The €6 we paid to Saint-André-sur-Vieux-Jonc proved to be good value. The village was as quiet as it possible to want and we both slept well.
Our journey today was fast and routine. It also began to prepare us for home. We were accompanied for most of the day by cool temperatures and a fine drizzly rain.
Unlike yesterday the road did not take us through many villages. The route SatNav is taking us on to Luxembourg seems to have comprehensively upgraded, so not only does it bypass most of the built up areas also much of it has been turned into to sections of dual carriageway, allowing us to keep up a good pace. Yesterday’s average speed was 33 mph today it was over 40 mph.
The countryside was distinctly more northern in characteristic. Gone were the pines and cypress of Southern France, replaced by almost exclusively deciduous trees. The first half of the journey was characterised by ploughed fields and cream coloured cows, until we moved into the Jura. The Jura is one of France’s many picturesque areas, but today the drizzle obscured the views. It is also well known for it’s white wines and we were again treated to fields full of yellowing vines.
Because of the speed of the journey, by lunchtime we had covered the necessary 100 miles and I found a free aire, complete with facilities to empty and fill Basil (47.629498, 6.126959). It is in a town called Vaivre-et-Montoille and situated next to a lake. Peculiarly it is also within 400 metres of a still open campsite. I’m not sure how the owners of campsites reconcile themselves their local council putting a free overnight stopping place for motorhomes next to their expensive site! The aire currently has four of us on it, but there is room for twenty!
Basil’s free spot for the night
There is nothing much to explore at this aire apart from the lake, which Sarah has circumnavigated with the dogs. While Sarah was doing that I had some more administrative work to do. One task was to get the dogs booked in to be wormed for their pet passports. In order to take dogs into the UK they must be wormed between one and five days before you enter the country and the vet must mark this in each dog’s passport.
The Lake next to our aire
Last year we used a vet near Calais, but this year, as you know we will be in Luxembourg at the relevant time. I found this very useful map of Europe on the web which has the location, name, address and phone number marked for vets who are known to be knowledgeable about the pet passport scheme and from this I have made an appointment with a vet in Luxembourg for Friday this week. The receptionist spoke immaculate English.