The Grand Tour of France - September/October 2022

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September 1^st       Day three

My it was stormy last night. Thunder, lightning, torrential rain, wind. The carpark in which the Aire is based is one mass of puddles. The start to the day is cloudy, damp, murky! I check the battery panel – all seems OK. This is our first ‘off grid’ experience abroad. Batteries show 12.5 and 12.8v respectively. Good start to the day then. We were minimalist in our use of electric last night. One LED light, fridge and hot water on gas; occasional power for charging router and one phone.

Its 0700. “Is there an agreed protocol on what time you can leave an Aire?” We discuss this over breakfast, having no idea of the answer. Outside our windows, a church spire rises gracefully above the tall trees. It is peaceful. No traffic noises. No commuters!

We move across to the services area. Our first experience of French motorhome Aire facilities. We aren’t sure what to expect. Waste water down the drain in the road. That’s easy to work out. Black waste? Pictures on the pillar show us where that goes – a lift up flap reveals a hole in the ground at the pillar base! Ok! Bit mucky but……! Water supply? Two push button taps above the black waste trap, one marked ‘potable’ and the other ‘non potable’.

Maybe it’s me! Maybe it’s my childhood upbringing. My mother’s obsession with cleaning? I think I inherited that gene! But, the proximity of that ‘potable’ tap to the black waste disposal point does not fill me with joy or hope! A whole bottle of Dettox sprayed over it would not reassure me one iota!  Fortunately, we are OK for water onboard. I filled up 75% at home before we left! I check batteries and toilet cistern. All OK.

We are in Blain by midday. A giant L’Clerec. A coffee and further food stock up! We have just driven across a rural landscape of woodlands and fields of maize and wheat. Old farmhouses and barns, tiny hamlets and that funny ‘prioritie a droite’ rule! Our first impressions? Cleanliness, seen no litter! Wide roads and little traffic. Well signposted to places. 

As we head further south to our next destination, Chinon, in the Loire Valley, the landscape changes once more. It flattens out with broad vistas across large field areas. Fewer hedges, more plains. And field after field of sunflowers. The sunflower is a symbol of love and adoration due to the ‘myth of Clytie and Apollo’. I defy anyone not to be cheered by the sight of a field full of sunflowers, their faces like satellite dishes, tracking the sun. Bright, cheery, warm, inviting even plain, honest and upright. However you describe them, I always want to stop and sneak into the field, to walk alongside such joyous flowers. Sunflowers always remind me of the famous Helen Keller quote

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. That’s what sunflowers always do.”

So, two days in what are we learning? Don’t drive for more than 3 hrs in a day. We have done two days of six hours each time and its ‘tiring’, especially if only one of you drives the motorhome. D roads take far longer than Google maps suggests. If it said one hour, we found it was around 40 minutes added on. If you have a long journey between destinations – take the toll roads and save your fuel consumption too. We are using a ‘Bip and Go’ tag. We purchased it about five weeks before we left the UK. We just drive up to the toll barrier, stop, it bleeps, the barrier raises and we go off. We haven’t yet braved the ‘approach at 30 kph and just drive at it’ gate! Trust issues obviously, on the part of the driver! I’m just not that confident that the barrier would rise in time!! Apparently according to the ‘Bip and Go’ app, we will be invoiced at the end of September! Little towns are pretty but take time to pass through. Most thus far have had chicanes and 20 kph speed limits! It all adds onto journey times!

The Chinon Municipal Aire is right down by the river; shaded by trees and a short walk across the bridge into the old medieval town. We drive in, select a pitch and go back to the office to pay. Easy peasy! Our pitch is hedged either side, plenty big enough for motorhome and awning on grass. There are some puddles but we are confident we will get off it with no problem. Toilet and shower facilities, clean and easily accessible close by.  It takes us about ten minutes to find the nearest tap 20m away! 

1630 and we are strolling across the bridge. The river is incredibly low. They have clearly had a hot summer drought as well. Rafts of verdant green weed everywhere. There is a dance group jiving away down by a waterside café. We walk the main street getting our bearings and head back to the site. It has been a long day’s drive. 

The evening is cooler, a welcome relief from the humid thundery conditions yesterday. It’s around 20C at 1900. We sit outside, discover the mosquitoes, or rather they discover us and so we beat a hasty retreat back inside, opening all windows and roof lights; pulling across all mesh screens. We hadn’t thought about mosquitoes. When I say ‘we’ I mean me! Apparently, mosquitoes only attack those with a certain body odour. I read this in a fascinating Guardian article. It seems Maggie doesn’t have that body odour gene, whereas I do! One of us ends up being bitten alive, left with nasty, itchy BIG red bumps. And one of us gets one or two tiny red spots! Life just isn’t fair, is it?  We have come unprepared. Out of date DEET spray for a start. Oops! We could argue over whose responsibility it was to check this, but it’s pointless as it seems, it was mine! Someone did mention about the mosquitoes in the predeparture planning and suggested he buy a load of citronella candles. The family chancellor, SWMBO, over ruled him on the grounds of “unjustifiable extra costs”. Hah, tonight I’ve been vindicated!

2200 and there is a huge thunderstorm overhead. The site warden comes running around getting us out of our motorhomes to lift all our EHU cables on to the hedges. She is worried about flooding overnight, not so much from the river, but from coalescing ground puddles!

It is going to be such a quagmire in the morning!

 

Helpful details:

Route: N24 to Ploermel – D8 to La Gacilly – D773 to Redon – D164 to Ancenis – D751 to Chinon

Distance: 82 miles, drive time 7 hours (including stops)

Aire costs: 13 Euros