Market Cajarc
Market Cajarc
Service point Cajarc
Chien lunatique Cajarc
Saint Cirq Lapopie to Cajarc
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Day 13
We are woken several times in the night by loud music. NOT a good night.
At 3.00pm the volume is turned up sufficiently to keep us awake. We think it is coming from the old town of St Cirq Lapopie. Closing all the windows helps, but only a little. It finally stops at 4.00am. We wake at 8.00am and feel tired! Coffee and breakfast, and we book a return crossing in 8 days time, that's the end of September, Calais-Folkestone through Eurotunnel.
Our normal travel booking is for our outward crossing from the UK to Europe only. That gives us maximum flexibility to decide when and how we return, you can never be really certain where your motorhome is going to take you and when you might need to change your plans. We always book the lowest cost crossing, which can't be changed, so there's no point in fixing it too far in advance.
There were 11 of us here overnight at Saint Cirq Lapopie, about a quarter of the number when we arrived, no wonder the numbers are so low, the others must have known about the music festival (we didn’t). We service the Hymer and leave the campsite, despite the music it has been a good and relaxing stay.
We take the D662 from St Cirq Lapopie along the last part of the Lot gorge to Cajarc (about 12 miles) where we find a small Aire for 15 campers. It is clean, well laid out with a gravel space and grass strip for each camper, cost €7/night including disposal and water.
The site is surrounded by walnut trees, the walnut fruits are the size of large green golf balls and hanging in their hundreds, they are not yet quite ripe. It reminds me of Ensch on the Mosel river where there are walnut trees too.
We walk along the back of the football field to the town which is larger than we expect. There is a market on Saturday afternoon, and we spend an hour of so wandering between the stalls (food produce of every kind) and explore the old quarter of the town (dating from 1500s) on the way back to the aire. Alan purchased two baguettes from the boulangerie, one with seeds in the mix, they look delicious.
Alan talks with the owners of a French motorhome, they suggest we don't pay the overnight fee because nobody will come to check whether or not we have paid. Maybe it's our British need to follow the rules, but we decide that we need to pay. If nobody paid then the great facilities that we enjoy in France would disappear and we would be driving around with nowhere to stop. The situation in the UK is dire, where the caravanning organisations demand a huge membership charge to access sites and then high overnight charges. France is the motorhomers' dream, most of the aires are free and if you do have to pay it's seldom more than €10 a night and that often includes electric hookup. The UK really needs to start looking at motorhome visitors in a different light and encouraging them to visit towns and cities.
The weather cools to the mid 20s, it is very windy, and we wonder if it might rain (it doesn’t).
Back at the Aire, we sit in the sun, read and journal. Open Cremant d’Alsace around 6.00pm and have stir fry for tea. We watch other campers arrive, there are eleven of us overnight, two Brits, one Spanish and eight French. It's always interesting to note the mix of nationalities.
Summary of motorhome journey
Total miles |
mpg | average speed mph |
hours driven |
11.7 | 31.3 | 17 | 0:40 |
Totals for this journey |
|||
1183.5 | 29.6 | 31 | 36:01 |