Conques, a Unesco World Heritage site, a major
stopping point on the Route with an impressive abbey and
treasury is worth a
look around, especially as the roses covering the many old
houses
on the steep streets were now in bloom.
roses at Conques
After lunch by an old mill we drove to the main road at
Decazeville, an industrial and mining town with a "bypass" through its
middle and on to Figeac where we parked at the motorhome aire on the
town's ring road - not recommended for overnighting. The old town
centre has many interesting buildings including tall weavers houses
with open top floor galleries and the
Musée Champollion a linguist who deciphered the hieroglyphics
on the
ancient Egyptian Rosetta Stone in 1822.
Cardaillac Tower
After a wet night at the free aire in the small Plus Beaux
village of Cardaillac with several ancient towers we headed
north touching
on the eastern edge of
the Dordogne at Castelnau to reach the attractive town of Collonges la
Rouge built entirely of red sandstone. This was the first ever Plus
Beaux Village and is a popular tourist destination with several gift
and craft shops and smart restaurants in its narrow cobbled lanes.
Collonges la Rouge
The boulanger's van arrived early at the aire so we watched the French
camping-caristes queuing up for bread in their dressing gowns before we
set off
across the hilly countryside and spotted a sign for the Suc au May a
hilltop viewpoint which we eventually found after a long twisty drive
through woodlands. A peaceful spot until two groups of hikers arrived -
we must have said Bonjour 50 times! Continuing north through another
busy market town of Eymoutiers we decided to top up our diesel but
struggled to find a filling station open at lunchtime luckily finding
one at the Spar shop in Peyral le Château just as it was closing. Now
relaxed we drove a short distance to Auphelle on Lac de Vassivière a
huge reservoir now surrounded by mature woodlands and parked up at the
old campsite now an aire. After a few words with a
camping-cariste who
wanted to park five feet away from us in an otherwise almost empty
field, we
settled down for a lazy afternoon in the sunshine before going for a
pleasant walk along the lakeside. There are several aires around the
lake so we moved on the next morning to the busier one at Pierrefitte
on the southern side where there is a free road train across a
causeway to a wooded island with a modern sculpture park.
The next day was
one of those scrappy ones when it was hot and airless: The tapestry
museum at Felletin was closed so we headed up to the valley of
the Creuse to Fresselines, an artists' town where camping-cars weren't
allowed along the lane to the apparently picturesque river
confluence. On to Crozant which was deserted so followed a sign to Lac
de Chambon which took us on steep and narrow back roads to a small
boating resort with no obvious lakeside parking. We eventually arrived
at the base of the Barrage d'Eguzon, a high dam with
a hydroelectric power station. After lunch under a
shady tree we decide to travel further north and picked up the toll
free A20 autoroute for 30 kilometres and turned off just before the
large town of Châteauroux, to find a pleasant aire in a lakeside
meadow at La Pérouille. Peace at last - only one other
motorhome there and a horse drawn roulotte - then a couple of lads
decided to kick a football around right next to our van
despite the large empty field- gggrrr!
An easy drive on straight flat D roads skirting the watery Parc de la
Brenne took us to Montrichard on the
River Cher and to Chaumont-sur-Loire where we checked in to the
municipal campsite to visit the annual garden festival at the château
the next morning. We had visited this festival a few years ago and it
was just as quirky with garden layouts having a theme this year of
recycled materials (we think!). They certainly got people
talking from the puzzled looks and definitely worth a few
hours walking
around if you enjoy modern gardens. Of course there are plenty of
traditional formal gardens and parks at the many châteaux around here.