France 2013

April 14th to 27th.

Well, here we are again, off to France. We are aiming to get as far south on the first day as possible, then onto La Plagne to see my daughter and grand daughters on the second day and stay there for a few days.

We went by DFDS Seaways this time, not too bad at all and quite a lot cheaper than the Tunnel. Unfortunately we had a puncture on the Motorway which cost us a fair bit of time. However many thanks to the RAC for their help. We stopped for the night on a site not far from Langres to calm my shattered nerves and to bask in the lovely sunshine which we hadn't had in th UK for a few weeks.

We arrived in Belle Plagne late afternoon next day and went off to collect the grandchildren from the Creche.

I was in my 30's before I had a go at this!!

We stayed for 5 days and the weather was superb until the last night when 15cm of snow fell. One could ski in a T-Shirt with just a light top on and the slopes were in fantastic condition. It was great having lunch at 2000mts in brilliant sunshine and just a T-Shirt. On the Saturday morning I had to dig the motorhome out from the carpark and get her up to the main road.

After topping up with some delicious Beaufort cheese in Aime we set off for Annecy.

This is a very pretty city and the old town is especially enjoyable to walk around. We managed to grab the last place in the Aire on the outskirts and then set off to explore.

We moved on the following day going via Morteau to buy some of the famous smoked sausage, which is really very tasty, to Besancon but didn't explore the old town there as the whole city seemed full of road works and we were being forever redirected down tiny side roads. Stayed in a campsite in the middle of the town but moved off fairly early the next day.

We arrived in Thann early afternoon and found a spot on an Aire right by the river in the centre. We spent the rest of the day exploring this ancient town but even though it was a Monday most places were shut.

A shot of the cathedral.

The next day we headed off up through the Parc Naturel Regional des Ballons des Vosges in near perfect weather. It was a lovely drive up through the mountains to the summit of the Grand Ballon and then back down through some old villages and onto to Eguisham.

The town of Eguisham is absolutely beautiful. It's medieval and it is literally unspolit by modern buildings. We wanted to have a look around this area of France after reading about it in www.lifeon4wheels.co.uk blog as they passed through this part of Eastern France. If you are into medieval history the stretch from Thann to Strasbourg has lots of ancient towns. The following photos are just a small selection of the 3 towns we visited.

Would you believe that the liquid running into the drain is actually red wine!!!!!!!

I think they were flushing out the fermenting stills.

It is a truly beautiful town with the campsite " Camping les Trois Chateaux" (highly recommended) only 5 minutes walk into the centre. There must be at least 40 different companies selling the Alsace wines one of which ( Gaec R Dreyer & Fils) is only 1minute from the campsite gates and their wines are absolutely delicious especially the Pinot Gris.

RIQUEWIHR

This was probably the largest of the medieval towns we visited with fairly modern buildings on the outskirts. There was a very good Aire a few minutes walk from the town with a toilet block for Euro7 per day. There must have been at least 20 motorhomes there, some with awnings, tables and chairs out, having a party.

This was another town which had plenty of wine shops offering free sampling. Just think, for Euro 7 per day, one could drink as much as one wished for free (or nearly). You would have to buy a few bottles at some point to take home!!

We then headed off towards Calais going via Pont a Mousson, Verdun,, Buzancy, a good cross country route, and stopped for the night at a nice campsite by a lake called Homair Campings Villages Lac de Bouison near Le Chesne. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very nice with lots of rain and overcast so we never saw the countryside at it's best.

As we had both picked up some bug we decided to go home a day early.

All in all, this North Eastern section of France is very beautiful and full of history, definitely one to revisit.

Until a few days before we were due to leave the weather had been lovely here but then it decided to take a turn for the worse. As we had no particular intinery to follow Lorraine decided to follow the sun.

We arrived via the Tunnel early Sunday morning and headed for Brugge. We found an Aire that had all the services in the centre of the town beside a marina. Unfortunately at Euro 22.50 per day it was expensive but the up side was that we were about 500 mt. from the centre so decided to have a walk into town.

We stayed there for the night then left to check out another Aire 6k from Brugge in Damme. This was a lovely quiet Aire across the road from a canal that led directly into Brugge and about 400mts from a bustling little town with plenty of bars and restaurants in it's centre. There was also the remains of an old church dating from the 12th century.

In the 11th century, due to a very large storm which inundated the coastline, the Zwin became the main waterway to access Damme for boats so they could offload their wares which were then transported by canal to Brugge, the large trading centre. By the 15th century, partially due to the creation of polders around Damme, the Zwin began to silt up therefore strangling Brugge's position as one of the leading and most prosperous cities in Europe.

We then moved onto the Ardenne area and stayed for a night in a campsite that I would NOT recommend to anyone near Erezee. Maybe we just hit it at a bad time but I would never risk going there again. When we arrived there was a lovely bar beside the reception but no-one was interested in taking any details from us and just told us to find a pitch at the bottom of the lake which we did. Someone came up and said he would connect the electricity up for us as the box was padlocked and we never saw him again. The lake would have been beautiful but for the dead fish flaoting around the edges and even some up on the bank. We counted between 20 and 30, obviously a big pollution problem. The showers required a special card to make them work, needless to say we were not supplied with one, nor told we needed one. The site was in a beautiful situation but there were a huge amount of mobile homes on it. When I came to pay the following morning he didn't apologise about the electricity and mumbled something about changing the swipe system for the showers later in the month and that it wasn't working at present. No discount was given for the lack of ammenities nor any apology. It was an ACSI recommended site and I just wish an inspector had been there then. ACSI have been informed and photos sent to them.

We were glad to leave that place!!!

We then headed off to do a tour around Durbury, Hamoir, Comblain, Aywaille and Coo. This is indeed a very pretty area with old towns, busy towns and waterfalls etc.

We left Coo and headed for a campsite, Camping Benelux, in La Roche en Ardenne. What a difference!! This was a lovely site within walking distance of the very interesting and pretty village with an exceptionally helpfull girl in reception. Unfortunately we decided to only stay the one night but it is a place we will come back to for a few days. The town is set on a bend in a deep valley on the river Ourthe.

We started heading SW for the Lot Valley as the weather was better there. We stopped for the night in an Aire in Gurgy, SUPERB! One we would definitely return to. It's situated within walking distance of a little village, right on the banks of the river Yonne just north of Auxerre, idyllic. There we met 3 sets of British motorhomers, some just back from 4 weeks in Croatia, other just chilling out. In the early evening some wine stalls opened for the visitors to sample their wines and hopefully buy them. The whole place had a really relaxed atmosphere. There was a Service point where a token was required (could be bought at a local bar) but the black waste disposal worked without it. One British fisherman caught more than he could eat for supper using his fly rod.

We left Gurgy and headed for Entraygues sur Truyere, Camping Val des Saur, one of our favourite places in France. It's a little town nestling on the banks of the Lot and the Truyere rivers where they meet. The campsite is on the opposite bank to the main town but only a 200mt. walk over a small bridge. There is a municipal swimming pool there or if you like you can swim in the river. It has many medieval buildings to see, bars to visit and restaurants to eat in.

After 4 blissful days in beautiful sunshine relaxing, we started heading North towards Tours where we were going to meet up with some friends from Canada and Scotland. We decided to break the trip by stopping for a night at Camping La Berge Ombragee in Brivezac near Beaulieu sur Dordogne, another one of our favourites. It's nothing special but quiet and restful, on the river bank and with a basic bar and restaurant. The ammenities are good for the price. A good place to canoe/kayak to or from.

As we left, Lorraine found out that our 12 volt system had stopped working. I tried to fix it quickly but to no avail so we carried on up to an English run site just outsite Poitiers where I could see if I could solve the problem. Boy did it pour with rain on the journey up. We couldn't complain as this was the first deluge we had encountered on our holiday up to this point.

On arrival, after I had plugged into the mains, everything worked. I reckoned that the 25amp fuse between the battery and the distribution box had blown and needed replacing. However, the battery was sited on a chassis member underneath the body just above a huge puddle. I didn't fancy getting soaked so left it for the time being and had a rum and coke instead. There was a huge thunder and lightning storm during the night and the site was pretty water logged in the morning which made for an interesting departure.

As a matter of interest to anyone reading this, there is a massive Super U in Vouille about 6k west of Poitiers. The fresh cheese counter was at least 10mt long as was the fresh fish section which also had live lobsters and crabs etc. Tesco and Sainsburys eat your hearts out!!

We arrived on the campsite Les Acacias, (well run, friendly and a nice place with all the services) about 6k from the centre of Tours mid afternoon and were assigned a pitch right next to another British Autotrail. We hadn't even finished connecting up when Mike and Barbara came over to welcome us, a lovely couple who we spent the following evening with.

We contacted our friends and arranged to meet at the Restaurant aux Dames de la Loire about 100mt from the campsite. We had a really enjoyable evening there with tasty, basic french cooking. One couldn't have asked for more.

We left Tour on the Friday and travelled North aiming to stop for the night at the campsite in Neufchatel en Bray but became stuck in the traffic in Rouen for 2½ hours due to roadworks and the main bridge being resurfaced, so had to head for Dieppe instead as the campsite was by now fully booked. We found the little campsite in the village of Petit Appeville just to the west of Dieppe, a quiet and peaceful place.

We left the campsite by 7am and headed for the Channel Tunnel. We arrived early for our booking but because of an incident in the tunnel everything was delayed. Home early afternoon to begin the emptying and cleaning process of he motorhome.

All in all a very enjoyable holiday especially the 4 days in Entraygues where we really chilled out. Lorraine did a marvellous job tracking the weather and we only really had 1 bad day of rain and 2 overcast days.

Looking forward to September/October.