From the Dordogne to the Loire

 We arrived at Camping Huttopia close to Sarlat on Saturday 9th April, it’s quite a large site with some lodges. Once again shared facilities and no Wi-Fi on pitches. The site is situated on a hill and an easy 10 minute walk into Sarlat, walking back up the steep hill is another matter!

Sarlat is a beautiful medieval town in the Dordogne, with a big indoor market in the Sainte-Marie church with it’s massive door (see photo). 

We were too late for lunch, as we arrived just as the restaurants finished serving and after walking back later in the evening we were also too late for dinner forgetting that the French eat earlier than the Spanish ( in Spain we were always too early!). Mr C wasn’t in a particularly good mood! 

On Sunday we ensured we were on time for lunch and sat outside in the sun enjoying a three course lunch and rose wine. Monday was a similar kind of day. The weather has been fairly good with sunny days but colder at night. 

On Tuesday we set off again but had a disastrous day. The intention was to stop at a site near Bellac just north of Limoges for the night but when we arrived we found it closed. We then decided to go straight (well I say straight but Google maps took us on a scenic route) to Richelieu our next intended stop only to find that closed too! Unfortunately the website information isn’t quite accurate. We drove on to Saumur tempers rising even more, I think I heard someone say “just give me the f*****g map at one stage during our travels that day.

Things got a little bit worse when we arrived at Camping L’ile d’Offard (a site at Saumur where we’ve stayed a few times before) when we got to our designated pitch someone was already on it! Back to reception and were given a new pitch.

The next morning we woke up to a lovely warm sunny day which made up for the previous day, in the evening we wandered into Saumur and had dinner sitting outside in the lovely market square which was really vibrant., the restaurants and bars full with happy patrons. Walking back to the campsite we witnessed a beautiful sunset. (Pictured). The campsite is the loveliest we’ve been to, with a wonderful view of the château which overlooks the site. 

The rest of our stay was even better! Very warm and sunny. On Wednesday  we made the long trek to Lidle (nearest supermarket) to pick up some supplies for our BBQ. Finally we were able to enjoy an afternoon and evening soaking up the sun.

On Saturday we walked into Saumur and wandered around the market and then went to our favourite restaurant Le Grand Bleu and had an extravagant lunch.

Sunday morning I walked to the local Boulangerie and bought fresh bread and croissants for breakfast. We ended the day with our final BBQ of our trip as Monday we head north to our penultimate stay Vendome where the weather forecast tells us it’s a lot cooler.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Supper in Sapa

Image
There are some very strange things on the menu in Sapa like porcupine, cervit cat, bamboo rat and horse you can have all of them stir fried. We settled for salmon and sturgeon hot pot one evening. So the bowl of stock is bought to the table and placed over a heater and you are given a basket of vegetables and a plate with the fish and tofu then you cook it all yourselves and eat with rice. We also ate street food at the night market, the menu also has some unappetising items such as sparrow, turtle dove and a frog. Everything is barbecued over hot charcoal. Not the best place for vegetarians. We tried a few bits Mr C pork, Mrs C fish then went for a pizza. Vendors in the street are roasting chestnuts in abundance and they are very moorish. They go down very well with the tiny tangerines and fresh pineapple you can buy very cheaply. Coffee is a bit hit and miss and the coffee that the hotel serves for breakfast is vile, luckily I have bought my own coffee bags - thank you Sainsbu...
Read more

Stormy Weather!

Image
 We said goodbye to Cabopino, Cliff and Irene and set off for Roquetas de Mar. It had rained all night and was very windy and the drive was a bit hairy due to high winds. However this was nothing to what was to come. . . . Camping Roquetas is quite basic but OK for a short stop over and we were very much in the minority and surrounded by Germans. It was very windy all night and dust storms arrived, we woke up to find Monica covered in a light film of dust.  On Thursday we walked into the nearest town looking for lunch and found a good tapas bar, loads of free tapas on the menu but we bought some too, we had a couple of glasses of wine which cost more than the tapas. More storms over night bought yet more dust and we woke up to a murky haze. Mr C did his best to clean the dust off Monica, we then set off on the 2 hour journey to Mazarron, close to Cartagena. We took the toll road which was practically empty! More rain en route.  After setting up at the campsite I did some ...
Read more