Sunday 23 March - Royan to Grand Fougeray

We decided to stay 3 nights on the promise of a reasonable weather forecast so that we could visit Royan and maybe take Jamie onto the beach for a good run. But the weather gods were having none of it and each time we were getting ready to go it started raining again so we ended up just chilling out in Bertie. At least we had hookup and plenty of groceries so hobbies to the fore.

But we now need to start heading north so as Sunday is usually a good day for travelling after our smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, not forgetting the buttered brown bread, (decadent as ever!) we positioned onto the service point and completed all the domestics before negotiating the barrier - we'd had to contact CCP again as our card top up payment hadn't registered but they sorted it in seconds, citing a problem with their payments system. Programming TomTom to Eurotunnel from here took us north to La Rochelle using the D and N roads, all very good, plus the odd free autoroute so we made excellent progress. It would have been nicer if the weather had cooperated but we contended with frequent showers, some quite heavy. Lunch at a service area on the one bit of autoroute.

Undecided how far we should try to go Bren started reviewing aires de camping car as we approached our normal stopping time. Grand Fougeray, halfway between Nantes and Rennes looked like it might fit the bill and as TomTom had already spotted it went for it. A typical village aire close to the centre with 7/8 spaces and a service point, we manoeuvred into as flat a position as we could without needing the levelling ramps, joining the couple of other French vans already parked. With thoughts of our current needs such as fuel, some shopping and, most importantly, a vet we got Google maps to scout around and found all three within walking distance so after a cuppa donned raincoats, just in case, and had a scout around  the village. Obviously as it's Sunday afternoon we were not expecting anywhere to be open but a look is helpful plus we got a bit of much-needed exercise.

So our plan tomorrow is first visit the vet to see if/when they can sort his worming treatment then fuel and shopping. With that out of the way we can then just continue north to see how far we can get.