Diary 14. Hey, Jude!
We arrived in a town called Blayè on our way to Bordeaux. We decided that we'd do our first night of not quite wild camping, as we found a tractor on Park4Night. For those who don't know, there are a few different icons on the app, and you can filter it down to only show you certain parking types. I've filtered it down to only show us spots in nature, so no services or paid campsites. This leaves is camper approved parking run by the local Mairie, unofficial parking places in nature, and tractors, which are places of interest or businesses which allow campers to stay for free, often with an expectation you will buy some produce.
The tractor I decided we should go to was a vineyard called Chateau Marquis De Vauban, which allows up to 48 hours free parking, electric hookup, water refill (though this was out of order when we stayed), and a toilet block. The Chateau was absolutely beautiful, there were two black swans and a bunch of the most elaborate beautiful ducks I've ever seen. As we drove down the lane towards the Chateau we saw about 20 camper-vans parked up. It made us a little hesitant about the place, but we'd already decided it was home for the night.
The hostess came out to us and gave us a little tour of the different spots she had available. We ended up parking right out front of the Chateau under some blossom trees. There were six vans on our patch when we parked up, and one of them had had to move a little to fit us in. The owner of the van was an English lady called Jude. We were very pleased to have an English neighbour, as by this point we'd basically only spoken to each other and supermarket checkout staff for close to a month.
Jude wasted no time in coming over and asking if she could nose about in our van. We were more than happy to oblige and she seemed really excited to look around a self built one. She loved everything we had in the van, which we found somewhat surprising as she seemed to have a snazzy new campervan.
It was within the first five minutes that Jude began to tear up a little. She had said a couple of times that our van is exactly the kind of thing her and her husband would've done when they were younger. I think that looking at us newlyweds and completely loving the lifestyle we'd chosen, even if it may only be for a year or so, really brought something back for her, as well as Jude's mind being occupied with an anniversary.
She revealed through teary eyes that 3 years ago to the day (May 9th), her and her husband had been involved in a car accident with a motorbike while they were visiting Scotland. Jude's husband was unable to get out of the car as the bike had begun an inferno which engulfed the car. Sadly her husband of 42 years passed away in hospital three days later.
Jude was so forthcoming with information about her health and decisions since the accident, it was almost liberating. She'd left the UK on a complete whim in the snazzy Camper the insurance money helped pay for. She'd actually left in such a rush and unbeknownst to all that half of her essential items were still in the UK, including medications and the motoring essentials needed for driving in Europe.
We chatted a little more, and went for a tour of her van, where we were introduced to her two cuter than cute dogs, Gucci and Maisie. Gucci was Jude's therapy dog, and so well behaved you'd barely know she was there. Maisie on the other hand was just as much a live wire as Bailey, and they got on like a house on fire. I could've just scooped her up and taken her onboard as Bailey's playmate so easily.
As Jude was new to van life and venturing out bravely on her own, she had hooked up with a chap called Ben and his elderly Labrador, Mary, who were heading down to Spain, for a little companionship and guidance. The four of us chatted while the dogs kept themselves occupied with stealing each others toys and having some play time. It was so lovely to chat to fellow brits, and one being experienced and the other just as experienced as us really made for good tip sharing conversation.
As lovely as it was, I couldn't help but feel it was a little surreal. After a month of just us, it almost felt as though we'd forgotten how to communicate. And although a lot has happened in the grand scheme of things, not a whole lot has happened on the trip thus far, so we were talking about experiences we'd had on a timeline that feels so far from reality.
It was fast approaching dinner time, so we said our goodbyes for now and each retired to our vans to dine. Jude very kindly allowed us to charge some of our equipment in her van for the night, and we looked forward to seeing her again in the morning.
Unfortunately, Ben decided he wanted to leave early, and as Jude was following, she also had to leave, more hastily than she would've liked to. It's a shame, as I reckon we could've done some damage to a box or two of wine and some cheese with Jude, she just gave off a genuine vibe, and had real interest in, well, anything it seemed!
We ended our time at the Chateau by choosing a bottle of wine to buy to remember our travels, and of course to have the privilege of consuming the produce of a field we had actually slept on. After a little lesson in the wines on offer from the lovely staff, we opted for the Merlot Bordeaux Clairet, made from 100% Merlot. Not too different from a Rose in colour, a claret is a young red wine, and the sample we tasted was delicious. For €8.80 (an expensive bottle for us jobless travellers), we felt pleased that we had contributed to the vineyard in return for a lovely place to stay.
Hopefully we'll run into Jude again. Matt told her about our blog, so Jude, if you're reading this, get in touch and let us know where you are and we can have some good grub and get tiddly together by the roadside!
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