We left Lou P’Tit Poun on Monday 14th July – or Bastille day as its perhaps better known. I knew it was going to be silly warm, so planned to pop down to Bayonne and stock up with drinks etc – I had noticed that they were going to be open on the public holiday. As we drove there, we were concerned at the queue of caravans, motorhomes and vehicles trying to get onto the main toll road – it stretched back for several kilometres! It was – we found out later, caused by a broken down vehicle on the slip road. In the supermarket, we had a lovely chat with a French chap about Brexit – he lives in Brittany but maintains a holiday house in Bayonne. That had come about as i had asked, in my halting french, for a specific type of battery for the TyrePal TPMS for the sensor that had failed – unlike the cheeky sod in the services he only wanted a few euro for the one he had – so, that was fitted !

Like most people in the Uk, I pay vehicle duty – or road tax …. can I just point out the quality of our roads, compared to the roads in France? I had set my iPhone up on a forward facing mount so i could voice activate / take simple pictures. Probably all would expect the Toll Roads to be good – but this trip was mainly on none toll roads – see for yourself about how good they were! (Most of this trip took us driving through La Foret des Landes – the largest man made forest in europe!)

After a few hours driving, we arrived at Moulin de Campech – a site I had specifically wanted to try based on the reviews of the meals available – a four course meal including wine for 23 euro… But, first the site itself – originally a water mill, now a sheltered oasis of calm.

Jo was now fully recovered, and was also looking forward to the food – we tried different choices for two nights, the final night we just had fish and chips, along with Basque Gateaux – which is like but not really Bakewell tart – either way Sue, who did the cooking, produced excellent food.

Having eaten well, we thought we ought to explore the area and Sue and George had printed out routes for cycling and walking locally – Sue identified for us a local ruined castle and off we went. The castle is not only ruined, but privately owned – as you will see below the thorns nettles and what ever are going to stop anyone going in! The castle is in Caubeyres and there is very little i could find out about it – apart from it was the base for the Albret family and they had built the castle to use as a base during the 100 years war – anyway, we set out to walk up to it.

Back in the day, it had commanding views across the whole area – and even though ruined, certainly worth while walking up to it.

We went back to the campsite, and walked around a little more – admiring the view from the pool, the local flowers and fauna.

After a final night spent with Steven and Tracey – a couple we met who we got on well with, we packed up early the next day for what would be the longest drive of the whole trip.