Fréteval, France - 02 April 2024

01.04 - Pleugueneuc

Condor Voyager departed at 14.00 on time - smooth and uneventful crossing. Captain Morgan’s rum a bargain at £25 for 2 litres 😉

We drove to Pleugueneuc - a château, zoo and castle at Bourbansais - where we stayed last year. Lovely and sunny when we arrived at about 17.00. 30 minutes after we arrived - pouring with rain. Beautiful rainbow though! What to do now?! Obviously rum time, reading, even opened up the travel Scrabble for the first time. Barbara, Anne and Pete - you’re safe competition wise - we weren’t brilliant, and didn’t even score - just beginning! Had a very peaceful night - back to Billy no mates for the first night. 

02.04 -  Fréteval

The zoo didn’t open until 10am, forecast was for rain from about midday - and we needed to get a SIM to allow us data. Maybe we’ll eventually visit on our return towards home…

Decided I needed to drive - it’s been a while - had to remember to drive on right hand side of the road - and Dave has these things called gears! Only about 30 minutes to a big E.Leclerc towards Rennes - where we’ve bought a SIM card from before. Strangely, you can’t buy 100GB without giving your bank details - but you can buy 110GB for €16.95 - which is what we did. Needless to say - it didn’t work at first. Let me back track a little. At home, we were waiting for Tesco SIM cards to arrive from the UK - think they’ve gone astray. When Tintin queried with the post office - they said to allow up to 14 days for first class delivery. Is the world going backwards? Our son Jamie is on the case, and is having more sent to him and hopefully we’ll be able to use the QR codes in a few days time and won’t need the French SIM. The Tesco ones give us unlimited data - including Switzerland - so fingers crossed it works out in the end - although technology - great when it works - just getting it there…

Quick bit of shopping whilst at the supermarket. Later on we ate our first baguette of the year - yes Hercy - avec jambon and fromage - lovely 😊 (Tintin note, paté and whole grain mustard for me)

Went back to see the man at E.Leclerc - we needed the APN details, SFR or RegloMobile, anyway - works now. Strange system, you get the card from one area, pay at another, then go back to the original area once you’ve given your passport details and paid - and they activate it. Shame they don’t set it up for you there and then! 

I drove again for about 30 minutes - stopped off for lunch, then Tintin drove for a couple of hours on towards Le Mans. 

So many vibrant bright yellow fields of rapeseed. It’s lovely to be out in huge open spaces again. 

Dave was bought in 2017, and today we reached 20,000 miles!

The mural on the side of the house on the outskirts of Le Mans reminded me of being in Ireland this time last year. 

I wonder what Dave would make of the Le Mans track?! It’s only 8.5 miles - sure Dave could set a record!

We changed drivers again, and I drove another hour or so. We’re parked at some random lake between Fréteval and Morée - it’s very peaceful. Hoping we don’t have loads of rain, as we are parked on already soggy grass!

I miss having Millie with us - but our ultimate plan is to get to Switzerland - and it will be better for us going out all day and not worrying about leaving her in the van. At least she’s in her familiar surroundings at home, and I’m sure she’ll get lots of cuddles and quality time with Max who has moved in to house and cat sit. 

So, Dean the drone has just had his first flight - all successful 😊

Sarah and Herc are in Vietnam and 35° - whilst it’s fair to say it was chilly overnight as Dave either heats up or cools down too much! Maybe it’s why we haven’t seen many mohos. They’re either at home waiting for warmer weather, or down in Spain in a sunnier climate…