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Winter Tour 2008 – Day 13: We started the first day of the year with a quick visit to the beach and were lucky to find some open stores to get fresh bread and some local products of the Isle of Rhé like sea salt. Once again the weather was getting worse. There was an ice-cold wind and the sun was hidden behind clouds, so there was no good reason to stay on this island much longer. We will add it to the list of places to visit again.

The route back to Holland was going through the region of the Loire valley. We have visited this area years ago and were looking forward to see it again.  First we tried the camper park in Châteauneuf-sur-Sarthe, directly next to the river. It is a pretty place but everything was closed and turned off, so no floating water or electricity. I tried to use the power convert in the camper to charge my notebook, but every time I turned the converter on it blew a fuse. Without a running notebook to edit photos and watch a movie we didn’t feel like staying there and went back a few kilometers to Briollay. In Briollay it was the same situation – a remote camper park without supplies. In Chenillé-Changé it looked like we were lucky as there was a power outlet next to the camper park which was being used for flickering Christmas lights. I connected the motor home but when I plugged-in the power adapter of my MacBook Pro, it blew this adapter and the main fuse of the motor home. Also the power convert got fried beyond repair. With an empty laptop battery, a broken power adapter and a destroyed power converter,  there wasn’t much left for us to do at night, so after having a good dinner we decided to keep on driving. Two hours and 186 km later we stopped in the village Gacé, which has a simple camper park in front of the town hall.

Winter Tour 2008 – Day 12: After visiting Talmont-sur-Gironde we drove via Mornac-sur-Seudre, La Tremblade and Marennes towards Rochefort, but as it continued to be foggy and uncomfortably cold, we didn’t stop in any of these cities to walk around and take pictures.  Just before La Rochelle the fog finally disappeared and made space for the sun and blue sky. That made the decision easier to go on the Isle of Rhé (Île de Ré) and find a place for New Years Eve, preferably somewhere quiet and close to the sea.
The Isle of Rhé was more densely populated than expected, and we were not the only ones visiting this day, but at the end of the road of Les Portes-en-Ré we found a small camper park just meters away from the sea. As expected it was very quiet here and only at midnight we heard some firework explosions far away, probably in La Rochelle.

Winter Tour 2008 – Day 12: The day started as it ended yesterday – foggy and cold. Not far from Mortagne-sur-Gironde we visited the ancient village Talmont-sur-Gironde.

The enclosed and fortified village was founded around the Romanesque church of St Radegonde in 1284. In the summer this place must be packed with tourists but now we were almost alone walking through the tiny pedestrian-only streets between the small houses.

Winter Tour 2008 – Day 11: If it had been another sunny day we would have stayed for a second day in Mimizan-Plage, but the clouds caught up with us again, bringing some fog along with it. So we went back on the road heading north – slowly going home.  We didn’t have a tourist guide for this region and unfortunately they were not being sold anywhere. The only help we had were the pictograms of attractions like castles and viewing points on our France map. Soon after Bordeaux we left the main road and instead followed countryside roads along the Gironde estuary, which took us along countless vineyards of the Bordeaux wine and through villages like Plassac and Blaye.

Unfortunately it stayed foggy all day, so we didn’t many pictures. Just before dark we reached a nice camper park next to the harbor of Mortagne-sur-Gironde.

Winter Tour 2008 – Day 10: After a quiet night in Anglet, we went on a bit further up the coastline to see something of Aquitaine, a region of France where we had not been before.  Soon the land became flat and mostly covered with evergreen forests, we were traveling through the Côte d’Argent. After buying bread in Mimizan, we wanted to see the Atlantic ocean and followed the signs to Mimizan-Plage.

Here we noticed a camper park sign and decided to give it a try. What we found was a huge parking lot directly behind the dunes with many motor homes, a service station and electricity, all for just EUR 5.50 per night (low season rate). So we stayed and enjoyed the sunny warm weather at the long sandy beach. For most of the time it was warm enough to be outside without a jacket, which is quiet nice for December 29th in this corner of the world.

Solar Tour 2009 – Day 9: The day started off gray and rainy, so the weather prediction came true and it was time for us to go north again. Luckily I felt better and driving went fine. In the area of Valencia the navigation system took an unexpected route back home via the Atlantic coast and central France. First we were hesitating, but after another online weather check we decided to give it a try as the forecast for the west of France looked better than the one for the east. It also gave us the chance to see something new instead of just following back the route we took when we came down here.
In the area of Teruel we got some blue sky and sun for the first time this day and saw some stunning landscapes. Between Saragossa and Pamplona we saw some more hillsides filled with solar panels and hilltops full of wind turbines, which was really encouraging to see.
We first considered staying in Pamplona for the night but didn’t like the possible camper parks and continued driving all the way until France. Across the border in France there are plenty of official camper parks. First we tried the one in Biarritz but there was no space left. One city further on in Anglet there was enough room for us on a large camper park where we arrive around 23:00.