In France!

So, after 700 miles of driving, a 8 hour ferry and a some serious prep, were finally chilling out in France. The weather is absolutely perfect, and all is good :-)
The final 2 days of preparation were manic, packing, getting the van ready and other various bits, like money, insurance, etc, etc ,etc.

By the time wed driven 300 miles to Portsmouth the van was clearly ready for a stop! I was pleased to see the next morning after sleeping at the port, that wed used hardly any water or oil so far and the engine was sounding great after a rest.

We jumped on a earlier ferry than planned an did the day crossing, to Caen. This was spent in the following order:
* Cooked breakfast
* Pint
* Sleep
* Cinema

A view looking out from Talmot, the village next to my parents home. 

The 8 hours flew by, Bodhi coped well in the van down in the hull, helped along by his new bone, and before we knew it we were travelling down through France.
We spent the first night camping at a small and very pretty village called Veigne just south of Toures, and then as soon as we were up the next day continued down to My parents in Barzan plage, near Royan, and the first fixed stop of the trip at my parents house. Made even better as we havnt seen them for 3 months since they moved out here.

The T25, (now named Bessie, by Faye and the kids), Parked up at St George, near Royan

The t25 really did us proud on the way down. faye wasnt well due to a bout of man flue! So I navigated and drove the whole way. I spent a lotg of time drafting lorries to save on fuel and cut down wind noise. Thsi worked really well, and we maintained a steady 60mph most of the way down. Although shell happily sit at 70mph, I didnt want to push things, so we plodded along, and even had the heaters on a lot of the way with the windows open, just to help keep the engine cool.


SO....Were hearin Royan for a while, mainly chilling out, walking the dog/s, cycling the local cliff path and of course doing three of my favourite French things.. eating, drinking and sun bathing!
No kitesurf or surf action yet...there has been wind, but usually not until the sea breeze kicks in around 5pm, by which Ive normally started getting stuck into 9% European ales! This will change, and theres some things I just have to get out of my system :-D ha ha.

One of the local farm crops here is Sun flowers. The miles and miles of fields are awesome to drive by

Its my Birthday tomorrow, and it looks like the only place locally with good wind will be La Palmare, which is one of my favourite French kite spots, so Ill be heading up there to get some blue juice if the forecast does what it says.