Through the Limousin into the Vendée region

Tuesday 12 September 2023

Nido's parked up in the village of La Pommeraie-sur-Sevre in the Vendee region.  It's a lovely little village that's provided a free aire with free services. There's not much in the village; a hotel (not sure if it's still open, the obligatory huge church and marie's office and a baguette vending machine. The signposts here show how the village children helped put up the aire signs and plant a lovely herb garden.  The feeling of community is strong; it's now nearly 8pm and on the green next to the aire there seems to have been an after-school club going for the past four hours.  The children are aged from about 4 years old up to 10.  They seem to have a great time, with sports, treasure hunt and games to music.  They (and the adults) must be absolutely exhausted!  But it's been lovely to listen to the laughter.  After some earlier rain, it's a bit cloudy now but still plenty warm enough to sit outside in shorts and t-shirts.

Yesterday we left the lakeside where we'd spent the past six nights and hit the road again.  First stop was in Montmorillon, to top up with food at Le Clerc and fill up the van with diesel and LPG.  Although promising cooling temperatures, it was a hot journey and we spent most of it with the cabin air con cooling us down.  Our route took us through Poitiers but thankfully the satnav did its job and popped us out the other end back on to the quieter roads.

Our park up last night was in the town of Nieuil L'Espoir in the Limousin region.  It was another free aire and quite busy when we arrived, but still with plenty of room to park up.  After lunch we took a walk around the lakes, where Salty had a cooling dip, although he might not have been so keen had he seen the coypu swimming in the middle!  We carried on a circular route past some large sunflowers before returning to the van for apero hour, followed later by a cup of tea with some patissierie.  I did a circuit of the town centre with Salty later; nothing was open.  It was stifling hot and humid late into the night and none of us slept well in the heat of the van.  A thunderstorm and rain arrived in the early hours, which cooled things a little, but we were still a bit bleary eyed this morning when I walked Salty, then wandered along to the boulangerie to buy a couple of baguettes.

We arrived at La Pommeraie-sur-Sevre at about 1pm, so had a late lunch before following a well marked 6km circular walk that took us into the village and the surrounding countryside.  We walked past the old mill of l'Audriere, including the old castle, to which someone had innovatively attached a barn.

Salty finally gets a cooling dip in a stream

Having had a good lunch, we only fancied a cup of tea and (yes) some pattiserie for supper.  As I finish this off, the children are running around on the green playing some form of chase game.  The adults seem to have lost control and look absolutely shattered...I'm wondering if I should go over and offer them an apero!