Day 2 Monday 23rd September
Woke this morning to bright sunshine which was a pretty good start to the day, so after a dump of waste water & refill of fresh [both tanks hold 150L of each & are set in the floor of the alko chassis] it was a case of 'of to the supermarket' to stock up on fresh items. The ferry crossing from Hull is an overnight one so although we carry the basics in dry goods, we do not carry chilled foods as the fridge, which runs on gas when not attached to a 240v source, has to be switch off for safety reasons.
Anyway, Brionne has a Carrefour store virtually opposite the entrance to the camp site, so in we trooped armed with bags & shopping lists, bread, milk, salads etc. To save encountering bank charges on both debit & credit cards abroad, something to do with exchange rates & admin costs, we have invested in preloaded debit cards, all you do is upload funds from your every day account whenever needed, these cards work well but are not accepted on autoroute toll machines or some garage forecourts, this being one of them! Incidentally, our credit card also was not accepted in the post-the-card-through-the-slot fuel pump, however all was not lost when a rather rotund lady waddled out from the kiosk indicating we could pay by card at her desk. 'Simples' as the advert says!
So filled up, gassed up we are ready to hit the road to Le Mans; a slight hold up as police directed traffic around a broken down lorry on our first roundabout then off down the D438 to rejoin the A28. The drive across to the motorway passed through rich farming countryside of maize, arable stubble & woodland.
Once back on the A28, Husband became noticeably excited as, on the opposite side or the motorway, what seemed to be every other car being a British registered classic car, mainly Jags [e-types, xjs, xk8, xk], so lots of 'wows' & 'look at that' going on. Since our return to home & doing a bit of internet research, it would appear that the cars had been taking part in the Circuit des Ramparts Angouleme? As husband has an xjs convertible, this could be a future adventure!
Back to the task in hand, once clear of Le Mans, we left the motorway to travel cross country across to Cinq Mars du Pile with the aim of crossing the river Loire at Langeais.
The drive was really interesting, long, straight / must have been Roman roads devoid of all vehicles, sharply narrow streets through picture postcard villages, vast orchards dripping with fruit but surprisingly few vineyards.
Today's night stop was to be near Azay-le-Rideau, so to reach the southern banks of the Loire we would need to cross the river at Langeais, a perfectly formed medieval village & chateau that had obviously not been designed with 6m motorhomes in mind!
Ha, we eventually found our way to the bridge, [which was a little like the Menai Bridge onto Anglesey]. It was all rather touristy with a profusion of holiday-by-bike groups wobbling across the bridge. I had set the sat-nav co-ordinates for a France Passion site, fruit growers en route to the chateau of Villandry, however , on arrival, although the overnight camping area looked ok, the owners were right in the middle of the fruit harvest so we decided to give that one a miss. A quick change of the GPS & we headed along narrow meandering country lanes, past vast orchards of apples & pears to Azay-le-Rideau.
The drive through the town was a tight squeeze but well sign posted one, & then down to the aires du camping-car & adjacent to that the camp site, Camping Municipal Le Sabot. We picked the camp site as the aire, although free, had motorhomes wedge in like sardines! You sneeze, I sneeze, we all sneeze!
The lady in reception was very helpful, the ACSI discount card was accepted, which is always a bonus! The site was a rather pretty one, set amongst trees bordering the River Indre, so we did have to do some careful parking to ensure that trees didn't obscure the satellite receiver! The site was pretty quiet really, but is was coming to the end of the season so the campers, mainly in motorhomes tended to be British, Dutch or German. Incidentally, the wifi didn't work here, must have been something to do with it being free. After a super of red Thai curry & rice, we went to explore the picture post card village which was eerily deserted.
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Today's weather was clear with blue skies & a was warm enough to get out the old shorts!
Today's mileage 179 miles
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