Hols ... The Rest ...

... so - to continue ...

The eight-hour journey down was eventful for starters - our new sat-nav (£109 from Tesco.com ... less £70 of vouchers - ergo bargain !?!) seems to have an affinity with Paris. However I'm jumping the gun here - because on the Saturday there was an accident on the M25 - so said sat-nav took us through some busy bits of London (to save time apparently).  Back on track - Sunday saw us driving through almost the middle of Paris - yikes !!!  Ended up going through loads of tunnels (including "that Princess Diana One" - yes I've checked !) and another that seemed a bit "tight" - we had the roof box on - so I was driving and ducking at the same time.  
Got to campsite about 2030 - tent up no probs - still dry - but a bloody cold evening. Monday - dry again - did the supermarche shop and went for a bit of a walk to La Madeleine - a troglodyte village built into the rocks overlooking the Vezere river.  Amazing stuff ... back to campsite - managed a barbecue - steak natch ... and then it started raining ...

... and basically it didn't stop raining until Friday.  Campsite owners said "It's usually 25 degrees Celsius this time of year" ... but is wasn't.  It was wet - and the evenings were bloody cold !  So - Tuesday - it was "museum time" - all good stuff - but not what we were expecting - a brief respite Tuesday afternoon was spent with a shortish walk.  Then back to the tent - to find we'd been burgled ...  not by any human beings, but by a fox, who'd managed to tip over the "cool box" and steal our food (spicy Merguez sausages, pork and parsley pate, bread - and also stick a few teeth marks in the vegetables, thus making them uneatable).  Well hacked off ???  Oh yes ...  however the campsite - although very quiet people-wise - did have a small bar/restaurant, and  Giles managed to put together a wonderful meal of entrecote steak, chips and salad for us.  We returned to the tent - by now it was chucking it down again, and continued all night and the following day - plus the camping lantern had packed up - despite new (expensive) batteries - aargh !  Wednesday - more museums (Le Thot and Lascaux II) due to weather - still amazing stuff, but ... a trip to the supermarche to replace food as well.  We sat in the car park watching the rain pour down and Mrs Smiffy said "ENOUGH !!".  On return to campsite we enquired as to the possibility of renting one of the (empty) mobile homes on the site - as in light, heat, electricity, comfort etc etc - "pas de probleme" was the reply - so we left the tent ...OK we could still hear the rain hammering down - but we had light, heat etc etc !!!

Thursday - another troglodyte village - an amazing place (Le Roque de St Christophe) - also because of the layout we were under cover from the rain.  Afternoon - we went to Sarlat - a medeaval city ... but camera stayed in car - as we did for a good while watching the rain on the windscreen whilst eating lunch.   We ventured out eventually (avec waterproofs !) and sneaked in a posh tea/cake shop as well.  Tea was cassoulet - I love that stuff !!

Friday ...and it started to clear ... so  we grabbed the chance for a big walk - and then another supermarche visit to buy pressies etc (local produce ... foie gras , confit de canard and truffle sauce).  Saturday - a long trip back up to the north of France - and naturally the weather was brill - stopped off at one the the "aires" - like service station - for lunch and admired the French ... picnic table but out came the tablecloth, bottles of wine and posh food (we had butties from our tupperware and a can of Orangina !).  Another nightmare journey ... we decided to avoid Paris but ended up in the hell that is Rouen - some new roadworks that the sat-nav was unaware of ... you can guess the rest.  Arrived at hotel - late (!!) but they too managed to sort us out some Steak Bordelaise with chips and salad.  Sunday - back on Le Shuttle ... and lunch at Toddington Services - sat in the car !!! One helluva difference from 24 hours earlier (aren't Brit Service Stations mostly crap ?  Can only think of one up in the Lake District (Tebay)that's remotely nice and not full of the usual cr*p - some of those French "aires" are just a few picnic tables and a loo - which is great if you're fully prepped !!!

So ... that was our week off - not quite what we were hoping for ... and since our return to GB - and work - the weather's been wonderful (yes the Royal Mail shorts have been out this week !).  Sod's Law I guess ...  photo-wise, it was also a bit disappointing - I'm blaming the weather (!) - but a few from the week can be found at:

Vezere Valley Holiday Pics

A few football stories have turned up in my absence ... but that's another post ...
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