Much a Fuss About Nothing!

I have to admit that if we hadn't been meeting up with Richard, Charlotte and our grandkids and Charlotte's mum and dad for a week in France, then I almost certainly would have cancelled our trip and instead, spent a couple of weeks touring in our beautiful UK.  Why you may ask?  Well because France seemed to be undertaking a meltdown on many fronts prior to the commencement of the Euro 2016 finals.  Not least of these was the supposed lack of petrol and diesel across the whole of the country, a slight problem for us considering we had approximately 600 miles to reach our intended destination in France!

What a mistake that would have been.  We arrived courtesy of Eurotunnel - not a fan as you now know - and then experienced a perfect journey over 24 hours to our current location of Camping les Ramieres in Sahune.  We never had to queue for diesel once, every garage having a plentiful supply and the traffic flowed quietly and oh so beautifully for the whole of our journey down here on the different autoroutes.  

If you have never experienced the French alternative to our motorways, then you have missed a treat.  They are beautifully surfaced, have brilliant and well maintained rest areas every 20kms with picnic tables and rubbish bins aplenty and on a Sunday, they are almost completely free of road haulage due to a law passed some time ago.  The downside of this however is that every rest area and service station becomes completely clogged with wagons finding a refuge for 24 hours.  It can make it slightly difficult for caravanners to find an overnight resting place but happily, we succeeded.

The one thing I have forgotten to mention though is that all of these autoroutes are privately run and therefore, there is a price to pay!  It's not inconsiderable either.  For our 600 mile trip, we paid just over 70 Euros.  £58 in English money or for my new American family, $84.  Some of you might feel that's rather a lot but for me, it's a no-brainer.  Lack of stress, better fuel consumption although averaging 70mph hasn't really helped that and two night's site fees saved, all contribute to my positive opinion.

Anyway, we arrived safely at 10.30am this morning although not without a shock at the 2.9km approach to the campsite once we had turned off the main road in Sahune!  A single track road wound its way alongside the river through fruit orchards and with the odd precipitous drop on either side!  Just fine if solo in the old Land Rover but slightly more pressured with 8 metres of caravan in tow.  I did offer the odd expletive as we made our way gingerly towards the site but boy was the stress worth it.  The place is a delight with gorgeous views from our terraced pitch and glorious sunshine to boot.  It feels like a great place to relax and we can't wait for everyone to arrive next Saturday.

I did retrace my steps this afternoon on the road into the campsite and quite frankly, I made a fuss over nothing!  I fear I am turning into a wuss!

Market day in Vaison-la-Romaine tomorrow.

    The View from our Pitch

    Burnt out Clutch Getting Here but Worth It!

    Damn! We Had to Make do with Tarte au Pommes