A much cooler 18C as we leave Amiens.
Approximately 140 easy miles to our next stop, which is planned as Lac d'Orient, Mesnil-St-Pere, but, see below!
We arrive at Mesnil-St-Pere, about 20 miles East of Troyes, as we drive along the very attractive beach on the lake shore, it looks ominously busy.
We find Lac d'Orient, (N48 15'48" E4 20' 48"). As we thought, it does not look promising, there is a queue of five or six vans/caravans snaking out of the entrance. Sure enough, it is full, the first time in 12 years of roaming mainland Europe, with nothing booked, that we have been turned away!
The young lady in Reception gives us a slip of paper with several alternative sites (being full is clearly not unusual!).
We settle on Camping Les Rives du Lac, (N48 18"10' E4 20" 16") at Geraudot, about five miles along the lake shore. It is after 17:00 when we arrive there, fortunately, they have spaces available.
Friday, 30th August 2019
A glorious day, 25C, blue sky.
The children are no real problem, but, they can make a surprising amount of noise, plus, after a couple of falling down incidents, when Kathleen had to use her nursing skills on grazed knees, we decided it would be more restful to move!
This we duly did, this morning.
Yes, we are grumpy old gets, I agree!
We cycle along the excellent dedicated cycle route, into the vlllage (Geraudot). There is a church, but, no Mass this Sunday, but, we do find a notice board, with Masses listed at various nearby(?) villages.
We cycle on, still on an excellent tarmac dedicated cycle track (why can't we do things like this in UK?), around the Lac d'Orient. According to the signposting, the cycle track goes all the way to Troyes (30km away), at the 15km remaining point, we turn around and head back, to clock up just over 20 miles in total. We even find a sandwich shop, and, equally importantly, a bar.
