Europe 20 Jul 14 Home

Day 45 Sun 20 Jul.  After 45 days, 3,081 miles, 6 Countries, 1 Principality and 1 Duchy we arrived home and forced the door open against the piles of junk mail stacked behind it.  Apart from the one episode of brake overheating coming over the Alps the bus behaved impeccably, with an indicated average 32 mpg for the whole route (not bad considering the amount of wine, clothes and shoes on board and the fact that a lot of the journey was very hilly (understatement)). We were very lucky with the weather - in fact it was almost too hot on occasion (40 degrees on one day). Six weeks is just not long enough and, apart from the fact that Debs had to go back to work, we didn't need or want to come home. Living in box for 6 weeks also made us realise how much crap we accumulate at home!

Europe 19 Jul 14 Calais

Day 44 - Sat 19 Jul. Our last full day. A very long drive of 320 miles took most of the day, stopping for lunch at a pleasant motorway aire near Reims. Arriving at about 3pm, we had a wander around the shopping centre and bought some new Lafuma stools and frying pans in the outlet area, before parking up for the night in the usual parking area. We then spent a very pleasant few hours sharing experiences with the other motorhomers on site (it was very convivial wandering around a car park with a glass of wine in hand) until a terrific thunderstorm sent us scuttling back to the van and marked a very noisy end to our holiday.

 

Excellent new beer and wine shop in Citie d'Europe

 

Europe 18 Jul 14 Langres

Day 43 Fri 18 Jul. An early start after a very hot, humid and uncomfortable night. It was 34 degrees at 9pm! Drove north on the autoroute for about 150miles to an old favourite campsite at Lac du la Liez near Langres in the Champagne-Ardenne region. Unfortunately it was high season and the site was overpriced and full of kids. The swimming pool looked like a jar full of tadpoles. We knew that the food was good so, as a last meal for this holiday, we went the restaurant. They had closed the nice indoor part of the restaurant, so we had to use the very noisy canteen tables outside with the partially dressed Dutch, which make up the majority of the populace here. The food was excellent, the service absolutely appalling,  so after waiting 25 mins for the bill to arrive we just took a best guess at the price and walked out. It's probably our fault for expecting too much for the very high season, but if they are going to charge the prices then they need to match the service.

 

 

Europe 17 Jun 14 Pont du Gard/Beaujolais

Day 42 Thu 17 Jul. We were awoken early by the vigneron hammering, so it was a quick shower in the bus then the 12 mile drive to the Pont du Gard and paid 18 yoyos to spend a couple of hours photographing this interesting Roman aqueduct and getting lost on the poorly waymarked trails around the area. We wanted to clear the notorious traffic bottlenecks around Lyon, so we hit the motorway until clear of the city and then spent ages driving around the stunning Beaujolais region looking for a France Passion stopover. Eventually we found a very pretty spot and tested his wines. It would have been rude not to have bought a case of wine whilst staying on the vineyard............

 

 

Not a bad view from the bedroom

 

 

Europe 16 Jun 14 Gaujac

Day 41 - Wed 16 Jul. Time to start heading back north, which was a shame as the weather had been so good. We spent the morning on the beach, restocked at the massive Hyper-U at Agde, lunched in McDonalds (we know how to live), then drove on to our overnight stop in the vineyard of Chateau de Marjolet (about 30km from Avignon).  This is a France Passion site in the very pretty village of Gaujac. It was rude not to buy a case of Cotes du Rhone whilst on a vineyard.

 

 

Europe 8 - 15 Jul 14 Agde

 

Day 32 to 41 Agde. Time for a week off relaxing on the glorious Languedoc beaches just to the west of the big seaside resort of Cap d'Agde. With the French holidays starting, and Bastille Day looming, places were becoming busy so we found a nice site about 50 yds from the beach and decided to stay put until we started our journey back. We used the bikes to cycle around, including to the old town of Agde where we had a delicious fish dinner in a floating restaurant on Bastille Day, and a trundle along the very picturesque Canal du Midi. On one early morning ride out to get bread I even got caught up in a massive pelaton from the Harlequin cycling club!  

On most nights during this holiday period there were firework displays along the coast, but one of the best nights was in a little pizza restaurant run by a rugby mad Toulouse supporter where we ended up leaving in the early hours of the morning despite going out for a "quick pizza and an early night". 

 

Basically, this was our "holiday" of lazing on the beach, swimming in the med and just relaxing.

 

Swing bridge at Sete

Palaves

Cap D'Agde

Canal du Midi

Just a little dessert

Bastille night at the Port

Agde