Darkness stays later by the day and we don't stir until after 08:30 We plan on driving to Josselin this afternoon and visit the town tomorrow. After using the service point we drive up to the supermarket. An hour later we are ready to leave but Mary*Lou is as dead as a dodo, even the dashboard lights don't glimmer. We try the jump start pack but it's about the only thing that didn't get charged yesterday. Nothing for it but call the breakdown services. Call...

The travellers have left before we are up. There isn't a scrap of litter or any sign they were here. If only our so-called travellers at home behaved this way. We say our goodbyes with Chris and Paul and leave together. Less than a mile we reach a roundabout and go our separate ways. Over the last few days we've parked in lots of shade and charged the wheelchair batteries twice, with the result that the leisure battery needs a good charge itself. We know th...

As dawn breaks we hear cars pulling in all around us, doors and boots banging and bits of chatter; the pickers arriving to start their work. Once we are up we can see them bobbing up and down between the rows of vines. Some cut the grapes and place them in buckets, others walk to and fro with tapered plastic barrels on their back into which the buckets are emptied. When the backpacks are full they are tipped into trailers which are drawn by little tractors up ...

Although we are in the Loire Valley we haven't yet seen a lot of the Loire river itself so we plan a route to remedy that. But first we must go back to the farm to say 'thank you' to our hosts. Instead of buying wine we leave with two big bags of apples from the farm, €3.50 for 2kg. Heading north we reach Langeais and cross the Loire over a substantial bridge on the other side of which is a car park where we stop to take a good look. We don't remember ever s...

Welcome to the machine, says a Pink Floyd track. Here at the Musee de Maurice Dufresne there are thousands of machines all collected by the museum's namesake over a 50 year period. From steam engines and tractors and bulldozers to factor generating plants, farm implements, tools, cars, lorries, aeroplanes, looms dating back to 1630, and a fully restored guillotine. Some are world-unique examples. There is also a water wheel working a huge press. Basically if...