Campsites,France #10of16

One year we decided to investigate Fougères, and as we drove near the Castle, I said, “There’s Linda!” Sure enough, there was our Daughter Linda, Cousins Monika and Bärbel, and friend Margit. We just accidentally met our daughter on the street of a small town that neither of us had even heard of earlier that day. A minute either way and we would have missed them. Just outside Fougéres we found a nice campsite, with clean showers, all for only $2.40. Since it gets dark so late, we didn’t drive into town to see if they light it up at night.

One time, while we were in Arles, we had a problem with a slow leak in a tire. I put the jack under the camper to keep the weight off the tire, in hopes the leak would be slower, and it worked. The tire made it through the night OK, then we found a big tire shop right near the campsite entrance. Turns out they were very professional, and knew exactly what to do, and repaired the tire (there was a nail) for $11. We have spent several nights in different years, in this Arles campsite.

We were directed to the Municipal campsite in Quimper, which is nice enough, but there was no one around to check us in and collect money. When we left at 8:30 AM, there still was no one to collect the money. When we toured the St. Corentin Cathedral, we noticed the choir and nave were not in line. When we got to the choir, about midway in the church, we saw that the whole building makes a slight turn to the right.

When we arrived in Mazillac, again we were in a campsite with no one to sign us in and take our money. During the night we heard the Mazillac fire sirens. We were in the middle of a field and not near anything that could burn, but the sound is a very scary one, especially when we don’t really know where we are, or what the area is like. Well, we slept 5 minutes too long, because just as we were leaving the next morning a lady appeared on a bike and collected the $2.50 for the night.

On our way to Confolens several cars and trucks were blinking their lights. We thought there might be something wrong with our camper, but in a little while saw a French policeman with a radar gun. There’s an old bridge in Confolens that was beautifully reflected in the water, and in the campsite there were a colony of Gypsies camped with large trailers, big cars, many children. We have seen this in a dozen countries, perhaps the largest clans were in camps in Greece.