12th September 2023

Overslept today. My phone had run out of electricity overnight. Not sure why, so no alarm. Rosemary says her phone was also low. My phone was on the excellent free wifi that they have at the campsite. Looking at the wiring alongside the roads, I think most of France is now on fibre to the home. Presumably a much easier task to complete in France with their overhead cabling.

We packed up the van in the dry and at 11.am headed down to the Ardeche. No toll roads on the route, adding a toll would increase the time of travel by several hours. The trip took in the main motorway down south, and then turned off heading across country towards Le Puy En Velay (which we’d visited last year). Never quite reaching said town as we headed further South into the Ardeche. Here we had a spectacular downhill drive for seemingly ages. I wonder what percentage gain in battery charge you would have by the time you reached the bottom.

Stopped off at a shop in Aubenas, ‘Le Jardin Provencal’ for a few provisions. Large selection of local wines, meats, fruits and vegetables. R was not impressed by the quality of the fruit, she had to sort through loads of peaches to get ones that were not damaged.

Hey ho and onward we travelled arriving at Vallon-Pont-d’Arc at our targeted campsite of Rives d’Arc. We arrived at 15.30. I say campsite, they call themselves an ‘Hotel de Plein Air’. Yes, it is mainly chalets, and many newer ones, because you can still see the hookup points in areas where there had been camping, but now it is chalets. R was taken by some of the chalets on the east side where they looked very smart and were built amongst some dense vegetation for privacy. It reminded her of the smart lodges in Namibia. The company appears to have recently bought another large field which they have planted out with trees but so far no buildings. The place has a couple of restaurants, two pools and a small store.

We set up in a reasonable area, not too far from the shower block, bought a bottle of pink from the onsite shop and settled down for the evening. The onsite shop sold beer, wine, several varieties of bread and also had fresh fruit and vegetables. It did not close for lunch!