I'm writing this in January 2018 - and realise that I have a lot of catching up to do.
2017 went by very quickly - it's true that time seems to speed up as you get older.
We visited a few places in 2017. Starting in January with a trip to Cornwall. We stayed at Padstow, St. Ives and a few other places, ending up staying at the campsite right next to The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Lovely campsite, and a great walk down into Mavagissey.
In February we had a trip to Salla in Lapland for some skiing and winter adventures. Great fun. We did the skiing (though not too much). Reindeer sleigh ride, husky dog sledding, snowmobiling, and had a 'Finnish cultural evening'.
In March we went to West Bay, near Bridport again for a week in the motorhome, and I was back there again with a friend for the Beer Festival in June.
Sunday 27th
August
Left home at about 9.35 am. I drove for about two hours,
then we stopped at Cobham Services – which was amazingly busy – and K took over
the driving. We arrived at what seemed a pretty deserted tunnel terminal about
2.30 pm. We had no sooner stopped when a guy told us we could go straight away.
I drove onto the train and we had a cold drink. K felt a bit sick, so laid down
for the trip across.
It seemed just as fast as ever, and we soon emerged into the
French sunshine. I was uncertain whether to drive down to Pont de L’Arche
straight away, or head somewhere closer. As the trip to Folkestone had been
fairly bad, I decided just to drive the hour and a bit to take us down to the
aire by the beach at Le Crotoy. We arrived to plenty of spaces and a price
increase - it is now seven euros instead
of five, but they have replaced the old borne with a new one.
We walked onto the beach by the bay, but the tide was out
and there was nothing to see for miles, except the bay. We went back to the van
and sat in the sun eating cheese and crisps, and drinking the chilled white
pinot that we had brought with us.
It was getting dark as we got back in the van and I cooked
something to eat. By the time we had cleared away, it was nearly 9.30pm (we had
lost an hour on the crossing). I was really tired – so went to bed. K joined me
about an hour later.
Monday 28th
August
We were awakened by the sound of tractors. Looking out, it
seemed that there were tractors pulling trailers full of men and bicycles (!)
out from the compound opposite the aire. This was about 8am, so we had slept
pretty well. I made breakfast (K had hers in bed), and we dressed before
venturing out to the beach again for a stroll.
A while later we returned and we had coffee and biscuits sat
in the sun whilst deciding where to go next. I had been reading about Giverny –
Monet’s house and garden, which was about two and a half hours drive away. It
was either that, or head down to the Loire –
which we plan to do.
According to Google (which I had looked up in the morning),
Giverny wasn’t open on a Monday, so we decided to go there, and stay on the
free aire which is there overnight, and do the house and garden on Tuesday. We
packed up, empty the tanks and left. The temperature was in the high twenties,
and sunny.
I drove south, we didn’t get lost in Rouen, and we arrived at Giverny at about
2.45pm.
Parking up, we went for a stroll to find the house etc. and
found that it was open after all – but we decided that it may be a little late
to justify the entrance fee, so decided to stick to our plan.
We wandered the ‘village’ of Giverny looking for a shop of
any description to perhaps buy something – like wine, beer, water – all of
which we were low on. One small boulangerie / cafe provided us with ice creams
– but there was no sign of anything else. The water situation is fairly bad –
we have lots in the tank, but we usually don’t drink that – we have a separate
ten litre bottle that we fill with fresh drinking water when we can. There are
no facilities at Giverny aire. We had about a third of the pinot left, and half
a bottle of my fizzy water, plus enough ‘fresh’ water for about four cups of
tea. Tough times. The temperature was also over thirty now.
We sat outside the van, in the shade, listening to the
fridges automatic fan turn itself on and off as it tried to cope with the heat
– it was running on gas. A nice cool biere would be good – but no…..
We sat for a while, then went inside and had salad – K had
some sausages with hers – previously cooked, I made an omelette for myself. We
shared the pinot, finished off the fizzy water, then sat as it got dark – K
listening to her stories and sewing, me playing a silly mystery game on the
fire tablet. When it was really dark, about ten thirty, we went to bed.
Tuesday 29th
August
I awoke with a cracking headache at about 7.45am, after a
restless nights sleep. It was very hot. I made some tea, and looked at an
atlas. Then an aires book. Then the ASCI book, and tried to run their app on my
phone – to no avail – I hadn’t paid for this year. Went the web site, bought
this years subscription, signed into the app, only to find it wanted to
download a shedload of stuff on wifi. Closed the app and made breakfast.
Used the last of the milk. Sat about and looked at the books
etc. again. Still not certain where we are going next, but K favours the
chateaux of the river Loir (without the ‘e’).
I have found several aires in the area, but depends on what time we get away
from Giverny.
About ten we goggle at the fourteen (yes, fourteen), coaches that have
appeared from nowhere to disgorge their tourists. Anyway: We walk to Monet’s
house and garden. It’s very nice. We bought the combined ticket, which meant
that we could also visit the museum of impressionism.
After the garden we
stopped for a coffee and a piece of quiche. Nice. Then we walked a bit more.
The museum wasn’t what I thought. I expected a more general gaggle of
impressionists on show – but it was mainly the work of one guy, Manguin,
and another small exhibit of about eight others inspired by Monet. Compared to
the 9.50 Euros that we had paid for the house and garden, the 7 Euros for the
museum wasn’t worth it.
We made it back to the van about two. Had a light lunch,
packed up, and headed off south. It was very hot – about 34 in the van. I made
a right pig’s ear of programming the sat nav – not really knowing where we were
going. We started by trying to visit a nearby Lidl – which didn’t exist
anymore. Good start. Then I put the coords for an aire in, and off we went. The
damn sat nav tried to take us down every narrow road going!!! I got very
annoyed with it. Tried Google map directions – not much better. We went all
round the houses. Took us hours. To add to our woes, we had a stone chip hit the
windscreen – on this screen which is less than a year old. Left a nasty little
chip. However we did find an InterMarche, and did some shopping and filled up
on fuel, so that wasn’t so bad.
After many hot miles, we pulled in to an aire in Marbot,
next to the Loir, and emptied the tanks. More
importantly, we filled up with water – so are self sufficient again. Quite a
nice view across a park from the aire, it’s quiet, and not busy. I cooked pasta
for food, and we both had hot showers – ah! Bloody fridge fan keeps coming on –
so I turned it off until later when the temperature drops a bit. Currently
writing this on the laptop, battery failing, in a dark van, listening to
classical music playing quietly in the background.
Wednesday 30th
August
Awake again about eight. Nice quiet night – but it was very
hot. I had to turn the fridge off because the fan heater kept coming on. After
breakfast we went for stroll by the river Loir
– nice and calm. We packed up and decided that we would head to Chateaudun –
just 12 minutes down the road.
After one error in direction – my fault – we parked on a
nice aire just below the chateau, and walked up 200 steps to reach the entrance
to the chateau. There were very few people about. The chateau is vast. We spent
nearly two hours having a good look around – very interesting, and everything
on a grand scale. The upkeep must be enormous. It also has what was the first
‘hanging garden’ in France.
Great views from the terraces over the river and valley below. There seem to be
many properties in need of repair in Chateaudun – but it all adds to the
medieval feel. We returned to the van and had lunch. The aire was filling up
with vans all stopping for lunch also.
Off to Vendome – about half an hour away. Again we parked on
an area which was designated parking for camping cars, and walked the few
minutes it took to reach the cathedral – what a big place that was. Spent a
while exploring the cathedral and its environs, before wandering into central
Vendome and the shopping areas. Lots of estate agents present – then we
realised that it was probably because the area was fairly easily reachable from
Paris by TGV.
We stopped for coffee, and were sitting outside the café
when the rain started – then it got harder – we moved inside the café – then it
became torrential! Water was deep in the street, people were running for cover.
Thunder and lightning – the whole works. We waited. Then waited some more. The
coffee was long gone. Eventually it went off a bit, so we donned our macs and
made it back to the van.
K wanted to do the trail along the Loir
valley – so we headed for an aire at Les Roches de Leveque – which is right by
the river – lovely spot. It had been raining a lot – so when we parked up we
tried several hard bits – didn’t want to park on the grass. So we ended up
under some trees in front of disused facilities. Sounds much worse than it was
– a great spot – though I had to turn the van around before K was finally
happy. We went for a long walk up to the ‘Troglodyte’ cave houses that abound
in this area, and then through the village. Quite sad really, because many of
the properties are quite run-down, and there are a lot up for sale. Back in the
van we ate and sat around. K was listening to her audiobook and sewing. I was
playing a silly mystery puzzle game on my tablet. Then we went to bed and had a
very quiet night.
Thursday 31st
August
We awoke fairly late, and I filled the van with water (not
literally – the tank!), and emptied the loo. The water was free – and, oddly,
slightly warm….
K wanted to do the tourist route of the Loir,
so we headed off. First stop was to be Troo. It didn’t take long, and I parked
in a car park at the foot of yet more steps up the hill. Off we went, and found
the first of the ‘cave houses’ – which we paid a small fee to enter and
explore. It had been kept pretty much as it was in the 1930-40’s – with several
interconnecting small cave rooms furnished as of the era. Good views over the
valley and river.
Leaving the house, up and up we went to the church and the ‘Butte’ at the top. We
found the ‘Well that Speaks’ – amazing echoes. We looked in the – very large –
church, and wondered where all the parishioners would come from to fill it. We
marvelled at the quiet. It was so quiet. Wandering back, we collected some
roadside hollyhock seeds. And so, down the hill again – kind of a chalk
cliff-face really, with many dwellings, some very posh and cared for, some not
so, some derelict. The odd hole in the wall also present.
Back at the van we got some bread, cheese and water together
(K also had saucisson), and sat on a bench in the sun next to the river to eat
it. Into the van, after feeding baguette to some fish, and away.
We were heading to Le Lude – I had marked an aire there to
have a look at. We passed through many lovely villages on the way, but didn’t
stop again. We arrived at Le Lude and found that the ‘aire’ was just a car
park, so we wandered around for a bit, found that impressive chateau – and it
is – then decided to try and find a nicer spot to stay the night. We had coffee
in the van whilst perusing possibilities, then settled on ‘Gizeux’, which
sounded promising, and was about 35 minutes away.
Well, ‘promising’ didn’t do it justice. What a lovely aire!
Only five spaces, but three were free, so we picked one and settled down for
the night. It was better than a lot of the camp sites that we have stayed at.
Large, hardstanding, hedged parking areas. A nice toilet close by. Away from
the road and really quiet. Great. I washed K’s hair and we both showered. Then
I cooked a variation on ratatouille, we listened to BlackAdder and drank some
wine. I put some washing in a bucket to soak overnight – K is running out of
knickers. K retired to her ‘nest’ in the corner of the bed whilst I finished
the puzzle on the tablet. Off to sleep by ten.
Friday 1st
September
Very quiet night. We both slept well. Woken by distant
church bells about eight. We breakfasted, I rinsed and hung out the washing on
our portable line and then we wandered off to explore the local area. Found the
chateau – so many of them in this area. This was still privately owned and
lived in, but you could visit. The sun was out as we wandered and looked at all
the property for sale – discussing whether we could live in France, and
deciding that we could. We collected more seeds from flowers that we found.
Walked down a small street away from the road and paused to listen to the
silence – and I mean silence.
Back to the van and decide to sit in the sun, but the sky looked threatening and soon we had a thunderstorm with lots of rain. I put the awning out to shelter the washing – but it was too much, and we had to bring it inside. Looking like a Chinese laundry, we settled down for the night. I used the inverter that I have installed in the van to charge the laptop battery for half an hour – that lets me carry on typing. For food I cooked pasta with pesto and tuna, with a green salad. It went down well. K retired to her nest whilst I tried a few new things on my tablet. Needless to say, everyday about half an hour is spent writing this log of events, I just don’t normally add it.
The temperature was dropping as we retired, and it was a
very chilly night. We both had hot water bottles, but even then it was cold.
Saturday 2nd
September
We were woken at seven by the local bells going crazy – I
wondered if it was a flood alert or something – it was that frantic. After a
loo visit each, we cuddled up and went back to sleep until about nine. I made
breakfast and then we made ready, emptied the tanks and filled up with water. We
decided to visit Saumur – specifically the Ackerman Caves- to let K stock up on
fizzy again. This accomplished we had coffee, and looked at the possibility of
going further south. The time was getting on, and I decided that we would stay
on a local aire for the night, then head south in the morning. I was again
using the inverter to charge the laptop battery – this time as we drove, so the
battery drain was not great.
We drove along the Loire and tried one aire – but it was
full, so continued to Chouze sur Loire, where
the aire had places. A basic aire, but with a service point, and quite close to
the river. There is a small supermarket opposite. The only problem may be that
I parked quite close to an electricity sub station – I could vaguely hear the
hum, which means that K will definitely be able to. We had some lunch, then
wandered out along the river to see what we could find. It is a lovely spot,
and used to be busy when the Loire was
navigable to this point. Then the railways came, and the port became less used.
There are some good walks along the riverside, and the Maritime
Museum there provides lots of
information about the town, and also offers boat rides on the Loire.
We wandered on and found some fruit trees where a lady was
picking up yellow plums. We did the same, and some apples as well, and took
them back to the van. We changed and returned to sit by the river to read.
After about an hour and a half we went back for food. I cooked sausages (mine
were veggie), eggs, potatoes and baked beans. Not that healthy, but tasty
nonetheless. We have to decide what to do with the plums and apples. I am
taking some plum stones home to see if I can grow them. I had a shower whilst K
sat in the sun doing her puzzles. The aim is to head south tomorrow, perhaps to
the Ile de Re.
Sunday 3rd
September
Woke up at about five am to go to the loo. Then again a bit
later. Then again a bit later still…. I blame the plums that I ate the previous
night. Bit of a sore tum. The weather wasn’t promising, so we decided to head
south to the Ile de Re, to a campsite that we have used before – Camping Les
Amis de la Plage. It’s right on the beach.
After breakfast, and a little trip to the shop to buy some
milk and bread, I emptied the tanks and the loo, and we set off. I had taken some loperamide and some
paracetamol to help the tum. After a while, when we hit some straighter roads,
K took over driving. She needed straighter roads as she was suffering a bit
with vertigo (what old crocks we are), and likes not to have to move her head
around too much. She drove for about an hour or so, and then we stopped at a
service to have a break and a coffee. We found some gluten free madeleines, so
K was more than happy.
I filled up with diesel and drove the rest of the way,
paying our sixteen euros to cross the bridge to the island (sure it was twelve
last time we were here). We found the campsite at the second attempt – thanks
to the sat nav, who, by the way was trying to take ‘short cuts’ all the way to
the island. I’m going to change its settings, I think. We chose our spot, I
signed in, and we set up. The ground was sandy and on a bit of a slope, so I
used the new wheel supports. I put up the awning, trying to knock pegs into the
very solid (for some strange reason – tree roots, perhaps), ground. We went for
a quick walk to the beach – literally two minutes away, then came back for a
bite to eat.
Having eaten our snack, we walked around the rest of the
site, and out into the surroundings. Not much here. There is an aire owned by
the campsite next door, and it charges 12.95 a night. Seeing that we are paying
17 a night including toilets, showers and other facilities (if we want them),
it seems a bit steep. We think that we are going to be here for four nights.
Mind you, if it keeps raining……
We sat around again – me typing up this log, K sewing and
listening to her stories. I would like to be on the beach, but it keeps
spitting with rain, and the temperature is hovering around twenty degrees. I’m
hoping for better tomorrow. I am off to test the showers in a bit, then time to
think about food again. Oh, it’s just started raining in earnest.
Monday 4th
September
I played a bit of ‘Unreal Tournament, Game of the Year
Edition’ on my laptop, then watched ‘Paul’ on my tablet before getting to bed
at about ten thirty. How technological we have become. It was raining. It
rained most of the night and, being under trees, we had big spots of rain and
other stuff landing on the van all night. Bit restless. Could hear the sea –
which was fine. Otherwise it would be quiet on this site. The awning is now
covered in bits of tree. The chairs and table that we left outside seem to not
be wet, though.
Woke once to go to the loo about six thirty, then finally
woke about eight. No church bells here. Quite a few dogs though. We have
concluded that we are unusual in that we don’t have a dog. It seems the nearly
everyone here has at least one. This is something that we have noticed
elsewhere in our travels. Not always age related, but certainly if you are our
age, and have a motorhome, you have a dog or two. The couple that were trying
to be full timers that K spoke to on the nice aire at Gizeux had two dogs. A
basset hound, and one meaty thing that looked a bit like a pitbull. Lots of
dogs – not all foreign owners are as good at picking up their animals
‘deposits’ as most people are in the UK. Watch your step.
Up and breakfasted we prepared for the beach, and then
walked the great distance to find our spot (took about five minutes, max). The
weather was ‘changeable’. One minute brilliant sunshine. Then heavy cloud. Then
a spattering of rain. Repeat. All day. It is a really nice beach, with lots of
room and fine sand. Although there were quite a few people there, it wasn’t at
all crowded.
I went back to the van to get a thermos of coffee at one
point. Then we went back for lunch. We returned to the beach for another hour
or so, eventually getting back to the van about four thirty. I found a shower
that was hot, and lasted a while – unlike yesterdays, so luxuriated in it for
quite a while. Then returned and told K about it, so she went and did the same
whilst I put up a washing line and rinsed out a few things.
I found the avocadoes that we bought last week and we had
them for a starter, with a mayonnaise sauce that I knocked up, and a glass of
the cheap fizzy that we had got in Lidl. It was fine. Then I cooked a ‘mung up’
to use a good Bristolian phrase, for the main. Basically a load of sautéed
vegetables. K had some sliced pork with hers, I bound mine with an egg. I
thought that it was tasty. After washing up I did a few treks to and fro to the
water tap to give us more supplies. Then sat down with another glass of wine to
write this.
Now we have electric again, we are charging stuff on a
regular basis from the mains – something that you take for granted at home.
Also we have wifi on this site, but it seems that you have to pay for it – so
we haven’t bothered. What we can do with our phones suffices. For our needs,
being on a site is a bit much really. We can make do with a good aire. In fact,
showers excepted, we have stayed on nicer aires than quite a few of the camp
sites that we have found. If you want entertainment, swimming pools etc. then
sites are a good idea, but our needs are minimal. Most times we just want a
fairly secure place to overnight. Our van shower is very good. I suppose at
some point that we will run out of gas for the fridge and heating water when
we’re not on sites, but it’s holding up well so far. If we were touring lots more
on the continent I would get a ‘continental’ gas bottle as well as our Calor
ones, or change to a rechargeable system like Gaslow.
Tuesday 5th
September
We didn’t have a great night’s sleep – I was restless, K was
too, and we both got up to go to the loo. We awoke quite late, and realise that
we both were suffering from a bit of sunburn. Obviously the weather the day
before hadn’t been cloudy enough to stop the UV rays from getting through. Now
we were a bit tender in various parts. Not sure if it was that, or something
else as well, but I felt a bit under the weather. We lounged about, neither
feeling like doing much. Took a while even to get out of bed. I did some pancakes for ‘brunch’ – they worked
out well. The weather did not seem great – bit sunny in part, mostly cloudy.
About mid-afternoon we headed off to the beach again, this
time with sun cream on. The tide was almost fully in, and it was fun watching
the people fighting with the water as they braved the sea. It’s a good beach –
very long and sandy, without seaweed or lots of obstructions to stop you
getting into the water. It’s still the Atlantic,
though, so tends to be cold, unlike the med at this time of year.
I was hoping for better weather than this. We are nearly
half way down France, so I
thought it would be warmer than the UK. Looking at the weather
forecasts though, back in blighty they are basically having the same weather as
we are. We sat on the beach until nearly five, then returned to the van. I did
a bit more washing and then we went off for showers. Me first. We had hot ones
again, and K washed her hair. As I was preparing food, it started to rain
again, so K got wet as she returned to the van. I prepared pesto pasta, avocado
with tuna in seafood sauce and salad. For dessert we finished off the stewed
apples with custard.
I was still feeling a bit wan, and my operation scar is
playing me up a bit, so climbed into bed with a hot water bottle about eight
thirty, and we watched some episodes of ‘Castle’ that I have on my laptop. Comforting
somehow – we’ve seen them all before, and it was series that we both enjoyed –
not too serious, with reasonable plots and interesting characters. That was
until the last series, when it all went weird. Like many American series I
think they tried to eke it out too long. It’s better that they have an (proper)
ending. Turned the light off about ten thirty, and I continued listening to my
Charles Paris stories, read by the author, Simon Brett. I’m working my way
through the audiobooks.
Wednesday 6th
September
Slept OK until about five thirty, then that was it for me.
Laid there for ages. Listened to another story chapter, tried to be quiet.
Eventually dropped off at about seven thirty. Woke again at nine. Up to make
breakfast. The weather was cloudy. I think the forecast is cloudy all day.
We got the bikes down and made ready. I did a packed lunch.
We thought we would head towards Ars en Re, and see how far we got. I had my
knee brace on, K had her new battery in her bike. I was going to see how mine went.
I left my sunglasses behind, and didn’t realise for about ten minutes. We
noticed two things, and remembered one thing. The first thing we noticed was
how many people there were riding bikes! Many more than the last time we were
here. There were couples like us, racing bikes, whole groups on hired bikes,
people with children carriers, dog carriers, children and dog carriers, even a
tandem or two. The second thing was the number of electric bikes. It seemed
that every third bike that passed us was electric – sometimes more. When we
were here last in 2014, we were unusual in having electric bikes. No mare, it
seems. The thing we remembered was how easy it is to get lost, even with a map.
I recall that last time I resorted to taking the sat nav with us so that we
could get about. Even with a map it wasn’t easy.
We decided to go to Loix – not having been there. After a
while we arrived – it was getting on for one o’clock – we decided to stop and
have some lunch in a restaurant in the village centre. We found a table, the
waitress asked if we wanted to eat, I said yes, if possible. She said of
course, I’ll bring you some menus. We got the menus, decided on what we wanted,
and waited. The place was VERY busy – like I said, all those people. We waited.
I closed the menus, and tried to catch the waitress’ eye. We waited. After
about 10-15 minutes K said “Shall we go?” We went.
Back on the bikes we rode for a while and then stopped and
pulled up next to a bench overlooking the sea at Le Martray. Quite a nice spot
– again, with a lot of people about. We ate the packed lunch that I had
prepared, and had a rest. We realised that not having been on the bikes for a
long time, then trying a major outing may not have been a good idea. We were
stiffening up nicely, and my knee was starting to twang, despite the brace. We
decided to press on for Ars en Re. Crossing the very busy road to reach the
cycle track we passed the place where we had ice creams when we were here last
– it was closed. We were cycling into the wind blowing across the salt pans,
and ir was a bit hard going. We could see the distinctive church steeple in the
distance – it’s half black, half white and pointy, but we had covered enough
ground for this trip and decided it was time to turn around.
We had cycled all the way to the turn around point. Now we
decided to use the batteries to get us back. Whizzy, whizzy we went. A couple
of wrong turns, the occasional back alley and we were at the campsite again. It
was gone four thirty and we were tired. We put the bikes away. I tried to sweep
the bits of tree off of the awning the best I could, and put that away. Then I
went to have a long hot shower.
Feeling a bit better, I cooked a chick pea korma with boiled
eggs, and rice with petit pois. We ate whilst listening to the last Blackadder
episode, where they all go over the top. Sad one that. I enjoyed sitting in bed
and watching a ‘Castle’ last night – may do the same today.
As I write this the sound of women cackling with laughter is
bouncing around the camp. Two older British couples, old enough to know better,
are making quite a lot of noise two vans up from us. I suspect a bit too much
booze. In contrast, everyone else within range – non British – are quietly
sitting outside their vans, or talking quietly in groups, or quietly eating
their evening meal. Notice that – ‘Quietly’. Ho hum…..
Thursday 7th
September
The weather was overcast next day as we packed up to go. I
went to pay, then we started off at about eleven and made our way back over the
bridge and drove for a couple of hours to a place named ‘Vihiers’, where we had
found a reasonable sounding aire in the aires guide. As it turned out, it was
right next to a church – but the bells weren’t ringing too much.
We parked up and walked the 200 metres or so into the town
centre, avoiding the swifts that were flying up and down the street next to the
church nearly at ground level. A typical market town, with the town hall
overlooking the main square, which was also used for car parking. Quite a lot
of restaurants, but nothing that really took our fancy. We ended up back in the
van for another quiet night in.
Friday 8th
September
We were off again about ten, and still heading north.
Looking in the guide book we decided to make a stop for lunch at Brissac-Quince,
and may be visit the chateau there – the ‘tallest chateau in France’. We
easily found the car park – with a designated camping car area – useful. It was
possible to stay overnight for a fee if you wished, and there were toilets and
fresh water – all good.
We parked up and went to find the chateau. Ahh – just
shutting up for lunch. Open again at two. Oh well, a good walk around the town,
trying to find a good viewpoint of the chateau from outside the fence and
failing. It is a very pretty place, though. We decided that we couldn’t wait
two hours for the place to open – besides it was ten euros each to get in – and
we had seen a few chateaux….
After a quick lunch in the van we headed off back towards
Saumur, thinking that perhaps we would stay at the campsite on the Isle D’Offard
again – but no, we kept going along the river. We stopped at the Aire de
Camping Car Saumur – Dampierre sur Loire, but
it was very shady – would have been good in very hot weather. We moved on. Next
up was the Aire Camping Cars de Turquant – which, it seemed were close to some
Troglodyte caves. No spaces. We carried on and crossed the Loire
via a metal bridge that only seemed just big enough for the van – hoping that
we didn’t meet something big coming the other way!
OK – we ended up back at the Gizeux aire again. It was
spacious, well equipped, quiet and free. We liked it a lot. There were posters
up advertising a ‘Marche Gourmand’ and ‘Animation Musicale’ for the following
evening – we looked forward to seeing what happened.
Saturday 9th
September
A really quiet day sitting around, reading. A little amble
around during the afternoon. The weather was still overcast, but it wasn’t
raining. All day, the car park next to the aire was a hive of activity. Stalls
were being set up, and a small stage area within a tent. There were food
stalls, drink stalls, stalls with bric a brac and so on. As evening fell the
music started and the place came alive with locals. We wondered what the
‘Soiree Fouees’ was going to be. I now know, thanks to Wikipedia that they are:
‘‘Fouée, also known as fouace is a round, airy bread from the western France. It
looks somewhat similar to pitta. It is served with pork rillettes, salted
butter and mogettes’. And they were – cooked fresh on the spot.
The music was good, the food and drink was cheap – K had
some local cider. Even the local Police turned up to join in – a good time was
had by all. It quietened down about 10.30, and by 11.30 all was quiet again. We
had retired to the van long before then, and had a very quiet night’s sleep.
Sunday 10th
September
Today we did nothing to speak of except sit in or around the
van. A very relaxing day.
Monday 11th
September
After a slow start to the day we set off heading north
again. We were working our way back to the coast now, and after driving past Le Mans, we stopped at an
aire in a small town named Broglie. The aire was within what used to be the
railway station area for the town.
We went for quite a long walk around the
town and as we arrived back at the van a local official was collecting the
nightly fee of five euros per van. Seems like good value to me. The spaces were
all hard standing and demarcated by trees. It was a very quiet spot with the
external gates locked at night.
We had a hot meal and settled down for the night, watching
more episodes of ‘Castle’ on the laptop – which I charge up with the inverter
whilst we travel around. We’ve seen them all before at least once….
Tuesday 12th
September
We left about twelve and continued north, stopping for lunch
at the Baie de Somme Services – and to feed the ducks! After this we drove to Montreuil sur Mer – which
is a fortified town not too far from Le Touquet. It’s not actually on the coast
– so the name is a bit odd. We stayed overnight in a free aire in this town. We
grabbed the last spot – on grass covered pavers forming hardstanding. The aire
is quite close to the centre of town, and a short walk from the massive wall
which surrounds the town.
We explored for a few hours, walking around the wall
and through the old parts of the town.
The aire is next to a large car/bus park where the college
buses pick up and drop off students for the local college. There are lots of
students. The town seems very lively, with lots going on. We were hoping to get
a look inside the ‘castle’ which forms part of the city wall, but arrived a bit
too late. It was getting dark as we returned to the van for the evening to have
our meal and settle in for the night.
Wednesday 13th
September
Late morning we made our way up to Coquelles and the
supermarkets to buy some things to take back with us. Mostly it was Carrefour.
We thought that by doing this the day before we went back would be a good idea,
rather than trying to do it on the day and buying in a bit of a panic as we
have done before.
By the time we had a good shop, packed the stuff into the
van and had lunch it was mid-afternoon before we arrived at the aire in
Gravelines. It was pouring with rain again, so we didn’t do much when we got
there except sit about listening to stories and reading.
Thursday 14th
September
The weather was better in the morning so we went for a walk
into Gravelines – another fortified town designed by Vauban. We went through
the centre and again along the walls, looking down at the moat that surrounds
the town. It all looks very attractive now, but you can easily see how the town
could hold out well against attackers.
After a coffee back in the van we made our way to Calais again and, after a while, on to the train back to England.
We decided to take advantage of being in the East of
England, and so spent a few days travelling around the south coast before
arriving home on the 17th September.
That was the - rather detailed - account of the trip to France. The weather wasn't great and it seemed like a lot of work driving this time for some reason - mainly, I suppose, because K couldn't really drive that much because of her ear problem.
