Wednesday 29th
May
We left home around 9.00am
to drive the 55 miles to Dover in grey drizzly rain, and got to the ferry in
time for a coffee and wander around before boarding at 11.15am. Departure was
on time, sailing was flat calm but drizzly the whole way. Dunkirk was it’s usual dreary maze of roads
and roundabouts until we got out on to the main road to Eperleques. Then it was straight driving through pouring
rain to Camping Chateau de Gandspette ( 18 miles)
We turned up along with a couple of other English vans and some Dutchmen, but were soon given a pitch, part gravel part grass, under some trees next to a static caravan. It was cold and wet, more like the middle of winter than the end of May, so we hunkered down, cooked our chilli and got in to our cosy warm bed nice and early to read our books.
 |
| Camping Chateau du Ganspette |
We turned up along with a couple of other English vans and some Dutchmen, but were soon given a pitch, part gravel part grass, under some trees next to a static caravan. It was cold and wet, more like the middle of winter than the end of May, so we hunkered down, cooked our chilli and got in to our cosy warm bed nice and early to read our books.
Thursday 30th
May
 |
| Eperleques Blockhaus |
After lunch back at the van we wandered along the road in the other direction to find the town/village. Either we went wrong or didn’t walk far enough ‘cos all we found was an open chemist and a closed bakery! Back at the site we used their showers and then went for a meal in the restaurant. There were loads of other British vans on site and most of the remainder were Dutch.
 |
| Memorial at Eperleques |
Friday 31st
May
At
least it was just about dry when we left around 10.30am, following mainly D
roads (no tolls) through pretty little villages and open countryside as far as
Sainte Saire. We had picked out a couple of France Passion
sites to look for, easier said than done.
Sat nav took us to the village where we parked up and decided to
investigate on foot. A few minutes up
the road a car pulled up alongside us and asked if we were looking for France
Passion. When we said ‘yes’ the very nice lady directed us up the road and
round the corner and said she would see us ‘this evening’ Turned out to be some
sort of agricultural yard with a gravely hardstanding area for 3 vans. We had a lovely view across the fields and
the place to ourselves. Later the gent came and asked us if we wanted
water. All very civilised. After a cuppa we went for a wander around
the village, which was very pretty with some beautiful old timbered
houses.
Then we found the cider farm, which is where the other site was, had a look around and went to see what they had for sale in the shop….mainly cider and apple juice at vast expense. We spent a very peaceful night there, all for free.
 |
| Village at Sainte Saire |
Then we found the cider farm, which is where the other site was, had a look around and went to see what they had for sale in the shop….mainly cider and apple juice at vast expense. We spent a very peaceful night there, all for free.
Saturday 1st June
After an early morning jaunt to the bakery
for a baguette and to take some photos of the village, we left around 10.30am
and carried on to Forge-les-Eaux which
was only about 10 miles away, in sunshine!
We intended to just visit the Aire there in order to pick up water and
empty our toilet. However it seemed to be a very nice town with a lovely aire,
so we decided to stay a whole day. We
spent a couple of hours looking around the shops, church and small side streets
of town before walking back for a late lunch of baguette, pate and ham. We had now got English neighbours who came
from Exmoor so spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside in the sun
chatting to them. There were about 15 motorhomes there, some more English,
German and French.
Sunday 2nd June
It was a beautiful sunny morning when we
cleared up, tanked up with water and set off around 10.30am for Giverny – only
about 54 miles. Again we used the more scenic D roads and had arrived by
12.30am and found the coach car park quite easily for a change. On driving in, a little man leapt
out at us saying “ Bonjour, you want to sleep tonight?” When we agreed that we
did, he directed us through the coach park to a designated bit of car park
purely for high vehicles, in other words ‘camping-cars’…..most civilised.! We
had a bite to eat and then walked across the main road in to the village
itself, only to discover that a sunny Sunday afternoon was not the best time to
be there. It was heaving and the queue
for Monet’s House and Garden was lengthy. So we decided to leave all that for
the morning and just had a look round some of the galleries instead. Back at
the car park we just sat and watched everyone eventually leave, until about
7.00pm when there was just 7 of us ‘camping-cars’ left, English, German, Dutch,
Belgian and French.
Monday 3rd June
It was a misty grey start to the day, but
we walked over to Monet’s House and Garden for about 10.00am. There were already a couple of coachloads
there, but much quieter than on Sunday. We spent about 2 hours marvelling at the House with all it’s
paintings and then outside in the garden, where it was a painter’s
paradise.
We had heard a lot about Giverny and it was certainly well worth the visit especially as we had 2 nights car parking all for free. We treated ourselves to a late French lunch of Crepes and Haches and a carafe of white, with Tarte Tatin + cream to follow at one of the hotel/brasserie places. It was delicious and we ended up stuffed and with a lighter wallet – 46 euros actually so not too bad if you say it quickly. Then we wandered back through to the church and memorials and the inevitable gift shops, ending back at the van about 5.00pm ready to watch all the departures again. Again 8 vans stayed overnight.
We had heard a lot about Giverny and it was certainly well worth the visit especially as we had 2 nights car parking all for free. We treated ourselves to a late French lunch of Crepes and Haches and a carafe of white, with Tarte Tatin + cream to follow at one of the hotel/brasserie places. It was delicious and we ended up stuffed and with a lighter wallet – 46 euros actually so not too bad if you say it quickly. Then we wandered back through to the church and memorials and the inevitable gift shops, ending back at the van about 5.00pm ready to watch all the departures again. Again 8 vans stayed overnight.
Tuesday 4th June
Only 79 miles to go today to Chartres!
However, we got stuck in traffic/roadworks in Vernon so changed to Plan B and
headed over to an autoroute via Evreux and Dreux along with all the lorries.
Passed a Carrefour on the way, St. Andre I think, so stopped off to do a bit of
food shopping, the first since we left home.
On the outskirts of Chartres we pulled in to a car park that turned out
to be a garden centre. We were hot and
frazzled, sat nav had gone bananas and kept telling us we had 36km to go and
wanted us to do u-turns here, there and everywhere. Finally we reset it by
putting in the address rather than the co-ordinates and followed it faithfully
for 10 minutes through narrow winding streets and lo and behold, there was the
camping sign! Camping Le Bords de
l’Eure. We had decided to have a
couple of proper campsite nights so as to do a bit of washing and have showers.
Then we sat in the sun until wine o’clock and dinnertime.
Wednesday 5th June
Another sunny wake-up call, so we donned
our best walking feet and set off along the 3.5km riverside walk in to
Chartres.
It was beautiful, so peaceful and pretty. We spent a lot of time meandering around the old town, up and down the tiny steep streets. The cathedral of Notre Dame was amazing with some of the best stained glass windows we have ever seen and the carvings around the outside were incredible.
Lunch was a filled baguette each and a cold drink sitting on a park bench in the market square watching the stall-holders pack up some enormously long trailers. Then it was best foot forward time again back along the river to home. Apparently Chartres is all lit up at night, but only from nightfall, which at the moment is about 10.00pm, until 1.00am. We would have liked to have seen it then, but could not face the riverside walk at that time of night.
Pictures now added below:
It was beautiful, so peaceful and pretty. We spent a lot of time meandering around the old town, up and down the tiny steep streets. The cathedral of Notre Dame was amazing with some of the best stained glass windows we have ever seen and the carvings around the outside were incredible.
Lunch was a filled baguette each and a cold drink sitting on a park bench in the market square watching the stall-holders pack up some enormously long trailers. Then it was best foot forward time again back along the river to home. Apparently Chartres is all lit up at night, but only from nightfall, which at the moment is about 10.00pm, until 1.00am. We would have liked to have seen it then, but could not face the riverside walk at that time of night.
Pictures now added below:
No comments:
Post a Comment