The forecast break in the weather has arrived with on and off rain / hail during the day and heavy snow forecast for the Black Forest and surrounding hills / mountains overnight, we are off to hunker down in low lying Aire where we know we will have power and water just across the border into France, literally on the other side of the Rhine.

As we begin our ascent from Schonach, we can’t help but try and imagine what this will look like tomorrow….

Indeed had we been able to find a more suitable place to stay, we surely would have hung around to find out – however….

It wasn’t a long drive to the Aire on the outskirts of Schoenau, a small traditional french village and we were soon parked up, right beside Schoenau Lake…

And set off for a nice walk into and around the village, where every one is a farmer – or at least owns an outhouse and a tractor…

Wandering beyond the village we were afforded distant views of the Vosges Mountains – I wonder if they will be white topped tomorrow?….

Thoughts of the day:

• Having made the decision to head south, we have decided to use the Camping Car Park network of Aires that we used and got on so well with during our time in France last year as finding decent Aires in Germany and Belgium was a little tricky and Italy looks to be much of the same but only time will tell.
• I like the CCP Aire network as they are always gated securely and generally offer EHU, fresh water and waste water and toilet waste disposal and there is 24 hour contact number if there are any problems – you can also see how many other units are booked onto the site ahead of booking online, which is useful especially where the Aire is very remote or in a city.

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 53
• Miles walked – 4
• Fuel – £77.06
• O/N – £11.64 (inc EHU)