Blog 4.5 - Central France and Further West

Tuesday 19th September 2023

We awoke to the pit-pat of rain on the roof, having spent a beautifully peaceful night at Lapeyrouse. Thankfully, though, it soon abated, and by the time the first tea of the day was inside us, it was sunny and warm again.

There's not too much to do here, so we lazed a while and then ambled the kilometre or so to the Restaurant Le Bruges in the village, for an early lunch.

It's a jack of all trades kinda place, serving as a tabac, a newsagent, an epicerie, and a cafe/bar/restaurant, with the rest of the village's businesses having shut down. A sad sign of the post-pandemic times.

However, madame le owner managed to fit us in, having made a minor drama of asking if we had a reservation, followed by a bustle around the place 'trying' to find a table.

The bustling continued throughout the lunch service (which to be fair was pretty busy), but her demeanour softened quickly, and we enjoyed good efficient service - and good food followed by excellent coffee.

Highly recommended.

We followed with a post-prandial stroll around this pretty, small, and exceptionally quiet village. There's not too much to tell, so I'll just add a few pictures.

The main street with the former boulangerie to the left. Le Bruges is further down on the same side.

Just an old building that caught my eye!

The ghost of the old café

Inside the church's nave

The roundabout at the eastern entrance to the village, near the campsite road

The Chateau. Now a hotel.

Some of the locals (well, Peruvian locals)

Local pride, and Le Bruges in the distance.

Wednesday 20th September 2023

A bright calm morning for our exit from Lapeyrouse.

Heading back through the village we eschewed the quicker route via Montluçon and the Route National for the much prettier 'D' roads to Saint Laurent.

The road turned out to be a delight for the most part, twisting and turning through attractive hilly countryside. A much nicer way to travel than the (admittedly quicker, but we're in no hurry) dual carriageway.

The small (four bay) aire at Saint Laurent is on the edge of the village, and is free, with free water and disposal facilities. And it's peaceful - so far.

The aire and the adjacent church with its wooden-shingled bell tower

There's probably even less here than in Lapeyrouse, but it'll serve fo a night.

More timber shingles at the café. It might be a thing here

Tomorrow, after what is hopefully a peaceful night, we'll head further west again and to the heaving metropolis of Confolens. OK, it's not a metropolis, but it's a town we've grown to love and make a point of visiting. We'll be back at the campsite (the aire de Camping Car is closed but we enjoy the river-side campsite, and it offers good value anyway with our ACSI card, and is a short walk from the town centre.

Thursday 21st September 2023

A dull, grey, rain-spotty morning.

We took a rather relaxed stance over moving on, knowing that, as we were heading for a campsite (tut, the second one on this tour!) we wouldn't be able to check in particularly early.

So, we pottered along gently on the Route National west of St Laurent, accompanied by the ever-increasing frequency of le pleut. It was proper pleuting down in fact!

Having failed to eat up as much time as we hoped we might, we descended on the outskirts of Confolens with a couple of hours to spare, at which point Admin deftly diverted us into a rest area to kill some time with a coffee, and, what did we spot through the gloom? A burger van.

Now, this wasn't your typical English grease-lined questionably-procured Westlers- reheating burger bar. Oh no. This one served an array of delicious looking and smelling comestibles - even including burgers. Having been informed by our local spy that our favourite riverside garden eating area has now closed down (sadly taking their best-in-the-world burgers - which we had intended partaking of once again - with them) we thought, why not? It'd be the second burger this year for both of us, the first being at the aforementioned riverside garden establishment during the Spring Tour, but what the hell, we're on holiday.

Yeah, I know, we're always on holiday.

Anyway, the burgers, with cheese, healthy green stuff, gherkins, etc., were good, and the fries even better. 9€ each, and worth every penny.

No photos: too hungry to think about that!

It was still sluicing down as we finished our meals, so we moved on to the local Intermarche to stock up, and then on to badger Dorothée into giving us the exact pitch (a few down from our usual) I'd earmarked in advance on our last trip.

No problem. 16€ per night with hook-up and all the usual facilities, plus that great Vienne river view. And it'd even stopped raining by the time we got there (for an hour or two anyway).

Camping des Ribières, W3W ///brunch.repents.hayloft

Perfect.

Friday 22nd September 2023

It was raining, gently, again first thing, but it didn’t change our plans - not that we had any.

The beautiful Vienne

Admin is a little under the weather to be honest, so a day loafing around the van seemed apposite. And that's what we did; loaf.

Confolens church, from the van

It's not very warm, in truth, either.

Tomorrow might just be better weather-wise. It remains to be seen if Admin is any brighter too.

Saturday 23rd September 2023

Not much warmer this morning, and Admin not much brighter - if at all. The weather forecast looks reasonably positive though.

Anyway, we've decided to extend our stay at des Ribières by two days so she can fully recover here - we hope - before moving on to Admin's cousin Rob's place at Saint Coutant.

Table also booked at Rob's local, Café de la Paix, at the nearby Champagne Mouton on Wednesday evening. Our treat this time as Rob paid last time.

So it was another day lazing around, and the diet has gone to merde as we're having fish and chips from the chipoil down the road. Well, we're sharing one portion between us so it's not quite so bad, and at least I get to walk a few of the calories off walking there and back - and a quick turn around town while I'm at it.

(And good they were, too. Haddock, chips and mushy peas!).

Sunday 24th September 2023

Admin still not in good shape.

Weather in much better shape.

Nothing else to report unless you count washing clothes, and washing dishes, and emptying chemical loos?

No, I thought not.

So here's another picture of the Vienne at sundown...

Monday 25th September 2023

Warm, bright and sunny weather this morning, and checking ahead it seems set fair for most if not all of the rest of the trip.

However, Admin is still unwell with a chest infection which just won't go away.

Tomorrow, we move on to Saint Coutant, from where Rob has kindly arranged an appointment with his GP, who will hopefully prescribe some strong magic to finally get to grips with it - cos it's pretty miserable for her.

Nothing else to report until tomorrow.

Mileage so far: 1166