Today would be a pushing on homeward day, as we stuck to our favoured 80kph (previously 90kph) roads. Lots to see on these routes and a gentle, but steady pace. We pushed on out of the Auvergne, right through the Creuse, and then into Centre-Val de Loire, ending up at Saint Benoit du Sault.

In our usual random approach, I wanted to find a Super-U for some essentials (wine, cheese, doughnuts, and diesel), and the SatNav gave me two options. I chose Saint Benoit, merely on the basis that it was marginally more in our general direction of travel. As a result we found ourselves, accidentally, in one of “the most beautiful villages of France.”

Today, we decided to postpone our town visit to the next day. Saint Benoit has a great spot for a couple of motorhomes at the back of its main carpark, with lovely views. In our experience, larger carparks can be risky in that late diners and drinkers might be slamming their car doors much later on, and on that basis we decided to hunt down somewhere quieter.

Park4night came up with a spot next to a small village fishing lake, or, “Plan d’eau”. These are very common right across France, and this one looked ideal. After the mandatory circumnavigation of the modest lake, we settled down for the night. Only one car popped in for a dog walk for our entire stay. Perfect.

After a totally peaceful night, we promised ourselves a set menu lunch at the TripAdvisor-recommended Auberge du Champ de Foire restaurant, more or less across the road from the town motorhome parking. 4 courses for the standard €13.50, including cheese. Where we come from, a cheese course can often be a few thin slivers, a couple of grapes, some celery, and maybe a lettuce leaf if we’re lucky. Here, they plonked a big plate down between us, with 4 big hunks of different cheeses and a knife, and walked away to let us help ourselves, and of course there was no shortage of bread. A really good value and enjoyable meal.

After lunch we did our visit to the medieval part of town, and it was very lovely and we’d definitely recommend Saint Benoit du Sault.

It was now time to be making tracks.

*** Just to mention that our blogs can be up to a few weeks behind reality, as we’re always in catch-up mode ***