We got off the Eurotunnel around 3pm yesterday and drove the first leg of our long drive from Calais to Le Mans. We prefer to drive on the non-toll roads where we can because they are much more interesting and there are plenty of places to stop off.
Just south of Le Mans, we found a place to stay in a church yard beside a canal. We use an app that shows places that encourage and allow parking for campervans overnight. We arrived about 10.45pm and it was dark and raining. We were the only campervan there. We quickly set up and settled down for a good night’s sleep.
The alarm was set for 7am, but about 6am we woke up as we heard a truck pull up and various clattering sounds started up. We thought it may be the bin collection day, but after about 15 minutes of this, I got out to take Joey for a walk to discover it was a mini market setting up behind us and we were just about to get blocked in with several vans! Rather pronto, we packed up and the vans kindly let us out – merci beaucoup – so we were on our way earlier than planned.
We started the drive from Le Mans to Bordeaux and decided to fill up with fuel, diesel being €2.11 a litre now. The first three service stations had queues and no diesel. A quick search on Google told us that some of the large French oil refineries were on strike hence the fuel shortage at some chains of garages. We eventually filled up. Phew.
As we travel, I always make a note on Google maps of anywhere of interest that we like so we have them marked on the map for next time. One such place is a wonderful patisserie and boulangerie near Poitiers. We stopped to buy pain au chocolate, amazing baguettes for lunch and chocolate eclairs. The cakes in these bakeries are real works of art and make our English jam doughnuts (much as I love them) look very amateurish!
Next was the drive over the border and into Spain and the Basque area. All the signage is in the language unique to the area known as euskara which looks quite different to Spanish. The area is mountainous and quite spectacular. The temperature has got warmer as we drove south and it was 26c this afternoon. Bliss!
We headed to Burgos in Spain where we stopped for a good old Domino’s takeaway pizza. it was easy and quick and we couldn’t eat in anywhere as we had Joey 
. We then travelled the last leg of today’s journey ending up in Valladolid in Spain where we are parked up by a football stadium, but all is quiet, so after driving a little over 1,000km today, it’s good night from us. Sleep well.
