{"id":5271,"date":"2024-07-03T18:20:25","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T18:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=5271"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:26:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:26:46","slug":"11-birthdays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=5271","title":{"rendered":"11. BIRTHDAYS."},"content":{"rendered":"

I selected our next campsite wirh great care to be close to Prayssac so we could meet with Angelique and Ingrid and see their new house.\u00a0 A nice peaceful (English owned) site near Moncabrier.\u00a0 After towing up the twisting roads from Fumel, we arrived at a large, tree-infested, water-logged site.\u00a0 Very disappointing.\u00a0 We’re not staying here Barry!\u00a0 Back down the even narrower, twiddlier road into Duravel.\u00a0 Almost no passing places in 10 kms.\u00a0 Luckily we met nothing until the final 20 m.\u00a0 He just had to back round one right angle bend and we were out.<\/p>\n

Next stop Camping Ch’Timi on a hill overlooking the Lot valley.\u00a0 Well, five of the pitches could see the river (all occupied).\u00a0 The rest looked the other way at the forested hillside.\u00a0 Not keen, Barry!\u00a0 Final option, Camping Clos Bouyssac a little further down the road, beyond\u00a0 Touzac (Dutch owned).\u00a0 Rather shady.\u00a0 Large pitches in a row along the bank of the River Lot.\u00a0 Immaculate facilities (that’s Dutch sites for you).\u00a0 Friendly owners.\u00a0 We’ll take place no 58 please!<\/p>\n

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Our bit of river bank!<\/p>\n

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Last rays of the day …<\/p>\n

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… and sunset.<\/p>\n

We couldn’t get booked at the Duck Farm for Sunday lunch so we hit O’Family & Co in Duravel.\u00a0 We went with Angelique and Ingrid.\u00a0 But the road into town was closed, shut, barr\u00e9e.\u00a0 So we parked and walked the last couple of hundred metres past a market trading in EVERYTHING related to two wheel vehicles. And, I happened to notice, icecreams!<\/p>\n

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After lunch, Angelique and Ingrid\u00a0came to visit us.\u00a0 Except they were parked on the other side of the road block.\u00a0 They came via Fumel, Paris, Bordeau and St Emilion.\u00a0 This brought them (some time later) to our site via the back country roads over the hills because the Touzac bridge is closed for repairs – as it was last year – and the year before that.<\/p>\n

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Opening soon?\u00a0 I wouldn’t hold your breath!<\/p>\n

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But they eventually got to us in time for a cup of tea\/coffee by the river!<\/p>\n

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As we are dishing out awards, I can report that the pool was the warmest yet.\u00a0 But we have more hot weather ahead so that probably won’t win!\u00a0 The facilities are immaculate.\u00a0 The only down-side is the 15 steps up to them.\u00a0 (Can steps up be a down-side?)\u00a0 (A few years ago, the river flooded and the water level got up to step eight – perhaps the steps are not a down-side in the longer term!)<\/p>\n

However, and as far as I know, this is uniquely, unique in the campsite world.\u00a0 In the entry lobby there are four washbasins in little alcoves.\u00a0 As you approach the basins, the overhead lights come on.\u00a0 And what lights they are!<\/p>\n

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And each booth has a different style of mirror!<\/p>\n

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… and not only that, but there is a space age Dyson hand-drier conveniently placed nearby!<\/p>\n

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The Decorative Bathroom Award goes to Clos Bouyssac!\u00a0 By a country mile!<\/p>\n

The Restaurant Chez Jeanne at Pomerade is celebrating it’s 100th year in business this year.\u00a0 I didn’t like to ask Sylvie how many generations have taken their turn to run the joint.<\/p>\n

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Glenda maintaining her balanced diet!<\/p>\n

Everyone on our current campsite speaks English, but only six of us are native speakers.\u00a0 One couple of walkers we saw once, briefly, about two minutes after we arrived and one couple of camper-vanners Andrew and Gill.\u00a0 And us.\u00a0 All the rest are Dutch!\u00a0 They do get everywhere in France at this time of year!<\/p>\n

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Andrew and Gill with a broken tooth.\u00a0 They arrived on the same road that Angelique and Ingrid came on.\u00a0 Over the hills and extremely rough.\u00a0 They wouldn’t get their bikes out.\u00a0 They thought the country was too hilly!\u00a0 Didn’t realise they were now on the flood plain of the River Lot.\u00a0 We mentioned that they could cycle to Cahors and back with virtually no hills.\u00a0 The next thing we knew was meeting them in Prayssac, best part of 20 km from base, and bringing their shopping home for them!\u00a0 That’s electric bikes and camper vans for you!<\/p>\n

Time to visit Angelique and Ingrid’s house.\u00a0 Very modern.\u00a0 Very new.\u00a0 Very beautifully finished.<\/p>\n

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They even mow the rugs to get neat lines on them!<\/p>\n

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Lovely quilt wall-hanging in the large office-cum-activities room – which appears largely dedicated to a flight simulator.<\/p>\n

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All newly painted shutters.<\/p>\n

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A lovely house, with a beautiful pool …<\/p>\n

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… and a superb view.<\/p>\n

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And now, an immaculately painted and organised “sous-sol” (basement) garage.\u00a0 Just like mine at home – in my imagination!<\/p>\n

Back at base, the peace and tranquility of our river-side dwelling was briefly disturbed by one of our neighbours pulling a large carp out of the river.<\/p>\n

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A big fish, maybe four or five kilos, but nowhere near as big as one pulled out of the same river one night when we were camped twenty kilometres upstream a few years ago.\u00a0 Then our (rather noisy, night-time fishermen) neighbours caught a 40 kg monster.\u00a0 I think most of the campsite was woken by that event!<\/p>\n

The reason why French carp tend to be much larger than British ones is all down to climate!\u00a0 Carp only feed heavily when the water temperature is above 10 or 12\u00b0C – and for maximum growth rate the water temperature needs to be between 20 and 28\u00b0C – so the \u201cgrowing\u201d season is much longer in France than in the UK.<\/p>\n

The whole of France celebrates my birthday one day early.\u00a0 Across the nation, they hold the Festival of Music on the 21 June.\u00a0 I have written to M Macron (and also to Marine Le Pen – hedging my bets seems a good idea st this time!). \u00a0I have suggested they delay things by a day.\u00a0 No luck yet!\u00a0 So if you can’t beat them, join them.\u00a0 We went to the Duck Farm for lunch with our Dutch friends one day early for my birthday.\u00a0 Except they had a delayed, critical delivery which needed their signature.\u00a0 So they never made it.\u00a0 We dined alone.\u00a0 Well, alone on our table.\u00a0 The restaurant was full as usual.<\/p>\n

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Two bowls of duck soup followed by duck pat\u00e9, magret of duck and duck icecream.\u00a0 Well actually by a cr\u00e8me caramel with a bougie and an optimistic numerical indicator!<\/p>\n

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Actually, we were also celebrating Amelia’s 21st in two days time (so this picture is really for her).\u00a0 It’s Glenda’s three days after that and Lauren’s 18th birthday a further three days later as well.\u00a0 This time of year is always expensive!<\/p>\n

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Happy diners!<\/p>\n

After lunch it was back to A & I’s house for a birthday tea with cakes!\u00a0 It’s all go!<\/p>\n

The music festival was being celebrated locally in Fumel (too big a place), Prayssac (too predictably organised) and in Bellac (tiny village – it’ll be delightfully informal, easy to join in, likely to feature local amateurs, probably a bit disorganised!).\u00a0 Bellac sits atop a BIG hill overlooking the Lot valley.<\/p>\n

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Our usual campsite in this area is marked.<\/p>\n

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It was small, locally orientated and sunny.\u00a0 We seemed to be the only people present not on first name terms with the “band” – Let’s call it “Adam and Eve”!<\/p>\n

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It was also also a little disorganised.\u00a0 As predicted.\u00a0 Meant to start at 7.30 pm, it actually got going just before 8.30!\u00a0 No one knew how to get the microphones working.\u00a0 They also fielded a violinist (with no amplification) and the local ladies choir (with just enough sound enhancement to be lovely)!<\/span><\/p>\n

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All delightful as a birthday celebration!\u00a0 We left about 10.00 pm, just as the party was getting going.\u00a0 We didn’t want to get locked out of our campsite!<\/p>\n

And now it’s time to start heading seriously northwards!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I selected our next campsite wirh great care to be close to Prayssac so we could meet with Angelique and Ingrid and see their new house.\u00a0 A nice peaceful (English owned) site near Moncabrier.\u00a0 After towing up the twisting roads… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-and-france-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5271"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5324,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions\/5324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}