Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire (with no services) in the small village of Cubnezais. Exact location: 45.07533, -0.40938.
Weather: Overcast with a few showers.
Having a few hours of driving ahead of us, plus the need for a few stops, we were on our way not long after 8 this morning, although our first leg wasn't far - to a couple of fuel stations before we left Spain. The first was at a supermarket for diesel, the second the adjacent Repsol for LPG, both of which fuels are significantly cheaper in Spain than France. The saving easily made up for the extra €1.34 we incurred by pulling off the toll motorway then rejoining it at the same junction.
A couple of hours later we got charged both on leaving and rejoining the toll motorway to nip to a Lidl to the east of Capbreton (France), but here the junction layout was such that in so doing we missed out the toll booths on the main carriageway, and I think the exit and entry charges between them added up to the same as the single charge had we gone through the main toll plaza.
Having had elevenses in Lidl's car park, we could possibly have made it through to our destination without stopping again, but that would have made for a late lunch, and we weren't in any rush, so into a nice wooded motorway rest area we pulled. Just before and just after that we tested my belief that one can avoid the tolls along this entire section of motorway by leaving at the junction before the toll plazas and rejoining at the junction after*, taking the road alongside the motorway between those two points. I was just as surprised that it worked this time as I was when a previous SatNav directed us to do that a few years ago. For a saving of €11 it was a worthwhile detour which probably added less than 10 minutes to our overall journey.
Our destination for the day was the car park for tomorrow's ParkRun at Les Dougnes (30km N of Bordeaux), and we duly positioned Bertie into the same spot as he has occupied the previous twice that we've done that run. We have never stayed there overnight before, for fear of it being the sort of location that one might get boy racers and ne'er-do-wells disturbing us into the night, but this time we thought we'd give it a go. It probably would have been fine, but having parked Bertie on top of what was clearly the location where a car had been burnt out, and having taken a walk that took us past another such site, a rethink was had. Whilst certain that car burning's are not a nightly occurence, why take the risk when we know there are official motorhome parking areas in nearby villages?
Our plan to go to our previous overnight spot in the village of Cavignac, but on spotting that Cubnezias was closer, we came here instead. We have rows of grapevines on two sides of this large car park and the village on the other two. We could have stayed at the free Aire (including electricity) at the vineyard that is about 300m in front of us, but I would have felt it rude to do that and not buy any wine. We're happy enough with the car park Aire, and instead we've spent our pennies in the local Boulangerie/Patisserie:
(*A63 J11-J12 and J17-J18. Except for those short sections, we took the motorway for the whole of today's journey at a total cost, including the extra charge for leaving/rejoining for fuel, of just over €17. A reasonable sum, we felt, as the free-roads route on this section takes a good couple of hours longer than the motorway.)
Weather: Overcast with a few showers.
Having a few hours of driving ahead of us, plus the need for a few stops, we were on our way not long after 8 this morning, although our first leg wasn't far - to a couple of fuel stations before we left Spain. The first was at a supermarket for diesel, the second the adjacent Repsol for LPG, both of which fuels are significantly cheaper in Spain than France. The saving easily made up for the extra €1.34 we incurred by pulling off the toll motorway then rejoining it at the same junction.
A couple of hours later we got charged both on leaving and rejoining the toll motorway to nip to a Lidl to the east of Capbreton (France), but here the junction layout was such that in so doing we missed out the toll booths on the main carriageway, and I think the exit and entry charges between them added up to the same as the single charge had we gone through the main toll plaza.
Having had elevenses in Lidl's car park, we could possibly have made it through to our destination without stopping again, but that would have made for a late lunch, and we weren't in any rush, so into a nice wooded motorway rest area we pulled. Just before and just after that we tested my belief that one can avoid the tolls along this entire section of motorway by leaving at the junction before the toll plazas and rejoining at the junction after*, taking the road alongside the motorway between those two points. I was just as surprised that it worked this time as I was when a previous SatNav directed us to do that a few years ago. For a saving of €11 it was a worthwhile detour which probably added less than 10 minutes to our overall journey.
Our destination for the day was the car park for tomorrow's ParkRun at Les Dougnes (30km N of Bordeaux), and we duly positioned Bertie into the same spot as he has occupied the previous twice that we've done that run. We have never stayed there overnight before, for fear of it being the sort of location that one might get boy racers and ne'er-do-wells disturbing us into the night, but this time we thought we'd give it a go. It probably would have been fine, but having parked Bertie on top of what was clearly the location where a car had been burnt out, and having taken a walk that took us past another such site, a rethink was had. Whilst certain that car burning's are not a nightly occurence, why take the risk when we know there are official motorhome parking areas in nearby villages?
Our plan to go to our previous overnight spot in the village of Cavignac, but on spotting that Cubnezias was closer, we came here instead. We have rows of grapevines on two sides of this large car park and the village on the other two. We could have stayed at the free Aire (including electricity) at the vineyard that is about 300m in front of us, but I would have felt it rude to do that and not buy any wine. We're happy enough with the car park Aire, and instead we've spent our pennies in the local Boulangerie/Patisserie:
(*A63 J11-J12 and J17-J18. Except for those short sections, we took the motorway for the whole of today's journey at a total cost, including the extra charge for leaving/rejoining for fuel, of just over €17. A reasonable sum, we felt, as the free-roads route on this section takes a good couple of hours longer than the motorway.)
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