Day 30 - "Je veux aller sur des routes vertes" 😩

" I want to go on green roads " 😩..... be careful what you wish for young lady 🤨

We had a plan. Try and stick to the green roads marked in the road atlas as far as possible and see where it took us. The temperature was going to be in the 30's so it was definitely a drive around day and not a 'get out and walk' day.

A rough route penciled in, a lot of this was going to be old fashioned map reading and not bothering with the sat nav. The route would take us into the next national park, new mountains up on the Plateau de Millevaches and new roads.

It wasn't long before we were in definite  logging country.

....and the roads got narrower, "well you wanted green roads 😅"

Then, round the next bend and out of nowhere, a dam, water and a place to stop for lunch. There was even a notice board for Jill to read as she does like reading notice boards 🙄.

The small dam is part of a whole network of hydroelectric facilities, pumping stations and large bore pipework that crisscrosses the entire area providing electricity.

If your interested in such things, there's even a nice display board explaining how the sluice gate opens and closes to let stuff floating on top or stuff that has sank to the bottom, out and down to the river below to block the next dam or sluice gate probably 😉

We continued on our way, picking off the bits of green road on the road atlas thru towns and villages, large and small.

We even joined a small convoy and played the guessing game "what will the log wagon hit first?" 😯

Without planning it we actually ended up on another of the dams from the area map and notice board, the biggest of the dams at Bort-les-Orgues.

You can see from the map above why they wanted to build a dam here and it was an impressive bit of engineering. We didnt drive over it, only walked but wagons were trundleing over the top of the dam, seemingly without a care in the world from the speed they were going. 

For some reason, dont ask me why but I liked how the emergancy overflow chute curved slightly so the water would flow into the canal and not into the little road tunnel over on the left hand side. Given the size of the dam and the amount of water behind it further up the valley I dont think it would really matter if the wall actually cracked and burst 😩

The day had caught up with us and we were only about 2/3 of the way around our route so it was time to decide on tonights stop over. 

Camping La Presqu'Île on lake Vassivière is classed as 1 star camping 😯. Who ever gave it that rating must have had a chip on their shoulder over something.

Its a large site with cabins and pods; pitches for campervans and tents, 3 shower blocks, all very clean and tidy. The toilets even have toilet seats 😱. Reception is well stocked with food and drink and you can order fresh bread in the morning. 

   We were in pitch no.90 - only a stones throw away from the water. Plenty of walks around the lake, even little cruise boats to take you between the 3 or 4 small ports and marina's. We booked in for 2 nights. 

All set up it was time to sit in the sun and try a cold bottle of pink wine from reception and a bit of French pork pie 😋