We left Auxonne at 1030h this morning, heading initially for St Jean de Losne, where we swapped the provisions for the trip across to Vanumbra, then left the Scenic in the secure carpark and headed south in the van. We stayed on the main motorway A6 as we headed towards Lyon, because our objective today was to cover some kilometres, rather than look at the scenery. For once, we didn't get "lost in Lyon", but as we made our way around the labyrinth of streets (even on the motorway) going through Lyon, we realised why we had got lost so often in previous years, when there was also extensive roadworks underway!

We continued south of Lyon on the A7 motorway until Bollene (just north of Orange), where we left the A7 to go west towards Alès. When we got to Alès, we stopped because we saw a FeuVert store, and we wanted to buy a Bosch C7 battery charger (our third one) to keep the starter battery charged when we were using the fridge and were connected to mains power.

We then continued on to Branoux where Phil and Kathy were checking on a house for a French friend of theirs who lives in Sydney and who couldn't get to France this year. We had checked for a campervan parking place in this town on the CamperConnect app, and seen that there was something near the Mairie. But when we got there, there was nothing but the parking area for the Mairie and a solitary borne, which had long ceased working. But, given the lack of options, we left the van parked in the carpark and went looking for the house where Phil and Kathy were staying.

It was not too difficult to find the house, given that Branoux is a small town. It turned out to be a very old house that Brigitte had inherited from an uncle, who was a somewhat eccentric artist and collector of many things. When they showed us around the house, the spirit of the house showed through, with some rooms filled with a collection of record players, others filled with hundreds of DVDs etc etc. The basement was filled with all sorts of artwork, many done by the uncle, plus a collection of picture frames hung on the wall.

We had dinner and drinks with Phil and Kathy and talked long into the night. We had told them not to worry about finding a bed for us in the house since we were going to sleep in the van, even if it was in the Mairie carpark. And so around 2300h we made our way back to Vanumbra. But one thing we hadn't allowed for was that the Mairie carpark was also the favourite hang-out place for the youth of Branoux, and when we got back to the van, there were about ten lads and lasses having a drink and a smoke on the Mairie steps. But we had little choice and so we just entered the van and went to bed. Luckily they were not too rowdy, and it was all background sounds to me because I couldn't understand them anyway. They were still there when I dozed off around midnight.