DID WE FALL INTO the DORDOGNE’S TOURIST TRAP? – Le Bugue, FRANCE VANLIFE

Bonjour!
As our son had broken his arm, we had to avoid water/adventure/thrill-seeking experiences in this fantastic department in France – the Dordogne! The aquarium seemed like a good idea, but on arrival we could see that it was set up with ‘passes’ to access a range of different experiences and it wasn’t just an aquarium! Whatever package we chose, we were going to be spending a lot! After parting with over 100 Euros to get our ‘pleasure passes’, the expectations were high… but did the place delight, or disappoint?
Meanwhile, Daz was trying to fill the motorhome with water while working. Should be straight-forward? Never!
Finally, we got to visit the Panoramic Gardens of Limeul on one of the hottest days on our trip so far!
Thanks as always for watching and subscribing. We really appreciate it!

Our preferred internet data provider for UNLIMITED EU roaming was…
Maya Mobile: https://maya.net/esim/uk?pid=JgaHc3Vn5Zcy

View our French Road Trip videos so far here:

Find us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/escapeinthemotorhome
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/escapeinthemotorhome/

If you’d like to leave a tip towards the channel or Stampy, please feel free to do so here:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/escapemotorhome

#motorhomelife #homeiswhereyouparkit #vanlife #homeeducation #homeonwheels #adventure #motorhomeadventures #motorhominguk #motorhomesuk #motorhomingfamily #vanlifeuk #motorhomevlog #travelvlog #roadtrip #closertonature #greyhounds #motorhomediy #offgridmotorhome #camping-car #rvlife #motorhomeproblems #motorhomegarage #vegantravel #franceroadtrip #campingcar #frenchroadtrip #motorhomeaire #motorhome #motorhomefails #biscarosse #landes #parentisenborn #dordogne

we’re quite looking forward to this I somehow feel compelled to just talk you through my choice of Pancakes here public toilets for the site aren’t worth visiting unless you like the scene out of train spotting where you and McGregor’s climbing out of the toilet so no doubt I’ll be a sweaty message just a second hi I’m Daz and she’s be and we’re on a 12we road trip round France with our boys and our Greyhound Sammy join us as we explore the history Beauty and fun we can squeeze in while getting to grips with the challenges of working and home educating on the road as a family in France living a life less ordinary as we escape in the [Laughter] motang well this is going to be one of the most beautiful morning walks I’ve ever been on I’m right on the edge of laug I can see a heron in the water and something else in the distance that looks like a massive bird of prey is that or an auto I’m not sure uhhuh mammal or bird easily confused it must have been very [Music] early it’s a beautiful town that we find ourselves in Leu but because it’s a cloudy day unfortunately our electricity has run out so we wanted to stay here another day but I think we might have to move on somewhere that has electricity which is a shame but luckily the dooro is full of beautiful beautiful Villages so this morning we’re doing a proper touristy thing we’re going to the paragor our aquarium and it’s an aquarium but there’s also Crazy Golf alongside it there’s some sort of climbing apparatus a labyrinth it’s been perfectly set up for tourists such as us but what’s nice is that we are only a 7 minute walk from our camping air we might see if we can move to a different town possibly l l and see if we can find a place that has electricity we did see one bit of publicity put onto our motor home this morning and it looks quite appealing it was a farm it was only3 for electricity and free otherwise found in the France passion booklet and then da looked onto the website and it said come and see our F presentations where we force feed the geese and then we all kind of went um it is that region we know that so we’ve gone from a a Basque region in France where they do ball fighting and it’s part of their tradition and here is the region of Fu where geese are force fed to to make their livers nice and fatty but yeah I I’ll will H happily sort of walk past the F gr shop that’s fine but I don’t think I can stay on the farm knowing that it’s happening next door to my motor home on arrival we found ourselves in new neand which included the aquarium prehistoric Labyrinth huge climbing cage and Gulf the ticket prices were ouchy and I suddenly panicked that we’d fallen into a tourist trap so we’re now inside the complex with park plazier passes you can do the mini golf you can do the aquarium and you can do the Labyrinth for about 33 per adult or child so let’s get on with seeing what the aquarium has to offer we’re quite looking forward to this aquarium paragod Noir is the largest private freshwater aquarium in Europe and focuses on what can be found in France’s lakes and rivers as well as this there is a reptile house and an alligator house a heart of the rivers I think so now they’ve now finished their show on the my casters but they certainly look like the Koo and they are related to the koios that were introduced into France in the 19th century for their fur and they’re found in rivers around the south of France and occasionally in the north and they are considered to be a bit of a pest but they’ve got them here because it’s important to know that they are part of the French ecosystem now this chappie is an American bullfrog that’s been introduced into Europe and is an invasive species and impacts a lot of the animals that are in France because it eats the same prey lays far more eggs and it’s carnivorous so it can eat the other amphibians too now somewhere in here are the very shy zenopus now I’ve just been doing some interesting reading about how these are actually found in the lair Valley obviously another invasive species but back a few decades ago I think it was 1950s or 1960s they were used for pregnancy tests nature is amazing in between the 1940s and 60s doctors would inject a woman’s urine under the skin of a zenopus 12 hours later if the poor creature produced some black and white spheres then the lady was definitely pregnant and these are koi carb I didn’t have enough footage sorry so there are lots of different types of sturgeons in this tank including a beluga sturgeon and we’ve all heard of beluga probably because of the caviar so the caviar their fish eggs are the coveted ones I don’t think these are the Beluga ones the bigger ones we wait until they come around that looks like a beluga one so his fish eggs apparently served up in those Posh restaurants as caviar the freshwater theme continued but this time in America with [Music] alligators so we’ve gone to see some 5-year-old 7-year-old and 10-year-old alligators but here we are face to face with two American [Music] alligators reticulated pythons aren’t the biggest though it’s the Anaconda 1 M longer at 10 there’s the Anaconda okay this is the kind of snake that really scares me the kind of snake that would squeeze you to death and then eat you whole that is the stuff of nightmares when we first arrived at this place I was quite alarmed at the entry fee we had paid extra for the golf and the Labyrinth however the aquarium itself is absolutely outstanding I’d highly recommend it to anyone that’s visiting the area it’s brilliant really really good aquarium low to see and we want to stay for another hour or so still after some refreshments it was time for the prehistoric Labyrinth this was such an unexpected hit there were riddles Escape rooms spooky Roots laser mazes and a mirror maze where a crom magnum man chased you about loved it so we’re doing the Labyrinth the maze now we’re answering true or false questions about Crow magon man and then we’ve got to fill in the answers there are lots of different sections it’s quite good fun it does involve you doing a little bit of drama but that’s all okay cuz we’re learning something at the same time rock weather station if you touch the Rock and it’s hot you know it’s Sunny if the rock is cool it’s cloudy if it’s wet it’s raining if it’s if you ask what rock I can’t see anything it’s foggy and finally if it’s gone there’s been a hurricane what an excellent invention our next job was to search through the Explorer’s house infer some of the clues that were left around and then answer some questions it was really intriguing and very cleverly done so we had to look for the clues we determined by listening to the radio and he speaks that he likes tea and classical music we got his address from the letter box that’s outside which has his letter in and what else did we do oh and we worked on his number [Music] plate we’re having a good time it’s really [Music] good [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] youve just had your treat haven’t you sior one Appetit enjoy your 7% beers sleep well children I feel somehow compelled just to talk you through my pancake choices here so we were supposed to be doing Savory but come the end of this hour and a quarter long marathon of cooking pancakes I’ve probably just caned about half the gas in the cupboard too I’ve gone for uh chop banana and sugar I’ve got a lovely vegan cheese and sweet corn one they’re melting away and an American style peanut butter and Jell-O uh that along with my child’s fork and a grownup beer is dinner Don’t Judge Me hello last time I saw you we were just going around that craziest esape room with puzzles and mirror mazes and all sorts and then my phone died but do you know what I have nothing but good things to say about the aquarium and about the Labyrinth prehistoric my kids absolutely loved it there were laser things to jump over there was a mirror maze with cavemen that were jumping out all over all over the place there are Mysteries to solve there was a learning experience where you had to decide on true and false answers about cavemen and crom magum men’s lives um it was just so much so much to do and all the way along the kids didn’t realize they were learning those it was fantastic B is from a rather sunny and potentially extremely hot Tuesday in France uh today it’s recommend temperatures might go to about 36° with no air con uh and kids who seem to hate the heat it’s going to be difficult day so I think we’re heading somewhere that’s cool and wet for the kids to hang out I’m just at the service station of this rather lovely landscaped air um however the leaf blow did start kicking off this morning at about 8:00 around the kids play area so that got everybody up but I’ve also been faced with the first Challenge in a month of a tap that isn’t non-standard hose Piper thing so I have this little beauty I got from Asda uh I’m going to give that a go and see if it works that’s quite the difference yesterday when I tried to fill up our blue canister from this tap it went absolutely everywhere so I’m expecting something similar right I need two hands to tighten that the public toilets for the site aren’t worth visiting unless you like the scene out of train spotting where you and McGregor’s climbing out of the toilet if you’ve watched it you know what I mean but sounds like someone’s coming along with their water butt okay emptying his cassette right next to where I’m filling up so I decided rather than sort of do facial pleasantries that I would just pretend I’m talking to my son inside and wait for him to finish his business before I go and attempt to turn this tap on which could spray everywhere and you know including all over him so another minute while I’m stood here I noticed the number of cars have gone up in the car park today might be some kind of Market though after I’ve drop the kids off I’m coming back here to work so I shall find out later in right now Miss’s gone let’s give it a go it’s one of those ones you’ve got to hold on to [Music] okay get some sort of backdrop this well I could do with another pair of [Music] hands and so it goes on yesterday came to fill the bag up sprayed everywhere do a walking shame back past all the motor home it’s completely covered in water right I’ll get on with this leave you to it we just pulled up in lemu and it’s apparently one of the Treo vages in France so we’re looking forward to exploring this today well I am I’m not sure about the children I don’t think I can match yesterdays aquarium Escape rooms Labyrinth golf experience it’s just it’s going to be a tough one but it’s going to be warm today so you’re going to go back to the camping air that we were in aren’t you I’m working all day Lucky D right first thing to explore in the mo is the panoramic Gardens got a great big bag of stuff to take up with me so we know we the dooro department there are caves there are Gorges there are Hills and there are various levels and we’re just dealing on one of those levels this morning now according to my phone the temperature today is going to reach about 34 35° but I am so thankful that this morning we have some cloud cover 35 yes not yet though that’s why we’re leaving early in the morning now it’s not a particularly long walk up between 5 and 10 minutes but as you can see it’s fairly Steep and not for the faint-hearted don’t go with a massive bag there are resting points if you should need them on a hot day whoa it’s just like Harry Potter that well the sound of Sardis is almost drowning us out I’ve just seen two lizards scarring or possibly NES goinging out of what was the well it’s lovely up here there was me thinking it was free it’s actually nearly €1 for an adult and slightly less for a child so for three children and myself to get in it was €29 so we’re going to make the most of it we’re just chilling out here in the shade and having some refreshments whil the little ones play chess giant [Music] chess so just behind me you can see this house and that was the house that we entered in that was the reception and where we paid it’s actually a house built in the perigordian style and it was the house that was bought by Dr lenire who turned this place into or the start of what this place is now which is a beautiful Botanical Garden he was inspired during his time in Morocco where he was actually a doctor to ass Sultan out there so when he came back he bought this place and decided to start work on it but this place has got a really long history before that [Music] too the Mill’s history has been a tricky one though it’s positioned at a rocky out propop the vizir and the dooro river both meet which means it has been disputed place in terms of he owns it in the 100 Years War the parodian or paragod decided with the English which meant that the castle was destroyed the Lords of Lemieux were in Allegiance with the King of England and then later on during the religious wars uh this part of the dooin was in Allegiance with the Protestants which meant the Catholics came and destroyed the village so there’s been all sorts of issues going [Music] on just coming out of the water garden you could smell before we got to it this enormous lavender plant she’ve just been admiring and of course rubbing our hands on being careful for the bees ah from this view you get a really good example of the paragod style of roof they’re very very tall and apparently if you’re in a posher house you get another layer of tiles in a genoise style but I can’t see them and here we are in the garden of the colors and apparently all the plants in this section can dye your clothes we’ve seen beet tree we’ve seen cette we’ve even seen potato Tomatoes certainly things that have stained my family’s clothes from time to time apparently the vazir is ochre colored especially after rain so I’m guessing that is the vazir there and this is the dooro here which continues but I may be wrong because I usually am and I’m happy with that so all the way around the gardens there are these observation points where the doctor lire is telling us about the interesting things to spot and they have it in English as well we’re currently in the witch’s Garden which can be accessed by a mirror and the mirror is behind me and then we are surrounded by plants that have harmful and helpful properties I recognize this I’m sure this can be turned into a very toxic strong drink if you were to have too much of it PE we have mint and strawberry here strawberry mint you can get a chocolate mint [Music] plant oh here’s another surprise the doctor was just telling us all about how agriculture has formed the shape of the land and it says in the valley the fields of tobacco corn and rape seed form a geometric checkerboard absolutely but I didn’t know they grew tobacco in France there’s a surprise so our time in the garden is just about at its end now some of us have been bitten to death it’s an extremely hot day they’re threatening sh thunderstorms and actually we quite like a thunderstorm but I think we’re going to go and cool down in the dooro river hopefully leaving a wish on the wishing tree [Music] at least the sun is behind the clouds but it is a punishingly warm day getting a lot of resistance because it is so hot but we do have to pass through the town to get to the river so down we go what goes up must come down so I’m assuming it’s going to be a very sloping Little Village but I’m looking for to and Beauty despite the moaning that I’m surrounded [Music] by uh so this is a fancy house because it’s also got the parag gordian roof but it’s got that additional little roof tile there it is so in the Middle Ages the houses were separated from these by these little Avenues and that’s where your sinks and your latrines would be and that’s where the waste water would drain so you can just see the remains the latrines now so it’s a trench that’s called an andron or [Music] andron there’s no doubt about it this is a very pretty little village and this is said to be a little Taylor’s workshop and the fittings would have taken place on the street so I was just saying we need some of these ropes in the motor home but look look at the little Gap here I said a c it’s a little cat flap [Music] well we’ll have to do kayaking on another day we did try but I think they were a bit reluctant to take Indie on board which I do understand I think he’s going to be able to do some paddle boarding with Dad whilst I take the other two into a kayak back but for today it’s a really nice way to end the day in the river nice and cool where the vazir and the dooro [Music] meet [Music] we have woken up in the middle of the forest I kind of regretting that hour and 15 minutes I was making pan cakes been a lot of fun milking their internet and their free Wi-Fi for the last 3 or 4 hours so have you ever embarked upon something knowing for well you probably shouldn’t be embarking upon something that’s what we’re embarking upon now how many times can I say barking in centers I’m a scny teenager in there well that’s all for this video folks congratulations to those who’ve managed to get this far you’ve earned yourself one free go on our like And subscribe button so go ahead at your own pace it’s just there at the bottom of the screen hope you enjoy it and until our next Escape thanks for watching [Music]