Friday August 10, Le Chaylard

Such a beautiful morning, tried to get near the river for
a better view of the fog in the hills, but no luck.

Yeah….after 5 days in the Valence region sorting out issues, we headed for the hills at 6pm this evening and now we can start to relax again, hopefully all our woes are behind us. I woke early this morning and went for a walk down to the Rhone River, but didn’t quite make it as there was a large wide drain in the way, and no time to find a route around it. But it was so nice to be out enjoying the fresh air.
Just before 9 am Stephane arrived at the workshop with our new fridge/freezer ready to install it. Drove Ruakiwi into the workshop then spent the morning in the waiting room. And thanks to friend Jen who introduced me to jigsaws on the iPad, have done numerous ones over the past week. At 12 when they closed for lunch we backed Ruakiwi out and sat in the carpark having our lunch. Our old fridge/freezer had been removed and they were getting the new one set up with the gas oven on top. Back on the job this afternoon with it all set up then they needed to test that it was all working on gas, electric and battery. We really are grateful that they were able to get us back on the road again in what is holiday season for them. There is no way we could travel without a working fridge. Finally, at 5.30 Stephane called us in with smiles all over his face, he was happy and showed us how our new one worked. His English is really good and we were able to communicate well.
We were off and first stop was the supermarket to replenish the supplies that had been wasted with the fridge not working. We wanted to head back up into the Ardeche in the Massif Central region and found what looked to be a good area around Le Chaylard which had cycle paths following the L’Eyrieux River. Read about an Aire on the dam near Le Chaylard that looked great, but it had only a small number of parking spots. Off we went and it was a great drive (for me, but not so good for the driver!) winding along the river climbing up into the hills and a rather narrow road, with a lot of Friday evening traffic on it. Squeezed through small villages and the driver was swearing at the little cars zipping around, cutting corners. Managed a few drive by photos, but most of the time I had my foot on the brake! After 1 ¼ hours we turned off the main road, wound down a small road and over a one lane stone bridge and came to an Aire right beside the dam, and relief to find there was one space left. Great to be here and get back to be on the road again after a week of frustrating issues.
Have heard the nearby flooding yesterday has been on the NZ news. We were in torrential rain but maybe it was lucky we were having our fridge replaced and not up in the Ardache where we had been!!!

Puddles everywhere after the thunderstorm

Narrow roads this afternoon...

...and bridges

...and tight corners

...and one lane bridges!!

But it was worth it to get here.

Evening on the dam.