So, now we are back in internet land, we will start with last Tuesday ...
We left our little medieval village and continued our journey south, well south east to be exact.
We stopped in an Aire right on the lake in a little village called Lurcy-Levis.
Once again it was a superb stopover at a very good price....free!
One of our boaty friends back in the UK commented on our stops are always or nearly always by the water. I think after living next to the sea back in Oz for 32 years it gets into your system! So, yes we are always attracted to stopovers by the water and this was no exception ...
We went for a walk around the lake, Elaine was happily foraging away in the undergrowth for nettles and comfrey ...
She also found some walnuts!
Apparently they stain badly when being peeled ...
Nettles and Comfrey ... double, double toil and trouble!
It was a magic little stop ... we had 3 other motorhomes for company ...
Another one for John (NB Triskaideka) ...
On Wednesday we continued the journey and ended up in a big town called Roanne ...
... which just happened to be on the river Loire ... and also the Canal de Roanne a Digoin!!
Our mooring was on an Aire between the two.
Once again this was a great spot but this one was 6 Euros a night (£4.25 or $8.50 AUD) ...
We went for a walk around the town and along the canal basin where we met and had a chat with a most self absorbed boater (aka 'wanker')! He berated us for driving around Europe in a motorhome (or an 'Elephant' as he called it) and he reckoned that cruising around the UK canals was absolute crap. His life however was just perfect ... but as he told his story it transpired that he hardly ever moves out of the basin! He spends six months there and six months in his own country... Australia!! He was an embarrassment to his country! He did invite us on board his barge but we declined.
This is the lock connecting the canal to the river ...
We went for a walk into the main part of the town and I would have to say it was a bit grubby ... turns out its UK twin town is Nuneaton!
It's always interesting to have a look around and the Aire was in a great position right next to the boats ...
On Thursday we moved on yet again but we decided to drive for a bit longer and try and get up into the mountains and lakes.
The traffic was very heavy as we skirted around Lyon ...
The Rhone river looked rather impressive ...
For the first time in France we filled up with LPG - for our gas bottles. We took 25.78 litres which is the equivalent to a Calor 13 kg bottle. The cost to fill the one bottle was 17.79 Euro or £12.63!
The fitting of the refillable LPG system has been an absolute godsend, it is just so simple.
At last we got to see some mountains ...
We tuned off the main roads and winded our way up the much narrower roads through some little villages ...
At last, after four and a half hours of driving our destination came into view ...
To be continued ...
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