18th & 19th August: The start of our journey home via Lacs Laffrey and d’Orient

After a good nights sleep and full of breakfast, we made our way to the bus stop to travel back to Guillestre. The bus arrived and we loaded our rucksacks into the trailer and got on. The driver then set off fast. He obviously knew the road well and, as it wound around the sides of the deep gorge, we clung on, hoping we wouldn’t plunge to our deaths in the river below!

We survived, got off at Mont Dauphin station and walked back to the campsite. Once there, we unpacked our rucksacks and got changed and ready to leave. Then we had a coffee and planned where we might stop for the night, before saying goodbye and setting off.

After travelling for a few hours, we decided to stop south of Grenoble, before we joined the motorway. We’d passed the 3 pretty Lacs du Laffrey on our way down and I thought it might be a good place for lunch. In the end, we decided it was a good spot to spend the afternoon and stay overnight, so we treated ourselves to a meal and then read our books and relaxed.

Just one problem… The van ended up full of flies and John had to go on a killing spree at bedtime, thwacking them with the map! He was very successful, although he did end up standing on one of the dead bodies, which I later found stuck to the sole of his foot!

The next day, we continued our journey. Having enjoyed our stopover by the lake, I looked for another lake about halfway to Calais, finding what looked like a good spot in the Foret d’Orient, where our book advised that there was a camper van aire.

The journey took 4-5 hours and we stopped for lunch in a motorway aire, getting our table and chairs out to enjoy bread, cheese, ham and a beer. Finally, we reached the lake and drove around to find the aire. Unfortunately, it seems to have closed down so we drove back to a village we passed through where other vans were parked, Mesnil St Pere.

We had a look around and I spent some time catching up with my blog, taking advantage of wifi at tourist information. In the evening we enjoyed dinner at a restaurant on the lake, while watching the sun set. Lovely!