Ending Up Anywhere

We left Oleron island three days early. Our good friends Jules and Pete were staying in their VW camper four hours away in the Loire Valley when Pete suffered a heart attack and then a stroke. We couldn't leave Jules on her own while Pete was in hospital even though everyone on her campsite was rallying around to support her. After waking to her latest update via text I told her we were on our way and we packed up and headed east. Huttopia were kind enough not to charge us the final three nights. The small campsite she was staying on was full but the owner said we could share their spacious pitch and there was more than enough room. We immediately became a 'bubble' - hugs were needed if nothing else. On Thursday, the sixth day of our stay with Jules, we were able to accompany her to collect Pete from hospital and we enjoying a nice evening together when Jules read the news that the UK was adding France to its quarantine list from 4am on Saturday. We were expecting i

Half way between leaving the aire and arriving at our campsite we stopped at an Intermarche Hyper for fuel and groceries. I was pleased to see pay at pump was an option and I used a glove to use both the fuel nozzle and chip and pin pad. The supermarket wasn't so easy. There was a short queue for the sanitising station for hands and trolley handles but after entering the shop it was heaving with customers. On the plus side everyone was wearing face coverings but on the other they do not appear to be limiting numbers in the shops and it's incredibly difficult to socially distance. Tony and I both looked at each other with raised eyebrows, discussed an action plan and determined to get out again as soon as possible. Tony went to find ambient good while I headed to the fresh vegetables. With food accounted for it was annoying to discover the wine and beer was back the other side of the shop and we had to navigate through the central aisle busy with customers. At the ti

We're in France. It's been six months since we were this side of the channel after Coronavirus had us in varying degrees of lockdown. We've missed three campervan holidays and I was only sure this one would happen when the Eurotunnel train departed from Folkestone yesterday evening. We crossed beneath the channel at 4.50pm and arrived at Saint-Langis-lès-Mortagne, France at 10pm. It was our third or fourth stopover on this quiet aire. It was still light, and we shared a bottle of white wine sitting on the step of the leisure door looking down the hill towards the lake. Cleopatra was parked on the grassy edge of the hill with four other vans, the main parking spaces of the aire already taken. It mattered not - we had the better view. We were asleep by 11.30pm and awake by 6.15am to get back on the road. As I write this first blog post in months we're half way through this morning's final stretch to Île d'Oléron. I've lost count of the number of times we'v