On our wander around Oingt I found a wine producer selling his/her wares. I picked up two different bottles and Sarah and I had a tasting session in the evening. They were both surprisingly good for the price I had paid and so before we set off yesterday I loaded Basil’s boot with 12 bottles of Beaujolais’ finest.

The day was spent plodding down the A7, underneath Lyon and onwards. After about 250 miles we felt the need for a visit to LIDL. Sarah is an expert on LIDL in every country in Europe and considered that the branch in Privas let the brand down a bit.

Having purchased most of what we needed we headed to a nearby small, free aire in the village of Chomérac (44.7071, 4.6583). Being a Saturday, elsewhere in Europe everyone was concentrating on football. Not Chomérac. The entire adult population were playing boule on two specially constructed “boulodromes”. Apparently that’s what they’re called!

In the evening, having wandered around the unremarkable village we availed ourselves of some excellent takeaway pizza.

During the day the motorway was full of warning signs about high winds and Basil took a fair old buffeting. Our next stop was supposed to be the Camargue for a spot of beach and birdwatching, but when I looked at a French weather forecast the whole of the Rhone valley, including the Camargue was looking cold and with winds gusting up to 80 km/h!

I think people of a certain age will have spent time at school learning about various mysterious winds. The Fern and the Scirocco spring to mind, but also the Mistral which is a cold wind which can blow cold dry air down the Rhone valley. I’m not sure whether what we were experiencing was the Mistral, but we decided we should search for somewhere less windy, not least because apprarently the Mistral can drive some people mad!

So today, having done some research on the French met office, we headed for a campsite in Provence where we were promised warm weather and little wind! The site is called Le Cezanne and is in the little village of Puyloumbier (43.527919, 5.680592). It is €19 a night under the ACSI scheme and the reason it is called Le Cezanne is because it is on the lower slopes of Mount St Victoire which Cezanne painted over 60 times!

It is a small campsite and its location dictates that the pitches are small and rocky. However, as promised, it is warm, sunny and there’s no wind!