We are up at 7am and away right on 8am from Montingac – a very early start for us. Wash day and i have spied a laundromat, so we take the 30min drive there and hope we dont have a long wait. The laundromat called a laverie in french opens early so we finish the chores early and get on the road. Quite often we seem to find that just as we turn up someone else turns up and beats us to the machine we want which means another hour in the carpark waiting.
We want to follow the river as this is the Dordogne area and is filled with medieval villages perched high on cliff tops. We really need to spend several days here to see it all but dont have the time at the moment. We have just been given an appointment at a dentist in San Sebastian, Spain so now need to head down there. As we travel we come to a barred road where we wanted to drive and there is an amazing village built on the hillside, but where the road has been barricaded the police are there and there is absolutely no parking for motorhomes so we cant explore but it looks spectacular. We have a major detour to go around but what a detour. We travel on this tiny road along the side of the river and really hope we dont meet anyone as it will be a tight squeeze. It is beautiful countryside indeed, worthy of taking some time to explore for sure. It is difficult to stop and take photos or even see properly from the road but we do our best. We travelled along the Dordogne river until we reached Bergerac and then head south. We have had some lovely wines from Bergerac.
We head down towards Marmande and google unfortunately in fine form sends us down a road where the bridge over the river has cross beams that are only 2.9m high. We dont know if we can get under it although we have been under a 3m supermarket barrier ok. We drive up to the jingly things that tell you if you are too high and Scot gets out to see if we are hitting them. Cars come along and we have to send them around us as we need to be sure. In the end Scot says our tv aerial just might not make it so we abort the bridge, turn around and go the long way round where we know we can get under it without a problem. It just isnt worth risking even the slightest bit of damage and once you are on theres no backing out.
We decide we will stop at a little place with an aire that is free called Labastide D’Armagnac. This is a tiny fortified village built in the 13th century. The aire is just a big field by a river with a handful of motorhomes beside the village. In the morning we explore the village and Scot is coaxed into trying some cognac made in the region but this is a light appertif for before dinner. Of course he is impressed and we buy some. I think we have more than 2 dozen bottles now so perhaps its time to stop buying wine now😁 like that will happen….lol. They will have to be drunk before we come home as there will be no room in the suitcases for them unfortunately.
The temperature is about to rise to the high 30’s as a heatwave travels through Europe and stay high at night so we need to be by the seaside where we can at least swim and get a breeze.
