The Journey

       
24th March 2015
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Setting off from Hull to Zeebrugge on North Sea Ferries, we had a nice surprise when we boarded, as we could leave Poppy in the van and not have to put her in a kennel like we did last year. This is something they are going to introduce soon, there will also be a dog walking area. We went down to see her a few times, but she was perfectly settled in familiar surroundings.

Jean and I on the ferry – starting as we mean to go on!

 This year we had an extra passenger, my cousin Jean joined us to be dropped off at her sister Maggie's place in France. Maggie and Paul, her husband,  live in Saint Sulpice Lauriere, which is not far from Limoges. They live there with their son Steve and daughter in law Sarah.

25th March 2015

We had a great journey opting to take the Toll (Peage) roads as we wanted to get to Maggie's as quickly as possible. Tolls were about €45. The traffic was very heavy on the Boulevard Peripherique around Paris. We completed the 420 miles at about 6pm. We had a wonderful, very late evening – drinking, eating and more drinking, putting the world to rights, catching up on childhood memories and lots of laughs.

26th March 2015

 Breakfast today included some local honey,
3 different kinds, all different but equally delicious.

We had a lazy, relaxing day. More eating, drinking, talking and laughing. It was great to have a look round their place and meet their pets. They have a dog called Maya, a miniature goat called Fleur, some chickens, 2 geese, one called George who is quite grumpy and one called Gertie. and a hedgehog called Mille.

Millie

George

Fleur the miniature goat

 Maggie and Paul live in the main house, Sarah and Steve live in a one bed 'gite' next door. Steve has his business, a brewery, in the barn. There are some beautiful views over the countryside.

Another evening of eating and drinking until very late. Maggie is a fantastic cook, she seems to whiz up food, including homemade breads, soup and meals at the drop of a hat.

27th March 2015

Maggie, Paul, Sarah, Jean, me and Poppy

Time for us to say goodbye to our great hosts and continue our journey to Greece. It was so good to spend time with our family, they made us feel very welcome, so much so, they have invited us back on our return journey in 3 months time.

Phil and Poppy snuggling down for the night.

We set off around lunchtime and had a pleasant drive. No toll roads for now as we want to see as much of the countryside as possible. We passed through some quaint little villages on our way to a Camperstop for the night. We even saw a deer at the side of the road. We arrived at Villefranche-de-Rouergue but unfortunately the place we wanted was closed until 1st April despite the Camperstops book saying it was open all year. We spent the night in a McDonalds car park.

28th March 2015

Again we drove along off toll roads and saw some beautiful countryside. Something we were looking forward to was driving over the Viaduct de Millau

Millau viaduct is an impressive 336 meters, making this the highest bridge in the world.

  

Poppy had a good run here

Stayed the night at Aire d'Ambrussum. It was a beautiful sunset

29th March 2015

 While we drove along today we fathomed out how to put co-ordinates into our Sat-nav and spent the night in a Camperstop at Avenue Francis Teisseire, Port de St Laurent du var – between Cannes and Nice. For anyone interested the co-ordinates for here are – n43.66628 e7.19595

30th March 2015

Today we saw some spectacular scenery keeping close to the coast road, along the Mediterranean sea. One place we stopped off for a break was Eze. Apparently U2 hang out in a hotel here in the summer.