Thursday 20 March - Contis Plage to Royan

A very quiet night and even Jamie didn't bother us until our normal getting up time. Somewhat cooler than forecast and a high overcast meant no direct sun but it warmed up quickly nevertheless. Nice as the aire was we decided to carry on a bit so after breakfast moved onto the service point to discover that, as we'd guessed, our arrival hadn't been registered. But CCP seem to have got their act really together as it gave us a number to call, promptly answered by an English speaker who instantly knew who we were, where we were and even that we were standing on the dump point! He also knew what time we'd arrived last night so reset things for us and all completed very quickly with absolutely no fuss. Impressed at our first use of CCP so we'll certainly use them again. Good value too, around £12.50 pn although we weren't actually able to get hookup (not CCP fault).

So once finished we moved off with no more intention than to run north along the coastal road then join the Bordeaux ring before once again returning to the coast as we were in no rush. An enjoyable run on the "D" roads, having to make a diversion at Blaye when the road through the town was closed, before joining the madhouse Bordeau periferique which we chose to go around to the west - it doesn't seem to make any difference. Off at the A10 and over the two big rivers, Gironde and Dordogne, before turning off towards the estuary and coast once again. Lunch in a layby whilst we considered our next stop. Royan was within our normal end-of-day time frame and also had a CCP close to the town centre as well as a couple of countryside locations nearby as backup. So we thought we'd take a look and found it easily enough with a number of spaces still available - which the CCP app had already told us, a useful feature. This time managed a hookup before we relaxed with a cuppa and decided that the weather forecast was stable enough for us to stay here 2/3 nights as a final break before making our run up to Calais for the train on Thursday.

Once again it has been very warm all day, 21/22C noted on the various pharmacy signs - most seem to have time, date and temperature displays. No direct sunshine but it's dry and we're more than happy with that.