Tapp's Travels

We might even get there now!

OK, first we engage the sat nav.  The BMW system is rubbish.  Very unreliable.  She’s even programmed to say “I’m sorry, I must try harder!” when we start shouting at her and telling her she’s useless!  BMW have admitted defeat and all cars six months or more newer than ours have got Android for Autos and/or Google systems installed.  Glenda always asks me to check her proposed route before we set off.  This I duly did and her route looked fairly sensible.  However in “dynamic” mode she can change her mind mid-trip…  So, just before Agen, we got diverted off the “green” road and directed right through the city centre.  I think, to be fair, the centre is fairly hard to avoid which ever route you take.  However, on the road out of town – the one we were directed onto, there is a short tunnel.  More of a bridge in a lowered section of road.  2.6 m headroom!  And how tall is our caravan?  Yep, it’s 2.6 m tall.  We had to make an mergency slip off to the right onto a minute road which instantly transmogrified into a cycle route.  Our only route out was a 180 degree left turn amongst parked cars which took a 26 point turn with traffic stacked up behind.  Back onto the road going the wrong way until we re-located our “green” road.

Three things to remember about this:  1 The height of your caravan;  2  The last time (20 years ago – deja vu!) when we found the same tunnel while towing a different caravan;  3  To read road signs which warn of low bridges;  4  To ignore BMW sat nav instructions!

OK, that’s four things to remember!

Once back in open country, the critique of my route gradually diminished.  I say “gradually” but maybe I missed a word or two.  “Very” and “extremely” spring to mind – possibly both together!

About 30 kms from our destination we found a rather seedy looking café/bar in Lacardayre.  A late coffee stop – or lunch?  We chose the latter and were somewhat ripped off with a salad (nice), duck confit (also very nice) and icecream (hard to to be not nice) for €20 each.

Still, Glenda gets her first duck!

Arriving at Camping Base Nautique Le Floiras, we were offered pitch 4 or 9.  Us NOT occupying the latter was the cause of a “little friction” last time we were here.  This resulted in us being summoned to the bureau to be castigated by the owners for moving to pitch 8 without their permission.  But that’s another story – and best left in the past.  So pitch 9 it was.

The first thing we heard was that the Terrace restaurant in Grezels is no more.  So that’s our favourite Sunday lunch venue out of the picture!  Then we find that the Auberge de Delice’s de la Thèze (AKA The Duck Farm) is not answering the phone – quelle domage!  Now, I would hate to give you the impression that we are just lurching from one gastronomic event to another… but we do have to eat!  It’s important!

It gets quite warm here during the day, so walking is best done before breakfast.  Although that’s a very sensible plan, it’s a bit unrealistic!  However, we did make a lovely early-ish walk through the local vineyards from the campsite.

We disturbed the first rabbits we’ve seen in France.  About 20 tiddlers.  All French wildlife is super-timid and beetles off PDQ when they hear us coming.  I guess its a lot to do with the French cultural habit of shooting anything bigger than a mouse.  And then eating it.  I suppose that’s the terrestrial version of “peche-à-pied”.

Talking of beetles, as I was just now, our site seems to attract hundreds of shiny blue jobs in the late afternoons.  At first I thought they were blue flowers, but no – definitely beetles.

Well, I would certainly like to see a local shoot one of them.  And they’d need dozens of the blighters to make an “amuse bouche”!

One of the first things I did on site was to send messages to three Dutch friends we had met here over the years.  Hetty, Angelique and Ingrid.  Hetty answered almost immediately to say she was far too busy with her house in The Netherlands to be doing frivolous things like camping holidays!  Angelique and Ingrid, on the other hand, replied with a cryptic message about being camped four km north of us!  What?  There’s no campsite in that region!. It transpired that they were living in their caravan as they re-modelled their recently purchased house on a hill overlooking Prayssac.

Words like house re-design, re-modelling and renovating get Glenda all excited!  Twitching, even!  In the words of one of my erstwhile managerial colleagues, they are like “Red rags to a cow”!  Well, he was German!  Clearly, I’m not likening my wife to a cow (you can easily tell that because this episode would already have ended!  Probably with me in hospital.)  Rather, I’m referring to the Germanic confusion of sexes of bovines.

“So, how soon can we go visit the new house four kms north of here?”  “How about tomorrow morning?”  “OK, can we skip breakfast?”

After hours of discussion of RAL numbers, tile sizes, electrical outlet position, plasterboarding developments, bathroom layouts, cupboard and door locations and potential furniture layouts, it was time for a snack on the covered deck area.  I’m exhausted just thinking about it all.

Their house is going to be fabulous.  It has a great location close to Prayssac.  It has a superb view.  And Angelique is controlling the builders very “closely” in order to get what they want.  We can’t wait to see the finished product

Puy l’Évêque is the next main town down the Lot valley from Preyssac.  The name means “Bishops’ Hill”.  It’s a rather impressive town built on the high northern side of the river.  It developed as an important port with the local sailing barges, or gabarres, trading goods up and down the river.

This is one of the last remaining “genuine” gabarres (not my photo).  Traditionally these flat-bottomed scows had a crew of three, often a family team.  They would move cargoes of wine, charcoal, grain, or indeed anything that needed moving up or down the river.  It must have been particularly difficult sailing in the section of river.near here.  It winds and meanders in massive loops between almost continuous massive trees.  Not easy sailing!

We decided to go for a walk on the bank of the river near Puy l’Évêque.  As we approached the port area, a tourist (non-genuine) electric “gabarre” was just about to depart on an hour’s excursion.   So, obviously, we jumped on.  Easier than walking!  We and four locals had 60 plus minutes of continuous commentary in French.  Very illuminating, I think.

We do like a nice river trip.  A calming experience.  Even if we can only understand one word in 50!

But now it’s time to finish this episode.  I’ll come back to the closed duck farm restaurant next time!

Oh, and by the way, a FIFTH thing to remember about navigation with a caravan in tow is to listen to your wife!

(Did I just say that?)