SUMMERTIME & FESTIVALS

July 14th.....saw us headed to Tom Cat Farm in Essex on one of the hottest days of the year.  Luckily it only took us a couple of hours so we were able to soon relax in the shade.  We spent 3 very quiet days there soaking up the sun and recharging our batteries before going to the Norfolk Country Music Festival.

We arrived at the Norfolk Showground in time for dinner and meet up with the many friends we see there every year. Thursday, the music started in earnest and we listened and danced to about a dozen bands over the next 4 days.  It was swelteringly hot, but at least it did not rain for once. 

On the Monday we left and drove about 150 miles to Bladon in Oxfordshire, just next door to Blenheim Palace to spend 3 quieter days there together with Lorna & Mike.  As it was a Camping and Caravanning Club site we had all the usual good facilities, so caught up on some washing as well as showers etc. One evening we walked in to Bladon to the pub for a very nice meal, saving on the cooking.

Thursday 25th...we only had about 40 miles to go to Burghclere for the next dance festival, so Brian and I did the shopping run via Sainsbury's on the way.  We met up with Dave & Margaret as well for the weekend, so the 6 of us had a really good time.  First evening was an American Supper outside on the field, needless to say there was more than enough food for everyone and we sat out chatting until it got colder and darker.  We meandered home on the Monday tired out as the late nights, early mornings and copious amounts of wine take their toll these days!  We are not getting any younger!

Weds 7th August...we decided to go to a Motocaravan Section Rally at Quex Park in Birchington for a few days.  Lorna & Mike came as well to see what it was all about....no facilities and pitch up in a field.  The weather was lovely and not quite so hot, so we were able to have a look around the House and Garden in comfort.  The ice cream man visited every day in his 'van so we indulged ourselves from time to time.  We met up with a few friendly folk and chatted, but in the main most people just did their own thing.  It was a calm quiet few days after the hectic times at the festivals.


Since we came home we have decided to go back to France, Brittany this time, so are off on 1st September for a month.  We will try to keep up with our travels there on our TravelPod Blog http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/thetravelmoores/1/tpod.html

SEASIDE & FERRY

Sunday 23^rd

It was still very windy, cold and drizzly when we got up, so Plan A became Plan B.  We had intended driving about 60 miles to an Aire at Le Treport which said it was on a hilltop alongside the funicular railway down in to the town, but thought that probably was not a good spot to spend the night in such weather.  It was only lunchtime when we got there so we pulled in to a supermarket car park to eat our cheese and crackers and then pressed on another 34 miles to a campsite, Camping Ferme Les Aulnes, at a small place called Fresne in the middle of nowhere in the Picardy countryside, which we found in the Camping Cheques book.  At least we would have electricity and showers there. It was quite a nice site, with lots of mobile homes and a few touring pitches, but boasted a swimming pool and a restaurant as well as speaking excellent English.  We think we may try the restaurant tomorrow.

Monday 24^th

At last the sun is shining again, even though the wind is still strong and it is not terribly warm.  After a croissant breakfast we set off for a walk to see what we could find.  There did not seem to be any footpaths across fields or through woods, so we ended up walking along the road for an hour to nowhere and back again. We did manage to sit outside when we got back and eat our lunch but then it clouded over and we had to go in.  Brian even washed some of the muck off the van so I expect it will rain again now. We have booked a meal for 7.00pm so now we just need to shower and tidy ourselves up.  Apparently there is even a live piano player in the bar/restaurant, should be interesting.

Tuesday 25^th

Last night’s meal was OK, but quite expensive, 39 euros for 2 mains + 2 desserts.  We had been given a token for a free drink on arrival, but it was only for a ‘small’ glass of wine.

Today has been a beautiful warm sunny day, no doubt the weather will get better now that we are soon going home.  We tidied up the van a bit, had a little walk around the static caravan side of the park and then chatted to a couple from Reigate who had been doing a similar trip to us.  They had worked out a very good system of making a fly net screen to go over their sliding door, so we were looking at how to do it for ours.  Flies have been one of the biggest nuisances when we have the door open.  We have just eaten the last item from our freeze box, so it will be either salad or eggs + bacon tomorrow.  We are heading for an Aire at Boulogne for the last couple of nights so that we can visit the Nausicaa Aquarium and do some wine shopping at a hypermarket before crossing the water on Friday.

Wednesday 26^th

Another fine sunny morning for our packing up, our neighbours even went for a dip in the pool before they left! We only had 36 miles to go to Boulogne so did not leave until about 11.00am and went first to a Carrefour supermarket that was on the way, to get some more wine to take home as well as a few essentials for the last couple of days. We found the Aire at Boulogne fairly easily as Nausicaa was well signed all through the town and even the lunch time traffic was not as bad as we had expected. The situation on the hill top overlooking the harbour is actually quite nice, although very sloping, every spot we tried to park on needed ramps in two directions to get us anywhere near level. During the afternoon more vans arrived, mainly Belgian or French and it was quite amusing watching their antics trying to get a level spot with a view. We went for a wander along the cliffs and watched someone trying to get his hang-glider off the ground without much success Then it was just chill-out until wine-oclock.

Thursday 27^th

Our last whole day in France! Oh, how sad, as we have enjoyed the journey immensely.  We walked down in to the town about 10.00am to join the queue to get in to Nausicaa. It is billed as the largest aquarium in Europe and was opened by Jacques Cousteau about 20 years ago. It certainly was interesting and very well set out, although we found the first part to be rather dark and a bit oppressive.  Unfortunately, as well, it appeared to be every French school’s trip day and we were surrounded by noisy little people.  Eventually they moved on and it was much more pleasant.  We spent almost 3 hours there wandering around looking at the sharks, turtles, rays, and tropical fish in the most spectacular surroundings.

It was after 3.00pm when we came out, so decided to treat ourselves to one last meal and headed off to the restaurant opposite. Cider, salmon and ice creams were on the menu so we were both happy bunnies. Then of course we just had to go and sit on the beach in the sun for a while before wending our weary way back up the hill to the van, a cuppa and a sit down.

Friday 28^th

We were ready to leave by 10.00am to drive 42 miles back to Dunkerque and the ferry, so thought we would take a chance on an earlier one than the 2.00pm one we had booked. We got to the port by 11.15 and drove straight to the check-in and were directed to the 12.00 sailing, no problem.  By the time we got back to Dover (1.00pm local time) it was raining, what a surprise!  We stopped off at Tesco just outside of Dover and stocked up on fresh fruit and veg for the weekend, arriving home by 3.30pm.

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We have driven a total of 1101 miles; stayed at 2 France Passion sites; 5 Aires; 2 Municipal campsites; 3 Camping Cheque sites, spending 350 euros on site fees for 30 nights. Entrance fees to chateaux and attractions came to 133 euros and we spent about 270 euros on fuel.

PEGASUS BRIDGE & the missing coast road

Wednesday 19^th

It was quite nice when we left at 10.30, for Breville-les-Monts, about 84 miles to an Aire we had picked out of the book as being near to the Pegasus Bridge Memorial that Brian wanted to look at.  After about an hour the heavens opened and it came down in torrents again, driving was not pleasant.  We reached the aire just after lunch and went for a walk around the village and the modern church, then about a mile in the other direction and didn’t find much at all. The sun came out by dinner-time and we were joined by another motorhome from Jersey, then a Frenchman, then another English one from Barnehurst would you believe?

Thursday 20^th

Woke up to sunshine at last, had breakfast and opened my birthday cards. After a chat to the other people we meandered about 5 miles down the road to the Pegasus Bridge Memorial at Benouville. Luckily we found a nice big car park with trees to shade us. We spent a couple of hours in the Musueum itself and out in the grounds where there is still part of the Bridge, from over the Orne River and Caen Canal, that was demolished. For anyone interested in WW2 and the gliders that landed in France with troops and vehicles on board, this is the place to go.  

We went for a walk around the village itself but there was not a lot there to see other than the Café Grondee which is still run by Arlette, one of the daughters of the couple who were working against the Germans at the time.  We popped in for a birthday lunch of omelette, salad and French stick which was very nice. Washed down by coke as we were driving! 

We then took a scenic silly sat nav drive for 44 miles to find a French Passion site at a cider farm at St. Andre d’Herbetot, the last few miles were up a very narrow winding road with fingers crossed that we did not meet anyone coming the other way.  However, it was worth it, they had hard-standing space for 5 motorhomes which we had all to ourselves. They sold very palatable cider at 2.55 euros for a 75cl bottle, so we had 2…one to drink with our cakes that we had bought at the boulangerie earlier, and one to bring home. The farm buildings were beautiful, timbered and very old, the dog was friendly, the birds chirrupy and the peacefulness out of this world.  We sat outside reading until 9.30pm with not a soul around.

Friday 21^st

Today turned out to be 57 grey drizzly miles , getting lost every 10 minutes…silly sat nav does not agree with the roads in the map book and we kept missing turnings.  We were headed for the coast road, but never found it.  We aimed instead for Etretat which looked interesting only to find the road half blocked with road works and every car park had ‘no camping-cars’ signs outside, very unfriendly.  So we carried on to find a campsite at Les Loges with the view to stay a couple of nights.  Needless to say at 12.30pm it was shut for lunch, so once again we ended up eating our lunch in the van at the gate waiting for 2.00pm and opening time. Once we were set up we did a bit of washing, anchored it down outside as it was quite windy and went for a wander along to the ‘high street’ to find a couple of shops and a church. Then it was back for showers and get ready for wine-o’clock and dinner.

Saturday 22nd

Don't know what has happened to Flaming June! We are now in Deepest Depressing December! It's raining, cold and blowing a gale.....so we have decided to stay in and do some chores.  As we have got a day's wi-fi I have spent some time uploading photos.  Hopefully if it clears up we will go for a walk, if not it is books or games time.

Pegasus Bridge and St Andre d'Herbetot pictures 

LE MANS & ALENCON

Sunday 16^th

A bright sunny morning for packing up and saying goodbye to everyone, they had all been so friendly. We were on the road by 10.45am  to drive about 50 miles to Le Mans. It was a very pleasant easy drive to the outskirts of the town and we eventually found the Aire by the river, having done 2 circuits of the one-way system across the bridges ‘cos we missed the turning to the Aire first time around. It was a bit like an open-top city tour bus!  We were not that impressed with the fact that it sloped toward the river, and it was full to overflowing, we parked on a non-parking space. It was now very hot and humid, so we decided to have bit of lunch, then go for a look around the town, but move on to stop the night.  As it was a week before the  24hour race , the main square was all set up for some sort of parade of the cars with tiered seating and barriers all over the place. We were somewhat disappointed at how scruffy everywhere was, rather like Chatham. We took a few phone photos of cars, and the trams coming up the quite steep street, so we shall have to see what they come out like. 

We left there around 4.00pm and drove a further 11 miles, with silly sat-nav taking us down some very tiny country lanes to a village called Montbizot which had a much nicer Aire next to a play park.  Room for about a dozen motorhomes on grass parking behind a hedge. Only downside was the road the other side of the hedge was quite busy  We sat out in the sun alongside 2 French vans that were already there, then another English one arrived (having driven over an hour out of his way from Le Mans due to his silly sat-nav – Tom-tom or Garmin, they are as bad a seach other). By then it was wine-o’clock and think about some dinner. Overnight was very hot so we had all the windows open.

Monday 17th

Needless to say it started to rain overnight, so we had to batten down all the hatches. By 8.00am the God of Thor obviously thought that it was his birthday and decided to celebrate with thunder, lightning and hailstones, so we had a bit of a lie-in listening to it hammering on the roof. It dried up after breakfast and we headed off on foot for a look around the village to see what we could find…a closed church, a closed butcher’s, an open tabac and an open hairdressers. Back to the van and set off for Alencon which was only 24 miles away. We had chosen it because it is supposedly famous for lace-making. However en route a LIDL jumped out at us so we stopped off for some supplies, major one being tissues as Brian has a nose like a tap at the moment (hay-fever not a cold!) Then we fell over Decathlon, which is one of the major camping suppliers in France and had a mooch around in there for about an hour. Then, it was LeClerc for petrol and some fresh veg which we could not get in LIDL. Finally arrived at Municipal Camping de Guerame at 2.40pm, only to find it still shut for lunch, so we sat in the van and had our lunch while we waited until 3.00pm. Quite a pleasant site and we found a flat bit of gravel to set up on. As it was very hot and humid again we collapsed and sat outside, once we had put the shopping away and washed the undies. I even cooked a proper dinner in the Remoska and we ate about 8.00pm. It is still light enough to sit and read until after 10.00pm which is quite nice.

Tuesday 18^th

The heavens opened again during the night and we have now got a wet bed end ‘cos we didn’t get the window closed quickly enough. It is surprising how much water can get through a fly wire in the roof lights, so the choice is do we shut them first or the windows? I have now tried out our shower, small but perfectly formed springs to mind, as I was not very enamoured with the facilities here. The ladies toilets have 4 interesting choices…a stand and squat hole; a child-sized sit with no seat; a normal sit with no seat and no lock on the door but a knob to hang things on; or a normal sit with no seat with a lock on the door but no knob!  Needless to say we are only using them in desperation.   The rain sort of dried up by lunchtime so we put our shoes and coats on and headed off in to the town.  It was much larger than we realised, with lots of very old buildings, some nearly falling down that were propped up by wooden structures similar to the one we saw in the church at Mouliherne.  We found the Basilica de Notre Dame and spent a while looking at all the lovely paintings and stained –glass windows, then the Tourist Office for a map and found out about the Museum which housed all the lace stuff.  Armed with all the info we tried to find our way through the maze of little streets, it is a good job they are mostly one-way ‘cos nowhere could 2 vehicles pass each other. 

The lace making part of the museum was fantastic. Alencon lace is what is called ‘needle-lace’ and not worked with bobbins on a cushion at all. Designs are pricked out with a pin thingy on coloured paper, then a thread laid down over the pattern and stitched over to hold it in place. After that the lace is worked with a needle + thread over the laid down thread.  When all is finished the backing paper is cut off and hey presto one has an intricate piece of lace to use. It apparently takes about 15 hours to work a square centimetre!  We saw some old stoles, parasols, gloves and bits to go around the neck, many of which had taken over 1000 hours to make. We eventually made our way back to the van about 5.00pm, just in time for the sun to come out for a while and for me to cook another proper dinner!


photos of Le Mans & Alencon 

MOULIHERNE - time for a rest

Sunday 9th June

It had been raining all night and for an hour or so in the morning when we packed up and set off, firstly to the supermarket that we had discovered was open on a Sunday morning.  Then along the North side of the Loire for a while before crossing back south to visit the Petrified Grottos at Savonnieres.  These were the most remarkable caves we have ever been in...the dripping limestone forms stalactites and stalagmites within decades rather than millions of years, so they have worked out how to make pictures and ornaments by putting objects (even dead animals) under the drips for about 6 months to a year.  These become covered with beautiful glistening limestone, preserved for all time.  The pictures are made with brass moulds left in the same way and then turned out to form relief pictures. We found it all really interesting.

From there, after a bite of lunch, we made our way further along the river to the famous Chateau and Gardens at Villandry.


By now the rain had stopped and the sun come out so all was right with the world again!  There were quite a lot of visitors from all over the world, American and Japanese coachloads as well as the individuals like us.  We wandered for about 2 hours, clicking away with the camera as we went, oohing and aahing at every corner we turned.

Around 4.00pm we left and started the last leg of the day.  We had discovered a small campsite run by an English couple and found out that they had spaces, so were headed to Le Chant d'Oisseau at Mouliherne.  We took the scenic route on the road that runs on the top of the levee alongside the Loire. There was not much traffic so we poodled along admiring the scenery as far as Saumur, then turned northwards for about 20km to Mouliherne. Unfortunately sat nav could not work out which way to send us and we could not find it on the map so we drove an extra 20km in every direction before we finally arrived about 6.00pm.  It is a lovely little quiet site, in the middle of nowhere, with just 12 pitches, mixture of tents, caravans and motorhomes, at the moment all English! They have a covered eating area and Monday + Friday evenings provide a full French meal with wine for 15 euros, so guess where we are eating tomorrow. Wednesday is pizza night, all cooked outside in the bread oven. The owners, Stu & Sybil, along with the dog, cats and chickens are very helpful and friendly, so we think we might stay a while.

Monday 10th June

A bit of a lie-in today, then some chores, all the time stopping for a chat with either other campers or Stu & Sybil.  This is a very peaceful place, with mainly birdsong for company, hence the name.  After lunch we took a stroll down a country lane for about an hour during which time only one car passed us. At 7.00pm we all (20 of us ) collected under the "barn" which basically was a roof with drop down tarps around the sides.  We sat down to a 5 course meal, on benchs along a long table, with copious amounts of wine,  typical French al fresco dining  until about 11.00pm when drink & mozzies got the better of us so we retired to bed. We were probably the oldest people there, but it was a very entertaining evening talking to newbies in a tent, a young couple with baby in another tent, one posh couple in a very large caravan, Goldwing bikers in tents and a couple of campervans like ours. 

Tuesday 11th June

No-one arose very early, but we were ready to go out about 10.00am.  The ground is very wet as they have had so much rain so we all have to drive around the outside of the field to get out, playing follow-my-leader. Our 2 neighbours were leaving, but we drove about 30 miles to a place called Rochemenier where there is a Troglodyte (underground) Village.


We spent nearly 3 hours looking around the buildings seeing how they lived centuries ago along with their cattle all underground.  It was one of the most fascinating places we have ever seen.







 Up above ground are a few more modern dwellings, but even these mostly incorporate some of the old underground places. We got back just in time for a cuppa having stopped off for fuel and to visit a large garden centre that we came across, as well as doing our usual trick of going the wrong way and driving 2 sides of a 3 sided triangle instead of only one! The roads around here are really small, only one car's width most of the time and they do not have names, only signposts to the houses that are in that particular road. All the houses go by names, no numbers anywhere...we are glad  we are not postmen! 

Wednesday 12th June

It was a damp drizzly day, but I had to do some washing, so we used the machine and then strung it up outside under our pull-out awning making us resemble a Chinese laundry.  We went for a short wander down the lane but gave up and came back to catch up on photos and blog.   In the evening it was pizza night in the barn.  We had all pre-ordered what we wanted, just had to take our plates and drinks over and sit watching Stu making and cooking each one in the outside bread oven that he has built. It was all quite entertaining and we chatted to people from all over England, Wales and Scotland.

Thursday 13th June

Most commonly know as a 'bugger-all day'! It had started raining again in the night and did not stop all day, so we all stayed inside in the dry doing whatever takes campers and caravanners fancy on a wet day.

Friday 14th June

 

At least it had stopped raining, but the field was like a lake again. We thought we would stay local so drove the 6 kilometres up the road to Mouliherne.




















 It is a pretty little village with the usual ‘Mairie’ (Town Hall) and a butchers, bakers and hairdressers, together with a bar that wasn’t open. We huffed and puffed our way up the hill to the church, which we had been told contained sarcophaguses (or i whichever is the plural) both inside and out…and it did, quite amazing especially the one outside as it was on top of an old ossuary.  When we shone a torch in the opening, we could see remains of skeletons at the bottom.  Opposite the church was a car park with Christ on the cross right next to the public loos, which tickled our sense of humour.

From there we took another short drive to find the supermarket at Vernantes so as to stock up the larder before we leave on Sunday, not knowing where we will end up next, although Plan A is to head for Le Mans and drive round the road circuit! Luckily in a way the 24 hour race is the following weekend, so hopefully it won't be heaving.

When we got back Stu wanted us to move on to the pitch we should have gone on originally as he has a group of tents coming in over the weekend. We drove 2 feet backwards on to the pitch as requested and got stuck! We are not going forwards or backwards at the moment.  Just hoping things dry out a bit before Sunday, otherwise leaving could be fun. 

It was another meal night in the barn, but we passed on that one. Brian did not really fancy the menu, so it would have been a waste of 15euros.  So we wandered over about 9.00pm with a 2 litre bottle of French cider and socialised then.  Needless to say it was another late night!

 

Saturday 15^th

Woke up to a sunny morning, so decided to try the walk that we did not do on Thursday.  We did the last few bits of hand washing first and pegged on the line, then said a prayer to the god of no rain , and set off.  Sybil had given us a little map of a circular route,  all we needed to was follow the house names in the right order! It was very pretty down the lanes, through the forest, past a stinky duck farm as well as some very fearsome barking dogs.  We found poppies by the million, mistletoe on most of the trees, buzzards flying overhead, some horses and donkeys, but for the first hour no cars at all.  We took about 3 hours to do 5 miles or so, so on our return just sat with our feet up until shower + dinner time. Now have to tidy up ready to move in the morning.   

More pictures 

AMBOISE - Brass Band weekend

Thursday 6th June

Another beautiful morning when we packed up and made our way out of town by 10.15am.  We chose the N10 through Boneville and Chateaudun and found it to be a really good road all the way.  Lunch was in a layby along with 2 lorries, just like England really. We had noticed a Le Clerc advertised on the outskirts of Amboise so headed there first for food stocks and LPG and eventually arrived at Camping Ile d'Or which is a municipal site on the island in the middle of Amboise, having driven 90 miles.  Typically French they were closed until 2.30 so we joined a couple of other motorhomes for a chat whilst we waited. Needless to say at 2.30 there were about 10 of us waiting to check in.  We got seen fairly quickly and given pitch 204 so duly drove off round the site to find it, only to discover there was already someone else there! So whilst Brian waited in the T Kar I was left to hike the 200m back to reception to sort things out. We finally got given another pitch, luckily in the shade of some trees as by now it was stinking hot, we were fed up and in dire need of a drink. We found lots of other English vans on site, they had all come for the Brass Band Weekend that we had seen advertised so we sat in the shade and chatted until salad time. By 10.00pm the mozzies were out in force, so after showers we retired indoors.

Friday 7th June

Hot & sunny again! We quite like this but were not so keen after we had walked back over the bridge in to the town and up to the Royal Chateau.

 


Once more we had to find a shady seat and sit for 10 minutes to get our breath back. We spent a good hour or so investigating all the stunning rooms and furnishings in the Chateau mainly from Loius XIV period. Outside the gardens were just as picturesque, all little box hedges cut in to balls. We meandered some of the side streets, but decided to leave the rest for Saturday when the bands would be playing. Back to base via a cold drink shop, to sit under the trees once more until salad time again. It was very hot overnight and sleeping was difficult even with no covers on the bed and windows open.

Saturday 8th June

Unfortunately during the night about 5 vans were broken into and valuables stolen; also some tents further down were ripped and broken into. Two of the vans had dogs, but still nobody heard anything. We got up to find gendarmes everywhere asking questions and searching some of the other tents. We could only thank our lucky stars that we were OK, maybe having an old small van has some advantages, if anyone tried to come in our window in the night they would land on top of us and get quite a shock!

Anyway, we went back over in to town around 10.30 to listen to and watch the Brass Bands. There were a couple from England, one from Norway, a couple from France all starting off at the square and marching up to the base of the Chateau, playing a couple of numbers and then marching back down again. A bit like the Grand Old Duke of York, only the ten thousand men were tourists like us! It was something a bit different and quite interesting. We had a look around some of the shops but soon realised we would not be buying any clothes, biscuits, chocolates or any souvenirs unless we robbed a bank.

The Best of the lot getting ready!

Statue on footpath back to campsite at Amboise

Back for a late lunch and read of the map books trying to decide where to go next, and I even cooked some bacon for dinner, then showers, then it decided to rain so we had to rescue everything that was outside.

Pictures below:

Amboise

FRANCE -at last

Wednesday 29^th 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)

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 30^th May

Eperleques Blockhaus

It was still very grey, misty and cold when we got up so we took our time over breakfast and ablutions.  Then we donned our coats and walked about 1 ½ kms to the Eperleques Blockhaus which is a stronghold originally built to make and launch V2 rockets during the 2^nd World War.  It was immense and very gloomy but with quite a lot of war relics including some of the trains used to transport conscripted workers.    

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 31^st 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.  

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 1^st 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 2^nd 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 3^rd 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.

Tuesday 4^th 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 5^th 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:

Eperleques, Giverny and Chartres