France 7-30 Jun 13

With nearly two year's experience under our belt we certainly had less trepidation facing this trip than last year's holiday. We even trimmed the load and, with our combined weight loss (both physical and in equipment) I estimated that we would have spare payload of over 100kg for wine and cheese!  This year we didn't even plan a route. We thought we would hit France and see where the wind took us, albeit we both wanted to see Honfleur and we always wanted to visit the Atlantic coast and the wine regions around Bordeaux.

Normandy cidre from a stone bowl - how rustic

As with last year, I set off on the Friday to pick up Debs at Ashford station, but calamity struck when the gas locker door knob broke when I was stowing ready to leave. Luckily I was able to drop by Kent Motorhomes on Bluebell Hill (near where we used to live in Kent) who were incredibly helpful and were able to fix me up with a replacement handle. On the plus side, last year I travelled down in high winds and rain - this year in glorious sunshine. The pick up went without a hitch and we set off for the tunnel, crossed the ditch and set up in the aire in the Citie d'Europe for a very good night's sleep.



Honfleur
 

On Saturday it was up early and a trundle along to Honfleur over the very impressive Pont de Normandie. The aire is almost in the centre of town and we spent a delightful day exploring this lovely little port, having a leisurely lunch by the harbour and test driving calvados and the local cider. We joined the hundreds of other motorhomes on the aire (£8 per night) and enjoyed a calvados fuelled kip. What was impressive was the baker's van and the fruit and vegetable lorry turning up on site. Who needs ice cream vans!

Pont de Normandie

I bet it's a real pain when the prices change

The next day we drove through the wonderful Norman countryside and arrived at a campsite in Angers, where we stayed for 2 nights to enable us to have a good old explore of the City. It was certainly worth a visit and could make an ideal base for exploring the Loire, but as the forecast wasn't too good we decided to move on.

By now, we had a sort of plan for the next few days. We set off for the Marais Poitevin but the weather closed in and we couldn't do the planned canoe trip around the "Green Venice". It was at this site that we parked next to Tom's twin brother and compared a few notes with the owners, who were very pleased with their bus over their last model, particularly the fixed bed.

Snap!

Marais Poitevin
 

The next stop took us across the Royan Ferry to Aquitaine and the Atlantic coast. It was amazing that the weather changed completely during the half hour crossing and it was like landing in a different country with warm sunshine and blue skies. French Ferry health and safety was also in evidence on this trip. Passengers are meant to leave their cars and go up to the deck for the crossing. However, they had loaded a German A class motorhome so close to the walls that the poor driver couldn't open the door and so he was stuck inside. Nobody appeared to be overly concerned.

On the Royan Ferry

After a quick drive we found a site on the Atlantic coast with a pitch right next to the beach. We will long remember walking over the dune and seeing the endless white beach and huge surf of the Atlantic. We used this site as a base for a few days whilst we explored the vineyards of the Medoc, visiting Chateau Beaumont and also going for a few long bike rides along the excellent cycle paths in this area. What was interesting was the Sunday morning market in the nearby fishing village. The locals came out in force for breakfast, which consisted of oysters and wine!  Likewise, the shop on the site sold excellent quality AOC Bordeaux straight out of barrels for a couple of euros a litre, so the days passed in a wine flavoured haze. If you like wine, then this is the area for you!


Oysters - for breakfast?

Where wine is nearly cheaper than Petrol!
 

The weather turned again, so we moved on to Bordeaux. It rained...and it rained...and it rained. We caught a bus into the city and we got wetter inside of the bus than we did outside. It leaked like a sieve. Water was running through the lights and electrics, but nobody seemed to worry. Bordeaux is lovely and we would like to go back, but perhaps in better weather next time!  That said, the campsite was a bit iffy. Being close to the big exhibition centre there were a lot of "suits" staying who were obviously working at what appeared to be a wine fair. Our pitch was on the exit road and there were large numbers of these  tossers  exhibitors racing round in their Audis at all hours. As an aside,  we have noticed that Audi drivers in whatever country tend to be the same. I am certain that the handbook says "you are the proud owner of an Audi. Please drive like an arrogant tosser on every occasion". Not generalising, of course.....



A very wet Bordeaux

Onwards and sideways to St Emilion and a very nice campsite just outside the town. We cycled into town and bimbled around for a while, got fed up with the incredible wine snobbery and hard sell of the "off licences", so headed back via a  vineyard where we bought a grand cru to have with "us tea". The wine was fantastic, exploding with flavour and we decided to return the following day to buy a few more bottles (but cheap it ain't!).

St Emilion

Next stop - the Dordogne. Off we went to Sarlat, where our aim was to have a really good meal in this wonderful medieval town. Tick - done! It was nice, but it started to rain again and we wanted some sunshine. The forecast for the whole of France was pretty miserable, apart from the Med and Provence, so in a mad moment, we decided that we would
get up early and sprint to the med, which we did, arriving in Narbonne in glorious sunshine in the early afternoon. This is the joy of a motorhome - it is just so easy to get from place to place.

Sarlat

We found a site next to the beach and set up there for a few days to explore the area by bike. It was warm and sunny, but very windy and as we ate outside we ended up chasing our lettuce down the beach. On Saturday the Lions were playing so we found a bar to watch the game, only to find the bar owner was an ex-Narbonne/Bezier player who had played against Quins in the recent past.

It was whilst parked up here that the fridge decided that it would no longer work on mains electricity (possibly due to the reverse polarity of a number of French sites). Obviously the 3 way fridge would run on gas, but I was worried that we may run out as the temperature was so warm. I needn't have worried - the fridge and freezer quite happily trundled on using very little gas which made me wonder why we pay extra for electric hook-ups in the UK when it is obvious that we are fairly self-sufficient. Another lesson learnt.

The beaches of Narbonne looking towards Spain (60 miles away!)

There are stacks of Aires in this part of France, so it would be a very cheap holiday option to come down here and park up for a while, particularly if you didn't need a hookup to run the heating.


All too soon it was time to head North, particularly as we were so far south. The first stop was over the fantastic Millau viaduct and a night stop in Millau itself. Funny town - quite pretty, but a bit "Fenny". The campsite was right next to the river and, again, there was a risk of flying biting insects so we kept ourselves shut in at night with the flyscreens down.

The fantastic Millau viaduct

The following day we did the very impressive drive up over the Cevennes towards Clermont-Ferrand and a stop in a hilltop castle near Issoire with wonderful views from our bedroom window over a wooded valley.

The journey North continued and we stopped for a refuel of diesel and fridge in Bourges and decided to stop in the dedicated motorhome parking spot for a mosey around Town, but we found the parking full of funfair and caravans, so we moved on to a little village called Quincy in the Loire where we stayed in a vineyard under the France Passion Scheme (and bought more wine).

Quincy

Further on up towards Rouen and we stopped in a totally crap campsite (Bel-Air in Louviers). We drove through the barrier and it looked a bit tatty, but we saw a number of Brit motorhomes parked up so we thought it may be OK. We paid up under the ACSI scheme, found our pitch and went looking for water. It was then we met up with the group of Brits, all standing around with their hands on their hips and shaking their heads in disbelief at the appalling standards of this site. In true Brit fashion, we had a good laugh at how the bogs made one person heave when she went to look at them and all decided that we would use our on-board facilities rather than chance the risk of Botulism, legionnaires or typhoid from the incredibly badly maintained facilities. This was great until a lone voice said "...but I haven't got on-board facilities as I have a trailer tent - and we are booked on for 3 days".

Pleased to leave that dump, we headed through the dreaded Rouen (one of the bridges was closed so we had a bit of a detour) and on to a site we visited, and really liked, on the Somme. The weather was perfect, the pitch the size of our garden and the restaurant provided a very nice meal for our last night in France.  This area really has a lot to offer and we have decided that we would like to come back here, particularly as it is so close to the ports.

On Sunday morning is was off to the tunnel, a few more bottles of wine, and joined the queues of Eastern Europeans heading for home. As ever, as soon as we hit British soil the holdups began. We'd been home less than 2 hours and already we wanted to be back in France.

So, in all, a great trip albeit the weather wasn't perfect. We drove over 2500 miles and averaged just over 30mpg, which, considering the load we had on, wasn't too bad. Going to France makes you realise what a bloody rip-off UK sites are and just how horrendous are the offerings in Tescos compared to the lovely fresh food on offer just across the water. Oh well - until next time....

Ready for the Tour de France

The Chunnel

She actually drove!