As mentioned in the last blog, we have found the most beautiful lake just to the east of Limoges, right in the middle of France, where there is a fabulous, small but perfectly formed, naturist resort built in terraces on a steep wooded hillside leading down to the water’s edge. Lous Suais is Dutch run (again!) and has been going for 23 years under the same Dutch ownership. It is truly a wonderful dot on the globe and we feel privileged to have enjoyed the benefits for nearly eight days.
We are the only people here who are NOT Dutch (apart from one Flemish family and they speak a form of Dutch anyway!), so sometimes we have felt a little isolated as we listen to incomprehensible conversations, and try to decipher the notices which are written in Dutch and French, but NOT English! But all this does not matter a jot when you consider that as I write this, with the laptop perched on my knee, following a delicious BBQ dinner of lamb steaks and Mediterranean vegetables, in the dying light of the evening sun, I can gaze down the hillside to a peaceful, still lake, flanked by pine trees. The downside to this camp is the enormous flight of stone and wood steps which challenge us every time we want to get down to the cafe/bar and the tiny beach by the side of the water. As our motor home is too big to drive down the hillside, we have been assigned a spot on the top level, which means a 10 minute hike down to the centre of the action. Not that there is much action, and that is how we prefer it now that we are becoming totally chilled!
The terrain here is very hilly, so the bikes are not much use to us. We did walk to a nearby village the other day, and the countryside is stunning, but it was over an hour each way, and the final incline homeward was a killer! We have taken a “pied a l’eau”, (Pedalo to us Brits) out twice, swum in the lake, played boules and had a welcome lift to a farmer’s market/picnic at the aforementioned village. It was joyful just to be out in the real world for a short while! The problem we are finding is that once we have parked the van on our pitch at a camp, wound out the awning, set up the kitchen table with BBQ, put out the lounger chairs, and let down the feet under the van to steady it; we really do not want to move it again until we go. This can be frustrating when there are so many beautiful little French towns and villages to discover.
So, Victor has come up with a plan (again) and once we leave here on Tuesday morning, after a wonderful relaxing week, we will start to explore much more of the real France, particularly the wine areas. We plan to achieve this by taking two nights at a time parking at vineyards and farms, under the French Passion system, when we will not put out the awning etc, and use the daytime to poddle around taking in the sights. Then we will have four or five nights at a campsite to recharge our batteries and service the van, before repeating the pattern. As long as we are clear when we exit the van, which are ‘textile days’ and which are ‘naturist days’, then everything should be fine!
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