Our 16th Week Working In Camping Le Moulin In Chef-Boutonne

Last week’s post was cut short due to illness, I was down for a few days and not back on my feet until Saturday. I’m not sure what it was, but I felt very exhausted, unable to move and very sleepy. I also had a mystery black eye which everyone joked was from Jamie beating me up, but I can confirm that this isn’t true! I think I was hit by a rogue branch when doing some hedge trimming. Jamie worked very hard maintaining grounds and in the restaurant whilst I was convalescing. He ended up working the quiz night on his own with Alex and Sara. I felt bad as he worked all morning and then late into the night, it was almost midnight when he got back to the van. I sat drinking peppermint tea and watching old John Hughes films. There were a lot of people at the quiz, almost 50 I think and our friends from mobile home number 17; Mick, Chris, Gerry and friends ended up winning the prize pot of €45. Well done to them guys! How old was Cesc Fabregas when he made his Arsenal debut? Well, I have no idea but I guessed at 16 which a close source of mine told me it was right! 

A cycling selfie whilst enjoying a coffee at "Le Ranch" bar in Brioux.

Fully recovered and a little itchy to get away from the site for a bit, we decided to go off on our bikes early Sunday morning. We wanted to do a biggish loop through a load of villages we hadn’t been to. So we got up at the crack of dawn, had a "bucket" of porridge and set off by 8.30am. It was still quite cool that early, and it was absolutely lovely to be riding through my homeland and seeing these remote villages. We made it to Brioux and had a coffee in a cool little bar/tabac called "Le Ranch". There were Tricolore hanging everywhere and lots of people getting very excited about the Euro2016 final. We headed on to the deserted village of Melleran where we ate our much needed packed lunch sat next to the "salle des fêtes" (village hall). We never set out to cover such a distance but we both couldn’t believe it when arriving back at the campsite we looked at Endomondo on my phone and it said 73km! It was then time for showers and over to Willie and Gill's for stew and dumplings. How nice. 

First break on our cycling tour; Ré's dried riverbed.

Église St-Sulpice in the small village of Tillou.

Well needed lunch break in Melleran.

We couldn't help, but stop by this small former train station just before Chef-Boutonne. This would have been Loubillé's station.

This week we have been doing a bit of ‘on the side’ work for a few mobile home owners. I sanded and painted some benches for Bob and June in number 7 and Jamie did some river weeding for Ray and Pat in number 15. On the camping/touring side – the site is getting more and more busy, and the showers and toilets are taking a battering each morning. Jamie spent almost two hours mopping and scrubbing yesterday. We are both wondering how it will be come the 24th July when schools in the UK break up for summer holidays... We’ll see anyway. It’s good that we have our friend and co-worker Nigel helping us.

Bob & June's garden bench BEFORE.

AFTER!

Some little visitors we managed to avoid whilst cutting branches!

On one of our early evening stroll, walking on one of the fields adjacent to the campsite.