Two old bats head for the Pyrenees

Front of the queue doesn't necessarily mean you get on first, but it was awfully handy for the loos! Caught the Mont St Michel and had a beautifully calm crossing from Portsmouth to Caen (Ouistreham) and spent the night on a campsite at Ranville listening to the fireworks on the eve of Bastille Day.
The next morning we were pleased and surprised to find that our route towards Caen took us over Pegasus Bridge and past the Pegasus Cafe!

Didn't take too long to work out that the best place to get a coffee on the move in France is the bakers - the buns are pretty tempting too! We ended up at Saintes (Charente-Maritime) "half way down" on that first evening and after something to eat headed into the town to take a look at it.

The path from the campsite went along the bank of the Charente river, with pleasant views towards the town's "historic centre" and cathedral.

Can't resist a bit of architecture - especially this lovely golden Cretaceous limestone: the Santonian epoch is named after Saintes apparently.

The local limestone

This gargoyle looks as though he needs a dose of castor oil!

After dropping off to sleep to the accompaniment of fireworks again, the next day got us to Laruns on the French side of the Pyrenees, south of Pau.

First decision was whether to go east-about or west-about round Bordeaux - the satnav showed delays both ways and had a hard time making its mind up which route would be quicker! We ended up going west about and, taking an additional diversion to avoid a jammed up bit of motorway, conveniently, found a boulangerie where we could enjoy an after breakfast coffee.

A pause for mid-morning coffee and a bun (need the caffeine!) by a fishing lake also resulted in a bottle of a local aperitif "Pineau" which we kept until we got to La Paz and had a chance to share it with Faboli. I'd not come across it before - it comes in red and white versions - we bought the white - and is served cold. We ended up putting ice with it. Unfortunately left the other half of the bottle behind but hopefully it is tucked away to drink next time!

What a lovely place to go fishing!!!

 The small, informal campsite a couple of km north of Laruns was rather basic (footprint loos!) but half the price of the fancier campsites

The view from the van the next morning shows just how tucked into this steepsided, narrow valley it is!

The evening's tipple was a lovely Oc rose just the tiniest bit petillante. Yummy.

And so, as Pepys would say, to bed. We are planning to spend the next day exploring the local area before heading down through Spain.