We have been camping in France, with occasional forays into Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for about 40 years. We used to travel with friends complete with school age children, so many of those trips were in the height of the…

We’ve returned to Millau, one of Francine’s personal favourites, for the first time in more years than I can remember. It’s been a four night stop. We used to stay at a quite wooded campsite beside the River Dourbie but…

On Sunday after leaving Le Temple sur Lot, we’ve made a very short hop for us, a mere 90kms, and pitched up at Cahors, also sur Lot. (I asked the nice young man on reception, which we just made in…

Thursday at Les Mathes  the weather had thrown irritating rain at us all day long, off and on. At times it felt mostly on. We really should have used it as a travelling day but we hadn’t yet paid the…

Les Mathes really is not our natural habitat. The area is packed with fun-fair establishments and campsites with water slides to attract Satan’s Little Disciples. Were it not for the excellent oyster fishery around La Tremblade, we probably would not…

Yesterday was getting a bit long – no, still 24hrs – so I’m taking a leaf out of the cricketing manual and resuming after tea break. There are quite a few privet hedges on site in full flower and Frodo’s…

We had spent our final evening in Arçais over a very convivial BBQ with our friend. Convivial it may have been but it also felt a little dangerous since one of the tripod legs of the BBQ was prone to…

There is a decent proper boucherie in Damvix – there’s really very little but a basic co-op in Arçais so we decided to take a longer route along the side of the Sèvre Niortaise river into Damvix for some culinary…

We’ve been languishing in Arçais for a few days catching up with our friend that we last saw at a remembrance gathering for her husband last year. We’ve had a good time catching up. I’ve also had to catch up…

Last year at about this time we were at Arçais for our friend’s celebration of life, a friend who had sadly passed away from Covid early in 2024. Now being on the west coast of France in the vicinity, it…