Cleaning Time

Happy New Year.

No traveling today, we had a lovely evening last night with our eldest daughter and her family. Delicious food, good company and dancing too! We saw the New Year in with style. So we looked outside at the van this morning and we were ashamed, it was filthy but I suppose if we hadn't had a wash for eight weeks we wouldn't look too good either. It was out with the mops and buckets and we set to. Three hours later and she's gleaming and if motorhomes could smile I'm sure ours would be beaming.

Tomorrow the DIY store beckons for a few bits and pieces to improve our comfort on the road. Some webbing material, Velcro patches, a squeegee mop and a sheepskin seat belt cover should do the job. I'll leave the application of these items to your imagination.

By tomorrow night we'll have eaten our daughter out of house and home so it'll probably be time for us to move on again and give her and her family some peace and quiet before we overstay our welcome. I think we'll head off for Millau on Friday and then on to Port Vendres. We've driven through, or past, Millau many times over the years and although Phil drove over it a few years ago I've never been over the bridge. It's really impressive when viewed from beneath so I'm looking forward to the views from the bridge. Then our next stop will be Port Vendres before crossing into Spain.

 

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Another Vineyard!

Last night we were parked up in the courtyard of a vineyard in Cormot-Le-Grand near Beaune, we were back in Burgundy country next to a small fast stream and nestled into a hillside. We arrived mid afternoon after a drive through some pretty bad fog with visibility down to maybe 50metres at some places on the motorway, pretty scary on occasions and we drove past a horrible accident on the other side of the motorway with the emergency services just arriving. Very upsetting.

 

 

The lake on a cold morning

We were up before the sun yesterday and went to explore the lake we parked next to the night before, a gold and red sky to the east and a pink horizon to the west made for a beautiful panorama but it was freeeeezing cold and after twenty minutes of Jack Frost having a serious nibble at our ears we took a couple of quick pics and retired back to Lulu for a cuppa. We were going to stop in a free camping car Aire in Nuits St George yesterday but when we arrived it was pretty bleak so we just emptied the waste and water and pushed on down to Beaune for a leg stretch. The courtyard we parked in was tiny but since we arrived another two Motorhomes managed to squeeze in.

Of course it's customary and only good manners to sample the produce of the folk allowing you to park on their property for free and very nice it was too and so we are now the proud owners of a half dozen bottles of Hautes Cotes de Beaune but not for too much longer I suspect.

The village of Cormot Le grand

Today we set off to St Etienne to see in the New Year with our eldest daughter Catherine and her family. The sat navs gave us two choices. 2h39m and 217k on the toll motorways or 3h37m and 217k on the free roads. We decided on the tolls as it's cold and foggy again today and we want to hurry up to see our daughter.

Talking of sat navs; it was getting a bit much with Helen and Bernadette directing me and Phil adding her two penn'orth as well. But thanks to the wonders of modern tech I've eased the situation a bit so it's goodbye to Helen and hello to George. (Nothing personal Helen but one of you had to go and I couldn't really see you and George working well together). Incidentally I once had a phone with sat nav and Ozzie Osbourne's voice on it and I know it's pathetic but it cracked me up every time he said in a slightly slurred Brummy twang "You have now arrived at your f*****g destination". Wish I still had that.

Medical Update: Patient has almost made a full recovery and should be on top form to see in the New Year.

 

And now here we are in St Etienne, we've had a bite to eat and we're waiting for Catherine to come home from work so she can get the party started. Lulu is parked outside so no worries regarding windows this time.

Wishing you all a peaceful and happy 2014 - Bon Fete!!

 

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A Big Sky and a Big Lake

Tonight we are parked up in a car park on the edge of Lac D'Orient in the village of Mesnil-St-Pere. It's a massive lake, with a beach! It was getting dark as we arrived but we could see lots of cruisers and dinghys moored up and lots of cafés and water sport facilities. We'll have a walk round tomorrow in daylight before we leave. We stumbled across the car park as we were headed for an Aire about 15k away which is good because we are only about 15mins away from the motorway when we continue our journey south tomorrow. It's also good because it's FREE. On the last trip we spent more than we anticipated on campsite fees because we lacked a little confidence to just stop and park up in car parks. We need campsites every few days for washing clothes but other than that we are pretty independent. Two big gas bottles for cooking, hot water and heating and a solar panel to top up the two 110ah leisure batteries for the electrics and we can go for days without facilities as long as we can find water and somewhere to empty the chemical toilet. In fact we don't use chemicals in the toilet, cheap Aldi bio washing tablets do the job just as we'll and we're not using formaldehyde and goodness knows what else in the expensive bottles of stuff sold in caravan shops. I'm sure you're all finding this very interesting and if anybody wants to know more about our toilet I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

There's very little light pollution here so there are plenty of stars on a clear, crisp night. I'm ashamed to say I couldn't identify a star or a system in the sky if my life depended on it. Someone mentioned that there are phone apps available to aid identification of the solar system but the down side apparently is that after you've looked at the app your night vision is gone, hmm! Anyway on a clear night like this I think we will be glad we brought a heavier duvet with us this time, it's already starting to frost outside. When we run the heating in the M/home it gets toasty in no time at all but we don't leave it on all night and, not being the best insulated dwelling, it gets cold again after a few hours but the 10tog should do the job we hope.

Medical Update: The Navigation & Comms officer is making a slow recovery and hopefully will be back on top form tomorrow after a good night's sleep and a bowl of porridge. I hope so 'cos it's no fun driving through France with the co-pilot groaning all the time and also means I can't really shout at a poorly wife when her directions aren't all I would like/expect.

No pics of where we are at the moment but here's a couple of the sunrise at Dover this morning.

 

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We're back on the road!

We are parked up tonight on the Esplanade at Dover again ready for heading off to the Tunnel early tomorrow morning. I'm tucking into a Kalbrau (Biere blonde de luxe) and a roast beef sandwhich. The beer has come from France and survived a week in the fridge at home and the sarnie is from M&S. We know how to dine in style eh? Phil, unfortunately, isn't tucking in to anything. She felt unwell about midday and has gone downhill ever since and although it's in contravention of some traffic law or other she's spent the last leg of the journey down here curled up in a ball, clutching her stomach, on the bed. I guess I'll just have to eat her sandwich as well.

We have to be in St Etienne for New Year's Eve so it's back on the toll roads for the next couple of days but after that we'll be back on the by-ways again heading south toward Southern Spain and then Morocco. We are joining another couple for the Morrocan trip, Paul and Christine and Paul, who from now on shall be known as Team Leader, has produced a map to give us a few ideas of places we might like to visit, here's a link:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?vps=2&hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=214334375946478810053.0004edfd46fb3e93b692c

Paul has obviously put a lot of time and effort in to producing this map whilst we've been lying about on Spanish beaches and that, folks, is why he is Team Leader. Oh yes, he has an RAF background so that's another reason.

Well, that's all for tonight, I'd better go and look after my sick fellow motorhomer. I'll give you all a medical update tomorrow

Pat

 

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Pictures, again

We'll, it looks like I've finally cracked the photo issue so from here on this blog should be a little more interesting.

So just to whet your appetites for what's to come here is a pic of St Emillion taken from the roof of the church, hope you like it.

It was a pretty grey day but we just loved the Autumn colours.

 

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Pictures, again!!

Ok so here we go again trying to post pictures to the blog.

If this works you should be seeing a picture of a sunset at La Garrofa.

 

Fingers crossed eh?

 

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Tuesday 17th December
We are parked up on a campsite just outside Boulogne, another €16.00! We were trying to avoid campsites for the last couple of days of our journey but the free camping places we looked at today had no facilities so here we are. Next to a busy railway line but a view over the hedge to the Channel. When we arrived the lass on reception showed us a plan of the site and we settled on a space. The campsite was empty of tourers when we arrived and the space allocated was on a slope, I couldn't be bothered getting out the levelling ramps so we pitched up on the spot next door, which was flat. Hooked up the electric, put the screen on the front window, had a walk to locate and inspect the loos and settled down with a stubby before getting the evening meal prepared. I wandered about to stretch my legs and saw another UK Motorhome arrive and by the time I got back he was parked next to us. I gave him a wave, said hello and the guy responded by saying that I was parked on "his" spot. I suggested that it didn't really matter as there were another 20 pitches to choose from should anyone else turn up. He wasn't happy and said he would have to go down to the office and seek further advice. I haven't seen him since so I guess he's happy where he is eh?
It's been remarkable how little traffic we've seen over the last five and a half weeks, both in France and Spain. Compared to the UK the roads are virtually empty which makes for hassle free driving but the exceptions, obviously, are the major towns and cities. Travelling through Bordeaux, St Etienne and Valencia especially was a bit uncomfortable but we try and set the sat navs to avoid the bigger towns whenever possible. Rouen today was a nightmare; roads closed and a lot of traffic. When we are diverted due to accidents or road works we are reliant on the GPS to find us an alternative route, and quickly!  Back home we can pretty much figure out where we are and where we should be headed but in a strange town with road signs in a "foreign" language it can be a problem. And French drivers aren't the most considerate or patient.

Wednesday 18th December
Tonight we are parked up on an Aire in Wissant, just south of Calais. We did our last bit of Christmas shopping this morning, had lunch and then went for a long walk along what seemed to be an endless sandy beach. Wissant is a small, pretty village which I would imagine would be very busy in the summer but like most places we've been to at this time of year we had the place to ourselves. Lots of restaurants, shops and small hotels closed for the winter but handy for us being only fifteen minutes from the Channel Tunnel. We've no wifi so by the time I post this we'll be back in England.
If you've been reading this blog for the last six weeks, thank you. If you want more then check in again at the end of the month. We are back in France on the 29th December and after celebrating New Year 2014 with our daughter and her family in St Etienne we will be off a again to Spain and then Morocco before coming back again to England late March.

Wishing you all a Merry and Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

Pat & Phil