Campervan Therapy

Two days’ drive takes us from the Lot’s mellow country roads to the hairpin 10% slopes of the Cévennes Mountains and the mighty gorges of the Tarn and Ardèche. Aveyron’s Recoules Prévinquières The N88 passes Laissac, famous as a cattle market. You can watch the auctioneers at work and have a slap-up steak for breakfast.…

Luzech I love how water goes with the flow and I’m happiest doing that too, so it’s no surprise that we find ourselves by yet another river, the green and verdant Lot. We’re visiting friends, Jonathan and Clare, who’ve moved to the village of Luzech. We lunch and chat under the wisteria, looking out on…

Souillac The swimming pool is sardine-packed in Souillac’s Camping Les Ondines – and it’s 40C – at first glance it’s not a promising prospect. But it borders the Dordogne and the restaurant has cheerful red and white chequered table cloths on long trestle tables. Under fairy lights on a mellow evening it’s French enough to…

I choose Camping du Lac de Mondon, in Haute-Vienne’s Cromac, from the ACSI book, merely because it’s 14 kilometres from the free A20 motorway. But first we’re stopping off at Domain de Candé in Monts, as the nice young man in Azay-le-Rideau’s tourist office recommended it. Domain de Candé – Monts This is a generous,…

The Château A visit to the Azay’s château beside Camping Le Sabot is a must. The limestone glares so much it hurts my eyes. The vine-stuccoed loggia tricks me into thinking I’m in Italy. To be fair, the Renaissance took hold here in the Loire Valley, beauty becoming a goal in itself. Leonardo da Vinci…

The Local Auction Seán’s mother, Betty, reads in The Wicklow People that there’s an auction in Clara Vale. We take her so that she can catch up with old friends. As we cross the arched stone bridge, SS Patrick and Killian’s white church nestles under an escarpment, roses riot over a cottage door. A man…