France 11 to 19 September 2023

11 - 19 September 2023 

Monday 11 Sept.     Finish packing up the van and leave Balcombe about 8.20 am.  Warm day but it looks like the 32°C heatwave has passed.  It takes under an hour to drive to the port of Newhaven, where we're catching the ferry to Dieppe in France.    Our passports are checked and we are given boarding passes and then settle down to wait in a queue.

We’re very early so I use the time to make up the bed and John finds the headlight deflectors needed for driving in France.   We admire the beautiful cars that are returning from Goodwood as part of the Paris to Goodwood rally. 

Start to board about 10.20 and are under way at 10.50, ten minutes early.  Very calm crossing. Have something to eat in the cafe and buy a bottle of not very nice duty-free brandy;  the staff are all French as are the posters on the wall.  I like this one which translates as “Gentlemen, aim right” and “Here’s the toilet”

Arrive in Dieppe, disembark, have our passports stamped and set off.  The new suspension that John has fitted is a success and gives a smooth ride.    Call at a supermarché for dinner supplies then to Quiberville and the Domaine Saâne et Mer campground half  an hour east.  

The camp site has views of rolling hills and good facilities, but the facilities don't have any signs on the doors so you have to wander about opening doors - here's a shower, there's a wash basin cubicle, where are the loos?!

We order bread and croissants at reception to collect for breakfast tomorrow.  Our newest toy is a carpet, 5 X 2 metres to put on the ground outside and which helps to keep dust/ mud from being tracked into the mo-ho.

Tuesday 12 September   after breakfast we set off in the direction of Le Havre and pass what seems to be a Swiss Army knife windmill.  

We drive over one of our favourite bridges, the Pont de Normandie, a high suspension bridge  which crosses the mouth of the River Seine.   

More attractive buildings in the villages we drive through.

To the outskirts of Caen where we go to a shopping mall with a big car park.  Visit a shop to buy a SIM card for the mo-ho router, then go for a dash round a supermarket for further supplies.

A half hour drive south from Caen and we reach tonight's campsite, Camping du Château at Falaise.  We really are somewhere special as we’re at the base of the castle walls and are surrounded by charming old houses.  

We arrive about 3.45 pm and reception is closed until 4.30 but there's a blackboard which has several names, including mine, and pitch numbers on it (I'd booked on line yesterday - this isn't just another example of my  ESP powers).  We get set up at pitch 32, then I go to reception to pay the outstanding balance for the campsite (total c €25) and order bread and croissants for tomorrow.

About 6.00 pm I walk into the town, entering via one of the former fortified city gates.   

The town is the birthplace of William the Conqueror which is why I have a bit of a giggle when I find an old red British phone box on a corner.  

Yes, it's being used as a book swap library.  The town has a mix of the very old e.g. two large churches, the fairly old e.g. the Hôtel de Ville (town hall) and new.  I think the town  got pretty battered during WWII.

Back to the campsite for supper and to bed.

Wednesday 13 September  quite a long day today, starting with a drive back to Caen to the shop where we’d bought the router SIM card, which is not working.   The shop assistant who spoke a little English is not there today, only a Francophone colleague, so my ‘technical’ French is used - but the chap does something to activate the SIM and it all seems to work.    

It's a 330 km (205 mile) drive, mostly on toll free motorway, from Caen to Arzon in Brittany,  where we’re booked on a campsite for two nights.  Some very pretty towns to be seen in the distance, such as Avranche, but mostly we drive through open countryside, stopping at a service and rest area for lunch.   The cough that I have had for the past 10 days shows signs of abating after five days of antibiotics, but is still hanging around.

We can tell when we reach Brittany as many of the place names on the road signs are both in French and Breton.

We reach Arzon late afternoon and check in to the campsite,  which is the first campsite where the receptionist speaks English (better than my French).   Despite the site map it takes a bit of oodling around to find our pitch, but we find it eventually.  Big clean shower and loo blocks, with laundry facilities, nice pitch under the pine trees.   We connect to the electricity and turn on the gas, then get set up on the pitch;  I realise that, since we got to France, we have been enjoying outdoor living every day as we can unwind the awning, set up the carpet and unfold the chairs and table!  It's not very warm in the evenings but that's what extra clothing layers and rug are for.

Go for a walk to the sandy beach and have a paddle - the water  is cold enough not to go in above my ankles.

Thursday 14 September I go to reception to collect the bread and croissants ordered yesterday when we checked in.  Bit awkward as I can’t remember our pitch number and can’t pick it out on the campsite map (in my defence I don’t have my glasses on and this is the third campsite/ pitch number in as many days).  At least I can remember John’s surname and identify the pitch number and our breakfast that way!

I go for a shower for which we have each been given a bracelet with an electronic gizmo that allows you three showers of up to seven minutes each per day.   The trouble is that the instructions - in pictures - aren’t 100% clear so I have to get dressed again and fortunately find a cleaner in the shower block who demonstrates what I should have been doing….

After breakfast I take our dirty clothes to the laundry and at least am able to operate a washing machine without seeking help!  Hang up the laundry, tidy up, John cleans a lot of dead insects from the front of the mo-ho and I write the blog.

We walk about a mile along a path above the beach and go to a supermarket to stock up.  Lovely day today and once we get back I take a chair to the beach and sunbathe and read for an hour.   Have a shower (now I've got the hang of it) and then we enjoy a bottle of Breton cider before dinner and then TV.

Friday 15 September.   Shower, collect bread and croissants and have breakfast.  A slow start as we are leaving today but not going very far - to Nantes to visit Marion and JP, a French couple whom we met in South America.  Get to reception at 12.30 pm precisely to find they shut for an hour and a half for lunch at 12.30 pm precisely.   My bad for not checking the opening (and closing) times, but really annoying.  Wait around and finally are able to pay for our pitch/ croissants etc.  Also have to pay €5 for a shower bracelet as I'd lost mine.

After about a two hour drive we reach La Chapelle-sur-Erdre just outside Nantes, and with a bit of manoeuvring and an anxious moment or deux John parks the motor home in the drive behind JP and Marion’s house.   Lovely to see them again and to meet Nell the cat.

The house is charming - it has been lived in for some time by an old lady who, now in her 90s, has moved to an old people’s home.   Some of the decor is very orange but the house is comfortable and spacious.  

Marion’s parents live next door and apparently her mother is keen to meet us and practise her English.    Apart from being bitten by flying beasties as soon as we exit the mo-ho we have a very enjoyable afternoon sitting in the garden,catching up with travel news (JP and Marion have only been back from South America for a few weeks)  and meeting Patrice and Cathy, Marion’s parents.    

This evening the All Blacks are playing Namibia in the Rugby World Cup being held here in France so of course we have to watch the match.   Marion’s mother is fascinated by the haka and insists on dancing along to it.  

Fortunately the All Blacks win this match after having lost to France the previous week.

Saturday 16 September    Today we are going in to Nantes to a beer festival and we pile into JP’s car - there is a lot of construction work going on in the city so it takes a bit of time to get to our first stop to look at an elephant…. which turns out to be a huge mechanical elephant, made of wood and steel, with a few brave souls riding on it - it is pouring with rain at this point so this picture is courtesy of the internet .

We get back in the car and head for the beer festival, Nantes Sous Pression 2023 (‘Nantes under pressure’).   

JP and Marion have bought us our tickets for the festival and insist on buying a lot of the drinks.  We are each given a small glass to use for sampling the different beers - we try quite a number of the beers, including two from English breweries (one Cornish and one from Leeds), with a variety of flavours.   Hint of rhubarb is OK but the wasabi one is not to be repeated.   Have lunch from the food trucks and meet several of JP and Marion’s friends.

We leave, together with Etienne, a friend of JP and Marion’s, and it is definitely a tight fit in the car.   We go to see Trentemoult, an area of the city with very colourful houses and have a wander round.    

Visit a small fair which is a mix of artisanal and ‘green’ stalls then go for a drink in a bar by the river (the Loire).   Weather is lovely now.

Back to La Chapelle-sur-Erdre and have a few drinks and are joined by two more friends, Will and his girlfriend.  The poor girlfriend is exhausted as she had been out last night, had worked at her pharmacist job all day today and now was out again!   We enjoy gallettes (Breton pancakes) for dinner.   

 I think I am the first to go to bed around midnight……  JP and Etienne stay up until around 5.00 am.   

Sunday 17 September   Set off for Bordeaux, with promises to meet again, hopefully in England.    We are planning to stay at a vineyard tonight which offers free camping (but no facilities) but, despite having emailed them, we don’t know if they will have a place available tonight.    It's about a four hour/ 225 mile drive but mainly on autoroutes.   At lunch time I am persuaded to phone the vineyard (always harder to converse in French on the phone than face to face) and am relieved that, when I ask ‘parlez vous Anglais?’, she says ‘yes’.   Confirm that they don’t take bookings but that if we turn up as planned by about 4.00 pm we should find a space.

We reach Vignobles Pestoury safely - the vineyard has been in the same family for five generations and they are in the process of going organic - first organic vintage will be 2023.  Every evening they offer a free tasting of their wines;   we opt for the 7.00 pm talk and tasting by the daughter of the family who speaks good English - the audience is a German family, a Dutch couple, us and another UK couple, and there’s another talk going on in French in the next room.   We sample a crémant, a white, a rosé, and two reds from the same vines and vineyard but one from 2021 and one was 2022 - completely different weather conditions leading to completely different wines.  The final sample is a St Emilion - the family used to own vines in that part of Bordeaux, but it was too hard to manage because of the distance from home, so they sold them.   Suffice to say that we bought three bottles of the 2022 and three of the St Emilion, without bankruptcy, and having learned still more about wine making.

Monday 18 September   Set off about 10.30 am after most of the other camper vans have gone, and have another four plus hour drive of over 200 miles, heading for Carcassonne.    We are booked to stay at a campsite at Villemoustaussou just outside Carcassonne, which is a bit of a shame as Carcassonne is completely over the top with its mediaeval citadel, La Cité, and numerous watchtowers and double-walled fortifications.

However we've visited Carcassonne in the past and hopefully it will still be there next time we’re in the area.

Reach the campsite, where there is a queue of cars to get in and a queue at reception.   15 minutes and one German and two Dutch parties later I have been bitten several times (I swear the flying beasties can scent me at 100 yards), have checked in and got the pass card for vehicle access.  Go round the block a bit until we find our pitch 44 - the pitches are both numbered and have names.  We are ‘Blanquette de Limoux’ which is apparently the world’s first sparkling wine, invented by the Benedictine monks in Limoux (just south of Carcassonne) around 1500, more than a century before Champagne was first created.    

Have a quiet evening - visit the campsite bar for a beer but drinking in France is pricey (€12.50 [£10.77] for nearly a pint and a half) so we just have the one.

Tuesday 19 September   bit of a queue for the showers, followed by emptying the black and grey waste water and remembering to return the pass card to reception, before we finally get on the road. 

A longer drive today of around 260 miles travelling from Carcassonne to Montpellier, Nimes,  Aix, Toulon and Hyeres.   

We are sad not to be able to call in on Sebastian & Claire in Montpellier, and the other places are all cities it would be good to spend time in, but we want to get to the campsite at Le Lavandou and set up for a week’s R & R while the chauffeur still has some energy.  Yes, I am letting someone else do all the driving.   

We stop at a fuel station to fill the LPG tanks and buy more diesel -  a problem in getting the LPG pump to work but monsieur the cashier is very helpful.   Heavy traffic through Toulon and Hyeres and we finally reach Le Lavandou (well, the neighbouring village of La Favière) just after 5.00 pm

Anyone who has known me for at least 50 years will recall that for many years we came to the Camp du Domaine at La Favière for family holidays.   It was a great place to be, and with so many friends from home also making the trek there it became known as ‘Streatley sur Mer’.    It has grown like topsy since then and we are in a pitch under some plane trees that definitely weren't here in the 1960/70s.  The village of La Favière now has houses infilled right up against the fence of the campsite.

At reception we are given a ?towel ? table cloth as a 'gift', which, when we open it, says it is to celebrate Camp du Domaine's 70th birthday. As 2020 was COVID year, I guess is why they are handing them out now...

Decide to have a takeaway pizza for supper tonight but it's very disappointing - we'll definitely look forward to Fabs Pizza food truck when we're back in Balcombe.