Rivières in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine

 

Our journey northwards today took us to Rivières in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine area of France.

It has two rivers La Tardorie and La Ligonne.

It also has a rather imposing Château de La Rochefoucauld which is open to the public for 10 euro.

Our peaceful parking place in Rivières. Last night in Libourne we had morons fooling around at 0430 in the public carpark neatby to us, then someone playing 'music' at full blast on a car stereo at 0700 with the windows open !
I doubt we'll be disturbed tonight though. 

 Château de La Rochefoucauld

The pretty village of Rivières

I had a cycle around the area this afternoon as Louis is getting rather lazy of late and refuses to budge sometimes.

Correction, I found a lump on his front leg which is bothering him. Not sure if it's a insect bite or something else. 

I'll just keep an eye on it for a few days and hope it heals.

There is also a Co-op food store in town !

It even has a Co-op !

The area is rural and quite attractive with rolling hills and green farmland.

I'm going for a cycle along the river in the other direction after tea.

The shield bugs continue to annoy us. I don't think they do any damage, just try and get inside all the time. 

Our neighbours rell us they make a mess if you squish them, yuk.

The flyscreens are working but have to be brushed off before opening.

I hope we'll see less of them as we go north ?

We're also able to pickup UK TV now so Sue's happy 

 

Saint-Émilion and Libourne

 

Saint-Émilion and Libourne


First port of call today was the famous wine producing town of Saint-Émilion is a medieval city located at the crossroads of Bordeaux, and Perigoed

The town and surrounding vineyards was made UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, owing to its long, living history of wine-making.

Romanesque churches and ruins stretching all along steep and narrow streets of this picturesque town set amongst the vineyards.

There was an art exhibition in the cloisters of the church

All the roads approaching the town are lined with impressive looking chateaux's which are the wine producing houses and they offer tasting sessions for tourists.

They also seem to offer restaurant and hotel services too.

I resisted the temptation to buy some wine, the supermarkets do an excellent range without tourist loaded prices.

Following out walk around Saint-Émilion we headed for tonights parkup at another CCP, thankfully this one has not got the builders in !

This morning a grab truck pulled about three feet away from us and with associated engine noise and beeping proceeded to drag some tree stumps and load them onto the truck for half an hour.

So I emailed CCP with a complaint, they've not replied yet but it looks like they haven't charged me for the stay.

We're in Libourne west of Bordeaux and on La Dordogne.

 The rowing lake race HQ is the tall building in the centre

It's next to the parking is rowing lake which has a bit coming off it where a beach has been created with assorted leisure facilities.

I had a cycle around the lake this afternoon for some fresh air and met some goats.

These are the critters trying to hitch a lift from us, Shield bugs. I don't think they bite but they have a cetain determination to join us.

North into France

 

I'm devastated, I've just heard on the news that the sycamore tree at sycamore gap on Hadrians Wall has been felled in an act of mindless vandalism 🤬🤬🤬

I visited the wall and walked along to the tree from Steel Rigg.

It is a most iconic sight standing in the gap and whilst I glad I was able to experience it, it's a terrible shame for future generations that will never have that experience.

There's talk of replanting it of course but it'll be a hundred years before the view is restored.

I've just heard there's a call for a metal sculpture as a replacement, presumably in the shape of the tree to enable the view in a couple of years rather than centuries.

I hope they catch the moron with a chainsaw.

Britons most iconic tree - gone.

This is my day on Hadrian's Wall 

https://chrismackietraveladventures.blogspot.com/2023/06/hadrians-wall.html

Anyway, we drove from Lekeitio this morning in an north easterly direction towards France. 

The sat nav somehow managed to find us a mountain pass to climb over despite the coast road looking more appealing.
But it was still very scenic.

I'd decided to splash out on toll roads today as the non toll journey was nearly two hours longer.
Sometimes it pays to spend a little. The route planner says it should have cost 12.25 euro in tolls but they've not registered on the app yet to confirm the actual amount.

We've come to a Camping Car Park site. We've used these before and they offer good value for money.

The trouble with this one is they're still building it.
I was aware it was a new site, but not that it was still under construction. To be fair it's mostly ground works, but there was still a good bit of din for much of the afternoon.
So I'm going to put a complaint in as this should be made clear in the app but it wasn't mentioned.
Who knows, I may get a refund of my 13 euro ?
 
It's a lovely area called Arjuzanx, I've no idea how to pronounce it.
It's next to a nature reserve and lake where there is a lovely beach and what looks like safe swimming.
Lots of activities too like pedelos

                                     The Lake and beach at Arjuzanx






It's hot here but fortunately we have 230 volts hook up and so air conditioning is operational 😀

We also have Shield Bugs for company and they seem determined to get inside Ed by landing on the hab door fly screen, and waiting for someone to open it so they can fly in.

So it's a constant job flicking them off before opening the screen.

I didn't much enjoy the drive on the motorway, far too many lorries and white vans dashing around to get somewhere in a hurry. The motorway is also quite twisty and narrow on the Spain section so you have your wits about you.

The France section was easier, but I was still glad to arrive in one piece.

Back to non toll, snails pace tomorrow 😉

Return to the Basque Country

 

Our overnight parking in Briviesca was uneventful, in a very uneventful kind of place.

The motorhome Aire was quite high up above the town, next to the bullring and a walk down to the town necessitated a considerable undertaking and unfortunately both Louis and I lacked the motivation to venture down and frankly I don't think there was much there to interest me anyway. 

So we opted for the lazy option.

The Aire may be uninspiring, but it's very popular, we were joined by about 15 other fellow motorhomes, mostly French and Spanish plus a few Germans.

I dare say it's the free parking and services that are the attraction here, and that aspect wasn't lost on me either, lol.

So after a peaceful night we set off north towards the coast around Bilbao.

It was quite a dramatic drive too.

This drive could almost be the Swiss Alps, quite a suprise to me in Spain

Photography credits go to Sue :)

I hadn't appreciate quite high up we were at Briviesca (726 m), but we passed through the Urkiola Parke Naturala which was a fantastic drive.

It could easily have been a drive through the Swiss Alps such was the scenery.

It was also quite a decent, and at one point our noses were assaulted by the whiff of overheating brakes.

So a tea break stop was called for at the bottom in a little town, in order to allow the brakes to have a rest.

We had considered a campsite for tonight so we could have 230 volts to power the air con.

But we awoke to a cooler day than yesterday, with mist on the hills and thin clouds at high altitude.

So instead we opted for another freebie stopover at Lekeitio.

and zoomed in a bit, we're the green flag bottom left corner

It's a very attractive little port town on the coast and has a handy motorhome aire next to a park and Botanical Gardens with a small zoo containing Parrots, Macaws and Peacocks so I'm expecting an early morning call from them tomorrow.

The building seems to be a old folks home with the residents having an evening wander round the gardens.

This isn't the Botanical gardens !

The Peacocks are defying the electric fence and helping themselves in the vegetable garden

We're a bit squeezed on this Aire, rather like the Aire in Segovia I decided to move on from, but unfortunately there aren't many other better options here so we're suffering close neighbours tonight, but I think we'll be ok.

Tomorrow we'll be back in France.