Planet Ruby Starrs

Quiet day at camp... late morning ... chores .. van tidy,  and then a wander round the old bit of the town. It included a very interestimg looking partial ruined abbey but it was closed (friday in France). The town had the usual ancient, surprising plain church, a t iny section of 15 century city walls, some  pretty french buildings and a nice river walk. We ate out at a place on the park adjoining the camping it was quite pleasant. It got dark quick so having made a plan for the next few days - including a second visit to a huge charity shop - forgot to mention the first visit where I got some elegant wine glasses.. - we went to bed early.  I'm posting this now , unexciting as it is as no wifi imminent and we need data to keep planning route and sleeping options. 

We were up at the crack of the Woodpecker breakfast first and on the road ready to spend the day at the Château de Chenonceau. It's very well organised lots of parking including plenty for campervans but the place was absolutely heaving.  The tour starts with the obligatory chapel.. compact but beautiful. Then into the main body of the building.   For the first half hour it just felt like we were on a conveyorbelt... it's a very beautiful Chateau though and once the crowd started to thin out and we'd managed to get through the cellars which were the kitchens it became a very pleasant visit. There was a dove nesting under the bridge... It's incredibly grand with some amazingly beautiful plaster work particularly the fireplaces the cornices are all extremely ornate - as are the ceilings - in fact, actually the whole building is just like a fairy tale castle both outside and inside.  Evenethe dr...

It was my birthday - as a treat I got the last yorkshire tea bag! And... the promise to play as much labyrinth as wanted 🤣🤣🤣 cheesy chips for tea... but first an hours drive to a recommended campsite... We (literally) pitched up on a fab camping right on the river Loire... leafy foresty pretty empty... lovely afternoon chilling... gin and tonics.. birthday messages... cheesy chips and steak... we had been going to go out for a meal but France is shut on a Monday in September... fizzy wine fairy lights ..  Dr Fred trounced me at Labyrinth - we had a brief van disco....  didnt want to keep the other campers up.   The following daywe went to have a look around the local town,  Cosne sur Loire.  There was a wee booklet with a kind of walk of interesting places so we decided to follow that.   There some very nice buildings - It's obviously an old town and some of it was very old.  There were ruined bits of a castl...

We left paradis du dombes and hit the low roads via a huge supermarket so we could buy decent tonic for the gin 🤣We bought a moules pan, some ad blue, some dubious t bags and completely forgot the tonic!! Holiday brain strikes again. We stopped the night on a really good municipal camp in the middle of nowhere. Basic spotlessly clean amenities and huge roomy placements all for less than a tenner. It was so quiet - not even that many birds...the campsite was right next to a fishing lake so after tea we went for a walk around it - it was in two circles with a little walkway and a. Bridge in betwwen. A large portion of ithe smaller circle was totally dried up - its so dry. There are a lot of old oak trees here but one had obviously died sometime ago. Someone had carved the remaining trunk into a piece of art. A huge bird standing tall beside the lake... great idea. There were loads of huge fish jumping in the lake. It continues to reach temperatures of 30° pl...

We are back in France. France has never had that much sway for me... We've been loads of times and the main attraction is visiting lovely friends who live here. I'm really disappointed we couldn't hack the heat in Italy and more fed up as once we got into France its just as hot....we might as well be in Italy... We spent a very non descript night in and even more nondescript expensive Aire... just outside of Geneva.   given we had just had two fabulous nights in an amazing car park in Switzerland for next to nothing the Aire was poor... c'est la vie.. We walked down to Lake Geneva but its all private residences so we thoght ... b***** this for a game of whatever and we just had to trespass to get to the actual lake side. It all felt a bit precious... (obviously in a bad mood - reality of odd holiday days 🤣🤣🤣) We moved on to a campsite just north of Lyon.  Dr Fred - understandably is fed up of driving. We have had 2 long days..  ...

After a fab stay on lake Orta we headed via the supermarket to replenish supplies into Switzerland. Uncharted territory for both of us really - I did come through Switzerland many years ago but Dr Fred has never been before. The mountains are majestically amazing With snow on top and glaciers. The roads are very good, I suppose they have to be, there aren't many of them - and there are a lot of lorries.  We climbed higher and higher, through some amazing spectacular scenery and eventually parked up by the giant Eagle on the Simplon Pass. Its just glorious up here... crisp cooler air - still 26 ° but no humidity. We climbed to look at the eagle statue .. sat there watching a helicopter almost land as workers jumped ... then it disappeared over the mountain only to come back 10 mins later with more workers jumping out. It felt faintly thrilling like being 4 yrs old and getting excited to see a digger🤣🤣🤣 .. tbh there were loads of helicopters all ove...