Day 37 Friday 25th June:
Pinching ourselves – another beautiful day promising. The French Aires de camping are areas set aside for mobile homes by towns across France. Some Aires only cater for six or so van, while others will take many more. Some of the locations are stunning eg on the banks of rivers, overlooking chateaus; others though can be quite ordinary, in the middle of a town with trucks thundering past at night! But you quickly learn to be selective. All these locations have facilities to take on drinking water, empty grey-water and loos, plus rubbish bins. Some you may have to pay 2 Euros for 100l of water while others it is free.
In more popular locations eg in Azay Le Rideau, the 4.00 pm rule applies ie you need to be looking for an Aire at this time otherwise you may have to look at the next one along the way. By arriving around 4 pm allows you to relax – even more, read, write a blog! eat and drink, and then in the cool of the evening you have the opportunity to explore the village in the quite time of the day.
More countries ought to take a leaf out of the French book on hospitality.
Back to the story of the day! Left for Chinon and finally arrived by mid-morning and gained a great parking spot under trees by the river next to the Place de Jean d’Arc. From here we explored the town for the rest of the day before heading for Azay Le Rideau by 4.00pm. Chinon was the preferred residence of the early Plantagenet kings, Henry II etc, so a medieval village developed around the chateau. This town remained intact until the present day after falling into disrepair after 15th century. Very picturesque! Left for Azay le Rideau.
We parked next to a Welsh couple – “You’ve got a Welsh born PM”, were his words of greeting. They live in France and were able to give us much valuable information. They had sat-TV and Lytton Hewitt was on the verge of winning his third round match at Wimbledon – but did the Cats win last night against St Kilda.
Very hot afternoon, did the washing , had a wine, dinner, and then went for a walk and a beer in Azay Le Rideau. Back to the van by 11.00 just as the night sky was darkening.
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