A Bad Traffic Day

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Packed and waiting to pay at 9.30am should have been a good start to the day – WRONG – having been up half the night it was easier to get going! Third in the queue to pay I do wish I had a better understanding of French to overhear what was being said, it sounded very much like my thoughts on our night at Camping Les Saumonards at Boyardville. Finally I made it to Madam who asked how our night had been, terrible, I replied, dogs off leads everywhere and the party that was still going on as we spoke, no sleep, not a happy bunny etc etc, Madam agreed that there had been a problem but assured me that the party animals wouldn’t be allowed back on the site!!!!!!!!!! With the mass exodus underway they would have the site to themselves at rate things were going. It was a shame, for 14 Euro (approximately £12.60 GBP), we had pulled onto a lovely wooded site within a two minute walk of the sea and views of Fort Boyard, to find the facilities filthy dirty and with the neighbours from hell.



Woolly says – I refused to have a wash this morning as it was so nasty….



There’s nothing new with Woolly not having a wash in the morning! He wasn’t having a good start to the day having had to break the news to him that all his preparations for Fort Boyard had been in vain. We could catch a boat out to the fort to look at it close up for 15 Euro each (approximately £12.20 GBP) but not actually go on it.



Woolly says – Glad to be off we only had a short drive to our first call of the day, the Citadel at D’Oleron. Built during the Napoleonic times it was used primarily by the Germans during world war two and it was obvious it had seen some wear and tear with many areas cordoned off and the lime stone disappearing into itself. It is actually a Citadel within a Citadel within a Citadel and probably a few more Citadels as well, in other words it’s HUGE! We walked round a small section of the barracks and main gate. The gate was in good repair as were the reconstructed struts holding the bridge into the main gate, everything was in French but they did have some good pictures of how it looked over the years. It was very windy and once I had been blown over a couple of times we went back to Oliver and continued on our way, well tried to.



For an over hour we sat in a traffic jam, there seemed to be no rhyme nor reason for it but sit there we did for over 3km. Woolly sat dozing, while Ian and I moaned for Britain about traffic (bearing in mind we usually don’t see much on the roads that we tend to stick to), finally we arrived at the bridge and as we crawled over it we could see more traffic queues ahead.



Woolly says – Ten kilometres after leaving the Citadel we made it onto clear roads and set Oliver on the tracks to the Bordeaux region of France. With something different to look at each corner and some excellent decorations on the roundabouts we made good progress, deciding to stop for a coffee and paw stretch we parked up at the beautiful town of Talmont-sur-Gironde, picture postcard stuff with the quaintest church. The church was built around the eleven hundreds by the Monks and although it has been restored over the years it doesn’t detract from its beauty. Inside was plain and simple, but very peaceful, outside the graveyard was incredible, with different head stones and lots of monuments and flowers it was a delight to walk round. Coffee and a letter box to finally send some postcards back to Blighty and we were off on the last paw of the day.



With James our Auzzie sat Nav taking us on more and more short cuts around the motorway we drove through industrial estates, farm lands, vin yards and what appeared to be someone’s drive way, we eventually reached the Camp Site Le Pressoir, at Pays de Saint Emillion in the Gironde region. Tucked away up a small lane with vines growing outside of the tent we hope for a peaceful night!

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