one of our favourite park ups either on the trip to Spain or on our way home, Village Etap at Vivonne in a tree lined town square surrounded by restaurants , hotels and shops, open all night toilets, service point with all facilities and very peaceful overnight.
[Music] Bonjour. So our free park up last night we um parked up in a little village called Vivong which is near uh Quatier. It’s in the middle of the village in a beautiful little square and it is a lovely old village as well. So we’re just out for a walk to have a look around. We’ve been to the belonger this morning and got our quants. So this is the beautiful river of Vivon that ws its way round. There’s a little we here. So there’s a beautiful villages. As I say this is the little villa well quite a big village of Vivon that is [Music] near Steve always says that the French are the best at rivers and French bread and quissants. If you look in the distance there, you can just see the purple of the wisteria growing up on that building. That does look like a public park, doesn’t it? It’s got seats and lights all around it. So, I wonder what the big house is where the helicopter has landed on the lawn. This is um this is the river that runs over behind the where we are where we were parked for the night. There’s Mr. Malard and I don’t think that’s Mrs. Malard unless she’s an albino Malard. Here you go. Got no bread for you. No. No croissants, no bread. My video, which I thought was a video, turned out to be photo. So, I’ve had to go turn around and come back. But I’ll get the same again. I’ve even got ivy growing up the Mr. the spider’s web. Can’t see no spider. Vivon is Trayvon. Vivon is Traybon as Steven says. What do the French do best, Steven? Rivers. Rivers. Proper rivers. Big rivers. Full of water. Full of water and beautiful banks and things. I say when you’re out here in this warmth, you forget it is still spring. And everything is new and fresh as well. All the leaves are starting to pop. Yeah. Must be a public park cuz there it is. Yeah. Playground up there. Wonder the way around. [Music] Mhm. Here we have a we but look at this building. See, you do have boy racers in France as well. Lovely old building. It’s a bit like an old mill. Some ducks flying overhead. Hey Police everywhere. Police. Someone’s jumped in the mirror. That’s someone under the tree. I can see shadows near the boat. I think that was an old mill at some stage. The old workings of the water goes underneath here. 1462. Go on. Is making leather here in 1462. What this place? somewhere in the in the town. So in 1462, isn’t that when the they went they went over to America, whoever it was? You need lots of water. You’ll have to talk louder. You need lots of water to make leather in the old days. Wash your ear. Ah, think there’s any fish in here? The army over there as well. So you got the army blue. Something’s gone off over there, haven’t it? Blue lights. Army. Okie dokie. The lights flashing. A police helicopter then. They’re all going in that big house. Not that’s not the police house, is it? There’s an awful lot of uh police there. He’s gone. Where’s he gone? There’s a better view of the old mill. I say lots of old houses. So, here we are again. Back again. There’s a long street down there. There’s the house with wisteria that we could see from the bridge. I think that’s the bridge of river bridge there. That is the post office. Beautiful post office says. So I think that’s a Mary’s office as well. You can smell blossoms here. Yeah. Have a quick look along here. That’s where the all the police are. I think that’s a police station somehow. I think it’s a park, but it’s also the police helicopter still. Lovely old bridge. So, we’re now on the other side of the bridge. We were over there. Look, there’s the wheel and the There’s the beautiful Wisteria cross over. So that there is the post post office and the bear’s house or the mari Mary. I don’t know how they pronounce it. And there’s the pretty polarded trees. There’s all your police and your army. What’s going on? I don’t know. Unless the army are training for something. They put vests on. I don’t see any fish in there. Huh. back. Yeah. So, either the police wear combat when they wear um thingy vests, bulletproof vests or or the army are wearing bulletproof vests and working with the police on something. There’s a toilet there. There’s a toilet there. Pretty little orisha. I say they look quite old. These streets There goes one Jemorary, two Jemaries. Air in the bedding out the windows. The thing on the wall here if you look up quite ancient thing there’s a h thing here look this passage has been restored I think that means and something about valor rejoining the bason the rude de laari the church of St. Michael, ancient chapel of the shadow there. Uhhuh. And then this one. Is this the one that goes up the steps with all the lovely flowers on it? I think you could go up there. Looks like a street, doesn’t it? Water runs down the middle of it. Look, this is a flurry dilabas ruo. The quarter of the banks. Quarter of the banks. They look really old. Those buildings. Is this another one? This one you can go up. There’s that’s where the uh old chapel is up there. Don’t know if that’s where the old chapel is. So, we’ll go back now to the parking place. Show you where Steve got our What did you get, Stephen? Two quissants and a baguette for What did you get? Two quissants. And a baguette for €3 something. Hey something three. Freshly baked this morning. He was in there for about what time, Stephen? About 7. Hey. Oh, look at that old building. Hey, this is the ancient part of town. A little diversion. Look. Is that an old horseshoe? Old horseshoe in the the old shop. Oh no. [Applause] That’s where we just were it down there. The old buildings up there. So if you’re ever passing through the area around, I highly recommend a stop over here in Vivon. I’ll add a um what three words into the description at at the uh start of the video so you can see where it is. But they have ancient or very old streets. They say lots of restaurants and caths and churches and all sorts of thing. A big hole there and where that goes to. Yes. So highly recommend this place. And it’s a nice peaceful um free parking in the village square. There’s a hotel there. That lodges hotel and restaurants. Tacos food. I’m just going to switch off for a few minutes. Okay, back again. I’m going to take a walk down towards the church. See if it’s open cuz Steve does like a church to go into as well. artist around the shop. There he is. The Saint George Hotel. It’s got a That’s the side of the church. The bar, the hotel is open for all for a bar, a terrace, a restaurant, and for children. And it’s free to enter. whatever that means. Oh, that’s the little shop there. Leel Pat says creators of art artisan art, soaps, cosmetics, jewelry, handbags, accessories, and plus lots of other little things. free to enter. So this is the church and you can sit and have a cup of tea from the hotel at the church. Another little street. I think Steve is getting desperate to get back. Ah, here we go. So it was mentioned in 1066 no 1060 1095 it was car the the church was classed as a historic monument in 1912 The glee of St. George. It’s a historic monument. Look at that big door. So, there are some of your restaurants and bars. St. George spreads out a bit. This St. George’s Hotel. Where’s Steve gone? So there is the thing and up in the top there is a naughty pigeon creaming himself. So this is coming now to the war memorial. There’s the war memorial. Another little bar to back. Go up the children of Leon. That’s Steven. So you have a sea and chocolate here. An Italian restaurant I think. Oh no. There’s burgers. Brazerie, a vape shop, a pharmacy. That’s a beautiful tree, isn’t it? Hey, lovely say lovely old buildings. Pizza place. That’s where we had our brought off takeaway pizza last night, didn’t we? Cuz we were late here. There’s a bit another belonging. Not the one Steve got our stuff from. [Applause] Hey, you need to go. What? You need to go. No. Don’t need to go now. Yeah. So, La Cecilia is where we sat outside, had a beer last night, around about half. We didn’t get here till half eight, and we ordered a takeaway pizza. Beautiful. Freshly made with cheeses. Hold on. And we had a lovely cheese pizza. It’s quite expensive. 1350. So, 1350. We had two pints of beer and it came to 26 euros. So 13 of 750 a pint. Here is the village. It’s up. It’s full up now, but at night it’s as quiet as anything. What was you pointing at? Not that one. Oh. Oh, no. It wasn’t the Cecilia. It was this one. La Palote. And we sat on the table with the stools around it. I’d say this is the free park parking spot uh village tap. There’s a place over there you can change money. Not as in a cash point. You can get your money out of a cash point. There you go. You can have your hair done. Mixed mixed ladies and gents. That’s the bulon Steve went to this morning. So, two croissants and a baguette cost €340 or something. So, this spot under the trees was full of camper vans last night and motor homes. There’s another UK one. It’s a UK one. And there is Moose over there because this was full and we had nowhere to park. So, we parked over there. But there was no nothing around us all night. So just to camp for vans all night. I’ll just show you the facilities. That is a tourist office. Steve going to moose. Yes, I shot all along now. So, you’ve got your toilets, the water for the toilet, fresh water, drinking water. Although it says €2 for oh free electric so you can have €2 for 1 hours of electric. So there’s your electric hookup, free water and free emptying of things. These toilets are open all night. They’re quite weird to get in. You just go in If the WC says green, that means it’s empty. You open up. So, there you go. Not the best of toilets for a You press the green button that locks the door and turns a light on. And when you want to go out, you just press that again. It is um open all night but after 10 you have to press the button for two or 3 seconds to get in or out. So you just press that again. Door opens. Automatic flush and washes the floor. There’s the river again. Men have to we outside in the urinals. That toilet is men and women’s. It’s just the men get their own urinals. There you go. The little ducks, the river that runs along the back, and as I say, it’s got nearly everything you need. Bins, rubbish. You got electric hook up for electric cars, but only for charging electric vehicles. So that is the information center, tourist information and this is the tap. Couple of things here now. Steve’s obviously in moose. So I will catch you later. There goes the bells. There’s this thing for emptying your water. That must be 11:00 now. I say we’re only going to be driving for probably four or 5 hours today. I just check Steve’s locked the cupboard at the back. Yes, I say highly recommend a stop over here if you’re over passing this way and need a night stop. Did you lock that cupboard? Okay, folks. Right, I’m going to leave you here then and we’re going to set off on our journey. So, you’ve got the map out already and we will catch you later. Bye. [Music]