Our first motorhome trip to France Lac du Der to Bénavent
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Our first motorhome trip to France Lac du Der to Bénavent
Our first overnight stop on a French aire de camping cars, a new experience for us. We awaken early to a clear blue sky, quiet, a cuckoo calls in the distance, fluffy white clouds drift slowly across the ocean of blue. A young hare lopes across the gravel oblivious to the motorhomes, its massive ears erect and listening. What a wonderful experience here in the French countryside, we love it, why have we not been to France like this before? The simple answer is our Parisienne experience, however this is totally different.
We are up and on our way as quickly as possible, we plan to be in Biscasosse tomorrow and we are already find out how big a country France is. We are using the here.com app on my phone for navigation because we don’t have much mobile data (remember this is 2016). We are diverted because of road closures, the app responds very well using its off-line maps.
We are heading for an aire at Bénevant, near Pouligny st Pierre, famous for its goat cheese, the day is spent driving, we have a LOT of km to cover, we swap drivers frequently so that we don’t get too tired.
Before leaving home I researched the aires extensively, looking at satellite images on google maps and reading reviews where I could. This is our first trek through France so we wanted to be sure where we were going and what to expect. We found the aire easily enough, 46° 39′ 22″ N 1° 13′ 0″ E.
We are both exhausted, we take a short walk by the river then fall into bed. Not really the right expression because one climbs up into bed in our Hymer B544, but it conveys our state.
Later note: We took 3 days to reach Biscarosse which is not far from the Spanish border, since this first trek through France we have learned a lot and changed the way we travel. Were we to repeat this journey now we would be aiming to spend a week ambling through the French countryside, stopping at other aires and exploring the historic sites and small towns. The motorhome journey is part of what we do, we are both retired so we have few fixed commitments. We don’t have to be back for anything in particular, we don’t have to go in school holidays anymore.