Once Sophie’d overcome her obvious heat exhaustion she was shocked that she’d apparently expressed a preference for aires over Park4nights. Of course we’re regular users of aires but you can’t beat the feeling of sharing a parking area with only one or two other punters at most, rather than with the herd. 

In fact as the evening cooled Sophie even decided to cook something, when not long before it was “sort yourself out matey if you want something to eat because I’m far too hot and tired to even move”. 

It was a great evening to sit outside, although one mosquito did get me, on the forehead, but he was the first one in almost 9 weeks so I can’t complain, and it hasn’t even been uncomfortable since. Given the sheer amount of blood that covered my fingers after I squished him he must have had a real feast at my expense. 

A few teenagers turned up and made a fire and tried to cook on it, but they were respectfully quiet and not at all a problem. So a very lovely peaceful and sleepful night followed. 

We left mid morning, and I was keen to make some sensible progress. It’s not like we’re in a hurry, as we haven’t even booked a return trip yet, but we will have to get to Saint Malo eventually, and I like to do that in decent “bite-sized chunks”. Our first distraction was an unexpected Lidl. Technically we didn’t need anything, but it made sense to pick up a cheap loaf, and our pastry cupboard also needed a little restocking. 

The second distraction came from one of those annoying brown signs that indicate that there’s a chateau nearby. It is virtually impossible for Sophie to miss one, and even if she did, there’ll likely be another sign soon after. Sophie is unable to pass a chateau without stopping and taking photos from every conceivable angle, so they can be a serious distraction to a good drive. 

In her defence, the small town of Bordeilles, where this chateau was located was very impressive and definitely worth the 60+ minutes of literally walking down every single street just in case we might have missed some amazing feature. So we strongly recommend it and it even has a very nice and spacious aire very conveniently located. 

Now this aire costs €5.10 and given how impressive the town is and the potential for eating out, that is very good value. I appreciate that these last 9 weeks we have not spent a penny/cent on overnights and don’t intend to either on this trip, but equally we’re generally not averse to paying where the aire and town warrant it.