The last few days.

Saturday 18th July. Le Crotoy 50.21868 1.63395

Parked up this afternoon on a massive Camping Car parking area next to the harbour at Le Crotoy in Normandy. There must be space for a couple of hundred vans here, it's almost full and there is another parking area on the other side of town as well. It's not the most elegant of parking areas but like Honfleur a few days ago we really appreciate the fact that there are parking and water and waste facilities here on such a large scale. It's €6/24 hrs which we consider reasonable. It's a shame there aren't comparable facilities in the UK. The weather is glorious today and we've been for a walk around the pretty town which has plenty of seafood restaurants and shops and stalls selling fresh fish and seafood. The other side of the harbour also has a long soft sandy beach which is spotlessly clean and it's nice to see a beach without hundreds of loungers and umbrellas.

Yesterday we stopped at Dieppe 49.93136 1.08680 at the newly refurbished Aire next to the ferry port. We arrived at just after 2pm and managed to get the last parking place! The entry is barrier controlled and folk were parked up outside waiting for people to leave before they could enter. We've stopped at Dieppe before and find it reminds us of Whitby which it certainly did yesterday as it was cold and raining. Nevertheless we went for a walk around town in the evening and got suitably drenched. We walked past another camping car park on the other side of the harbour and that was full also. There must have been at least a couple of hundred vans parked up last night. This coastline certainly gets busy in the summer months.

It's nearly the end of this trip now, tomorrow we will stop overnight about 50 miles up the road at Wissant (if the car park isn't full!) we take the tunnel on Monday morning and after a couple of stops in England arrive home next Wednesday. We left home on the 25th March and we've travelled just over 6,000 miles to date and stopped overnight at 75 different locations in France, Italy and Greece. We've taken 4 ferry crossings and tried, whenever possible to avoid motorways and tolls but not always successfully. We've met some lovely people, especially in Greece and Crete, enjoyed some beautiful weather, seen some amazing sights and eaten some delicious food. When we get home I'll try and post a blog with more details of the trip for those folk who like details. Meanwhile if anyone reading this would like the route of the trip and the places we stopped at with descriptions, if you leave your email address in the comments section I'll forward the info to you in kml/kmz format which you can open with Google Earth or Maps.me.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this for the last few months, especially you folk who left comments. We'll be back on the road again late August or early September until then........ Ta ta,

Pat & Phil

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Broglie and Honfleur

Thursday 16th July. Honfleur 49.41902 0.24089

We are parked up this evening at the Normandy sea harbour at Honfleur at the mouth of the Seine with Le Havre on the other side of the estuary. It's a beautiful town with lots of narrow streets and timbered buildings. The Aire we are on is massive and although it says there is space for 100 motorhomes I reckon they would accommodate nearly double that number. It's not the prettiest of parking places but all credit to the town for providing so much parking space exclusively for the likes of us. We arrived at midday and found ourselves a nice little pitch with electric hook up and then set off to explore the town. Obviously it's full of tourists (like us) but that makes for a nice, busy atmosphere. We stopped for lunch at a quayside restaurant and had a delicious meal and then set off to visit the church of Saint Catherine. The church is unusual in that it is constructed entirely of wood and has two naves. Constructed in the late C15th the roof resembles two upturned boat hulls which is not surprising as it was constructed by ship builders using their techniques and timber from the nearby forests. A unique church that is well worth a visit.

The twin naves of St Catherine's church.

 

It's been scorching hot again today so we retired back to the van (which was like an oven) for the remainder of the afternoon before setting off this evening to explore more of the town. We stopped for refreshment in a little bar away from the tourist route and noticed that the display at the Pharmacy next door was showing 33deg. At 7.30pm!! In addition to hundreds of restaurants and shops selling cider (yes, I bought a couple of bottles) there are loads of art galleries and studios. Those with air conditioning drew us in and we gazed intently at the art on display whilst studiously stroking our chins before thanking the proprietors and moving on the next cool establishment.

It's surprising how a menu can give you an appetite and despite a three course lunch we were enticed into a small bistro where we enjoyed another delicious meal. Obviously sea food is a speciality here and between us over two meals if it can swim or crawl in the sea we've eaten it, just about. A paradise for sea food lovers like us. The stroll back to the van took us past the big wheel which dominates the area and whilst it was too hot this afternoon we thought we'd give it a try this evening. I'm not one for heights but it was great fun until Phil, with a gleam in her eye, tried to rock our chair from side to side!

View from the big wheel.

Last night we stopped at Broglie 49.00668 0.53056 which is a lovely village and which had the quietest, most peaceful Aire we've ever stopped in. Beautifully laid out with big pitches and plenty of green space to sit out in. A river next to the site and a cycle track through woodland which I hurtled down one way for five miles or so and crawled back on the return trip!

No fishing for the last couple of days despite our proximity to water but I hope to rectify that tomorrow when we stop at Dieppe.

Pat

 

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French fish don't like French cheese

Tuesday 14th July La Suze-sur-Sarthe 47.88907 0.030634.

We've spent the last weekend with our friends Chris & Jenny who have a lovely house in Fosse Bellay a few miles south of Saumur. They were perfect hosts and took us on tours of the local area, fed and watered us and I even got a few games of table tennis in with Chris in their beautiful garden. A great weekend.

Today we set off on our slow journey toward Calais where we will take the tunnel on Monday (boo hoo), but all good things come to an end although we have a visit to see Paul and Chris near Northampton on our way home to look forward to. Both couples we've met as a result of motorhoming and it's always good fun when we catch up with them again.

This evening we're parked up at La Suze-sur-Sarthe. We've stopped here a couple of times before and it's a lovely spot, on the river and a minutes walk into town. It's a popular picnic spot and a French lady enjoying her al fresco lunch today told me that there are carp in the river. Well, I didn't need much encouragement and I soon had my tackle out (edit: fishing tackle). The only bait I had was some very nice Comte cheese which, unfortunately, wasn't to the liking of the local fish but it was pleasant enough to sit watching the float for a few hours.

 

Pat

 

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Montpeyroux to Chateau de Nitray

Friday 10th July. Chateau de Nitray 47.34092 0.89318

A pleasant few days enjoying the French countryside. Our first stop after Montpeyroux was the town of Saint-Armand-Montrond. There are two Motorhome stopping places there, both with services and both free. We looked first at a stop on the edge of town next to the canal 46.71824 2.50420, Phil wasn't to keen on this one although it suited me as I could have fished from the van door! We drove through town to the second, much larger site 46.73465 2.48685 close to a lake and opposite an Intermarche hypermarket and that's where we stayed. There were about fifteen vans on the site, which could probably take fifty or more but we were the only UK van. We knew that we wouldn't see so many UK folk in Greece but expected to see more in France but we haven't shared a parking space with anyone from home since we left Greece. We've passed a few vans on the road but that's been it. We like to meet folk from home, it's good to swap stories and places to stay. Even some Dutch or German folk would be good (they nearly all speak English) but they are a bit thin on the ground too at the moment.

Last night we stopped on a France Passion site but not a vineyard. We found one in the guide that produced and sold honey and associated products in the village of Chezelles. We had a beautiful parking place 46.89095 1.57649 in a small grassy copse with a stream running past just opposite the honey "factory". We should have known that the honey wouldn't be inexpensive from the fountain, garden furniture and landscaping surrounding the huge house and we weren't wrong. We have honey every morning for breakfast with yoghurt so we get through a fair bit and we are always on the lookout for roadside honey stalls. Buying yesterday in an up market honey shop wasn't cheap, probably twice as much as we are used to paying but the parking was free so we're not really complaining.

For the last couple of days we've been driving through agricultural farm land with wheat, corn and oats for mile upon mile, interspersed with forests. We've been on D roads mainly and as the wheat is being harvested we've had to watch out for agricultural machinery and been held up a few times and squeezed past a few on narrow lanes. Lots of fields of sunflowers too which always smile at us as we drive past and we smile back in return. We've had some respite from the heat over the last couple of days which was a relief but the temperature is back to the mid thirties again today and the fridge is struggling to keep the beer cold! Our friends, Chris and Jenny, who we are stopping with this coming weekend have a massive inflatable pool in their garden and I'm hoping they've got it filled with cool water.

Today we are at another France Passion site, Chateau de Nitray, a vineyard, about fifteen kilometres west of Amboise. It's a magnificent Chateau dating from the 15th & 16th centuries and we've just paid €5 euros each and taken the tour which, after we had paid, we were advised doesn't include the actual Chateau! But the chapel, stables, pigeon coop and cellars were very interesting, as was the vegetable garden which had a few onions, courgettes and tomatoes growing within and is clearly in need of a gardener. Of course, the best part is always the wine tasting and we didn't need any persuading to buy half a dozen bottles of delicious rosé for the equivalent of £3.33 a bottle.

Pat

 

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Saint Etienne and Montpeyroux.

Tuesday 7th July Montpeyroux. 45.62455 3.20106.

We've spent a lovely few days with our daughter and her family in Saint Etienne and, miracle of miracles, we managed to park just opposite her house and drive away without causing any damage to the van. The last two occasions we've visited have resulted in a new window (first visit) and bodywork repairs (second visit) to the van and a dislocated pier cap to my daughter's house and a bent bollard. No such problems this time though, we arrived and left unscathed. Our daughter went to France for a holiday 27 years ago and forgot to come back and sometimes quite a long time would go by without us seeing her but with the Motorhome that's all changed. One of the benefits of retirement and being able to travel wherever and whenever we want to.

We left the UK on this trip on the 25th March, obviously looking forward to some warm weather as we drove south toward Greece. Generally the weather has been kind to us; we've had some rain and a few storms but it's been ok over the last few months, especially the last month or so in Greece. But the last fortnight has been unbearably hot. Daytime temperatures have hovered just below the 40deg C mark and for the last week or so they haven't dropped much at night either. As we drove up the A75 today the overhead signs on the gantry were advising drivers to stay hydrated during the heatwave, that's how hot it is.

We needed a supermarket today as we had emptied the fridge at our daughters house so needed some fresh food and vegetables. Although we mostly took the back roads today we didn't think we would have much trouble finding somewhere but we were wrong. Not to worry we thought, we'll pick up a few things in Montpeyroux and we walked down and then up to the village in the blazing heat to find........nothing. Montpeyroux is one of those living museums which seem to exist just for tourists. It's pretty enough but unless you want some overpriced local produce or an expensive meal there's not much else to spend your money on. Hunger drove us back down the motorway to the nearest Lidl, some 10km South and having stocked up we returned to the car park here. This is all you'll want to know about Montpeyroux.

Oh yes, and there's a petting farm next to the car park. Err, no, me neither. Especially in this heat eh?

Pat.

 

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Road songs.

Thursday 2nd July. Tournon-sur-Rhone 45.07336 4.82161.

There have been many, many songs written about roads in the history of popular music. I won't start listing them, there are thousands. Some deal with lonesome roads, some with particular roads and there probably isn't a successful musical artist over the last 70 years who hasn't sung a song about roads. But I defy the best songwriters to write a song about our journey today. We've travelled 140 miles and we've been in the van for 8 hours. More of this later.

We spent last night in the Italian town of Susa, a few miles from the French border 45.13856 7.05313. A lovely medieaval town with lots of courtyards and alleyways to explore. As we wandered about we noticed that many folk were carrying bottles, or several bottles, of Pastis or spirits and saw quite a few shops selling wine and aperitifs. Curiosity got the better of us and we popped into one of the larger shops and were amazed by the prices which were much lower than anywhere we had seen in Europe. Not being greedy we settled for a bottle of Pastis and a bottle of proseco but we have no idea why they were so cheap.

Today the plan was to drive to where we are now avoiding the motorways and the route: Susa - Briancon - Grenoble - Romans-sur-Isere and finally Tournon looked pretty scenic. So we set the Sat Navs and within 10 minutes missed a turn and found ourselves on the motorway. A couple of expletives later we realised that we could come off at the next junction but the motorway was so scenic we decided to pay the tolls, save some time and just carry on. We arrived at the services at Bardonecchia to buy some croissant (no luck) and those of you who have travelled this road will know what's coming. As you leave the services you immediately enter the toll booths for the Tunnel du Frejus, we pulled up at the booth and the price came up on the board, €58.60. I explained that I didn't want a weekly pass and when I was informed that was the price for one journey I asked how we could turn round. A weary sigh from the toll booth operative, a quick squawk on the two way radio and someone eventually came to escort us back onto the south bound lane. The drivers of the vehicles queuing behind us were very patient.

So, back to plan A. Off the motorway and we headed for Briancon passing through some beautiful countryside, the village of Ouix and got halted at every level crossing as trains passed. The village of Cesana Torinese is lovely but it's a steep climb out and on the first hairpin bend the fridge door flew open depositing cheese, yoghurt and tomato sauce all over the floor. An unscheduled stop in a lay by for a clean up and we were off again. We left Susa at 10am, it was now noon and we hadn't really travelled very far. The road to Briancon was stunning and we stopped on the outskirts for bread and croissant (sold out of croissant). We had peaked at just short of 2,000 metres and headed off toward Col du Lautaret when we noticed that all the Grenoble signs had been covered over and then we saw the signs saying the road was closed at La Grave. We weren't too worried, thinking there would be a diversion but when we pulled over and looked at the map we realised that there couldn't be! There is one road through La Grave and that's it.

Back to Briancon and then south to Gap, west to the aptly named Die onward to Valence and finally we arrived here at half past six. The drive up and over the mountains was stunning but although neither of us liked to say it in the middle of the afternoon, with the cab like an oven, we agreed, once we had parked up here and sat down with a cold beer, that we would have been better off paying the €58.60.

" We took the van this mornin' headed to old Touron,

It didn't seem so far away and then it all went wrong,

The toll booth charges made us frown and so we went the long way round,"

Chorus - "yoghurt on the floor, cheese on the floor, never goin' up those mountains no more"

Pat

 

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