Wednesday July 12 Reignac


Hundreds of acres of sunflowers.

After the excitement of yesterday today has been much lower key, and it has been very grey all day with spits of rain. The morning was taken up with mundane things, we needed a trip to the supermarket, exchange our gas cyclinder and find an Orange store to buy some more data.
Spent some time online and found a Leclerc megastore in Periguex, about 30 minutes’ drive away, which had an Orange outlet store, a perfect place as they are also a huge supermarket. No problems getting there and parking as a huge carpark. It was like a big mall inside and found the Orange store, know now to take my previous top up form which saves me trying to explain in French what I need, and it was organised very simply. The supermarket was HUGE, just so many choices of everything but there is no way you can do it quickly as you need to check every aisle to find where things are. Realise why I like the smaller stores in the villages!
And we could replace our gas cylinder in their fuel area. Talk about one stop shopping! We purchased a 13 kg French propane bottle at the start of this trip and now just exchange it, the prices vary but today we only paid €29, and this lasts us from 3 to 4 weeks. It runs the fridge, freezer, oven and water heating and as we very seldom are hooked up to electricity I don’t think that is too bad.
Great graffiti art.
Clever!


This water tower had amazing 3D artwork.
We are heading towards Ile d’Oleron on the West Coast, but found a really well reviewed French Passion site which is also close to a Voie Verte bike trail. I managed with the help of Jilly to navigate through some of the lesser roads to Reignac which took us through great little villages and more wonderful rolling countryside, with patches of trees surrounded by cultivated land. Today we passed by so many really large fields of sunflowers, bright patches of yellow in amongst the green maize and the brown barley fields making a real patchwork. Surely France must supply the world with sunflower seeds!
Tonight, has been a real find, we are parked in the carpark of Lerisson Gourmand with wonderful views looking over the fields in a walnut orchard. They have a great setup for campers with water, electricity, waste dump and even free wifi. Visited the shop which not only stocks their walnuts and walnut products but lots of local produce including cognac. The owner was so welcoming with her limited English but we fully understood each other. Bought some of her wonderful walnut cookies along with a cognac pate and some local wine! And we are the only campers here.
Young walnut trees, laden with fruit.

A great little store.

Quite the view.

This large bee was like a miniature humming bird.

What a spot for dinner.

Comments

Vicki Bright said…
The French do this so well compared to what we provide for camper van travelers. Love the sunflowers.
Meg Lipscombe said…
So agree Vicki, we have had no problems finding places to stay, biggest issues are in the small towns as often there is just no space for campers!