We Took a BOAT RIDE 330ft Underground in France – Gouffre de Padirac VAN LIFE

We Took a BOAT RIDE 330ft Underground in France – Gouffre de Padirac VAN LIFE

I’m Lee. And I’m Nick. And we are the Lodge Guys. Having recently upgraded our camper van to a motor home, we’re heading into Europe for the summer. Join us on this latest series where we hit the road in search of breathtaking views, quirky stops, and hidden gems. [Music] Take the shields up until it stopped. Welcome to a new vlog. Disconnect the electric ready to set off. And it started slashing it down again. So much for this summer weather. So, welcome to a new day in the van. And we are blue sky up there. Yeah, I know. Third wet day. Um, we are going to head out of this car park now and we’re going to head to another little town. It’s a medieval town. And we said we’re done with medieval towns, but we asked some of our friends yesterday for some suggestions. And Carrie, who used to um come to France quite a lot cuz her parents had a house here, said, “Why don’t you go to a town called Byron? It’s a beautiful medieval town.” Um, so pressure’s on. Pressure. Why? On Kerry, but it’d be good. Oh, yeah. It’s a 4-hour drive to get there. Oo, we’re going to head there, which is going east. Is that right? Northeast hopefully away from the rain. Look at that heavy rain but blue sky over there. So that’s what we want to chase. Ain’t that right, Leisel? We want to chase the blue sky. She didn’t give a monkey. She’s used to um Well, she just stays in here. Gunk hill and she’s a house goat. So we’re going to Byron. Yeah. Yeah. 4 hours to get there. We just have to drop us gray water. Dump his electric. No, dump his gray water. Disconnect the electric. But I’ve got to wait for it to stop raining, which I think is there’s a pause right now. Quick now. So, just in case you’re new around here, my name’s Lee. Nick is the other guy who is just out there disconnecting the electric. We usually live in a lodge in the UK, but at the moment, we’re in our motor home called Elvis, and we are traveling Europe. We came across to France hoping for some good weather, and it’s been a bit crap since we got into France. So, we’re going to go eat more northeast, and hopefully it’s going to get a little bit better. I mean, we can’t really complain cuz we’ve had some great weather. It’s been like we’ve had heat waves and all sorts of stuff, but it’s always a bit when it’s uh raining. So, we’re going to go back to this medieval town. Well, not back to this when I say we said we’re done with medieval towns, but um we came to the coast to try and get some good weather and it’s just not worked out. So, we’re going to go back over that way. And in the middle is sort of like all medieval towns and canals and stuff like that, which is great. And um we’ll go and have a look at another one. And it’s one that we’ve never seen before, Byron. And then we’re going to head up. We’re we’re heading um slowly towards home now. Um and we’re going to get on the ferry at Calali, but we just want to explore some places in France. And uh that’s what we’re going to do. Gray water dropping and just going to fill the water up and then we can get off. [Music] Somebody has taken the camping car parks barrier off, but we’ve still got to like check out because Yeah. So, goodbye. Right. It’s moved. But somebody obviously couldn’t get out yesterday and has had to resort to removing the barrier. Well, take the next turn left onto D26. Google 3 hours 29 minutes to our next destination. Nice little park up here. It’s very family orientated and it’s very beachy vibes here, which is good, but not when it’s raining. So, uh, we’ve learned we’ve learned another lesson. Come come here when it’s not the French kids holidays. Well, yeah, but we’re very usually up on checking the weather. Um, like every day we check the weather and for some reason we just said, “Let’s go to the west coast, get some beach time in.” Didn’t check the weather and it’s been pretty And to be fair, the whole of France is going to be weather now. Unless we’ have stayed at like in Marseilles area, we would have had nice sunny weather. But we’ve got nice weather tomorrow in Byron, which is where the chatau is. And then we are going to head towards kind of Leon and up towards the German Strasburg border and home that way. And home that way. Yeah, because that’s where the better weather’s going to be. Even though the rain’s coming across, so we’re still going to catch it. But um I think we’ve seen the last of the good weather now. So, if you’ve seen our previous days travel in France, if you not go back and watch them, um you’ll know that we have paid quite a lot on tolls here in France. The other day, it must have been almost about freaking €75. Next one was 20. Um so, today we’ve set this nav to avoid tolls and it’s only added 4 minutes on which is really good actually. So, um we’ll see what difference that makes to the route, whether it takes us like some back roads or anything. Pretty pretty. Yeah. Hopefully. Yeah. So, it can be very expensive with tolls. Um, and we said the other day that from now on we’re just going to avoid talls on the satnav. So, we’ve done that today [Music] [Applause] tunnel. And it’s a huge one. Look at all those big trees. They’re absolutely massive. They must be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of year old trees. We love a good tree tunnel. Just on the lookout for a petrol station. We’re just passing through this nice little town. It’s got cafes. Well, bangeries as they’re called. Airs for airs for motor home. Air for motor homes. Leaving it now. It’s very tiny. Very nice. We’re right on the edge of entering the door. Right. We just stopped off on the way for some gas uh petrol. And um this is one of those kind of strange um places. A very handy place actually. It’s just in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing here. There’s no shop that I can see. Looks like there they have maybe a shop at some point, but there isn’t any at the moment. So they’ve got AdBlue, all sorts of stuff here. Your petrol, etc. And then over here is great for motor homes. You can dump things. You can dump your um your gray waste, your black waste by the looks of it. And they’ve got um places for mod homes to park as well, which we probably going to do in a moment. And just get a snack. And you get rid of all your um rubbish there as well if you need to. So, we’re just going to pull up here. Just there. And uh like I say, you can do all your stuff here as well. We don’t need to obviously we’ve done it. Is it servicing? Yeah. Just have to leave. Do you want a cup of tea? Are you up then? I just said, “Do you want a cup of tea?” He’s like, “Yeah.” And I’m like, “You’ve got to go put gas on.” And then I said to him, “You don’t want one now, dear?” And he went, “No.” But it’s doing it. It looks Haley. Don’t forget to push the reset button hard. Let’s see if this works. If not, it’ll be going back out again. So, when you’re driving, you have um like a a safety lock system on your um on your gas. And he haven’t done it properly. Get back out. He worked. Are you joking? No, I’m not. You pressed it. You need to press it hard so it pisses. It did. Well, you tell the gas then cuz it’s not worked. Unless we forgot. Did you forget to send it off the other place? No. Slashing it. You need to push it really hard so it goes. No. And then we’re going to have some of this when he’s finished doing it. I might lock door actually. Let him get wet. Come back in. Have you done it? I pressed it as hard as I can. Oh, wait a minute. There’s nothing wrong with that. Well, it’s the power that’s off. So, the ignition’s not working. There we go. Come on. You got wet for now. Right. So, Nick has kindly got me out a tea bag, which is very nice of him. But I think as a little treat, I’m going to go for a Costa Coffee Barista creamy cappuccino. Go on, treat yourself. This is the beauty of motor home and camper vans that no matter where you are within reason obviously you can just pull up and you’re in your home have a little snack cup of coffee for night. Can you actually stay here for a night? I don’t know. Not you want to. No, but that is a good thing about France. There is lots of places for motor homes and camper vans. They’re very geared up for it and they um seem to really love motoring. Right, we’ve just we fed in water and the sun’s come out. So, we’re going to set off again. We’ve got another hour and a half to go. Um, literally right in the middle of the dodo and this town that Kerry’s told us about, I’ve just looked on the map. It’s like as big as this car park, including the castle. So, and we’re staying there for the night. So, I don’t know whether we’ll um just pull up today, stay overnight, or stay 2 days. I’m just getting my shoes on. You can see our 360 cameras there. There’s a lorry just behind us. So, hopefully I can pull out. So, uh we’ll see what it’s all about when we get there. And uh hopefully it’s a lovely place to uh visit. Just going over Lagaron. Lagaron. Oh, look at that sandbank. Sandbank. Yeah. The actual river. So 1 hour 10 minutes from getting there. And the views are start very green and beautiful. Lots of vineyards. And we’re in the Fagua region now as well. Oh no. I don’t like Fagua. I mean I’ve never had it. If I’ve never tried it. No, I don’t. I wouldn’t have it. No. It’s disgusting what they do to get faguar. to D600. Look at all the sunflowers. We’ve been passing loads and loads of field with sunflowers. I’ll tell you a fun fact about sunflowers. They always face east for the sun that they always face east where the sun is. They’re supposed to track the sun, but they never do. They always just wake up in the morning, watch the sun get to the top, and then they stop and then they go back down again in the afternoon. We’re just coming up to it just around this corner. You’ll be able to see it. Chat De Byron. I don’t know why, but when I looked at it on Google Maps, it looked like it would just level on a road and it’s absolutely huge. And you do have to pay to get into it, which we’ll be doing. And uh they’re not closed. As long as they’re not closed. Maybe we should have looked up. Turn right. And the car parks for camping are just at the start of the town apparently. You get a great view. There’s two. There’s one of the shadow looks forward back. Take the next right. Then your destination will be on the right. And this is where you park. Yep. That’s freaking small. We’re not going to get in here. I expected something a little larger and quieter. Look how that motor home’s parked. Side on where? Oh yeah. So nobody else can get a space. Your destination is on the right. Thanks. Screwed now cuz we can’t park. I expected it to be quiet, not busy with it just being like a random Monday. Now, what do we do? Go into the other one. Right. Half an hour of trying and driving round and round and round. We’ve managed to park and we’re actually halfway up the verge. So, the back end of the van is about 2 in off the water tank underneath. Uh I’m just waiting for Lee to sort his stuff out and then um we’re going to head up to the shadow. My god, this is completely disorienting. I’m looking at the van and I feel like I’m falling over. I feel like I’m falling cuz we are literally that that is horizontal now and it looks like there’s a big slant. Well, there is a big slant cuz we’re halfway up a slope. It feels like we’re on that 747 in the uh which it’s making me go weird stood here looking at it. I feel like I’m falling over. That’s the current tilt. It looks doesn’t even look tilted on the on the video, but bloody hell it’s weird. Right, let me lock up. Apparently, there’s two restaurants um in town. This one here and then one up there. La barge or something. Wait a minute. That is town. That is all there is. That’s town. Oh, that’s literally the shadow in those two buildings. [Music] Here’s the other place to eat which is right next to the chatau. Oh, let’s have a little look at menu. They have an English menu. La vegan lash chatau la €23. You got to be joking. So just making our way to the top. There’s an information office down there, but you don’t get tickets there. You get them as you enter the chatau. Right. So this is the chatau de Byron and it’s actually been in the gone to Byron family for over 800 years. And they’re one of the most oldest noble families in the whole of France. And they had some good views from their chat. Yeah. Amazing views. So, we had basically crossed into the dodo. Yeah. It’s almost like the French Tuskanyany. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good way of putting it. Actually, it has a very similar look, doesn’t it? Not as beautiful, I don’t think, as is more dry with lots of vineyards and like rolling hills. This is more like shadows and castles on hills. This is beautiful. So, we’re only about 10 miles from Bayak to Kazanak where we went last year. So, here’s the price list. individual is um €9.70 audio guides and uh you can even click on that if you want the opening hours for 2025 which is actually 7:00 tonight 10il 7 look at all that growing there very tough yeah as I said before you get the tickets right here in the chat itself if you get any wine tasting at the cafes now I think they’re all downstairs top tip for you if um the queue is like that go online. Nick just went online and got it. The que’s not going down. So, we did it online and then we showed this guy here and you you went to buy this. Yeah. Why? It’s not claustrophobic. No, it’s not claustrophobic at all. Nice breeze coming through there as well. So as I said earlier the uh the house or the castle or chatau uh was in the go gong gutant Byron family for 800 years but then after the French revolution it basically ended up being abandoned. So in 1928 the French government made it a monument of um preservation so it couldn’t be dismantled and it’s been restored and it’s now a visitor attraction. Uh, nobody lives here. Not that I can work out, but it’s often used for concerts and art exhibitions and shows and things like that. Imagine this being your office. Look at the wallpaper. It’s actually painted onto the wall. It’s definitely got more Linden feel than Bay did. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? I think this is the banquet hall. So, just following around, follow the numbers cuz it actually takes you on like a guided tour. You can get a guided tour, like an audio guide. But where did you Oh, it’s the kitchen. It’s the kitchen. Yeah. Like the the servants. Yeah. This is like where the servants were like their version of Mr. Pat Mara would be down here cooking the food. Smell the bread back in the day. So water through water through the drain. Yeah. Straight outside. Ran straight through here in the service. Ooh. Is that some kind of well? Look at this stove. So, I’m guessing that there was flames underneath, fire underneath, and then you put your pans on these. Quite a nice big area to cook. Actually cooking. Yeah. So, it looks like some things have been filmed here. I asked Nick if uh he knew of anything, but um it’s looks like a French film or French series or something. Now, a quick fact that we didn’t tell you last year when we went to Bayak when you can go back to last year’s series and look at that um the film um with Paul Walker, what was it called now? Time something uh when Paul Walker and Gerard Butler was actually filmed at Bayak. We’ll put on the screen what it is. Right. So, as we’re going around, we did get given this as we were coming in in English. And um for each of the numbers, you can either do the audio guide or you can just look on this. So when we were in the kitchen here, uh it tells you a little bit about it. And it says it’s considered one of the largest kitchens in France that we just went in. Number five, which is the courtyard of honor. Oh no, it’s number six. Oh, so that must be the courtyard. Yeah, outside just gone. Chatau de Mashaw. So this is the marshall’s wing. The hall of the estate. Ah, this looks like some out of like um Sound of Music like a ballroom. Do you know what I mean? Learned the kids. Yeah, I love this room. The first building campaign started by Arand Duntor Byron and his son Charles at the end of the 16th century. D What did they do in this room? However, the building and its apartments were never furnished or decorated and it was fully restored in 2012 and 2014. It now hosts exhibitions and art art exhibitions. Let’s have a look at the view that they would have had out of here. [Music] Very old little panoramic terrace. This is the 18th century. That’s not like as much where the women came to have like tea and um have a bit of a gossip. You’d have been pretty. We’re almost at the very top now. It’s very windy up here. So, as you can see, you can see all the way downstairs now down to the car park. There’s a bit of an overflow car park there. So, if you can’t get in the main two where we got, there’s an overflow there, which we didn’t notice before. We may end up moving the van there later, but we don’t want it to rain and get stuck in the water. That’s the only thing. [Music] The room that we’re in now is called the exhibition. Now, this was restored in 2012 to exactly how it would have been back in the day. New park floors. Um, reminds me of school assembly. It does actually art. Lots and lots of art. Very cultured. I’m a very cultured person to be fair. It’s just reminded of something. Be our guest. Be our guest. D. Oh, there’s the clock on the thing. I forgot what the clock’s called. And Luminire’s outside of him. Tik Tok or something. I’m not sure. I don’t know. Luminere and Chip and Mrs. Pots. So, this is the this is the small salon. It says the small salon recreates the atmosphere of the intimate dining when it’s library and game table. The paneling is walnut and the salsy style parky floors are made from various wood, oak, chestnut, cherry, and more. I imagine this is where the men retired to for a brandy after uh after they’ve eaten. So this room was a guest chamber in the 16th century. I know you got your like your living room area big um fire. Uh you had your own like dining table and then there’s your bed a bit low down from you. Few more things that were filmed here. So Jean Arc or Jean of Arc with D Hoffman and John Malkovich and F Dunaway. Um they use the shadow in the background apparently. So we’ve come to the very top I think now and this was a secret room and it it only used to be able accessible by a hatch from the guest room downstairs but now they’ve built a uh staircase which should just come up. Now you can play some chess if you think it’s more of a games room actually like an attic. So this is the queen’s room. I like this one. So on January the 19th 1572 Jean de Albert visited the castle to meet the prince of orange. It’s a funny name. Prince of Orange and the prince of Condi. Accompanied by six carriages and 500 horses. She came in to negotiate the marriage of her son Henry of Near, the future King Henry of France. And is that why the things are orange then? [Music] It’s very fitting. The Queen’s room got a big queen. This is the hall where they had like banquetss and things. And apparently that big fireplace there is a testament to how rich they were. And this room could also be turned into a bedroom if they had more guests if they didn’t have enough room. The small kitchen. It’s not bad. Big pot. It’s not a bad size kitchen though. Look at them. Look at the soot on the ceiling from when the fires have been lit. The chapel. So, it just goes to show you how religious families were back then. They had their own chapels. They had their own churches. Yeah. It’s a nice big church, isn’t it? Here’s [Music] the toilet. [Music] It literally just goes down into garden. Yep. That’s where your poop used to go. Let me try it. I tell you, Summer, you don’t fall through. I prefer this one than that one I had to go to other day. Yeah. The picture of the P boogie that stands underneath. This is an apartment. So if you were a friend or a colleague of the family, I guess this is where they used to put you. Double sheet. Oh yeah. And it’s on suite. They got their Yeah, they got their own on suite. So I wonder if this is like one men’s one. Let’s have a look down here. There’s a streak on that wall. Straight down into the garden all the way down there. Full garden. Right, we’ve done our little tour of the chatau. It was okay. It’s not massive. It was shhat shack for chatau. I expect that’s why they call it shadow cuz it was shiny. Maybe something about wine or something like that. And look at those clouds. That’s coming in. Very dark clouds. So, we’re going to go back down into the little town area and to the two restaurants. Have a look at the restaurants cuz it’s going up to 5:00 now cuz we’ve been driving quite a lot today. Um and then um there’s something close by that we’re going to hopefully research and do tomorrow. Uh but for now, let’s actually move. Let’s go and uh have a look at something to eat. Just before we leave, there’s another room down below with a little market and an artisanal market. Smells nice. Like candles. Yeah. Then candles and whatever smell really good. This is my favorite bit so far. What the exit? Right, we’re back in the van. Um, so we were going to stay there, but for a few different reasons, the car park was packed and we had we were on a right slope. We would have There’s no guarantee we would get a pitch. So, we were going to be waiting around for people um just leaving and we had a quick look at the menus in the restaurants, the light set menus. So, we are only 37 minutes away from Bayak at Kazanak where we went last year when it was 38° 8:00 at night and we had a beautiful meal and we were just saying today we’ve not been anywhere really that we’ve been before, i.e. stopped in the same car park as we stopped in last year. So, we thought let’s just do it. We’re close by and it does take us closer to something that we’re wanting to do tomorrow. That town was very very small. There was nothing there to see. So, we’re going to go there. Like I said, I’m 37 minutes away. I think it’s only like €15 for the night. Plus, we’ll have um electric, which we wouldn’t have had there. And we might go back to, like I said, to that same restaurant cuz I remember it being beautiful even though it’s absolutely baking hot, but it’s not good to be good. So, let’s go to Bay at Kazanak. Something different’s happening. Lee’s driving. Yeah, I thought I’d have a go. And um cuz he’s not editing. He’s done the editing now for today. So um we’re on our way to Bayak. We were just looking at a little town as we were driving to it, including this one here, just to see whether it would like to stay. But um we’re creatures of habit. We like what we like. And we’ve been looking forward to that meal tonight. That’s what I’ve been looking forward to. And we like to do new things. So we’re not creatures of habit. But because it’s we like familiar things. I don’t know what time it is. What time is it? 10 5. We’re just like, oh, let’s just get to where we know we’re going. Yeah. So, it’s actually an hour and a half to where we’re going tomorrow. Um, we’ll explain a little bit more in this vlog cuz it will be in this vlog. I’m not sure that the 3 and 1 half hour drive to see that was very was very well placed today, was it? All right. It was all right. But it was on the way to something we’re doing tomorrow anyway. Well, we know why they call them shadows cuz they’re shite. Anyway, get us to Bayak. [Music] Right. So, with camping car parks, you can actually pre-book in advance. Uh, but you need a service on your account called, I think it’s packetize or something like that or pack something or other. Uh, it’s about 20 29 quid for the year and it lets you book in advance. If not, you can just turn up at the barrier and as long as you’ve got credit on your account, um, which you can preload, you literally just swipe your card. Are you going wrong or is it Google? I think it’s Google. Continue on. So, what you can do is you can just turn up at a barrier. You can see how full the car park is on the app. Just turn up at the barrier and either use your card, your camping car park’s card, or put your pin number in on the app and it’ll just charge you whatever the cost is per night. And um, there we go. We have the uh the pack advertise thing packed something or another. So we can pre-book a day before or a couple of days before or even like a like now I’ve got a I’ve just pre- booked it. So if anybody else turns up before us and it’s almost full, our space is reserved. So we just turn up, put our number in and in we go. It is fantastic. It is amazing. I mean we’ve spoken to people in France before who’ve got um UK people and they never heard of it. Never heard of it. Camping camp as well. Have you never heard of it? It’s like the main one in France. We saw it on a vlog when we were looking up or Oroidor suglane when we did it last year. It was a couple that had done some vlogs and they’ mentioned it and I Googled it and ordered the card to be sent to home. Uh it turned up it was a fiber. They’ve scrapped that now though you don’t need a card. You just it’s all done on the app and you can either use your card if you’re an old car member or now they just give you a pin number and that pin the the app is rubbish. Um and the pin number now just is your number to get you in any of the camping car parks. So um it is bloody brilliant and for every park you have a minimum of sewage water and electricity and the prices range from about €12 to €20. Just crossing over the door which is what the region is named after. You can see the um lime scale or or the granite cliffs at the other side there. It’s a very beautiful region and um every almost every town has got like a shadow. You can see another one coming up here. It’s not where we’re going. We’re still kind of 13 km away. It’s very beautiful around here. The only problem I’m a bit concerned about is when we get to Bayak, the road in front of the shadow becomes really thin. And when we were there last time, we were sat having a meal and two motor homes clipped mirrors and the one mirror ended up on the road and we had to go down and move it to one side. So, and Lee’s driving. So, yeah, we’re fine. Right, we’re 4 and a half km away and there’s a massive shadow there. I’m presuming that that’s it. But doesn’t look as impressive this time as a bit fallen off it. Has a bit fallen off it. Yeah, a bit fell off it. Looks impressive. fell off it last year. So, yeah, 4 and a half km away probably isn’t there. There’s not going to be anything that big in this distance. So, um fingers crossed we’re not going to have any problems getting into the camping car parks because sometimes we’ve had to phone them and they’ve had to open the barrier for us. It just that’s happened a couple of times now. I’m having a bit of a moment because poor Taylor brought us here last year and it’s one of those moments where we’ve abandoned her. She’s just sat on the drive not being used probably cursing sayings are in Bayack again without me and taking that Elvis that’s replaced me. So um if you guys do want to win our camper van Taylor we are offering it off. We don’t need two camper vans. So rather than sell her and deal with all the tie kickers that you get on eBay and Auto Trader and all that, we decided we were just going to raffle it off. We know the minimum we want to make on it and if it makes a little bit more, it’ll pay for what we paid for for Elvis. So, if you do want to win our camper van, we’ll put a QR code on the screen now. Just open your mobile phone, start the camera, point it at it, wait for the little popup, and click on the link. There’s a little video explaining what you get, um how much the tickets are and all the sort of legalities of it. Um have a look at that and um good luck if you enter. The draw runs until the end of October. Right. So, this is the narrow bit of road where two camper vans clipped just here. And this is the restaurant we’re going to eat at later. So, the camping car park is just up the road and round the corner. It’s very narrow. It’s very narrow. Here comes the car. Don’t clip it. Don’t clip it. I’m shooting me eyes. Oh, he did it. Right. Get us there. Right. It’s just down here. This is weird. Coming back here again. Coming back again without Taylor. Poor Taylor. So, this is where you get the canoes as well. So, there’s 51 spaces free. Oh my god, it’s rammed. There’s a lot more people here than there was last time. Um, so we need to be north facing. So, we need to be facing that way. So, park on this side over here, but you’ll have to reverse in. Right, let me put the pin number in. Here we go. It opened. You see one? Um, you probably might have to go. I’m going to say, well, yeah, you’ll have to you’re going to have to reverse in to get stinking painted pointing the right way. Looks like it could be muddy. Unless we go in there. No, because you’re going to hit the trees there. You need to be away from those trees. Right, helmet on, Magic Mateo out. Let’s go into town. Actually, before I get on Maj Mate, I’ll just show you around this camping car park. It’s a really nice one, actually. Oh, have a cute little dog. Little Yorkshire terrier. Um, we parked I think we just parked there last year and we had a couple of days here. The weather wasn’t garbage. Um, but much better today. The sun is finally out. Always feels a bit weird when you come back to somewhere where you thought you’d never ever come again. Uh, Majimate hooked up on the same place they were last year. And there is the boat that we got drenched on last year. And um, looks a little bit different now. They are doing canoeing this year. So, uh, much calmer. Much calmer. Yeah. There is the chatau at the top which we went on last year. You can go check those vlogs out if you want to see us up there. That’s not shatter. That’s quite good. Yeah. And this was the restaurant where we ate last year. We sat out on the balcony. Is it? Oh, no. Tom is closed. No, but the balcony is closed. Oh, so we can either eat in the tent at the front or inside. We’ll have a look at the menus and see. And this is the nice little village. Uh, and then you go up there to the chatau. It’s quite a bit of a walk right up there and but it’s nice and pretty going around and there’s some shops and things like that and it’s just a nice little lovely place. Right. So, the place we at last year is open and they own this part of the place as well which is across the street. Uh so we didn’t realize so we went in and we said can we sit outside expecting him to take us down the side and he brought us over here. So that’s perfect. We’ve got the um Dodo River on the right hand side. And um the reason we actually came here last year was because we watched a channel called Kenny in it. You may uh know of them. They’re a big UK couple that go offlineing and stuff like that. And they swam in that Dorian River and we watched their video and we’re like we want to go there. It looks really nice. Um and it was closed. That was just a random fact that that’s the reason we came here and it’s a beautiful, beautiful little town and we really really like it. And we have some red wine and we’re just about to order. It’s €25 for a for two courses basically. So um for cut out at night 28 three courses. Yeah. What happened? So the restaurant at the side there you could have sat there or normally they have the balcony open. We sat in the balcony last year but it’s not open today. Um and then we came the day after and we had a capy grammand like a dessert and a coffee in that bar next door when we came down for breakfast. And then we went and did a tour of the uh chatau food is here. I’ve gone for the salmon and the carrots and mashed potatoes. I’m sure I got that last year as well if you watch. I’m sure I got this last year as well because it looks I remember the puree and the carrot and the potatoes and the tiny little bit of steak. It looks good though. Desserts here. It was only €25 for a main and a dessert. And the wine is very cheap here as well. €10 for a for quite a large thing of wine. Anyway, it’s a um chocolate and walnut brownie and I’m going to devour it. Is that what you got last year? But it is, isn’t it? Probably. I don’t care. Not everything the same as last year because sometimes every now and again when you go on holiday, nice to experience um new things. Don’t ever feel guilty about experiencing something that feels comfortable and relatable, makes you feel like you know what I mean. And Nick’s being predictable, too. Another apple. M. That taste of raspberry. That is strange because it tastes like a raspberry ripple. But don’t have an apple on a menu. I may not order it. So, I’m just going to try it again. I probably ordered this last year. The don is there. And the uh you can hear the church bells going. [Music] Good. Amazing. Is it weird how people like different things? Like that would be the last thing I ordered. Although I’d probably enjoy it that but that is I always go for chocolate whatever’s on the menu. I don’t eat that when I went when I’ve eaten me. I’m not just saying it. I’m not going to be like the best thing ever. This is another This is another San Anton spritz night. No, no, no. That is without doubt one of the best desserts ever. Walnut and chocolate brownie. It’s beautiful. In fact, I I could almost order another one. It’s good. Oh, fell asleep. Sorry. I could almost order another one. Is that good? What was your thought? It’s one of those places where you feel hungry afterwards and I could murder a McDonald’s to be fair, but it was delicious. Every part of it was delicious and it was it wasn’t as good as the first time I had it in like when we were in 38° and I did have the same meal. I really like I really really liked but I could still eat my house. And anyway, I didn’t ask for all that. I just asked you if your dessert were good. All of it were good. Every bit of it. Should we get dessert? Let’s go and get an ice cream roll. That was bloody beautiful. Love that place. I’m still hungry. I’m still hungry. Did we get a slush from there last time? No, I don’t think so. I think we looked at it though, didn’t we? Um, so we’re just having a walk up the side um of the chatau now. Um, it’s a lot bigger than um chat deyron. That was like literally the the the chatau and two shops. This is an entire street um of restaurants and gift shops and things like that. So, we’re going to have a bit of a mooch. See what we can see. Look at Look at I wish there were McDonald’s. um looking at things that we didn’t see last time and um I definitely need to get maybe some ice cream or a a pastry or a donut or something like that. There’s anything wrong with that food? I think it was just perfect. It was perfect. There’s not enough. This shop does Fagua and then you can also buy the wooden ducks as well. It’s like harmonic. It’s like a screw you. It’s like a screw you. But um they do coffees, nuts. Oh, what is that? Gateau Noir. Oh, look at that. There’s a big one as well. Oh, yeah. Lots of uh nugget and chocolate and things like that. I love it in here. There’s loads of like lures and brisies and like dessert wines and things like that. Berserk wine. Did we not just have Berserk wine? We’re close to Berserk, aren’t we? Yeah. But did we not just have Berserk wine? It said Berserk, didn’t it? So, how much does that bottle went? So, €15 a bottle. So, that’s probably about right, actually. But there’s no McDonald’s up there. Well, we’re heading back down into the uh the main road. So, as we were scootering down, um there was a bar on the right hand side. When we were driving in, we actually said, “Oh, we’ve never tried there.” And I said, “Let’s try it this time, and we’ll not eat that at the regular place.” Anyway, it turns out we may well be eating there because I’m absolutely bloody starving. I’m starving. So, just come down to the water just for a little look. And then you get a proper look at the uh shadow there on the uh top of the rocks. Look how absolutely calm it is here compared to last time we were here. And it was similar kind of time as well. Actually, I don’t know why uh it was so rough last year. So, the canoes are out mix down here. Oh, wow. Look at that. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful here. Not going to lie. I’d love to just go down there and go push him in. it. Look how clear it is as well. Very clear. What a beautiful place. It’s one of those moments where you’ve got to like pull yourself right into reality, into the moment and just appreciate where you are. Stop your mind from wondering and be in the present moment. Come on. Fall in. Shameful. So Nick is that greedy that we’ve another restaurant. Uh there’s nothing in front of me. Am I supposed to eat a Nutella? Just roll it up and eat it. I just wanted some more chocolate. So yes, we’ve come to another restaurant. So the food on there wasn’t enough. It was beautiful though. Don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t enough. Hence why we’re just back at another restaurant on the way back. It’s not as good as that dessert there, though. That was without doubt the best. I’m off staying. I’m not having anything. I’m just letting Greedy Pig eat. So, I just went for a little crepe. Nick’s gone for a whole new meal. Well, it’s a tapas and it’s only like €13. So, you’ve had two meals tonight. You’ve had two main meals, right? Do not touch this. It smells amazing. I must inhale it. Does it rain? Yeah. We’re back in France now for the It does smell amazing. I’m happy with my crepe. Tell me. Good. Amazing. We are back in the van and we’re watching a little bit of YouTube. Just had a little nap um because we’d had some um alcohol and some um nice food. So, to bed. What time is it? Who cares? Let’s have a look. Oh, it’s 12 minutes past 10. We’ll see you in the morning. We’ve booked something to do tomorrow, which sounds quite fun. Oh, wait a minute. Have I booked? Well, you said you had booked. So, join us tomorrow in the next scene uh and see what we get up to. I actually can’t remember if I booked. Good morning and welcome to the next day. We are heading off bright and early. It’s 8:34. We’re showered. We’re ready. Never put handbrake on yesterday. Well, I was just about to say it was me that drove here, but Nick Oh, well there you go then. Now, Nick um reversed. So there. Um not that I can’t do it. You just moaning at me. So I said, “Right, you’re it.” Right. We’re heading out of this camping car parks. This is how busy it is at the moment. people up having breakfast and we have somewhere special to go. I’ll tell you about it in a while. So, we’re heading about an hour and 15 minutes away from that car park to Gura Deadira. I hope I’ve pronounced that correctly. It’s an underground cave system where we go down a massive hole like a sinkhole. Yeah. um which got loads of steps to get down or a elevator and then we have to get in a boat underground with a boat rider in a river in a river and he takes us to the other side and then we get out and explore. It’s like that scene in Lord of the Rings, do you know what I mean? Where they uh with the Yeah. when they cross the chasm where it grabs Frodo and pulls him under. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So that’s where we’re going. Um, so obviously we’ll take you along with us and we’ll film what we can and um see what it’s like. Oh my goodness, that car’s almost on fire on the left here. Yeah, he’s just pulled over. Got to sort that car out, mister. Where has Google brought us? God, there is another motor home in front of us. So yeah, we’re trying to keep up with it as well. A very narrow road, a book track road. Road. Yes. And there’s no barriers for dropping down the cliffs below. Just make sure you don’t drop down then. Oh, best. Right. We believe we are here at the car park and they’ve got designated uh motor home spaces over there, which is always good. Right, we’re here uh and we’ve got parked up and we are about an hour early, but we’re just going to walk up. We bought the tickets yesterday, last night online. How much were they? Um I think it I think it were about €23 each, something like that. €20 each. So we’ve got those and uh self-guided. Self-guided, but on a boat. So we’re just going to go and see if we can get in early. If not, maybe they’ve got a cafe or something. Um we are taking hoodies. Oh yes, cuz apparently it’s 13° down there and they do recommend wrapping up and wearing some decent shoes. We parked right up there. I mean, it’s not that far and everybody’s parking here and paying. There’s pay machines. But if you actually just come down to where we’re going into the goofer dead rack, whatever it is, um they do have free parking, but it does look quite tight and packed. But we Well, it goes up there as well. Yeah, we might have been able to get in there, but we paid €5 for 4 hours. Nice gardens around here. Holy. Look at the Look at the things. Yeah, sure. We’ll make use of these when we come back out probably. But this is where we’re going to the caves. Fingers crossed we let us in early. Look at the cues. Wow, there’s a lot of people here. We did order online, but uh don’t know whether we need to get into this queue or what are waiting file with ticket. So, we just go to the entrance then. Definitely suggest that you get your uh tickets online because this place is crazy and hopefully we don’t have to go in there. What does that say? Visitors with ticket or e ticket. Got that queue? Yeah, you’re having a jerry. All right, let’s get in it. At least in the queue and I’ve just spotted this. Oh my freaking god, look at this massive sinkhole. So, we are going to go Jesus. We are going to go down there. Look at the tiny people on the steps there. And then it’s all full of water down below. You can hear water actually running here. Look at that. That is massive. I’ve come for a look. We are too early. They won’t let us in until 5 minutes before the time. Um so, wow, that looks great. So, it was discovered in 1898 um 9 years after discovering this area and then it took them years to create it accessible like the um up to the public to put the steps in and things like that. An artificial shaft was dug into the sound at a bed of 16 meters. It joins a gall a gallery that runs into the main chasm, providing the starting point for a 40 m iron staircase. 40 m. My god. 30,000 sacks of gravel and sand and 2,800 sacks of cement. We’re transported to the bottom of the chasm. That is a long way down. I wonder if they get on that big lift there. Maybe come for a little coffee before we have to go in. And we’ve got a beef taco and it’s blooming gorgeous. It’s like absolutely amazing. Marinated in something. That curry delicious. Beautiful. Yeah. Okay, you’ve got it on wrong way. Yes, Commander Leforge. It’s not very clear. Nobody’s telling us anything to do. So, we’re just going to go down these steps. The audio is right. There’s 207 steps to go down. Don’t mind going down. I mean, it’s coming back up. I think we’ll go into the elevator. Have a look. Look how tight. Oh my goodness gracious. It’s making me feel weird. We’ll get back. Yeah, me too. [Music] Right. So, we’re coming down in the steps. She’s talking. Oh, our things are talking. And then we decided to get the lift, the elevator, and it just take took us like 3 seconds 5 seconds to get down. Oh my god. Look at that. Wow. So, we got halfway down there, then got on an elevator. [Music] I’ll give you some facts before I lose phone signal and we won’t have anything to lock it up. So, this is called the G de Padarik. It’s 338 ft deep and as I said, it used to have a ceiling on and then it collapsed. Um, it was discovered in 1889, not 1898. It’s got an underground river which you do actually get to take a boat ride on. Takes about 1 and a half to 2 hours to tour the entire site. Um, you can get guided tours, but when we looked, um, they were booked up at least a month in advance, but you can do a self-guided, and you get the audio guide free, so that’s absolutely fine. It gets about 350,000 visitors a year, plus two. So, this is where the water comes in and the river starts. That’ll obviously become big enough to be able to get a boat in it further down. Uh, we’re almost at the bottom now, about 103 m down the uh, the audio guy just said it’s very dark and hard to see, so you’ve got to hold on to the railings. Camera’s showing up a lot more than what you can see in real life. So, I’m in the tunnel. It’s 13° all year round and the water temperature is 12 years at 12 um degrees C all year round. So, it’s not the kind of place you want to end up falling in cuz you’re going to freeze to death. It’s nice and cool though. It’s nice. Not breeze, but it’s just nice and fresh. Yeah. It’s not as cold as it was in Slovenia, Slovenia because I’ve not got my hoodie on and I’m not I’m not cold yet. Nice. It’s really nice. But, um we’re now walking with the waterfall right at the side of us. It’s going under and then back again. And I think we’re going to go down a little bit further and then we’re going to meet the boatman. I mean, it it doesn’t look colorful on camera, but it’s a lot more colorful than it was when we went into the last cave system. I just love that that trickling water sound. There we go. You can see the uh the river there along the edge. So, these chasms were formed by rain water that seeps through and because of the acidity in it, it actually dissolved the limestone. And after thousands and thousands and thousands of years, what was a tiny little crack is now a big chasm. So, you’re talking like millions of years of history. It’s great that you’ve got this audio on your tour as well. So, Adam has been walking down this passage to meet the boatman. Um, we’ve seen loads of boats down here. There’s absolutely looking at the size of the boats. There’s no way that they could have been brought down through the entrance that we went to. They’ve either been built down here or they’ve been brought in through another entrance. Right. I’m not sure what you can see, but we’re on the boat now. There’s no driver. I wonder if it’s like on a chain and it just pulls you through. It’s like it’s like gondas. They’re pushing it along with the uh the poles. The water’s only about six or seven inches. Yeah, it’s not very deep at all before leaving. Holy hell. Holy hell, I’m going all over the place. Off we go. Not cold, is it? No. No. It’s nice. It’s really fresh. It’s like we’re on a gondola but in the dark and underground. Strange. We’re on a boat 103 m under the surface of the earth. [Music] I’m not sure if you can see anything at all on the camera. Um, but just it’s a very peaceful experience. It’s hard to believe that two explorers did this 89. Oh, we’re going to hit the wall. I know. My head’s going very close to that wall. Right. He just said there’s no fish because there’s no vegetation, but there could be snake. [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] So, now we get off the boat and continue walking. Say goodbye to the Bman. Look at all the water. It’s just And look at those. This is so impressive. It’s like it’s raining now. It’s a bit cold down here now. [Music] I love the audio guide. Yeah, the audio guide is really good. You actually listen to some actors like as if it was as if they were exploring this cave for the very first time. So, apparently this cave has got eight species of bats. And when they were originally exploring it, they found sludgy things on the floor and it was bat poo. Back in the day when they were trying to measure the height of the um the dome, the ceiling, what they did is they got like a piece of string and fastened it to a balloon. And when the balloon fell, they snipped the string string and measured the string to see how high the ceiling was. Quite ingenious, actually. Look at the beautiful colors. Looks better on the camera than it does in real life, actually. Look how deep that looks. Oh my god, it’s like a spa. Look at the size of this lake. Oh my god. Is that Oh, that’s a reflection on the ceiling. That’s not the bottom. But my god, look at that. [Music] It’s so spooky, but it’s also so peaceful and calming. Wouldn’t say that if the lights were off. Look at that. how it’s like there’s a pool there and then it looks like sand but it’s not. That’s like like mineral rock. Then there’s a boat on there. So obviously you can continue around there and the steps there if you wanted to go in and start doing it in like a wet suit or something. That’s scary. I wish you could do that. I don’t know why the way we’re doing that but they’re all dingies. They look like the poleing. So apparently they’ve mapped roughly about 40 km but from here if that’s the scale it’s maybe 30 km to the door and then it actually dumps into the uh the dodo river. I’m guessing he was one of the founders of it. This cover in 1901 electricity was installed in here and people back in the day didn’t have electricity in the houses and a lot of the visitors came here just to see electricity in action. This is by far the best cave system we’ve ever seen. We’ve never seen it have these crystal blue water pools in before. Look at that. And to think that back in the day, this entire cabin right up to the roof there about 100 m tall used to be filled up with water and the water’s eroded this and this is what’s left here today. It just looks like a spa. Like you just want to jump in, doesn’t it? Look how colorful it is. Just look at the uh the roof and the ceiling behind us. It’s just I keep saying it, but it’s amazing. [Laughter] [Music] So, we’ve just come off the boat again and um they were telling us we were right at the back with the guide. So, that was quite good. They was telling us that they found bones of saber-tooth tigers and things and rhinoceros and things down here. And they thought that they didn’t actually live down here. They used to be on the surface and then they got washed in here at some point into the sediment rock and then it got dissolved and then the bones were left. Right. So, we’ve gone up on the first lift. There’s actually two lifts. We’ve walked down there before, but we’ve just bypassed that and come up the first lift. And now here’s the second lift. Oh, it’s a right queue. Do you want to walk up 200 steps? [Music] Right, we are out. Brilliant thoughts on that. Yes, that was that Slovenia one. Like a pot Slovenia. Slovenia one. That was really, really, really interesting. Um, and fascinating. Fascinating. The boat ride was the best bit. It was just so peaceful and tranquil and scary at the same time. It was absolutely amazing. And those are the best caves that I’ve been on because of that boat ride. And not just because of that, because of all the water, the blue water and everything. Yeah. And we’ve got to thank Hannah cuz she found us. She knew we were in the area. Yeah. So, at first we said, “Oh, no, not more cave. We’ve already done some.” But then we thought actually it was different because of the boat. Different because of the boat. I’m so glad we’ve done that. So, I forgot to get the one in Walt Disney Studios for my office. But I like this one. Salat. Now, we haven’t been on this trip. We’re on last year’s trip and I really liked that uh town to be fair. We went through it this morning. Yeah, we didn’t stop this time last year. I thought I’d get that. It’ll look good in the bedroom above my desk. It’s the right colors. That matches the wood. That matches the wall. They are €14.90. Here in Disney, they were about €35. Should I go and pay? Yeah. Right. We’re back in the van and we are on our way. So, that was one of the last things that we had on our to-do list in France uh and on the trip. So, um, there was a possibility that we’re going to stay a little bit longer, but the weather’s going to be a bit crap for the next week. It’s going to be raining almost every single day, but then we have to be back anyway after that. Be back after that anyway. So, we thought we’d start making our way up towards Cali and uh maybe look at getting a ferry in the next couple of days or so. Stop off anywhere if we if we fancy on the way or or not. Um, so we’ve got a 3-hour drive now just to get us further up France and then we’ll stop somewhere on the way. Um, we may push on and go a little bit further. Yeah, we’ll just go as long as we can and then we’ve got some fruit and stuff for for as a meal tonight. Get back back into the healthy eating our fruit for for tea tonight through the water. That’s all we’ve got. That’s why time. So, some of them are just a ticket. I can’t reach that. Right. and then just spit them out and you take them and u just don’t forget to put them in on the next tall because you may or may not have seen last year when I did that got this ticket and then it took that long to get to the next tall thing that we completely forgot that we got the ticket and we got there and I would just put me card up and it charged us about what €45 it was a full amount. Yes, because I’d not put that ticket to say where we’d got on. Um, so always remember that you got that ticket. It might sound like an obvious thing to not do, but when you’re on on a road and you’re just there for like 20 minutes. Well, no, but this this tall wasn’t um it took it took like 2 hours until we got to the next one or something. And I just completely forgot that I got that ticket. Look at all these sunflowers here. Literally thousands and thousands all facing east. Yeah. Absolutely thousands of them. That’s a massive field. That’s a lot of sunflower seeds. [Music] It’s a while later. We’ve stopped for petrol and all sorts of stuff. Had a sandwich and it is 3 hours 54 minutes until we get to the camping car park at Cali. Cuz you know what? We decided to do it again. You know what we like when we get to um the the last day where we say we want to go home. We just go all the way. So we’re going to Cali. Uh we booked camping car parkatch which was €17 for the night. Last time we stopped there was really good camping car park. Actually it’s only about 15 minutes that way from the uh it was I f it wasn’t last time. Yeah. And uh booked the ferry for tomorrow. We are going to be trying Irish feries for the first time cuz that was the cheapest one that came up on the caravan motor home cuz we get a discount. So if you are with those guys um caravan and motor home club you get a discount. So always check the app um I think it was about was about 30 quid cheaper or something that we’ve added the lounge on as well and it came out cheaper than DFTS. So uh that’s booked for tomorrow which will be the next one and a half. So, for tonight, we’ve just got to get to the Cala Cafe Kabak and we’re going through all sorts of weird ways cuz we’ve bypassed Paris to um bypass all the traffic. Well, we didn’t we were going to go through it and then it reported that one of the Bing roads was closed. So, we’re just on these kind of roads now. It’s bringing us out west, which seemed really strange, but it’s only added half an hour on. This is where we’re at at the moment. It is 5 to 10 at night and we’ve had to come off the motorway because the motorway is closed and very nice views around here. The motorways were just closed. There was no like diversions or anything like that. So, I’ve had to look on Google and um try and get us around. There’s been a crash apparently on the motorway. Um so, I think we’re doing all right actually. We’re just sort of um side. Yeah, the parallel. So, um we still got an hour an hour and 37 minutes until we get to the camping car park. I can’t wait to get there. And we’re finally here at 11:42. Right, we’re here and um we’re off straight to bed because it now is my phone’s gone. My watch has gone off. I can’t 11:54. Can I just say if you’re using Google there’s a massive bug in it where if you send some coordinates from like an app like another app like a park for nights or something like that and for some reason you change the route or you pause it or you have a stop on Google it basically send it scraps the address and just send you to the town. It just sends us to the direct center of Cali. Anyway, we’re off to bed cuz it’s almost midnight. Even Leisel’s asleep. Look at her. She’s all ready for bed and got right down. So, we’ll see you in the morning for our travel home day. So, thanks for watching today, guys. Hit the like button, click the notification bell, drop us a comment below. We’ll see you on the ferry in the morning on the next vlog. Goodbye. Bye. [Music]

In this van life vlog we travel across France in our motorhome, starting with a visit to the medieval town of Biron and a tour of Château de Biron. We then drive to Beynac, a village on the Dordogne River that we visited last year, for a meal by the water and a walk through the town.

The next day we visit the Gouffre de Padirac, an underground cave system in the Lot region. We take the lift and stairs down more than 330 feet, then ride a boat along the underground river before continuing the tour on foot through the caverns. The site includes large chambers, clear pools, and limestone formations formed over thousands of years.

This video covers our route, parking spots, ticket prices, and travel tips for visiting Biron, Beynac, and the Gouffre de Padirac while touring France in a campervan.

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