France, November 2024

We decided that we would shower and get ready for the trip to the Aire Terrasson-Lavilledieu, Eden, here at the Aire d'Orcines so that we were fairly presentable when we arrived.

Andy noticed that the van which had parked behind us was English and so he went to say Hi and we got chatting to the young couple from Nottingham.

They had driven down to Spain and back missing the storms in the Barcelona area which had taken so many lives, 200 as we write this! They asked us questions about battery power, park ups, tolls, low emmision and clean air zones and were very interested in our adventures so we wrote down some Youtube favourites of ours and gave them our own (this) website address.

We got on the road and were soon pulling into another layby for lunch of soup and bread roll before heading off on the final leg of our journey to Eden.

The final leg to the Aire as we pull away from the lunch lay-by.

We parked up and went to find our hosts, Marie and Bruno.

Kisses and hand shaking was abound and we were welcomed to the Aire as if we were long lost friends!

We choose a spot and parked it, deciding that we would probably not move now for three nights and got our chairs out to relax before bed.

2nd Nov

Another beautiful morning. We got on the bikes and went to the intermarche to buy some fruit as a gift to Marie and Bruno and some beers & Gin for the party tonight.

At 2:30pm we all met to help to prepare the veg and we got stuck in scraping, topping and tailing and chopping carrots while others were peeling spuds, chopping pumpkins and onions and lots more.

Back to the van to chill and eventually get ready for the party, mask and face paint on we walked across the yard and Marie met us at the door. We were welcomed with cheers and applause and sat at the long table opposite Rosette, her husband and Marie and were handed half pints of champagne punch, which just kept coming all night!

An evening of talk, laughter, drinking, eating and karaoke ended at 2:30 AM after lots of dancing and more laughter.

We eventually said our goodnights and all retired to our vans for a well deserved sleep.

3rd Nov

Last night we got to bed at about 3AM and we both had a well needed lie-in and didn't get out of bed until 9:30.

At 12:30 we wandered over to the 'party barn' where there was to be a gathering of friends later. Tables and chairs appeared outside the barn and in the sunshine and we went to join the crowd who had already gathered.

We declined the food which was on offer but joined in with the drinking and as the afternoon moved into late afternoon Andy got the acoustic out of the van and played some tunes for our friends for about 45 minutes which was well accepted and recorded so there will be some of that on here when it becomes available.

We decided to go back to the van for the evening and collected our stuff and retired fully intending to perhaps join the party again later but as the evening grew older we realised that we were too tired and stayed in the van and had an early night, Andy stayed up watching youtube but kept nodding off so he eventually gave up and went to bed at around 9pm!

4th Nov

Today we are leaving the Aire and will say aurevoir to all of our friends.

We got the van ready for the road and said our goodbyes and after visiting the service area we hit the road northbound aiming for the Aire at Lac de Saint Pardoux ///automotive.deploy.prods 

It was another hot day and the sky was clear and blue as we headed north east.

As we pulled into the Aire we soon realised just how big an area it took up. We saw the lake as soon as we pulled off the road but it took us a further five minutes to arrive at the barrier of the motorhome area as we had to drive past the resturaunt, basket ball court, beach volley ball area and a swimming pool!

We parked facing the lake as the sun was setting and we sat out in the fresh air with a beer/wine/Gin until it got cold enough to get back in the van for the evening.

5th Nov

We had to get to a shop to get some food so we got on the bikes and headed 8km to a Carrefour express just outside the village of Compreignac up and down some pretty steep hills but the bikes coped really well.

When we got back we had some lunch and got on the bikes again and explored the lake area.

Andy just had to send the drone up to get a better view of the lake.

We settled down for the evening and checked the travel apps (Search4sites and Park4night) to find a place for tomorrow night.