Beaujolais Run.

Tuesday 12th September 2017 - Puy St Martin.

We had a good night sleep considering we were on a motorway service area!  We were on the road again by 8ish.  Long day driving.  We still hadn't got an end destination for the day.  We drove through the Burgundy region and remembered the popularity of the Beaujolais Run, when British people would drive like idiots to collect Beaujolais wine on one day of the year when the new wine was released for sale.  They drove back with the wine and tried to win 'the race' back.  I don't think speed limits got in the way of the race!  It doesn't seem to happen now.  I wonder why?  You can just nip to get better wine any day of the week from any supermarket!

We hit a traffic jam, just south of Lyon.  Rather tedious!

We had already been in the queue for over an hour.  We sat and listened to a Marti Pellow CD whilst we waited (one of Janice's favourites).  We saw him in concert in Manchester in March.  I still have nightmares about the women sitting behind us with big chests and wearing T shirts saying 'Marti's Pillows'.

Whilst in the queue we tried to choose somewhere to stay tonight. We chose a camp site but couldn't get through on the phone.  When we got to the source of the queue we found out it was a Transport Union road block with lorries blocking the road......them bloody French Unions!

From that point onwards we we found that elusive yellow round thing in the sky.

This was the Rhone River as we approached Vienne.  We had abandoned the toll roads on the basis that it had cost us 100 euros already and we hadn't seen any of France.  The other roads were slower but we saw more as we skirted Valence and then into proper countryside.

We abandoned the site we had chosen and stopped at a free Aire de Camping site in a pretty village called Puy St Martin, east of Montelimar, not too far north of Mont Ventoux.

You can just see some motor homes in the centre of the picture.  

We had a lovely chicken salad meal in sunshine.  I even put on my sandals!  

The wine was from Ventoux and went down a treat.  It always tastes so much better in France, as well as the bread, cheese, tomatoes, salads.....pretty much everything.

Then we went for a walk up a nearby hill to enjoy the lovely view.

Fab view.  Fab wife too!

The journey feels like it has just started.  We are determined to enjoy it and not try and do too much travelling.  We need to find places we like and explore rather than constantly moving.  We shall see if we can keep to the plan!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strictly raining!

Image
Saturday 4th November 2017 - Vironvay. We had a rainy day forecast so we had a quiet day.  We had a drive to Louvier market and more importantly we made an important visit..... We also bought some brioche for a second attempt at a bread and butter pudding French style. I will have to check with Wendy to see what she thinks.  It was certainly tasty and disappeared quickly. Our day was nice and relaxing followed by a lovely meal. We watched Strickly Come Dancing for the first time, Sian and Janice are big fans and I sneekingly enjoy it too.  Ger puts up with it too. There was break in cloud for a while and although the photo isn't too good we saw a nice moon reflection on the Seine.
Read more

Bonfire Night but no fireworks!

Image
Sunday 5th November 2017 - Boulogne-sur-Mer. We said our fond farewells to Ger and Sian.  They are extremely kind and considerate hosts.  We enjoyed our stay very much. We moved north to stay at Boulogne so we would be close to the tunnel for tomorrow morning.  It felt very cold today despite some bright spells.  We felt so cold it was like a cold Bonfire Night in England.  We will not be celebrating Guy Fawkes here in France...they don't do that here. We arrived in Boulogne and had a little walk around.  It was a little dreary on a Sunday but the old fortified town area was nice with a grand cathedral. I came here about 3 years ago with my friend Bruce, so had some memories. We found an Aire de Camping Car and couldn't immediately park because of parked spectators cars at the entrance blocking the way.  The town football ground is next door and a game was in progress.  We waited for the end of the game to allow cars to leave before we could drive...
Read more

France is closed!

Image
Wednesday 1st November 2017 - Nogent-le-Roi. We had changed our plans a little by deciding that tomorrow we would visit Versailles. As we drove past Tours and northwards we realised that the roads were pretty quiet and when we stopped at a Lidl supermarket and found it closed we twigged that it must be a public holiday.  It is now November and it is All Saints Day.  The day that the French remember the dead.  It seems a great idea but I thought it might be a bit morbid thinking of the dead all day?  Whatever people were doing they were not in public places, they were not eating out, exercising or shopping. We called at one of our favourite places from two years ago, Chateaudun.  It's a small town south of Chartres. The chateau is very imposing.  We stayed at an Aire de Camping two years ago on a car park just below the chateau walls.  I am wearing long trousers for the first time in a long time.  I managed to avoid wearing them through October but...
Read more