In Bulgnéville

 Monday 03/06/24

After a week of looking after Jasper and Lily and preparing Orthos, our caravan, for a trip, we set off on Saturday.  We're heading to Germany where we have a house-sit near Hanover later this month and then want to explore more of the country.  It's a trip we've been planning for a few years now but other priorities kept scuppering our plans so we're very pleased to finally be on our way.

The weather has been grim over Europe for a few weeks now and our travels so far have been blighted by rain, low cloud and wind.  We found the wind made a massive difference to our fuel consumption and we had to fill Dassie up before our first destination, making barely 400km on a tank of diesel.

Orthos and Dassie resting after two day's travel across France

It was raining when we arrived at our first stop, Jargeau, on the banks of the Loire and we were grateful for Dassie's 4-wheel drive when pulling Orthos across the sodden grass area.  It's not much fun camping in the rain and we were feeling a bit sorry for ourselves until we spotted a cyclist sitting next to his tiny tent in the rain, seemingly unfussed.  It made the luxury of our caravan seem very decadent - it's all about perspective!

We were going to stay there two nights and explore nearby Orléans but with the rain continuing, we decided to push on and are now another step closer to Germany.

Bulgnéville

We are in a packed campsite in France, but are the only French vehicles here.  This is apparently the ideal stop-over for Dutch, Belgian and German campers on their way to the South of France and Spain so it swells every afternoon and empties again in the morning as travellers hit the road.  We'll stay another night so that we can stretch our legs a bit and get some shopping done before heading onward.

We were marvelling at the roses growing in town and spotted this beauty!

We were amazed again last night how, in a packed campsite with more than 120 stands, there isn't a peep after 9pm; we slept like babies. Onwards to Germany!