The grand tour of France in a motorhome 2022 September 19th - day twenty-two

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Woken by the bin men at 5am, I’m unable to return to a sleeping state by our French neighbours who have literally parked a metre away from us. They started arguing at 0615 and were in full battle mode by at 7am. Chances of a lie in? Nil!   

We have a quick breakfast, pack everything up and depart by 0815, up the switchbacks of D4 to Grotto Chauvet 2.  34 euros gets you an audio guide and earphones and the back of the party tagged onto a French group. They get a guide in person and proper headphones with padded ear pieces.....is this a Gallic put down to other nationalities?

Was this side trip worth the money? Yes. Absolutely! The cave paintings are astonishing. The actual construction project truly a monumental undertaking. The building it is all housed in a masterful piece of gallic architecture triumphalism.

The other galleries that go with this museum cum country park?  Um less inspiring. Lots of interesting information but much of it poorly explained. As a geography and history teacher I came away somewhat irritated by factual inaccuracies, poor explanations and over simplifications when there just didn't need to be.  

Then we are back on the road to Ruoms, where we have our first driving mishap. We meet a German motorhome coming the other way on a narrower stretch of road and our wing mirrors collide. We were both doing around 40mph. We stopped. I checked our dash cam. He was well over! He didn't stop. Thank God for mirror protectors. Not a scratch or dent on them. However, the upper wing mirror came apart and was hanging off, rescued very quickly by Mag and held in place until we could pull over safely. The lower small mirror fractured but you can just about see it. It had been knocked out completely, hanging just by its electric wire. It clipped back in and I secured it with some electric tape. It could have been worse. I carry a spare left hand wing mirror just for this reason. Didn't think about the smaller one though.

We turn up at a camping car site down by the river. Large, with 100 pitches and lots of tree cover and shade.  A popular stop, it’s busy but then there is a four-day international Petanque competition being held in the town centre car park attracting big crowds. A big affair, very, very, competitive.

 Having chosen a corner pitch with good views of the sky above for later stargazing, we are off on the bikes along an old railway line track to Balazac, one of the prettiest medieval villages in all of France. Or so we are told in the tourism office. We’ve seen prettier in Devon and Cornwall for sure. The cycle trail was flat and charming, great scenery.

Our effort to book a beaver spotting canoe trip for later this evening fails miserably. They have stopped doing them. The season ended last week. I console myself with some evening stargazing and astrophotography. 

Useful information:

Useful websites: Grotto Chauvet    https://www.grottechauvet2ardeche.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzeSdBhC4ARIsACj36uEST1joV62VwaLp4335T9FcJtO5PJg7uOzc1kOwf4UCye2GgQI_kIAaAqiuEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Costs: campsite aire 14 euros   https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/marker.php?id=38157

Cycle route –