Wednesday 5th May 2010 – Home

An inauspicious start! This morning we collected Henrietta from the campsite where we store her and for the whole of the short journey the red battery light was lit. Although our Ford Transit handbook is in German (it is a left-hand drive German Hobby motorhome), I guessed that this meant that the battery was not being charged. This was confirmed when, having completed the last few items of packing (bike and fridge / freezer items), I tried to start the engine – the battery was dead. This was somewhat embarrassing as the neighbours had kindly agreed to my request the park Henrietta for “a few minutes” outside their house and blocking their drive. We explained our predicament and Julian assured us that it was not a problem and we could leave it there all night if we wanted. This was just as well as, after a visit from the AA (a fantastic 10 minute response), they confirmed that it was almost certainly the alternator. We were able to book her into Glastonbury Auto Electrics for the following morning and had to put the battery on charge overnight. This meant that we had to run an extension lead from Julian's garage, the one that he couldn't use because we were blocking the drive! It's wonderful to have such good neighbours – thank you Jackie and Julian.

Wednesday 25th November 2009 – Home, England

We arrived early at Calais port and were allocated a place on the11:40 P&O ferry rather than the 12:25. The wind was howling and the rain was nearly horizontal as we waiting for boarding. The good news was that we were directed to a position just one vehicle away from the exit ramp, so we were guaranteed a quick getaway when we arrived. The bad news was that we were in the open
and the van was going to be covered with salt spray. It also meant that we got rather wet just running the few metres to cover.
The journey was remarkably calm, the ferry stabilisers working very well despite the “moderate to rough” conditions that the captain warned us about. The ferry was 15 minutes late leaving but the captain, who obviously thought that he was an airline pilot, told us that he hoped to make up some of the delay during the voyage. Given the very strong winds, heavy seas and the age of the ship was extremely optimistic and we lost another 30 minutes by the time that we were tied up in Dover. We were overtaken by a Sea France ferry just before we got to Dover and that didn't help as we had to wait for it to manoeuvre in the harbour before we could enter. This meant that we arrived at the time that we would have expected should we have been on the 12:25.
I really appreciate how quiet the French roads are and the journey on the M20, M26, M25 and M3 only go to prove the point. The A303 is much more civilised normally but we were caught in the aftermath of a collision (fortunately, not serious) near Popham and were stopped for 20 minutes while the emergency services threaded their way between two lanes of vehicles.
The rest of the journey was straightforward and we parked up on our friends' drive (thank you once again Ann and Nick) at six o'clock. A minimum of unpacking was done and we walked round to a lovely warm house (thanks Ann).
Photos: This car seemed to have suffered very badly in the storms!

Tuesday 24th November 2009 – Lumbres, France

We opted for a cross-country route rather than motorway and this worked well as the countryside was much more interesting than yesterday. Hills, forest and pretty villages made the kilometres pass more quickly. We passed a number of châteaux and priories and were particularly impressed by St. Riguier with its huge priory. We didn't have time to stop but will definitely make time to look around the town next time that we are in the area.
Tonight's aire is the largest that we have ever stayed in, capable of taking hundreds of motorhomes. It is the E. Leclerc hypermarket in Lumbres. We learnt about it from the 'All the Aires of France' book and decided to use it because of its convenient location, only 45 minutes from Calais port. It allow us to do our last French shop, including the wine shop. We used a technique that we have used in France on many occasions – we found a number of bottles of wine that we liked the look of, bought a single bottle of each and then took them back to Henrietta for a wine tasting. Having decided which wines we liked best, we went back and bought a few bottles of each.
So here we are all ready for the ferry tomorrow but having heard the shipping forecast on BBC Radio 4 (Long Wave) with talk of “severe gale 9” and “storm force 10”, the journey could be interesting! The good news is that we have found a parking place in the lee of the building so we are not being buffeted by the wind. A member of staff from Leclerc has just knocked on the door to check that we were staying for the night and to tell us that the car park barriers were about to be raised and would not be opened until 08:30 tomorrow morning – what service!
Photos: An enigmatic building was our view during our lunch stop.

Monday 23rd November 2009 – Brezolles, France

I must say that today's journey was not one of the most interesting that we have done. The land was very flat and the weather was poor with very strong westerly winds and frequent showers. The wind was so strong from our left that whenever a lorry past us Henrietta lurched to the left and I had to battle with the steering to correct it. With the exception of two old windmills, obviously built to take advantage of the wind whistling across the plain, there was nothing of interest on route.
We headed to an aire at Brezolles, which turned out to be rather noisy as it was next to a main road but was otherwise very pleasant. Before the light faded we walked into the town but found it to be rather uninteresting.
Photos: Faced with rather dull architecture, one of the locals decided to brighten up the area.

Sunday 22nd November 2009 – Boulleret, France

We are ahead of plan on the journey back to Calais so we spent last night deciding where we were going to spend our spare time. Last night Jane found an aire listed in the National park (Parc Nature Regional du Morvan) just north of Luzy. It was set on a lake and there were walks from the aire – ideal. At least it was ideal until we woke up to the sound of rain in the early hours and it continued through breakfast. We decided to go to the park anyway and then decide whether to move on or stay the night. The weather brightened up slightly as we drove to Lac les Settons and although it was still rather dim, we could see past the hills of the park and over many miles of the lower land beyond. We drove through large forests, both pine and deciduous, with areas of heathland and bracken and marshy areas. There were also many more fields of Charolais cattle and we again thought that the countryside could easily have been that of Britain even if the farm architecture and the cattle were very French. It was then that the reason for this finally occurred to us – it was the fields. Unlike the overwhelming majority of France, the fields were small and had hedges or, occasionally, dry stone walls. Normally, French fields are vast areas of cereals or other crops with no field boundaries. Cattle in fields are unusual, unlike in Britain where they are commonplace. The field system in Britain is part of the reason why the British countryside is so pretty and it certainly made this area of France much more picturesque.
We arrived at the lake in glorious sunshine but the warmth in the motorhome was deceptive as there was a bitter wind. We walked a short distance around the lake and decided that we would drive on rather than freezing by the lake.
Lunchtime approached and Jane diverted us slightly to a Roman villa site shown on the Michelin map. The Compierre Roman Villa near St. Reverien is somewhat remote and, I suspect, not much visited especially in November but it proved to be quite interesting. Occupied from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD it is positioned in a valley with an abundance of iron ore and there is evidence of a considerable amount of iron smelting in addition to bronze working and pottery kilns. The site itself is in a forest and trees still grow around and in many of the buildings. The two kilometres of paths gave us an interesting walk and some fresh air before we had our lunch.
The cross-country route continued in the afternoon still with many more fields of Charolais catttle - the Pays de Charolais must be huge. We saw some lovely farmhouses, many with round turrets that were obviously fashionable around here. They may well have been emulating the châteaux that we saw that had similar towers. We also passed a number of impressive gatehouses but we will never know what the main houses or châteaux looked like as they were well hidden in the trees. Eventually the small fields and woods gave way to large fields of cereals and we approached the Loire river, crossing it at Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire. We were heading for an aire at Vailly but there was some doubt over whether it would be open at this time of the year – 'All the Aires of France' suggested that it was whereas 'Camperstop Europe' suggested that it closed earlier this month. As we drove through Boulleret I spotted an 'Aire de Camping-car' sign and following it we found a brand new aire that wasn't in either of our books. It is very smart with two large picnic tables, very large designated motorhome parking places and an excellent Euro Relais service point. The aire is free although water requires a token and a token can also be used to obtain 6 hours of electricity from a point next to designated parking spaces. Very impressive. The tokens can be obtained from any of the local shops, bars and restaurants that are only 50m away. The only problem is that on a Sunday afternoon, none of them are open. Still we parked up and investigated the area and I took photographs to send with a report to Vicarious Books so that the aire can be included in the next edition of 'All the Aires of France'.
Photos: The Château at Chitry-les-Mines; We stumbled across the lovely hamlet of Champallement with a fortified manor house and a round tower (complete with arrow slits), with no more than ten houses, one of which was the Marie (mayor's house) – the views over the surrounding area were excellent; The evening sun catches the tops of the trees in Boulleret.

Saturday 21st November 2009 – Luzy, France

We knew that there was a market in Chambery on Saturday and this was one of the reasons that we decided to stay here. The market was very good and typically French with a great variety of local produce - fruit and vegetables, meat, cheeses, cured meats and wine. The prices were high compared to Italy, especially Southern Italy but the quality and choice was excellent. We stocked up with some goodies and then headed back to Henrietta for the next leg of the journey.
We wanted to have a more rural setting for our next stop so we chose Lucy, in the middle of nowhere north-west of Macon. The journey was most enjoyable through lovely countryside and we soon started seeing lots of white cattle and then we passed a sign stating that we were in the 'Pays de Charolais'. These were the famous Charolais beef cattle and we saw huge numbers of them on the journey. 'Huge' is the right word for these cattle, they look absolutely solid and I wouldn't like to meet one of the bulls when taking a country walk. However I can confirm that Charolais beef steaks are delicious.
Arriving in Luzy, the sat nav directed us to the aire and we found it occupied by two large marquees and lots of farmers. This gave us a problem as it was some way to the next aire and the light was fading. Fortunately there was another car park next to the river just a few metres further on and we managed to find a level pitch in amongst the tractors. We went to sleep with the gentle sound of water falling over the weir and a total lack of traffic on the road next to us – Luzy is not the night-life centre of the area, even on a Saturday night.
Photos: The unusual Elephant Fountain in the centre of Chambery.

Friday 20th November 2009 – Chambery, France

Rather than going along the coast and into Southern France, we decided to use the Frejus Tunnel to cut out a long drive. This meant, against our normal principals, that we had to use motorways. It also meant that we were saying goodbye to Italy and Italian driving. Italy where speed limits are for guidance of others and the observance of fools. Italy where overtaking anywhere is possible even in 'no overtaking' areas or around blind bends. Italy where drivers are very understanding when they find someone approaching them rapidly on their side of the road but will blast the horn if someone has not gone through the lights within one millisecond of them turning green. I could continue but I have to say that I almost got used to it in the time that we were there and things that I found unnerving when we first arrived didn't even get a mention by the time that we left. And I must say that I have some sympathy for the Italians when it comes to speed limits as the authorities put up signs imposing ridiculous and impractical limits that nobody observes. On major roads and even motorways when there is a bend, poor road surface or any roadworks, the limit is often reduced to 30 kmh (less than 20 mph) and even as low as 15 kmh (less than 10mph). Faced with continually changing speed limits that are impracticably low the Italian drivers simply ignore all speed limits unless, of course, they are warned of a speed trap by the flashing headlights of oncoming vehicles.
The journey to the tunnel was pretty as we approached the mountains but after travelling through the 12km of tunnel (at a cost of €44 – ouch!) the scenery got even better. Steep-sided valleys with snow-capped peaks were followed by gorges and a very long, deep valley with a wide, fast-flowing river.
By the time that we arrived in Chambery the countryside had flattened out and was not as interesting. We found the aire easily and were lucky to get the last place in the car park large enough to take the motorhome.
We walked for ten minutes to get to the city centre with the idea of asking the Tourist Information Office about Internet access. However, on the way we passed a Quick fast food restaurant, which is a McDonalds look-alike and, like them, it offers free WiFi access. We went in and bought a milk shake and coffee for a total of €2 and sat down to use the Internet. The battery in my laptop is nearly worn out and only lasts a very short time, so I need a mains connection. Inspecting the premises, I found that there were only three tables with a mains socket and two of those were taken by other Internet users. We occupied the other table and I attempted to log on but I couldn't get it to work even though I could see the service on the WiFi list. I asked one of the other users who fortunately spoke English and he explained that he had to go further into the café to get it to work. This I did and then had to stretch the mains lead to a table that was closer to the centre and even then it was touch and go, meaning that I had to occasionally unplug and walk down the café to regain the connection. Having said that, we had one and a half hours of Internet access for €2 with free drinks, so I can't complain! I felt a little guilty until I realised that the other two people using the mains connections had been there for hours (one was having a meeting with someone when we arrived), both were still there when we left and neither of them bought anything whilst we were there. In fact the café seemed to be used as a general meeting place. All of the time people wandered in, sat down and had a chat without buying anything. A very impressive public service but not very good for the profits.
Photos: A fresh milk machine in Cherasco – you may bring your own bottle or but a plastic or glass one from the machine and at €1 per litre it was much cheaper than buying it in the supermarket; This is one up on those people who tow a boat behind their car – the owner wasn't there so I couldn't ask for a trial flight.