A Friendly Frenchman

Day 15 - 8th June

As expected, we all awoke with sore heads after our fun and boozy night.  We had a schedule to keep, so we pulled ourselves together and packed up camp and started on our long uneventful drive to Luxembourg.

We took the scenic roads and avoided the motorways as they came with hefty tolls that were sure to blow the budget.  We absorbed the French countryside and found ourselves in a small town called Moulin for lunch.

We were parked up beside the road near a local sports ground, making lunch when the most eager, friendly and enthusiastic Frenchman came out of his house to admire the van and chat away to us in French. 

He ran back inside his house, which was on the opposite side of the road and returned with a map, a book and a bottle of frozen water.  He pointed out a route on the map in the Champagne region of France and was encouraging us to take it.

Given that we couldn’t explain in English that we were just ‘trucking through to Luxembourg’, we agreed to his directions to avoid an argument.

The book had a picture of an old school French caravan on the front from around 1970, but he was too focused on the road map to mention it.  He gave us the frozen water bottle to aid our Esky, then to cap off our meeting, he took Luke over to his fence and cut roses off his bushes for us.  This has now shattered our view of the stereotypical Frenchman!

The Friendly Frenchman cutting Luke a couple of roses from his garden by the roadside.

We drove on for another few hours then pulled into a layby near a small town called Falaise, which was pretty much in the middle of no where!  Before dinner, Luke and I took a bike ride to some small neighboring towns and Linda took a walk and before we knew it, it was dinner then bed.  

Evening ride through the countryside near Vouziers, France.

Our Wild Camping spot in a layby near Falaise France.

View from our wild camping over local wheat fields.