The Dordogne

203 miles, 26.9mpg (a new best!)

For once we were up and out at a reasonable time - 08:30 or so - to continue the trip towards Bordeaux. We'd a couple of ideas for sites near there - also from facebook recommendations, eventually deciding to head to one about 20 miles outside of Bordeaux. This had been recommended highly by quite a few people (and had very strong Tripadvisor reviews) and was called Camping du Vieux Chateau beside a town called Rauzan. It was a good travelling day as it was very overcast with even a bit of drizzle at times - as well as being about 10C cooler than the 31C we'd seen the day before. At first the trip headed along single carriageway roads towards Poitiers where it then picked up a dual carriageway (one without tolls) that pretty much went all the way to Bordeaux. Being in no hurry meant I was typically cruising at 50mph and this gave 26.9mpg for the day - by far the best we've ever had from this motorhome. As we got south the weather brightened considerably and it also got a lot warmer and by the time we arrived at the campsite it was once again sunny and up into the mid to high 20's C.

The campsite was indeed very nice and seems very popular with us Brits without about half the units on sites being UK registered. It's well named as it does indeed sit in the shadow of a Chateau - a ruined one at the edge of the town. It also had a decent pool which is still open - which is nice - as well as free wi-fi that just about makes it to our pitch. This is the first site we've used this trip but it's quite reasonable at 20EUR or so a night, including electric. Another significant change for us is how quiet it is. With Fiona being a teacher all our recent holidays have been in the school holidays so there are always loads of kids on site, but with the kids being back the site is really quiet - in fact I think Fiona and I are almost the youngest folks on site (barring one or two young couples that are pre-kids!).

That quietness was really apparent at the pool which, despite the blue skies and warm evening, we pretty much had to ourselves. The pool was reasonably warm so I donned the "budgie smugglers" (French campsites and municipal pools don't allow the swimming shorts we normally use in the UK) and eventually swum a few lengths. It did take me a while to get in fully though, so I was called a few names by Fiona as she'd just jumped straight in.

We've owned this motorhome since it was new in 2010 and that's it just tripped over the 20,000 mile mark today. Not a lot of mileage for 8 years (only 2,500 miles per year) but not unusual for motorhomes. We've holidayed in it most years but mainly we'll just use it for one big 2 or 3 week trip each summer. Now we've returned to live in Edinburgh however I'm hoping we'll start to use it for a lot more weekends etc., especially now as we're no longer restricted by school terms.