It's Raining!!

Saturday 30th August.

We are parked up this evening at La Mailleraye-sur-Seinne and it's raining, the first rain we have seen for a long time. We must be getting nearer to the UK.

We set off this morning intending to stop in Gace but when we arrived, after a stop at Super U for a food and beverage top up, the motorhome parking place had no service points and the town was on the comatose side of sleepy. We stopped for a bite to eat and then pushed on to where we are now, parked up next to the Seinne with about another forty or so motorhomes. We could watch the barges going up and down but there's not much happening so I guess bargees must have Saturdays off.

At last there are quite a few GB plates about here although we are still outnumbered by French with a few Dutch and Germans. I'm on a forum, Wildcamping for Motorhomes, (www.wildcamping.co.uk) and have the big W sticker on the front and rear windows and I spotted the first van in four months with the same sticker this afternoon as I walked along the river in the rain. We had a chat and exchanged names and recognised each other from conversations we had joined in previously; small world moment.

Sunday 31st August.

We are parked up this evening in Dieppe. It's a motorhome Aire with about fifty vans here overlooking the harbour and a very pleasant place to stop. The books that we use to find spots like this told us that if we go to the harbour master's office here he will give us a password to access the internet. So at about one o'clock we strolled down there and made enquiries. Ah, said the man, you need to go to the tourist information office. So we went to the tourist information office (big building with sign saying TOURIST INFORMATION) asked for wifi password only to be told that the TIO was next door and closed until 2.30pm. No problem, a walk around the harbour, an aperitif and back to the TIO. Ah, said the lass there you need to go next door for a wifi password. We went next door, again. Hello, I said, we came here earlier etc..etc.. may I have a wifi password for Hotspot Dieppe? Do you have a boat? asked the muppet. No, I'm in a motorhome parked over there and I've paid my €7. Wifi passwords are for boats, he said. What if I said I had a boat, said I with my nicest smile. Then we'd check and find out you hadn't, said he. Anybody know the French for jobsworth?

Anyway, we like Dieppe, it's a bit like Whitby. But bigger. Here's a couple of pics.

 

It's a bit like the last days of the holiday for us. In fact it almost is the last days of the holidays! Tomorrow we'll stop the night in Berck-sur-Mer and hopefully, if the tide is out, watch some seals. Tuesday we'll stop in Wissant and stroll along the long, long, long beach and then Wednesday morning we'll be on the early morning tunnel back to Dover. It's booked so we can't change our minds, turn around and drive back to Greece. Not that we'd want to, we're missing our children and grandchildren now and it'll be great to see them in a few days. As Frank sang "Its so nice to go travelling, but it's so much nicer, yes it's so much nicer, to go home".

Pat

 

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