Tuesday 16 July 2013

 There are only a handful of units on the site so it was a quiet night. We did note however that the facilities would be stretched if it was busy, there only being two loos for each. Nevertheless we would recommend and visit it again. We also discovered it would have been far easier to find if we had approached from the village of Morancez, rather than follow the satnav!

Re-planned the route today to head for Clermont-Ferrand via Orleans and Montlucon, staying off, though generally following the line of, the motorways. A little bit of cross-country to start took us through several tiny villages, only getting off-route once when we missed a very small turning, before joining good open D-roads. Of course this meant passing through the towns and villages, including the centre of Orleans, but we enjoy seeing “proper” France.

The good weather has brought on the crops and the farmers were busy, cutting wheat and barley and watering the corn, sometimes not very accurately - quick shut the window! Further south we came across fields of sunflowers coming into bloom.

Once again it was very warm and the air-con was in use  – then we discovered that the van has a little locker in the dash that is refrigerated when the air-con is in use! Bottles of water found new stowage. We've had Bertie over 4 years and are still finding things.

Towards the end of the afternoon it was clear that Clermont-Ferrand was a bit too far so started looking for a night-stop. The netbook is programmed with aires and a variety of campsites which was complimented by regular road signs for camping etc. Deciding Montlucon was far enough we espied a municipal in the village of Neris les Bains. Well signposted from the town centre, we discovered it also incorporated an Aire de Camping Cars and had a few pitches left. Only needing an overnight stop, this was plenty good enough for us so we pitched up, paying our dues at the campsite reception. By 6.30pm it was full and turning folk away, so the lesson is don’t leave it too late.

Aire at Neris les Bains