4th September 2022

After the night parked in Jen and Bev’s, we played again with Lottie the dog before departing with J&B to Brantôme en Périgord, where we had a coffee in a cafe run by a couple of South Africans. A quick look around, and then we headed our diverse ways, J&B back home and us onto Le Puy-en-Velay.

Why Puy-en-Velay? We had never heard of it. I drew a line on the map from Cussac to the Verdon Gorge, our selected destination. Then I selected a campsite halfway along the line, preference given to campsites in a town. Puy-en-Valey came up, it looked interesting with its volcanic history. There was an ACSI campsite in town, as we prefer to be within a short walk of shops, restaurants and bars

The drive to Puy-en-Velay was fairly tedious, again a slow route across country on minor and departmental roads. Some areas were ski resorts, and there were road markers for the inevitable winter snow. The highland moors were being patrolled by numerous kites and buzzards. Never seen quite so many. We eventually arrived after 5 and half hours at 17:16 and took the very last pitch available in the campsite. There were at least two other vans waiting behind us. We set up under a tree and had supper.

The drama of the day occurred after the sun set. I took a last swig of his beer without looking and offended a wasp who was having a drink. The wasp stung me on my lip. Rosemary removed the quite large barb from my lip and administered internal and external antihistamine treatment. We both reread the instructions on the EpiPen in case it was needed. Other than a swollen lip, which partly subsided during the night, the services of the hospital next door were not required. R issued a new standing instruction to check glass & bottle before taking a swig – crunch & stinging sensations should not occur.