Villey le Sac (E - F) 🇫🇷

Villey le Sac 🇫🇷

Today's mileage : 342 miles

Total mileage : 1365 miles

We need'ent have set our alarms for 6am....the weather did the job for us. Another storm, this time full blown. Paul thought I was already out of my tent and shining a torch on his tent. He had ear plugs in and hadn't heard the rain. It was only when the thunder exploded overhead that he realised it was lightening he could see on his tent not tourch light. For almost an hour we were confined to quarters, packing up what we could while the rain poured down outside. Just before 7am it eased off and we started to emerge. 

Having to break camp in the rain at every stop I'd done on my way to the Alps, I just followed the same procedure; pack everything into the waterproof bags while in the tent, get my bike gear on, throw the bags out, pull the tent down, stuff it in the big seat bag, strap everything on, have a big drink of water, a couple of breakfast bars and get going. Find a bakers/cake shop ( boulangier) on the way and have 2nd breakfast and coffee.

Paul's  routine on the other hand consisted of ... pack up 'some' stuff while in the tent, empty the tent and lay it all out on a plastic sheet, seperate the inner and outer of his tent and lay that out too. Set up his cooker and boil a couple of eggs, have his coffee and cereal, rearrange everything on his large plastic sheet on the ground, open up his panniers and start to pack.

When I left just before 8am it was just starting to rain heavy again. I then had an hour riding along flooded roads, hardly able to see thru my visor as the rain was that hard, just following the red tail lights in front of me.

Paul on the other hand had over an hour's worth of running around like a headless chicken trying to protect and pack everything in the next massive downpour. Not only was everything wet but his panniers had water sloshing about in the bottom of them when he finally left.

Today's journey was basically a punch north. It was too far to get to the German rally (F) in one punch so it was always the plan to have 1 or 2 stops on the way. They exact locations being left till when we ready to leave the Alps and the state of the weather. Today was to be just over 340 miles of motorway going up around Lyon,Dijon then on, thru farmland to a large campsite at Villey le Sec on the banks of the Moselle river, just outside Nancy. The weather forecast always had the possibility of being bad for the this part of the journey so the decision was to book a small wood cabin rather than pitch tents and eat in the site restaurant rather than cook.

No sooner as the rain started, it stopped, as tho somebody had turned off a tap; and the sun came out 😁. Luckily the traffic was light, most of it going in the opposite direction into the major city's and towns so now it was just a case of sitting at 73-75mph ( best fuel economy), watch out for the occasional wagon turning out without signing and keep an eye on the fuel gauge to judge the next stop.

On the French motorways there are 3 types of stopping places or "aires" as they are called. 

Aires de Service are like UK service stations with shops, food, fuel and toilets for all vehicles. 

Aires de Repos are basic rest areas with few or no facilities - very useful if you have food with you as there are always picnic tables or you just need to check your phone for messages or traffic.

 Aires de Camping-Car are dedicated, often free, overnight parking areas for motorhomes and campervans, providing basic services like waste disposal and water.

All the signage on the motorways is well thought out, gives you plenty of warning and count down distances to Aires and even tells you the distance to the next 3 so judging refules gets easier. They even tell you different speeds for different road conditions.

It was mid afternoon when, after just over 250 miles, Paul caught up with me at an aire. From then on he lead the way as he had booked the little wooden hut which was to be our bed for the night. The sun was still out when we arrived so it was a chance to dry things out, well for him anyway. I just enjoyed the sunshine sat by the river drinking the last bottle of my beer I'd managed to squeeze into my panniers.

Paul wandered off, booked us in the restaurant and returned with cold bottled beer. Beer drunk, it was time to shower, find some half decent clean cloths to wear, spray the cabin with mozzy repellent then wander off to the restaurant. Surprisingly the restaurant was almost full, normally campervan and caravan people tend to save money, stock up at supermarkets and cook but not here. That is probably why this site was 5 star rated.

After a good meal, several local beers it was time to head back, drink the last of the bottle beer then get zipped up in sleeping bags hoping the insect flying things would leave us alone.