Day 29: Beauvoir-en-Royans to Millau

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Waking rather shattered after a night disturbed by rowdy French people in the car park outside our camper we headed off to Millau some 350km away. Despite being a little noisy the free camp spot was just great and any other night would be perfect, highly recommended as a camp stop for free. Considering we were going by the back roads as usual the Tomtom told us it was 5 hours we decided to make haste. The first stop for the day was a little river village called Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans where some guys were fishing (without luck it should be added) amongst a stunning walled village rising 50m up above the river bank, the required pics were taken and we proceeded to make further haste south and west. The next stop was to service the camper as the loo was full, the grey water tank was full and the water Was nearly empty. These housekeeping matters must be done so the faithful iPhone called up the website http//www.campingcar-infos.com a fantastic site that lists all of the service points in Europe which told us the next point was in a little place called Privas, slipping into the point which by the way was located down a lane that left around 6 inches each side of the van as we traversed I decided to do the chemical We first and then have lunch after. Browsing on beautiful fresh croissant, ham, French cheese and olives we finished and it was back to finish the van. During lunch another camper pulled in to service, noting this I figured ok he should only be 10 mins or so, cos that’s all it takes to water up, and clean out a camper, how wrong I was, This joker fluffed around filling bloody plastic water containers, then his van then proceeded to jerk around for another 30 mins or so, I was being subtle by getting the water hose and standing patiently by the van but this turkey just didn’t give a toss, asshole he was, first one we have come across to be fair, he was French too. During this wait Pam headed off to shoot some film 😊 and saw some little stone houses built into a cliff, they looked as though they were caves with a little room built to the front, very cool I must say but only if you didn’t have to live there. Anyway chores done we headed off again into the back blocks of France. Passing through a little town called Anduze a commune in the Gard department in southern France. We stopped for another photo opportunity and Pam shot some more river houses and a huge canal that needs to be seen to be believed. Leaving Anduze we headed further into the back blocks arriving at a tiny village called Madieres where the Tom had a major breakdown and couldn’t tell us where to go, we went one way then it told us that was wrong and to go the other way, going back it then proceeded to tells us to go back, this went on for some time then Pam turned the bloody thing off and worked it out from the map, not easy as the map is large scale and doesn’t show all of the minor roads. Good ole Tomtom is pretty good most of the time except for taking us through the center of major towns sometimes and through tiny little alleys that we shouldn’t be in but she let us down big this time. Anyway through superior navigating skills and us going up some hills so bloody steep that I had to use first gear and with drops to one side of thousands of feet we gained the upper plateau and thought we were home free. Not so as the road narrowed even further and was only just wide enough for the camper, this was a very barren and frozen landscape with little or no houses and even less vegetation. A village came up on the horizon and Pam figured we were close to the larger road we were looking for, one with road markings hopefully as I was just about over 7 foot wide roads at 20 kph. Entering this village with a lane that looked even narrower, if that was possible. We got part way down, round a bend and some bloody idiot had parked his car, and to make matters worse there was a car coming the other way. I have to confess things in both the navigation and driving departments in the cab were more than a little stressed and I was to be frank, pissed. Now I had to back down this lane as the car coming the other way could fit through the gap and me being a polite Kiwi did the right thing, the other car let loose with his horn and drove away with a thank you wave to us. Taking a breath I thought things through and thought if he can fit through so can I, Pam got out and guided us through with literally only inches to spare, I sat on the horn to let them know I was not happy and we drove off into the slowly setting sun. The time was now around 5.30pm and we still had some 60kms to go, things took a turn for the better as not far along was the D999 the road we were looking for, Pam had done us proud again even though she was still more than a little miffed at the whole episode, took us about 2 hours all up. Trucking along nicely now we reached the Millau junction and keeping off the motorway we headed down to Millau village getting glimpse in the distance of the viaduct on the way down. Entering the village at around 7.30 we found a camp ground alongside the river and set up camp for the night. We are planning on two nights here as Pam has to work tomorrow so it was to be a lay day and clean up day.

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