Travelling South to Bordeaux

Tuesday 21^st May:  After leaving our camp site at St Jean de Monte in the rain, we drove on into the town for a wander before driving along the Esplanade to see the longest beach on the west coast of France. 

 It was very quiet but judging by the size of said beach, the length of the Esplanade, the shops and restaurants (most of which were closed) along the way and the number of car parks there, it’s not hard to imagine how packed it would be in the height of summer.  We decided to go inland then, on a fast road for a while until we reached Apremont where there is a very impressive chateau…closed of course but we wandered around and admired it from the outside and took many photos.  On then to a nearby lake where we had lunch…lovely, peaceful.  Our overnight stop was in a little town called Maillevais, which boasts an Abbey, closed as usual but we were able to look inside the church. They hire out small punts like these.

to explore the river system

Wed.22^nd May:  Sunshine!  The country sideis fairly flat with farming the main activity so we travelled mostly on the fast roads today, back to the coast and then south to Royan where we caught the car ferry to le Verdon sur Mer, a 25 minute journey  (47 euros)

and are now settled in at our overnight stop at Vertheuil, about 50 kms north of Bordeaux.  This is Bordeaux vineyard country and is very nice around here but the scenery along the way was not as attractive as we have seen elsewhere on our travels. We are camped in the car park of  a winery called “Chateaux Ferre” (Haut-Medoc cru Artisan).

Thursday 23rd May
A hppy face brekky

Boris is being a little bit naughty lately! The indicator light for the ABS braking system is coming on along with the handbrake light while we a travelling. There seems to be nothing abnormal about his operation but we did take him to the Fiat service place in Bordeaux today (60km) for a check up. They didn't have the part required and said that it is "operating ok - so carry on."
While he was in the shop we caught the light rail tram into the centre of Bordeaux and were really pleasantly surprised. We hadn't originally planned to come here as we usually try to avoid the really big cities - but what a nice place. The tram system is great with one every 6 miutes and one euro forty anywhere in town for an hour. We visited here in '69 but not surprisingly we could not remember anything.