Adios Espana, Vive la France…

Saturday 1^st October 2022 Valladolid to La Poblacion 119 miles

We had a lovely day yesterday in Valladolid however the night was a bit noisy, a few noisy drunks had gathered nearby and just made a right old racket until dawn! No matter, it was a good stay and we think that last night was just a one-off. We do a quick van service and set off towards the north of the country.

The drive is wonderful, this part of Spain is almost flat, dry and arid with lots of ‘flattened mountains” in the distance, quite spectacular. We stop en route at a service station.

At this point, we have to say that the main European service stations are just the best. They are in the main, clean, not too busy, with a great selection of food on offer, all made on the premises. Compare that to a UK service station that’s dirty, over-crowded, and just full of high street chains offering sub-standard fare at inflation-busting prices. There is nothing great about a UK service station that has a Costa, M&S, and a Greggs!

Today we are going to where the river Ebro starts its journey. The Ebro flows through Spain to the east and pops out into the Med 100 miles south of Barcelona, that’s a long way. When we had the boat we used to sail around the Ebro delta so to be where it starts its journey is quite good for us.

Hayley finds an excellent free spot that has all the facilities except electricity, so we head for a small town called La Poblacion. It has limited spaces so there is a backup plan at hand. Fortunately, when we arrive there are plenty of spaces, already though there are three other Brit vans. We pick our spot and get settled in. Nice.

A British couple arrives and parks nearby. Liz and Simon are in a small van like us and soon we are talking and exchanging travel stories. A very nice couple from Devon. We get our bikes off the back of Jess and bid Liz and Simon farewell and head off for a good cycle ride.

We make our way to the reservoir of the Ebro and we are shocked at how low it is. It’s really bad, we estimate that it’s about 10 to 15 feet lower than it should be. You can see the dried-out land at the circumference of the lake. It’s so bad that some of it have turned to pasture and cattle are now grazing on it.

For the first time in a very long long time, we stop at a cafe on the way back and have a cold Coke. If you don’t drink that stuff very often then have one with ice in a glass it is like nectar. Delicious. Helmets back on and back to Jess.

We get settled back in and soon Liz and Simon are back from their bike ride. There is an empty space between us so we get our chairs out and sit chatting over a glass or two of wine. We enjoy their company, so much so we invite them to a little “light tea”. We get our table out and lay it with fresh prawns, Spanish ham, cheese, alioli, and salad. It’s quite a spread.

We provide the food and Liz and Simon provide ample amounts of wine. We have been outside a couple of hours now and it’s starting to chill over.

We invite them to our van for coffee and a nightcap. Liz provides some excellent homemade ginger biscuits and parkin. We are tucked up in Jess and have a lovely evening ending at just before 11. What a great day and what great company.

We clean up and set for bed…

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Sunday 2nd October 2022 La Poblacion to El Puente 70 miles

What a night! We are in such a lovely place and had a great day and evening but overnight was without a doubt the worst ever for barking dogs!!!! It was unbelievable, all night about 6 dogs from the area just barked all night echoing off the hills. You might get a ten-minute break before they would all start again.

We are a bit tired today and we are making our way further north toward the Basque country. Today we are going to a small, new and cheap campsite in a town called El Puente (The Bridge). The drive is amazing.

Spectacular views of green mountains which do look stunning in the distance as the roads carve through them.

We are quite high up, starting at over 1000m, and the road down is a bit scary with a 13% drop, so your brakes take a bit of a hammering no matter how low a gear you are in. Thankfully we are going down, going up would eat your fuel! The views on the other hand are spectacular.

An hour and a half later we arrive and are welcomed by a very friendly Spanish guy, who shows us where we can go and leaves us to it while he goes off for his lunch. The weather is warm and sunny so we get our chairs out and sit in the afternoon sun. Minding our own business a chap staying on the site, with other campers, approaches us with a plate of Jamon (Spanish cured ham) and offers us some. It is delicious. We thank him and watch where he goes.

His mate has a full leg of pig in a traditional “Spanish leg of ham vice” and is expertly carving it.

It seems there are a few vans here that all know each other and are having lunch together. Again the same guy passes and offers us some more as well as a quick lesson in Basque. Which is nice.

The village is just a short walk, 4 minutes, so off we go. There is not much here really except for a group of people that are here having a drink with their parrot. Why not? We set back off to Jess for a light evening snack and to bed. Hopefully without the dogs this time…

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Monday 3^rd October 2022 El Puente to Zumaia 77 miles

Compared to Saturday night, last night was excellent. No dogs! Whew. A good night’s sleep. No breakfast today as we are going past Bilbao, deep into the Basque country to look for lunch. Another excellent drive which is again very hilly surprises us. Spain is the second highest (average height) country in Europe, surpassed only by Switzerland. Bet you didn’t know that. The roads are in good condition and despite the ups and downs, twists and turns it’s very enjoyable. It’s warm and getting humid.

The campsite is very nice, just outside a scruffy industrial estate and up a hill, however, all you see from your pitch are hills, it’s lovely.

We take a walk along the river to the town in search of lunch. We are in the Basque country, who are fierce about independence from Spain so much so they have a rather bloody past. ETA were considered the most deadly and feared terrorists in Europe. Those days are over but they are strong nationalists with their own language and culture. They can speak “Castellano” or the Spanish spoken in the rest of the country, but all the signs are “local”.

We have a good walk and stumble upon a restaurant in the small nearby town that does a menu of the day. We go totally native. Del has a local tuna and potato stew. Hayley has a salad. Then for the main course, meatballs for Del and a regional favorite of baby squid in its black ink for Hayley. Very brave, but very, very tasty. Dessert was a local cake followed by coffee.

It’s a truly wonderful lunch and all for 30 euros for the lot! Blimey.

Full of local food and wine, we make our way back along the river, back to the van for an afternoon in the setting sun, and later with a cup of tea as the sun finally sets. It’s a lovely place here, very quiet, hopefully.

Tomorrow we are moving to France and to Biarritz.

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Tuesday 4th October 2022 Zumaia, Spain to Messanges, France 80 miles

Today we woke up to a very bright sunny but wet morning. Wet because it was so humid last night. We were hoping to have breakfast outside with the rising sun but have had to abandon it as everything is soaking wet. No matter what, we have a good breakfast, cleanup, and service. Today we are going to Biarritz on the southwest coast of France.

The roads are excellent and we have a good journey. Suddenly, just a few miles from the border, as we go through a ‘peage’ (toll booth) we are pulled over by the Spanish, or is it Basque police? Just a spot check. They want to see the van’s documents and our driving licenses. No big deal, and soon we are waved on.

A few miles on and we finally cross the border into France. Suddenly we are surrounded by trucks. France is famous for the number of trucks on the road. It’s mad. Diesel here, by the way, is 20 cents cheaper than in Spain as the French government is subsidising it (or rather the next generation will be paying for it, with interest). The French motorway network is excellent, very extensive, good roads but it’s expensive. We are hit for a toll almost every 20 miles. Today has cost 18 euros just in tolls for about 60 miles but they are in excellent condition and jams are very, very rare, so….

On the way, at last Jess the van gets a well-deserved wash. If the French know anything it’s car washes. They are the best.

Finally, we turn off for the town of Biarritz to a chargeable camping ‘aire’ not far from the beach, however, when we arrive we find that it’s closed for maintenance. Hayley is quick to find another paid-for parking so we head for that through the backstreets of Biarritz, which is a bit like an obstacle course, only to find that that one is also closed. Biarritz is closed. It’s foggy as well so we decide to forget all about Biarritz and move on. Del is now at the wheel while Hayley is buried in the maps and phone apps. We are going to a place on the coast called Messanges. As you look at the map, the bit where France and Spain connect, the long straight bit – somewhere along there.

1 hour later we arrive at the site that has plenty of space. We get set up and comfortable, it’s late in the afternoon. We potter about reading, Del cleans out the van storage, a regular occurrence. It’s an early dinner tonight, Spanish night, in France. It’s a mix – of Spanish Fiduea. (like paella with noodles instead of rice) and Ensaladia Rusa (Russian salad) with a glass of Spanish cava. Where are we again?

After dinner, we clean up and do the short walk to the beach with the remainder of the Cava and sit on the beach to watch the last of the surfers and the sunset. As we sit on the beach and look left and right, it stretches for miles in either direction. Uninterrupted white sandy beaches as far as you can see.

No buildings, nothing just a long straight line of the beach. As usual, at this time it’s getting chilly so we head back for a hot shower on board, tea and bed.

Tomorrow, Bordeaux. Maybe.

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Wednesday 5th October 2022 Messanges to Yvrac 101 miles

A cloudy morning this morning but we are told that the weather will improve to be another warm sunny day. We set off and the journey is very pleasant as we trundle along narrow tree-lined French roads. The clouds are now clearing and it is a lovely day for a drive as we make our way through the dappled roads toward our next destination which is a vineyard in a small village called Yvrac, just north of Bordeaux city.

You can park free there overnight, there are no facilities and they do a wine tasting of their own wine.

After driving for over 100 miles we arrive at our destination after navigating the even more narrow roads near the village of Yvrac. It’s a rather unassuming place with a small narrow tree-lined entrance and a vineyard to your right and the parking spot on your left which basically looks like scrubland with another visitor already in place. No matter we are here now.

We get settled in and comfortable, the sun is out, and it’s warm so we get our chairs out and sit under the dappled sunlight under the trees with a brilliant view of the vineyard.

A couple of hours in our host arrives and asks us if we should like to try some wine, which of course, without any hesitation, we agree to and follow her into the building where we try 4 of the house’s wines. All but one was delicious. Very bad on our part but we didn’t get or remember our host’s name.

She was excellent, fantastic English and gave a very educational presentation about the house, the wines and the French wine industry in general…

We take 6 bottles of wine back to the van at a total of 50 euros, so much for the free overnight. It’s well worth it though as we have a fantastic dinner with a glass of the very local wine.

A great day.

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Thursday 6^th October 2022 Yvrac to Ile de Re 124 miles

We are continuing our move north along the west coast of France. So far we have loved it. France is our favorite of the European countries. It’s a wonderful place and is perfectly set up for camping of all kinds, vans, tents, and caravans. The people are warm and friendly and always pleased to see us Brits and of course, what can we say about the food and wine!

Today we are going to Ile de Re which is a small island just off La Rochelle. It’s a motorway today, an expensive motorway, 25 euros of motorway! That’s half our daily budget gone! A nice trip all the same. To get to the island you have today an 8 euro toll. That’s 33 euros just for using roads. It’s a long twisty drive to the campsite but well worth it. When we arrive you can pick your own pitch so Hayley finds us a really nice private one in the corner of the site just in the citadel wall that surrounds this very smart town. The space Hayley has chosen is large but getting into it is a bit on the tight side. As a team, we work on these situations well. Hayley is at the wheel and Del does the directing, it works well every time and soon we are in having only had a small branch or two touching the roof of the van.

We get everything out and set up, awning, chairs, and table, a proper “camp in” as we are going to stay for two nights, which is always a nice thing to do every now and then. Sometimes it can feel a bit hectic beginning the move to a different place every day, but we only have a certain amount of time so sadly we have to keep on the move. Today Del gives Jess a thorough cleanout. Two people in a small place can create a lot of dust and grime and Del does like to clean!

The town, harbour, and sea are just a short walk so off we go. Del is getting better at walking each day. It still aches a little bit but he’s on the move again and at a quicker pace each day. The harbour is beautiful, lined with fancy restaurants, it’s nice this time of year as places are still open but it’s not full of people, this island is favored by Parisians in the summer who swarm onto it in July and August.

The weather is still nice so it is perfect to just walk around looking at the boats and longing that we would still have one…

Time for refreshment so we stop at a place serving cocktails and sit in the shade and enjoy watching the world go by.

A lovely day today. Tomorrow we will go for a bike ride, it’s flat here and there is an extensive bike network to enjoy, so that’s day two sorted.

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Friday 7^th October 2022 Ile de Re (day 2)

It’s a nice bright morning this morning, and we are going nowhere, just locally. Yes, an extended breakfast this morning. On the van trips, our breakfasts take ages, don’t know why, they just do, but today it’s even longer. After we clean up we get our bikes down and set off for a good bike ride in search of a good lunch.

We cycle a short 4km to the town of La Flotte which is just charming, it’s like a postcard, just beautiful.

AIt has a small harbour surrounded by restaurants. We secure our bikes and have a look around. It’s a wonderful place but we have more pressing business to hand – lunch. Finally, we settle on a small place with a great view of the harbour.

Our lunch today consists of a large salad made up of Roquefort cheese, lardons, nuts, and salad leaves followed by the biggest pot of mussels each you have ever seen – half the seabed. This comes with fries. Helped along with a local cold white wine and to finish the two-hour lunch we share a Crepe flambee with Grand Marnier. Just amazing. So was the price!!!! No matter, we will probably never come here again, so why not.

Before the cycle back to the van, we have a look around the town. The French are famous for their cake shops and this town is no exception. They have the most wonderful and mouthwatering display of cakes, bread, and pastries, it’s just fantastic. We can’t help ourselves and for 7 euros we buy two small cakes to take back to Jess with a cup of tea later.

Back at the van, it’s now late in the afternoon, so we settle down and read. Del does some van servicing and cleaning up getting part ready for our departure tomorrow. No dinner tonight, whew. We enjoy our lovely, fancy cakes with a good cup of tea.

We have been visited on a regular basis by a local friend – a cat who comes and sees us gets a fuss and then leaves. Very sweet.

Tomorrow we are staying somewhere next to the Loire river, near Nantes.