Thursday 22nd March

We’ve calculated on the map where we need to be for tonight’s stopover.  There are only two campsites nearby.  One doesn’t open until 1st April and the other 1st May.  We call the first one as we’ve stayed there before, tell them about the car and they bend over backwards to welcome us.  They tell us nothing is on which includes the indoor heated pool and wash block (which we were truly looking forward to), but they will turn on the water and heating in their disabled centre and we can have sole use of that.

We stop in Boussac for a few provisions and I admire my man for driving us and our wobble box everywhere so safely.

The camp site is Dutch run by Elspeth and Reiner, their family and friends, with the pitches in irregular places and different sizes.  The reason I mention this, is that a lot of sites have their pitches designed as a parking lot for maximum capacity.  We arrive, and being the only visitors until the site opens in 10 days’ time we have full choice of where to pitch up.  Obviously its as near to the disabled centre and bar as possible.  The site is semi forest and without other campers Stella is off her lead and Steve is binoculars in hand looking at wild life.

Tim comes by as we’re pitching up and we explain our gas dilemma to him.  We dare not use the Butane as the weather is still below 5° and I would truly like to cook the very expensive steak we have in our fridge.  First thing first. Tim tells us that there is a 3 course dinner being served tonight in the bar for staff and we would be welcome to join them at 6:30pm.  You should have seen Steve’s and my face light up.  Tim and Steve work on the gas and eventually with a different cylinder from the camp’s store and spares of regulators a match is made.  Yeay.  We have gas and electric which means we can have hot water, heating and use any appliance at the same time without a math’s calculation.

The afternoon flies pleasantly by.  Stella has been walked, Steve has inspected the fishing lake and I’ve languished in a hot and long shower.  At 6:20 we make our way to the bar.

We’re warmly welcomed by the staff, a few we already knew, and offered red or white.  Again, you should have seen Steve’s and my face light up.  In fact, we haven’t stopped smiling since we got here.  As we make introductions we chat away and 11 of us are seated at a trestle table for dinner.  Jacqueline is our cook, and we’re served a Moroccan style chicken with couscous dish accompanied by various salads followed by sumptuous desserts.  Everyone bar us is Dutch so the evening’s conversation is in English and needless to say the wine was flowing.  We had such a lovely evening chatting with interesting people about interesting things.

Friday morning, 6° outside and writing from the bar in front of the wood burner.