That’s cheating! That photo was taken when Rachel, Viki, Scout & I came back from St. Valery! Never mind! We sailed out under blue skies on a calm sea, and enjoyed lunch during the crossing to Dunkerque. Once off the ferry, we passed lots of petrol stations, no queues and diesel less expensive than in England ……….. ! **@$%!! Soon after leaving Dunkerque Harry squawked at us and put up a warning “SERVICE OIL NOW”. What? Sufficiently alarmed, and not thinking straight, we headed for the first available Centre Commerciale, bought some oil and bunged it in. Back on the road, the warning was STILL THERE! Then it dawned – we didn’t need oil; we needed a service including an oil change. (No flashing or constant red oilcan icon) But hang on …. the vehicle was serviced in April before sale and the service interval is once a year or 30,000 kms…… we haven’t done that! Finally we worked it out; the warning appeared at exactly 30,000kms on the clock – flippin’ Harrald, the German dealer, hadn’t reset the on-board computer when he did the service! Grrr!Gradually the clouds gathered and the drizzle started. We found a caravan park in a little town called Beaurainville (which seems to mean ‘Fine rain town’ – it doesn’t, of course, but ….) where a nice warden/owner allowed us to occupy three pitches for the price of one, so as not to have to uncouple, and advised us to park ‘a cheval’ – we got the idea (one wheel on the grass, one on the tarmac) but struggled with the image (astride?) – because if it carried on raining, we’d just sink when we tried to move. ‘Mais, il y a le tracteur’ (But the tractor’s there). And it rained! But in the event, we’d parked using our levellers so that there was only a little bit of grass/mud between the wheels and the tarmac that we got away quite easily.As we journeyed south skies brightened, tho showers continued, and we had a satisfactory lunch at a service area. We’re avoiding toll roads (motorways) and respecting speed limits for vehicles towing 80 / 90 kph (50 / 56mph) so progress is fairly slow. When we do find a stretch of toll-free motorway the lay-bys and service areas tend to be much pleasanter than in England:

(the white edifice in the photo is the loo block – this is just a lay-by, no facilities but parking, picnic tables loos and telephone.).Now we began to notice queues at petrol stations; some were closed, and some had petrol only – no diesel. We had to do some shopping, anyway, so we found a supermarket with a queue for the petrol station (a good sign – they must have some) and joined the queue. The manoeuvering was a bit tricky with the car in tow, but we managed and the diesel was limited to 40euros, but OK, we got that and parked up. When came out – petrol station was closed! If we’d shopped first ……Choosing our caravan parks isn’t straightforward – most closed at the end of September, so we have to look carefully at the info we have in our directories. Tuesday night we headed for Bonneval, a delightful park on the banks of the river Loir. (That’s not a mis-type Le Loir is a tributary of the better known La Loire.)

The sun shines on Harry at Bonneval.

Just below our pitch, the River Cher.

Again, a very pleasant lady warden directed us to a spot where we could park ‘lengthways’ without uncoupling and on firm ground, but when we did, and began to chat with the English couple in a little DIY van conversion ‘over the road’ we noticed that ‘Sally’s’ brake lights were still on, though everything was switched off and they shouldn’t have been. Roy took a helpful interest and worked out that the brake cable on the  A-frame was too tight. He identified where adjustment was possible and, with an assortment of spanners from his own tool kit, fixed it. Least we could do was invite Roy and Angela out of the drizzle to drinks and nibbles in our luxurious (by comparison) surroundings. It turned out that Angela is a foreign languages teacher who used to work at Kingsthorpe Upper School, Northampton! They also tried (not very hard) to sell us a place they are vacating near Limoges, but it’s not quite what we’re looking for. Sunrise thru the trees next morning (Wednesday) was a treat!:

Bonneval in the Valley of the Cher is a lovely site, and sun-up through the trees was delightful.

But with fresh croissants for breakfast and routine jobs to do (mainly concerning water) we didn’t get away till midday! But the weather was sunnier now and we travelled steadily, crossing La Loire in Tours, which brought memories of evenings in August 1972, when I spent a month there on a course for Primary School French Teachers.   

                                  

So as we approached Poitiers – another old haunt, exchange visits Boothville/Henri IV – we were able to shop and fill up with diesel without limit, so we have a full tank which we don’t need for at least a week, and make our way to the ‘Futuriste’ caravan park, one we’d read about in Motorcaravan Magazine (now no more!), and which takes it’s name from the nearby ‘Futuroscope’ Theme Park. They are also in the ‘Camping Cheques’ network, a voucher discount scheme recommended to us 2 years ago by a couple we met on the way down to Languedoc. You buy vouchers from Caravan Club before departure (when booking your ferry crossing thru the club) and you get your overnight fees, with electricity, for well less than the ‘drop in’ price (out of season). You can also get – as here now – offers like 7 nights for six vouchers, so we’ve booked in for a week.                                                               

More later – but for now: Everybody Speaks English  (But can the English understand the English everybody speaks?)Most people, we think would sort this out:– Please note the rubbishes are outside the campsite.

But we defy anyone without a knowledge of French to know what this means:– It is forbidden to place layers into to the rubbishes.

And this?– Bricks may be placed with the plastic.

Answers on a postcard ….. no, as a comment.