2025 September: Auzon to Gaillac
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Our second morning at Auzon is overcast when we get up, heavy cloud and threatening rain. We breakfast and watch as two of our neighbours leave (but not the crazy Frenchman). We service Hymer, filling with water and emptying the tanks and reluctantly leave the lovely village of Auzon on D17 following the Allier River to Lorlanges and A75 (not paeage).
Here we follow A75 south most of the way towards Toulouse. The landscape changes, dry stoney heathland gives way to mountain slopes and foothills and we begin the climb steeply up towards St Poncy. And typically, in the mountains the sky darkens and it pours down, torrential rain so heavy in places we can hardly see more than about 100 metres. The road is good (it is the truck’s route through the mountains) although there are quite a few steep hills, some with hairpin and double hairpin bends. The summit (somewhere near St Poncy) is 1107 metres and we begin our descent in similar steep fashion, long downhill sections with hairpin bends, all very exciting! Through Massiac and towards St Flour where we look for diesel as the tank is now below quarter. The rain has stopped; we find a filling station in a small village where we top up (Mr C. says it needs to be below €159.9/litre). Back on A75 we find a filling station at Laguoiles within Mr C.’s acceptable price limits so fill up. It is next to Super U and as we need provisions, we also do a food shop, topping up with milk, meats, cheese and salad.
We have lunch on the carpark and use the toilet in the supermarket. All set we return to A75 and continue south to Rodez and then onto the busy and industrial town of Albi. Here, we take the N88 ring road south and west around Albi to Gaillac; we find the huge Retail Park very busy with small roundabout interchanges and much traffic. We follow the road and just past the retail park (and conveniently behind Aldi) we find Camping-Car Park Gaillac. The entrance to the Camping-Car Park site at Gaillac is not easy to enter because of the gate posts, in fact we didn’t see it and drove past, when we turned around it was a little easier to access.
The Camping-Car Park site at Gaillac is another defunct and well-used campsite (in its time), next to the River Tarn. The toilet and shower block are locked off (as expected) but the pitches (25) are of good size and divided by hedges. Each pitch has a gravel base with hookup and grassed sitting area, some with (ancient) wood shelters for bikes, camping equipment etc. Cost is €15.40/night including hookup (Sept 2025), water and good drive-over emptying facilities. There are about 12 of us here (French, Swiss, Portuguese and 2 UK) motorhomes only, no caravans or tents allowed. We park on Pitch 6 (a large pitch on the end of the middle row (of three), connect to the hook up and stop.
Today we have travelled 296 km. The rain has stopped but there are puddles everywhere, fortunately there is good drainage on the site. We wander around getting a sense of what used to be here, likely very popular in its day. We open wine and cook pork escallops bought from Super-U and eat them with new potatoes, local tomatoes and mushrooms. It is getting dark early, about 8.30pm tonight so we have an early night.
Motorhome Trek Auzon to Gaillac
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