Saturday 28th March Mareuil-sur-Ay 49.045156 4.034797
A pleasant drive today through the Foret de la Montagne de Reims which is in the Parc Naturel Regional de la Montagne de Reims (phew). We're in to Champagne country now and the villages have become more affluent with big (some very big) chateaux. But where is everyone? Nobody strolling, no kids out playing, no smoke from the chimneys. It's like a series of film sets waiting for the crew and actors to arrive. Very strange.
We are parked up next to the canal, as promised, and the 8 parking places soon filled up leaving the late arrivals to park further along next to the "No Motorhomes" sign. A walk around the town confirmed we were in another film set and that the two adjacent bistros are closed until such time as the owners decide to open them again. I would imagine this place is very busy in summer. After the walk it was time to give the new fishing rod an outing. Lovely rod, shame about the lack of fish. Anglers, of course, are eternal optimists and there's always another day, another stretch of water and better luck just around the corner. Fishing is a metaphor for life in general I think. However should you suffer from depression the last thing you should probably do is take up fishing, it'll only make you feel worse most days.
Sunday 29th March. Juzennecourt 48.1846 4.9788
A somewhat boring drive today through mostly flat countryside accompanied by strong winds and showers. We choose routes that have a scenic aspect to them according to the map, I suspect the cartologists pen slipped on this occasion. Anyway, here we are parked outside the Marie in another village sans chevaux and its pouring down. It was very very quiet until an hour ago when the house attached to the Marie came to life. We thought it was abandoned until suddenly the lights went on and music came blaring out. Kind of folky music with an African beat and English lyrics. Over the last eighteen months or so we've stopped on quite a few French Motorhome parking places with varying facilities and prices. Most have signs directing you when you arrive in the town or village but this one has no indication or directions. It has an ancient water pump, which is good because many of these places turn the water off during winter to prevent freezing and they're usually not turned on again until April. It has a drain to empty our grey waste but nowhere to empty the loo but it has six free electricity points which is always appreciated so if you're reading this, thank you Mr or Mrs Mayor. It also has, from what we can see through the window a spotlessly clean WC and possibly a shower; but it's locked up.
Tomorrow we plan to visit Dijon, described as one of France's most appealing cities and filled with medieval and Renaissance buildings. Our proposed parking spot is a mile from the city centre so we're hoping it's stopped raining by tomorrow. There is a primary school attached to the Marie here so I guess we'll have an early awakening and an early start tomorrow. Our pillows are about twenty feet from the mysterious music source ( they're playing bloody Coldplay now!) so I hope they have to get up early in the morning and don't keep us awake half the night. We can hardly knock on the door and ask them to turn it down can we?
Town Hall parking.
Nice pump.
Pat
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment