Prior to starting our trip, we were really looking forward to the camping leg. Getting out, driving around, meeting people in campsites and sharing some drinks with our new found friends. The camping has been fantastic, great to get back to basics in some amazing country. However, there have been a few things which we have learnt and have also taken us by surprise……

• The Campsites. Now French campsites are switched on! 100’s of camping plots, washing machines, swish pools, waterslides, tennis courts, hot showers (mostly), one even had a jet-ski; but the one thing we found that is a little different to Australia and New Zealand, there are no communal areas. No place where people can sit and eat. No BBQ’s for guys to puff up their chests and sink a few beers. In some campsites there aren’t even any picnic tables to sit and cook our meals! It seems that the only conversation we seem to have is with people around the washing up sink, or the washing machine which is just as awkward as conversations with that guy from work who you still don’t know his name.
• Weather. Our tent has been a little marvel, keeping us dry, warm and comfortable; however due to the bad weather we really haven’t been able to relax. As our tent is so small, it is simply a bedroom, and even though we can sit up, we really can’t relax in it. This means that when the weather is bad; which it has been for the last week or so; it seems we are just driving all day, cooking dinner by ourselves on a picnic table (when one is provided), then going straight to sleep in our tent. We can’t complain really, as we did ask for it, I mean if you want warm sun, you don’t go the French Alps in the first week of summer!
• Demographics. Unfortunately we have found that the demographics are not in our favour. So far it seems that to bust around campsites in Europe we need to get a blue rinse and take up lawn bowls before the other campers engage in conversation with us.
• Mode of Transport. The few people that are our age seem to be in motorhomes or campervans. In fact 90% of each campsite has been taken up by motorhomes or campervans, which after dark means it leaves us a bit on our own in terms of communication.
• Locations. Kam and I love the country. Especially the French countryside, we have absolutely fallen in love with it (Kam put it well, and said, that when we were here last, we fell in “lust” with France, now we have fallen in “love” with it!), but the problem with the countryside, is it doesn’t have pubs open every night, you can’t go to the bottle shop to pick up a wine at 7pm, and there is no place for us to meet people. We are planning to just knock on the doors of houses with lights on soon! Everyone loves Aussies that I’m sure we will get away with it.

Now it is sounding like I am whinging more than an English cricket captain when he lost the Ashes (back when they did lose the Ashes of course), but as travellers it is good to have this information so that we can pass onto to future travellers.

In honesty Kam and I are really enjoying ourselves. I guess we just needed to justify to you all why we needed to spend the night at a fancy B&B, which we did! In what seemed to be a kneejerk reaction to the cold, wet and rainy weather; Kam and I decided that for this next leg, we needed some walls for at least one night. So with our tent still dripping from last night’s rain in the backseat of our car, we decided to leave the Alps for the Ardeche. On a last minute punt we called up a Chambre D’Hotes, and booked ourselves in at about 5pm at night. It was obviously more expensive than a campsite, however with breakfast, welcome wines and free Internet, it didn’t seem much more at all.

After chatting to the Dutch couple who owned the property, we spent the night revelling in the fact that we had a bed; that we didn’t have to wear thongs in the shower; we didn’t have to push a button for our shower to work; we could actually adjust the temperature of the water; when we dried ourselves, we didn’t need to hop around in a cubicle trying to not get our clothes wet; all while doing it in 2 seconds flat to avoid frostbite. Yeah, this was the life!

Our night was spent relaxing, watching TV shows from our bed and researching the next couple of legs of our trip. It came at the perfect time, both for our sanity, and for the fact that we had organised to catch up with some mates who were passing through on their way down south. So after our hefty breakfast we got on our way and headed to meet Seb, Doreen and Busta (their dog). Kam and I couldn’t wait just to have a bit of company in some of the campsites and through the marvels of modern technology, Seb (coming from the north), and us (coming from the south) both punched in a random town equidistant to each other into our sat navs – Annonay it was.

Even though we only saw each other 2 weeks ago (Doreen even sooner) we were really excited to see them both again. What we weren’t aware of was that when Seb went to pick up his new campervan from London, he also picked up another mate of ours, Iain Nicolson, en-route. After about 10 minutes of looking around Annonay we suggested finding a scenic spot for lunch, so we headed to a lovely lake where we had a bite to eat, a few beers and started the chinwagging. The chinwagging continued until we found our way into a tiny little supermarket/off licence, where we must have spent about €100 on mostly grog and a smattering of food. We tucked in to the most secluded corner pitch of an almost deserted campsite and drank, and ate and drank some more.

With the gusto of last night’s drinking session behind us, there was much talking about paddling, or hikes or some sort of outdoor activities, but we spent much of the day driving, then eating, then driving some more, then eating some more. We stopped at lunch to part ways, and whether it was the generous lunch, or the booze talking, neither party were ready to say goodbye. As we were heading generally in the same direction anyway we simply escorted their campervan as far as the night would take us, and settled in to another night in a new campsite with the van.

Again for Kam and I we were so happy to be indoors, with mates, eating, laughing and drinking together, it was brilliant! I think we all were still a bit rusty from the night before, and bed seemed very enticing (especially for the other three who had to leave early), so we got to bed at a reasonable time ready to bid our adieu’s tomorrow.

Kam and I, with no real agenda, had planned to sleep in, but the others had a plane to catch, or Nicolson did at least. So they set off early for their 15hr drive to Bilboa so that Iain could get back to work in London. It was sad to see them go, but we will catch up with at least Seb and Doreen in Spain in a week or two. Once we awoke we realised something, today we would be in the Dordogne, and our research a couple of days ago meant we had 4 walls and a roof for an entire week.