Post champagne-meet France trip September 2017

[Hotel California]

Back home from a 17nights away from home trip thru France.
We started at the Champagnemeet @Champagne Nowack in Vandieres .
Those who want info on how the meet was (very nice i can say....!) look here:
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/champagne-meet-2017-pictures-and-reports.20810/
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/posts/229774/

We left home on friday the 16th very early as my first plan was leaving thursdayevening and drive close to Vandieres and spent the night in a free aires so we could be @Nowack before everyone arrived. But the weather here was so bad i did not wanted to drive 350km in the dark afther a days work.
We got in Vandieres well before 11am and only @Amarillo was there allready as he arrived the day before doing his european trip and joined us at the meet.
We eventually stayed in Vandieres until monday midday as i wanted to be sure everyone got away good afther the meet .
The meet was super as you can read in the link above , weather all in all treaded us not that bad only shame it rained the days before and the grass on the campfield was muddy in some places.
A impression of the 24 Cali's parked up....




We stayed put all weekend after we drove 352km from our doorstep .
Got to meet everyone , drank champagne , did a walk in the region and enjoyed the sun !

On monday we packed up , sayed goodbye to the few who where still on site and headed to the centre of France .
We visited France a lot allready but many times the south-east region up to the Provence as my brother in law lives there now , he used to live in the Bordeaux region and this time the plan was to go down there once again.
We drove on N and D roads without a hurry enjoying the lovely french small villages and thru the Bois de Fontainebleau via Montagris and ended up at Chateauneuf-sur-Loire , the ACSI campsite Le Maltournee .(232km)
Was not bad and not many campers this time of season , the way we like it ...
Pitched up beside the river Loire , the evening sun was still out , payed 13€ all in .
When i say all in : we are two with a dog , electric and showers included as the ACSI pass gives discount in low season.

 

[Hotel California]

On thuseday we drove more south-west using the minor roads doing 416km Orleans-Blois-Tours-Poitiers-Angouleme
Ending up in Brossac , ACSI camping : de l'Etang du Vallier .
Very remote and very quite site next to a small lake .
There was almost nobody there and at night you 'd hear nothing exept four an owl.

Had a great time , did nothing but enjoyed the sun (About 25 celcius at high) and walked the dog .

View from our dinnertable

Great afther the so what colder champagne meet .

In the end stayed two nights as we loved the peace&quite at the site.
Price all-in 18,20€ / night

 

[Hotel California]

By thursday the 21th , we drove via the N10 straight to Bordeaux , we stopped at Arcachon to have lunch and a walk at the port and the boulevard.
We came here many times 10y ago, when as i said above , my brother in law was living in this region.
The weather just got better as we came more south-west!


On the beach you are seeing the bay and the opposite side is Cap Ferret.
Lovely nature reservate and offcoarse the Oysters!

ended up at the campsite : Pyla Camping .(165km)
Those who don't know the region , the "Dune de Pyla" is the highest dune in europe and realy a place to visit , the view is amazing ...sea on one side , forrest on the other side and you seem to be in a dessert!
The dune is 110m above sealevel and 500m long !
See this link for a picture i could not taken myself....
https://www.google.be/search?q=dune...8&hl=nl-be&client=safari#imgrc=YUtjQQ31tHy6gM:





The campsite is ACSI and rather busy with dayvisitors as you are pitched up next to the dune with view from your pitch if lucky!




First we planned two nights but once we walked the dune and we found it a bit to busy we left afther on one night.
18,22€ all-in

 

[Hotel California]

Friday the 22th we got to Beauville (Lot-en-Garonne) afther a 205km drive passing the places my wife's brother lived 10y ago .
Via Arcachon-Langon-Marmande-Villeneuve sur Lot -Beauville (205km)
ACSI campsite : les 2 Lacs (Dutch owners) in the middle of nowhere , now phonesignal at all!
Very nice and quite site next to a swimlake and a fishing lake .
Only 5 campers there.
15€ all-in .
We did a nice walk round the lakes and enjoyed the silence!
Spot the Cali all allone , almost the place to ourselves.


The lakes...campsite at the back , the whole area you see arround is in hands of the campsiteowner...


And what we spotted on our way heading there , not even 100m from the road , they didn't bother us stopping

 

[Hotel California]

On sathurday we drove via Rodez in the Cevennes .
A very nice nature reserve to visit !
Did some short breaks as usual to lunch and dogwalk ....this is the way we like to travel , just see what pops-up allong the way and if we feel like stopping we just pull over. We almost never eat breakfast eigther at campsite in the morning.
We leave rather early , stop for bread the first backery we pass and pull over in a nice place to have a late breakfast or early lunch.
Like here....

Ending afther 285km in Florac (Languedoc region) ACSI campsite : Flower camping Pont du Tarn as the name says next to the river Tarn.
Nice site , not all that quiet next to the winding road up a plateau we are planning to climb the next day so ready for tomorrow.
18€ all-in

 

[Hotel California]

On sunday headed up the winding road to the" Finiels" witch is if i'm correct the highest point in the Cevennes (or at least highest acceseble point).
Parked up at the parking and did the hike up to the plateau to 1699 m

Realy very nice walk , ideal themps. to walk 20-23celcius
Think this time a year the colors are magnificent up there!





Then drove out the Cevennes in to the Ardeche region .
Passing some more intresting views:



Ending in Grospierres (115km) and no campsite this time but on a driveway of a vacation house from people we know.
A very nice old stone building at the foot of a small hill .
We been there many times know the place well and do nice walks there.
We have two houses we may use the drive even one of them we have a permanent key and may use the facilitys if the place is free of others renting . We contacted the owner and his place is free from thursday on so we need to stay two nights off-grid in this place....witch we don't mind!

If we want we can have a key here also to get in but we forgot to collect it before leaving home .
When going up the hill you have this view , us camping below!

 

[Hotel California]

Spending sundayevening -monday -and thuseday morning here and enjoying the nice weather , alltough we had some rainshowers and thunder made me thinking to take a "rainshower"
Standing outside the water poring from the roof , a nice refreshment . Kathy sat inside and said i was crazy!


On thuseday we walked down the village for bread and came back via that other house we did had the key from to check if the renters have gone off , they did so by the afthernoon we moved a few streets to there and stayed there until friday afthernoon having the advantage to take a shower inside , cook and do the dirty laundry witch was building up by now.
We just sleep in the Cali and used the terras with swimmingpool to sit outside.
Offcoarse we need to clean the kitchen-bathroom-toilet before we leave but don't need to pay the owner . We rent the place frequent with the whole family and do pay then!
We drove some trips to the supermarket and only did 46km in 5days!

From there on our vacation was getting near the end and fridayevening we drove from the Ardeche region via Vallon pont d'Arc- Bourg st Andeol -Bollene up to Beaumes de Venises where my Brother in law lives ( very close to the Mont-Ventoux) for a blitz-visit !
We stayed there until sathurday afther dinner and drove via the autoroute/peage back home with a overnight in Beaune (between Lyon and Dijon) we do this a lot on the way home .
Arrive in Beaune (366km)at dark , straight to bed and leave in the morning as soon i wake up (today it was at 5am ) to arrive home round 11.45am afther 650km.
Now back home unloading the Cali ....
Got some stuff between the front seats that needs to go in the wine-cellar

 

[Hotel California]

Drove a total of 2932km in 17days , not all where driving days .
Used 255 liter diesel ( only used night heater a few times)
Brings me to a average of 8,7 liter/100km .
We most did N and D roads so very fuel efficient as i can give as example the last 650km today i started full tank and filled up 1km from my doorstep with 60 liter so motorway gives a very diffrent fuel useage !

The Cali preformed very good as always , very happy with my 140bhp DSG 2012 T5 !
During this trip i also passed the 50.000km mark (now at 51.000 ) in 5y and 2months.

Now some will think ....very low mileage but concider that i only use my Cali for trips and never as daily driver.
When i start up i almost always cross the border.
This means that more than 45.000km are done outside Belgium during vacationtrips sleeping eating ,.....in the 10 countries we been so far with our Cali....

Oh ....the peage for the 1000km retour to home over the "autoroute de soleil" sums up to almost 70€ for me .....only the peage !

Up to the next trip....