Too Much Shopping and Pont de l'Arche Revisited

Tuesday 30^th September

We didn’t sleep very well, and got up for a cup of tea at about 4am. We managed to grab a few more hours, and when we finally surfaced we found that there was a heavy mist. It made all the spider’s webs easy to see. 

I cooked K some scrambled eggs and ham for breakfast, and we took our final showers – we intended staying on aires for the last two nights, so didn’t expect any facilities. By the time we had packed up and availed ourselves of the very useful motorhome service point at the site, the time was getting on. We knew that there was a LeClerc supermarket just down the road, so we headed there to buy some things to take home with us.

It was a very big store – and we wandered around for far too long really, meaning that we didn’t leave until after two thirty. We decided that K would drive for the first part of the journey, and I would do the latter half. We were heading back to Pont de l'Arche – but this time to the aire that we had spotted last time we were there. The drive took a while, and we didn’t really stop for lunch – just a quick drink and a cake when we changed drivers. We arrived at about seven twenty – which is much later than we normally try to arrive at places. Luckily, there were a few spaces, so we parked up and ate the rest of the ‘risotto’ from yesterday, once I had warmed it up.

We listened to an Agatha Christie play for a while, and then went to bed.

Wednesday 1^st October

Another misty morning. We left the aire by nine thirty - after another cooked breakfast. We were heading for Cite Europe at Calais to do some alcohol purchasing to take home. The weather stayed misty for quite a while, then the sun came out. We decided to take the toll motorway, as the satnav said that it would save us about 35-40 minutes. However, we stopped at the Baie de Somme Services to empty the tanks, and ended up spending nearly an hour looking around, and in particular, feeding the remains of our rice to some very noisy ducks. It was fun.

We made it to Cite Europe and did a big shop in Carrefour. Lots of other motorhomes there as well. Well loaded with booze (well, the van was), we headed off for an aire at a place named Gravelines – about fifteen miles away down the motorway. The skies opened, and the rain came down quite heavily.

We arrived at about five thirty and took up a position overlooking boats on the river – well, I think it’s a river. Gravelines is at the mouth of the River Aa. It is a fortified city, rebuilt by Vauban – just like St. Martin on the Ile de Re. It is also star shaped. The aire costs six Euros a night in summer, three a night in winter – when I tried to pay at the machine this time however, it told me that I was in a non-paying period, and wouldn’t take money. I didn’t complain too loudly.

A few other motorhomes arrived – mostly British. It had been a long day, so we decided to have showers in the van – very nice. Our water heater works well. We settled down and I cooked some very tough steaks for food – along with mushrooms and French petit pois. Again, we listened to an Agatha Christie story before retiring to bed at about ten o’clock.