2019-07-27 Heaudicourt to St Liviere

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Heaudicourt to St Liviere

Heaudicourt to St Liviere

On the aire de camping cars at the Lac de Madine there is a light shower of rain as we shower (in the camper) and have breakfast. It is cloudy and a little cooler. I walk over to the toilet in light refreshing rain to be greeted by a terrible sight. The toilet bowl is full to the brim with floating pooh in brown slurry… how does it get like this!!!

I go back to the camper and tell Alan, he is highly amused! We pack up and leave this awful place. I put an ‘honest’ review on Google (now Level 8 Google Guide… lots of reviews so I know). In reality it’s very unusual for us to have a poor overnight stop in France, sometimes we can’t find the aire or other destination, but bad ones are unusual. We are always honest when we are reviewing campsites, it helps others to know what to expect.

We leave Heudicourt Sous Les Côtes (Heudicote under the Sides), a pretty village on D908 and onto the D12, a single carriageway road through the countryside, to Leroueville and St Auben sur Aire. It is raining hard now, the tops of the wind turbines are in the clouds, most of the wheat and barley grain has been gathered in, but some of the straw is still waiting for bailing. Onto the N4, a good dual carriageway to St Dezier about 25 miles. A short drive through the villages from St Dizier to Eclaron Braucourt Ste Liviere and the small Aire next to the Maire in the centre of the village.

The aire here at Ste Liviere is a super place in the grounds of what used to be the old school. Clean, well-cared for with 19 nicely marked gravel pitches and a green grassy area for sitting in the middle. It is €8/night including electric hook-up, water and disposal facilities. We  arrive about 1.30pm, so park on the corner spot with picnic table and have lunch.

In the afternoon it stops raining and brightens up. The temperature almost half of what it was in Ensch is 20°C. In the afternoon it brightens up and warms to 26°, so pleasantly cool! We have a quiet and relaxing afternoon, catching up on the journals and emails (there is an excellent Wi-Fi connection) and watch our very interesting French neighbours, the men constantly stare at us and are clearly fascinated by a pair of Brits! In the evening we walk into the village and find a fabulous old water mill, in a poor state of repair, but idyllic location with fast running river (and salmon leap) and large mill pond full of yellow water lilies… just like one of Monet’s paintings. Alan rues not being 10 years younger when he might have looked at buying it!

Ah… imagination is a wonderful thing. We walk back through the cemetery, a place with a gloomy corner and, I suspect from the atmosphere, some ghosts from a very turbulent past. The evening darkens to night, deliciously cool after the intense heat of the last week. There is a ceilidh with a live band in the village hall next to us, full of people of every age from 8 year olds up to our age, it looks a lot of fun.

Heaudicourt to St Liviere

Summary of motorhome journey through Germany and France