Wednesday 4 January 2017

Pont de L'Arche to Veigne - 170 miles

A more reasonable start to a dull, grey and cold morning but at least the fog had gone. As always we don't rush things so after clearing up we had a chat with a couple from Bishop Auckland who were also heading south. Then a mini-service, the water being turned off as is usual at this time of year, and onto the road.

For some reason the route that had been pre-prepared went completely wrong when it was transferred to Nellie (the netbook) so last night Terry redid it all to use our usual way. Another route had been suggested to us but we seemed to have lost it. Ah well, computers! So off we set via Evreux, Dreux, Chartres (we must call in to see the cathedral some time) then Tours. As usual good fast roads, staying off the toll roads and slowing for towns and villages. France was back at work today so plenty of traffic about but no holdups and we set a nice comfortable speed on the cruise control. We did get flashed by a speed camera, doing 92kph in a 120kph zone – it probably thought we were a truck, but we'll see.

Our route took us past another of our overnight stops at Chateaudun and as it was lunchtime we thought a call in to the aire was in order for our break. Luckily, although the service point was turned off there was an accessible tap in the toilets so we managed to refill the water tank – should be okay for a couple of days.

We've done this route a few times now so although Bren was following it on Nellie the navigation was simply by following the road signs. Late afternoon TomTom decided to go on strike but, apart from noting our speeds in kph (the speedometer is useless at this), it wasn't a problem. Nellie (and memory) got us round Tours, quite a large city, okay but it was now starting to get dark so Bren sorted out three aires just south and TomTom decided to rejoin the party.

The first at Montbazon was a corner of unused ground behind some houses, okay but not very level so we thought we'd have a look at the next. Shown as only 3 spaces and outside a campsite this was a much nicer spot, close to the River Indres at Veigne. With a small park adjacent to run Jamie around, we had the place to ourselves and once the traffic let up it was nice and peaceful. This one was free as well but the service point was turned off.

Once again Jamie has been as good as gold, mainly curled up asleep in his cage and being quite happy being let out at our stops before jumping straight back in when we're ready to move off. Just before we came away we took him to the vet because he'd developed what looked like a rash under his back legs. She didn't think it was serious but gave us some steroid tablets to help clear it up. Then whilst we were at Mums he was not very well, very quiet and peeing on the carpet a couple of times which he never does at home. We stopped the tablets but we actually thought he had been drinking out of the bird bath which was a bit stagnant until we cleaned it out. He was better within 24 hours so we've put him back on his tablets and he seems fine now. As I write he is cuddled up asleep next to Bren.

We're starting to feel more relaxed now and looking forward to some warmer weather.