France 137 - Aire sur l'adour/missing towels/a pretend gallo roman set of remains and frites outside the bullring

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What a night it was? Hot and sweltering. The temperature here in this part of France had reached the heady heights of 28 degrees . We slept well apart from one blip when a larger than life motorhome rolled up late in the darkness and tried to park. He left his engine running . He left his lights on whilst he tried to find the electric sockets. He set off again round the block , parked up again , lights on , engine running until in the end he found his place for the night but that was only after disturbing the whole of the site. We woke up to croissants and jam and set off around Futuroscope and Poitiers. Familiar roads but empty this time of the morning. As we drove through each peage the euros rolled up for the cost of driving along motorways. We passed fields full of deadened sunflowers, potatoes harvested and for sale. Golden dried corn waiting for the farmers to come to harvest them. Vineyards with grapes hanging like necklaces from their branches. As we headed south these were replaced by Pampas grass and finally purple heathers. Deers roamed the fields. With each mile travelled the temperature rose.



Where in the world is Gabby? She is parked up on a small grassed site in the tiny town of Aire sur l'Adour . Right next to the bullring. It is not a bad site although a touch dated. The river views are pleasant and the owner sells home grown tomatoes. Plump juicy and organic. At the cheaper end 13 euros of ACSI it is not a bad place to lay your head. The town was dead but then it was Sunday night. What has gone wrong today ? Well what a thing to leave at home. Towels . Yes I did put them in. No I never left them out. So why have we only got two towels to last us a whole month. Sometime ago I must have emptied Gabby and completely forgot to replace the towels. It is not the end of the world though. There will be a cheap bargain Chinese bazaar somewhere or a high priced supermarket .

The journey down the A10 was long and probably very expensive. We parked up somewhere near Bordeaux. Many times we have driven this road and boring it is too. Many times we have looked up into the trees and spotted what looked like a gothic folly. Every time we pass we wonder what it is. Every time we get home we say we will check it out and never do. We are near to Luzey - never heard of it . Neither had we. We pitched up at the aire in the middle of nowhere for a well earned break. OUt t of the corner of my eye I spotted a sign ancient Gallo roman remains this way. Right in the middle of nowhere was a medieval church frontage similar to Poitieras surrounded by a vineyard. What on earth was it doing here. Behind it was a concrete reinforcement and beyond that another roman arch set in a medieval garden. How strange we thought as we walked the boardwalk. There were carvings of dragons, mermaids, fantastical beasts and gargoyles. We were in our element as we looked at what appeared to be ancient carvings from a church , With no information in English we were left to our own devices and our own imaginations. And they were running wild . What on earth were all these things doing here? I doubt many would come to see them. They looked real. They looked very authentic . It was only later that night when we managed to get on the internet we read that they were all replicas from churches around the area. All were pretend . All were reproduction and all were very much made of cement . Typical of the French to do something like this in the middle of nowhere. How much fun did we have looking at all the statuary that most folks drive past and ignore.

At night we walked past the bullring to the town. They had invested heavily in new bullring. In a week or so a bullfighting competition was being held. Had we been here next week instead of this perhaps we might have bitten the bullet and gone to see a bullfight . When in Spain we have to try to be spanish. The town was empty but then it was Sunday night. There were a few bars open and these did fill up later in the evening but it was never going to be very busy. On our way home walking alongside the river we came across a small shack selling hot food . And yes they did have frites and yes we bought two massive boxes and ate the lot.

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