Camping Condrieu

On Saturday, we said a temporary goodbye to Camping Manjastre and set off towards Lyon.  The sun was shining brilliantly.   

The final view of Camping Manjastre, as I dropped off the rubbish in the recycling area.    

I drove the motorhome very carefully on the narrow road from the campsite to the corner of the main road, in order to avoid another broken side mirror.  No repeat performances of  last year were needed.   Very costly. Then I picked up Walter who had dropped off the rental car to the airport office.   And off we went on the motor way north, a slow process as it was very busy.   

We realised  after the first toll booth that we will always have to pay Class 3 tolls for the motorhome from now on, due to all the toll booths being automatic and the cameras record the height of our vehicle (the luton at the front) rather than the length (less than 6 metres).     So we are therefore classed as a small truck (Class 3) rather than a van (Class 2).   The charges are double the amount, than if we were in a car.   The toll charge from Aix to Vienne was a whopping 56 Euros.  We drew our breath in a bit over that one.

When we arrived in Vienne we drove along the Rhone River and found a lovely aire/camping ground which also catered for cyclists who were on cycling tours.   Quite a contrast in vehicles.  There were also mobile homes beside us as well.

The view from our motorhome was lovely, even though there were heavy clouds, and mist.

We were camped beside the bar, which was very convenient, but there was no one drinking there, and we were still recovering from the shock of the high price of tolls so did not feel like drinking either.   Perhaps a drink would have helped ease the pain.

 When we woke up the next morning there was not a cloud in the sky, and the world around us sparkled.

 Our motorhome looked really white in the sunshine, and clean.   Only it was not really clean, just an illusion caused by the bright sunshine.

 We decided over breakfast that we would cut across country, so programmed the satnav for the quickest way back to Calais without using toll roads.   An interesting venture as we did not have detailed maps to check the progress of the satnav, which was not always to be trusted, as we have found in the past.