Mines. We took a walk around the nice lake pictured above which is adjacent to the aire where we are staying. Met a couple of vanners from Scotland here who are on their way home from the South of France.

We travelled 63 miles ( 101 kilometres) today.

Sunday 27th September

From Loches we travelled south east past Chateauroux and then on towards La Chatre. Stopped for the night at this rest area just west of La Chatre.We travelled 77 miles (124 kilometres) today 

There were quite a few lizards around, mostly living under the decking around the toilet block at the rest area. There was also an apple orchard adjoining - Ann gathered some apples and made a very nice stewed apple desert for our tea. 

(I should mention that though I am very keen on cooking and do it mostly when we are at Widecombe, Ann insists on doing all the cooking when we are travelling in our campervan!)

Saturday 26th September

(Apologies for not posting for such a long time - I didn't come across any usable 3G or wifi along the way) This morning we took a walk into Bauge - it's quite an attractive town. The tourist office is housed in this impressive building. Ann bought some stamps.

 We left Bauge travelling south and before too long crossed the Loire.

Then we travelled east having by this route avoided the city of Tours. We stopped for a cup of tea in a village next to this interesting house.

Soon after this we arrived in the old town of Loches where we are staying tonight. It has very impressive town walls.We travelled 73 miles ( 118 kilometres) today.

There is an interesting church.

Inside is the grave of King Charles the Seventh's mistress.

Apparently he "shared" her with the Pope so it was okay!

Friday 25th September

We made quite a long journey south crossing from Normandy into Pays de la Loire. After a cold dewy night the hot morning sun burnt off the moisture in clouds of steam.

The day's journey ended at the town of Bauge's aire. (For new readers of this blog, if indeed there are any, an aire is a dedicated campervan parking area which usually has facilities for disposing of waste water and sewage and taking on fresh water. Aires are usually free to use but there may be a charge for water). As you can see the aire at Bauge was very popular that evening. We had travelled 110 miles (177 kilometres) during the day.

Thursday 24th September

From Villers-Bocage we made the short journey of 36 miles (58 kilometres) south to the town of La Ferriere-aux-Etangs. We parked for the night by this small lake just across from the town.

There is an interesting old church in town.

Apparently at some time in the past the graveyard was built over and the gravestones incorporated into the church walls!

Wednesday 23rd September

From Isigny we moved on the short distance to the City of Bayeux. Here is Notre Dame Cathedral.

We visited the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. The tapestry which is nearly 1000 years old depicts in "comic strip" form the events leading up to and during the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 AD. It is quite amazing that this has survived.

After having bought postcards, a tin of sardines (for George) and cream cakes we left Bayeux.

We stopped for the night at the town of Villers-Bocage not too far south of Bayeux. Here I am at the Town Hall. We travelled 43 miles (69 kilometres) today which is coincidently the same distance as yesterday.

Tuesday 22nd September

Brittany Ferries staff were very keen to get the ship loaded on time for an 8.30 departure from Poole - they were tapping on the side of our van at 6.30 to get us to check in for the sailing!

The ship did indeed leave at 8.30 and we were soon passing these impressive chalk cliffs as we left Poole. We had by this time eaten a very nice cooked breakfast in the self service restaurant.

We arrived in Cherbourg at about 13.30 docking next to this enormous cruise ship.

We parked for the night in the very nice small town of Isigny sur Mer, 43 miles (69 kilometres) south of Cherbourg. The town was once an important port but its access channel silted up and it became a backwater.

Monday 21st September

We left home in Widecombe this morning and had an okay journey to Poole in Dorset. As it was mid afternoon when we arrived we followed signs to "the beaches" and ended up at the very posh neighbourhood of Sandbanks.

Sandbanks is the home of the rich and famous and it was quite obvious that they didn't want the likes of us around!

They do have the odd nice signpost.

There were some interesting markings in the sand on the shore.

This spot was billed as a "viewpoint"! Anyway we soon had our fill of Sandbanks so we moved back into town and tonight we are parked at Poole Ferry terminal awaiting the 8.30 ferry to Cherbourg in the morning. We travelled 121 miles (195 kilometres) today.

Sunday 20th September

When the weather is fine it's often quite misty early in the morning round here at this time of the year. The nights are getting quite cold and the days are getting shorter. Time to go south? We're planning to set off travelling tomorrow.