Sunday 27th November 2022

We arrived into Portsmouth on time at 7.45 this morning. We could just see the famous Portsmouth tower though our rain soaked cabin window.

Down on the vehicle deck we couldn't imagine how this lorry parked in front of us was going to get off the ferry but it managed it somehow.

We had a straightforward journey back to our house in Devon where as usual on returning from a long journey we found the moles had made a mess of our lawn!

Today we travelled 152 miles (245 kilometres). 

Our journey lasted 55 days visiting France, Spain and Portugal and we travelled 4079 miles (6567 kilometres) excluding the ferry crossings from Poole to Cherbourg and Saint Malo to Portsmouth.

Thanks to everyone who followed this blog.

Roger.

Saturday 26th November 2022

From Grand Fougeray we headed north passing by the Brittany Capital City of Rennes. We parked at the Brittany Ferries Terminal in Saint Malo. We are booked on the 20.30 service to Portsmouth.

We are travelling on the Brittany Ferries Flagship - Pont Aven. It a very big ship.

We got onto the ship about 18.30 and settled into our very nice cabin seen here. Later on we had a meal in the canteen.

Today we travelled 76 miles (122 kilometres) to Saint Malo Ferry Terminal at: N48.6415 W2.0228

Saint Malo         Street View

 Friday 25th November 2022

There were a few showers overnight. I got up about 7.00 and turned on the heating. Almost immediately the gas ran out so I had to go outside in the dark, open the back door and turn the empty gas cylinder off and the one with some gas in it on. Later on the sun came out.

We set off north stopping to take on LPG and diesel. We crossed this enormous bridge over the Loire in Nantes.

We stopped for the day at the town of Grand Fougeray. Ann did some cleaning.

We are at the aire. The water is free but we don't really need any.

The town centre is close by.

Here's the church - locked unfortunately. There are a couple of other vans here tonight. 

Today we travelled 71 miles (114 kilometres). We are at: N47.7225 W1.7301

Grand Fougeray   Street View

Thursday 24th November 2022

 Thursday dawned a bit grey.

The "real campers" who had turned up last night weren't stirring.

We travelled north. The weather was generally quite nasty.

We passed these impressive wind generators.

We stopped for the day at the town of Corcoue Sur Logne. Here's the view from the side door of our van at the town's aire where each parking place has a little hedge round it!

Ann went for a walk and took some pics. She wasn't sure of the purpose of this grotto.

Who's this?

The Logne.

A chapel?

The municipality was putting up the christmas decorations.

The river bridge is close to the aire.

This map shows the local walking routes.

Today we travelled 84 miles (135 kilometres). We are at: N46.9613 W1.5813

Corcoue Sur Logne    Street View

Wednesday 23rd November 2022

It stopped raining very briefly this morning and I was able to get out of the van and look at our surroundings.

It cost us 5 euros to stay overnight here. There is a multilingual machine which only accepts payment by plastic card.

There are numerous regulations to adhere to if you want to stay here.

It costs an extra 2 euros if you want any water so we confined ourselves to emptying the waste water and the toilet.

This is prime wine producing territory. The Bordeaux vineyards are world famous.

We set off travelling north - there were numerous showers and rainbows along the way.

Initially we travelled on major roads but as the day went on the roads became narrower. Eventually we came to a sharp left turn where the road was partially blocked by two large lorries which appeared to be engaged on mending overhead power lines but I may be incorrect about this. When one of the work persons beckoned me to come forward and pass the two lorries on the left I stupidly did what was requested. I should have refused to have anything to do with it and put my flashers on and waited till the road was cleared or somehow turned round and gone another way. But I didn't do either of these things and instead was stuck between a crash barrier on the left and a lorry on the right with about 5 centimetres clearance on each side. Eventually I managed to squeeze the van through without any damage to the van, the lorry or the crash barrier. This took an awful lot out of me. I'm really beginning to question whether I should be driving motor vehicles any more. I also seriously question the competence and responsibility of these work people who were doing works on a narrow sharp bend when they should have temporarily closed the road and if necessary organised a diversion. What if two large lorries had arrived travelling in opposite directions?

We crossed a large wetland area.

We stopped for the day at a woodland car park at Aigrefeuille D'aunis.

There is a lake nearby.

There have been some nice cloundscapes today in between the torrential 

showers.

This is an attractive area. This evening some real campers turned up and put a tent up and lit a fire close to our parking place. I am feeling really shaky and unwell this evening after the incident with the sharp bend and the lorries earlier!

Today we travelled 111 miles (179 kilometres). We are at: N46.1252 W0.9127

Aigrefeuille D'aunis     Street View

 

Tuesday 22nd November 2022

In between torrential showers I managed to get out of the van this morning and take the rubbish to the bin from where I took this picture of the really delightful aire.

These old semi derelict houses are just next to the aire.

The old fortified village is just up hill from here but really serious rain is threatening all the time.

This old wash house is also nearby.

I got quite wet servicing the van at the aire. We then set off and travelled north west stopping for a cup of chocolate by this old church.

We then turned northwards travelling through the devastation of the great south west France fire of summer 2022. The authorities are doing what they can to cut down the thousands of hectares of trees which were killed in the fire.

Without coming here yourself to see the kilometre after kilometre of devastation it  would be totally impossible to conceptualise the appalling damage which climate change has inflicted on this region.

 

We got onto the free motorways surrounding Bordeaux.

We crossed the Garonne.......

.....and the Dordogne .

We stopped for the day at the aire at the village of Saint Romain La Virvee. It has rained heavily for most of  the day and it's still raining heavily this evening. We found out that not all the World Cup matches are pay to view on French TV and managed to watch France v Australia this evening.

Today we travelled 94 miles (151 kilometres). We are at: N44.9637 W0.4019

  Saint Romain La Virvee    Street View

Monday 21st November 2022

It would really be difficulty to imagine a more depressing day than today weather wise. It poured with rain all night, it poured with rain all day and it's still pouring with rain this evening. We set off north and crossed the Pyrenees main divide at a fairly easy pass of about 1100 metres,  We crossed from Spain into France at the low key border crossing seen here. We stopped to do a supermarket shop. We stopped a little further on to try to watch the England v Iran world cup match but discovered it wasn't being shown on French free to air TV! FIFA must have sold the French rights to Sky or some other rip off pay to view company. We stopped for the day at the aire at Labastide D'Armagnac just north east of Mont de Marsan. We haven't ventured out of the van due to the appalling weather but I'm sure this is a beautiful place with riverside parking and an historic fortified village just next door.

Today we travelled 115 miles (185 kilometres). We are at: N43.9720 W0.1862

Labastide D'Armagnac     Street View

Sunday 20th November 2022

This morning in Burgos I saw that a few other vans had arrived overnight and all the volleyball players and spectators had gone home.

We travelled east through various interesting landscapes.

Having cleared the cities of Logrono and Pamplona we headed north into the foothills of the Pyrenees.

There had obviously been some recent snowfall.

We stopped for the day at the monastery at Roncesvalles.

This place is on a pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela and there are lots of facilities here catering for pilgrims.

There are nice views to snowy hills from here.

This chapel was locked - I'm not sure the pilgrims would be too happy about that.

There is some public art at the monastery.

Unlike the chapel the church was unlocked.

It was very dark inside the church - because the authorities have installed a machine that requires you to pay a euro to get the lights turned on.

There's some nice old stained glass.

This window at the back of the church is particularly fine.

This monastery is enormous with at least two courtyards like this. We didn't see any monks. I'm not sure whether there are any here anymore.

It was quite cold here this afternoon. In this rather poor photograph you can just see our van parked on the far right. The van on the far left of the photo is British registered with a west country number plate! 

Today we travelled 164 miles (264 kilometres). We are at: N43.0095 W1.3190

Roncesvalles    Street View