On the road

Last night (7/11) was brutally humid and hot. Nancy and Jim slept okay thankfully but I got only about 3 hours of sleep. Today was supposed to be close to 100 degrees, so given the heat and continued arrival of additional gypsies into the campground as well as expected rain tonight (packing up the caravan when it’s wet is less than fun), we decided to leave for Brittany today.

Packing took several hours and it was pretty hot by 9am, but we got the caravan and the car all packed. Our neighbor gave us more melons and a recommendation for a campground in Brittany, and then helped us with the roughly 45 minute very challenging process of getting the caravan attached to the van and navigating both out of the campground which is lined with trees and other obstacles. Needless to say we were the entertainment for the campground folks for the late lunch hour. So we said goodbye to the Dutch folks and Bruno the campground manager and left around 2:00pm.

We headed north to Orange so we could pick up a good autoroute going south toward Avignon, Nimes, Montpellier, Beziers, Narbonne, Carcassone, and possibly toward Toulouse.We stopped just outside Carcassone to take a look at the site with binoculars. Needless to say it is a huge walled city. What impressed me the most, even from a distance, was the enormous rose window in the city’s cathedral -- it's the size of the entire wall of the cathedral!

Westayed the night at a campground in Naillouxs, about equi-distant between Carcassone and Toulouse. Got pretty lost looking for camp, but a very nice woman who we stopped to ask for directions offered to let us follow her car and she got us turned int he correct direction -- a huge help! Unfortunately the campground (small, only 16 spaces and private not public, with lots of narrow roads and sharp turns) was too narrow for our large camper, so the campground manager would not let us stay but allowed us to stay in the parking lot outside the campground, and use the water, bathrooms. So no electricity but we were all so tired we were thankful to not have to find another campground at 8pm. Had a quick pizza/salad dinner at the campground restaurant -- not bad -- and while we were eating the sky opened, a huge thunderstorm and downpour.

Campground is located adjacent to a small lake (Lac Thesanque), a very picturesque setting (geese, trees, donkeys, lots of green grass, acres of sunflowers in the surrounding fields -- very different from Provence!)

Went to sleep with rain pounding on the roof, tons of lightening and thunder, thankful not to be in a tent :-)

The plan for tomorrow is to head north to the coast of Brittany.