Friday 4 Jan - Pont de L'Arche to St Maure de Touraine

Pont de L'Arche to St Maure de Touraine - 184 miles

A very cold night and we woke to freezing fog which took a while to clear. Fortunately the heating soon had us up to temperature for breakfast and the usual chores. With the water supply turned off there was little to do so, earlier than we have been of late, we got on the road.

We stuck to our usual non-motorway route of Evreux, Dreux, Chartres trying our best to stick to the new blanket speed limit of 80 kph. However it doesn't appear to be quite straightforward as some roads are signed as 90 kph and it seems that on three-lane carriageways if a single opposing lane is separated by a solid line the two-lane section is 90 kph whilst the single lane is 80 kph. Weird and TomTom can't cope with one road having different speed limits in different directions so there was a lot of speeding warnings!

Past Chateaudun the sun came out and the fog cleared although it didn't get much warmer. Stopped at Vendome for some shopping and lunch then carried on down N10, moderate traffic and those speed limits meant not a fast run. Approaching Tours we had thoughts of stopping there where our friends Colin and Tina were supposed to be for a couple of days but it was still a little early for us so we pushed on. However Tours is a right pain to get past if you stay off the toll road and once we were clear it was approaching stopping time so Bren got the books out.

We decided on St Maure de Touraine but managed to select the wrong place on the satnav; a second go took us to a nice quiet mixed parking area just off the main street with 15 motorhome bays and a small toilet block – unfortunately again the water was off. We did however remember we had called here once before to service the van and found the same situation then. Ah well, just be careful....

WE STAYED AT Municipal aire in St Maure de Touraine, signed off main road. 15 bays and small toilet block no charge. Water turned off but still able to empty WC and waste water. In centre of town for small selection of commerce.