Blogs from Poitou-Charentes, France, Europe

23/6/25 Driving Day heading slowly north. Though it was a driving day it wasn’t too long a drive as we had inserted the Brantome, previous stop, into the originally planned itinerary so it reduced the miles to travel to next stop. A pleasant drive through lots and lots of agricultural land, fields stretching for miles in all directions and full of sunflowers and potatoes and of course golden grain. Harvesting has already started and we saw lots of farmers cutting their crops. We bypassed Poitiers where a massive amusement park Futuroscope is located. We saw some of that as we drove by but were not tempted to stop. Campsite for the night was Camping du Lac de Saint-Cyr at Beaumont Saint-Cyr. Sunday, a big leisure lake and a gloriously sunny day. The turn into the campsite ... read more

The bodies spoke very loudly this morning, the alarm amy have gone off at 7:30 but we didn’t get out of bed until 9:30. Breakfast is until 10:30 so we just splashed water on our faces and hair quickly dressed and went down to eat. The breakfast room was very busy and warm. The offerings were extensive, including the egg station where they would cook them anyway you wanted, including an omelet, they even had batter for crepes. We made it easy and just had scrambled eggs with the usual suspects. The croissants here, obviously not from a bakery but mass produced and small. At the moment we are just finishing up getting ready to go pick up a couple of bikes to explore two different sections of the city. It is a sunny day, a ... read more

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day, clear skies, light breeze, the workers in the vineyards, I can’t think of a better scene to wake up too. It was such a nice morning that breakfast was served on the outside terrace under an Olive Tree. The breakfast spread was similar to the others; eggs, bread, meats, yogurt. What set this apart from the others was the freshly squeezed orange juice, and I mean freshly squeezed. The oranges were in a machine and when you turned the knob, your juice was made fresh right then. After breakfast we loaded the car and were off to Jarnac, in the heart of the Cognac region. We stayed off the A roads and took mainly D and N roads. When we did get on the N88, it was clearly ... read more

Having to think carefully how we spend our time for a day or two. The temperature is soaring, record breaking heat wave for June which is also affecting sourthern England but not much at home. Think Staffordshire might be due a couple of hot days then back to normal grey skies. Decided we really couldn't plan to go anywhere which involves walking any distance at all in the sun so chose a drive to Coulon in Venise Verte, the Poitevin Marais, an area just inland from the Vendee coast with lots of wetlands and canals. We have stayed at Coulon twice before and enjoyed it so an obvious spot to head for. Smart Arse and the Tomtom did not agree. I actually suggested at one point that the Tomtom might be upside down as it was ... read more

Very pleased with this campsite and especially our pitch as, as it gets hotter, the shade provided by a couple of big tall trees is keeping us reasonably comfortable. Forecast for the next few days is to get hotter and even hotter until we probably spontaneously combust. Hopefully a storm will come along before that happens ?. Decided for first time to use campsite showers rather than the excellent ones in the van mainly because there is no grey waste emptying grid on the campsite And the water supply is a little far to want to carry too much water to fill the tank. As it happens the showers are super so good decision. No idea why there is no grey waste or motorhome service point. Campsite is so well set up it seems an odd ... read more