A cold and foggy dawn greeted our early start and with no clarification on the border situation we decided to carry on as normal and see what happens. So breakfast and service the van before heading off into the gradually lifting murk. Everywhere very quiet although we did spot a few shops open, as were all the fuel stations and we rejoined the autovia near Palencia to head north once again.
Planning to stay with motorways we refuelled a little earlier than we had hoped but felt it wasn't a good idea to take any chances just to save a few pennies. Anyway we noticed that fuel prices seemed to have jumped 10c per litre, although that may have been because we were on a motorway where it's always dearer anyway.
So past Burgos and on to San Sebastion, noticing few cars but an ever increasing number of trucks, far more than we've seen before, however having decided to push on somewhat faster than usual it was no bother. What was more alarming was a couple of gantry signs telling us about restrictions at the border with France. But at least the sun had come out as we started the long descent off the Spanish plateau down to the coast.
A shortish section of toll road then we paused for a comfort stop before passing through a couple of toll stations - when suddenly we were in France! There were many trucks stopped at the border but the three gendarmes took no notice of us at all and we weren't going to stop to ask questions! So, for us at least and for the moment, the border was open.
The main road north to Bordeaux is partially tolled but whilst it is possible to avoid them we felt we might be pushing our luck so stayed with it. Just short of the city we paused at a rest area for a quick cuppa and some planning, where we saw several police motorcyclists pulling French cars in to the aire for a check - but again they completely ignored us. So we just pushed on, aiming to get as far as we could this evening.
Passing Angouleme we felt that we had come far enough for today (it was almost 6.00 pm) so Bren sorted out a few options for a stopover and we picked a small aire a little off the main road which looked nice - some of our best places have been discovered like this, and Verteuil sur Charente was another. Except it was almost full and we had to ask a poorly parked Swedish van to move over a little so we could squeeze in. A good spot to settle for the night and wind down from our long, long drive today, 445 miles which is a record for us!
We've made it safely into France and so far it seems all we need do is keep going and maintain a low profile. We don't need any shopping just yet, although we'll probably need to make at least one stop, so our plan now is to head for northern France, maybe finding a vet for Jamies Pet Passport stamp, then book an earlier crossing with Eurotunnel.
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