Where Next?

Back to Spain.

Go to  terryandbren4@blogspot.co.uk

Since our last post we've had a couple of weeks touring the UK South Coast including 5 nights on the Isle of Wight, and a few days in Scotland after going to the Edinburgh Tattoo. A few problems with internet access that have now been resolved (bought a new MiFi device) meant blogging was a bit of a pain. We might get round to posting it sometime.

In Conclusion

We achieved what we set out to do, that is visit the Dordogne area and travel from the source to the sea, a trip that was inspired by an article in one of the magazines. It surely is a beautiful area of France but in retrospect late July was probably not the best time as, apart from the French holidays, it was really too warm. From 11.00 am it was generally too hot to walk around until early evening and so we spent more time on the road than we would have ideally preferred. However we did enjoy it sufficiently to resolve to come back, probably at a later time of year.

Friday 2 August 2013

Last day, today we go home. We managed our, not too early start, dispensing with servicing the van, and made our way to the Channel Tunnel, just 15 mins away. Check-in put us on our booked train but after a very thorough Immigration check, we were waved straight through and got on an earlier crossing.

35 mins and we arrived at Folkestone, straight into a thunderstorm, yet it had been beautiful in Calais with not a cloud in sight! Ah well, we're back in the UK. We won't bore you with the tedious journey home, the weather gradually improving as we stopped for lunch at a Little Chef. Arrived home 5.00 pm after having done more miles in one day than we had for the past week!

Thursday 1 August 2013

We don't have very far to go today so our delayed start due to a group of Belgians messing around on the service point was no problem. Hot and sunny again so our plan is to take an easy run up to Auchan in Calais to refuel and some last minute shopping (i.e. beer!) then claim a spot on the Plage aire.

Noticing that the marina aire still hosted the funfair that was arriving as we left nearly three weeks ago, we were not surprised to find the Plage aire very busy. However, probably due to the afore-mentioned closure, they had opened up the front car-park to motor-homes so we parked up there.

People came and went all afternoon but a couple from Barnoldswick parked next to us and it wasn't long before we were chatting. A pleasant afternoon turned into a lovely evening and it was with some surprise we noticed it was 11.45pm! And we were supposed to be getting up early in the morning! Never mind, it was a nice end to the holiday.

Wednesday 31 July 2013

Fecamp appears to be a nice town, probably worthy of a longer stop. It's also very popular, but the fact it is free might help! But we need to carry on north so with a nice route planned into the netbook we rejoined our old friend the D940.

We have travelled this road before a couple of times so this time we avoided some of the coastal villages. A bit of provisioning and lunch in Carrefour car-park at St Valerie-sur-Somme, we got to thinking about our night stop. Having noticed very many motor-homes on the road, we realised that aires were going to be busy so it would probably be better to stop earlier than usual and a quick calculation showed Le Touquet would be just about right, especially as there are two, one of which is quite big.

And it looked as if we were correct in our assumptions because, although the larger "airport" aire appeared to have some space, the more popular "marina" site was just about full at 3.45pm, with one space left which we snaffled! It's location meant we had a nice grassy area alongside so chairs out again for some more sun - though initially the day was cloudy the forecast good weather had finally overtaken us.

This is our last touring night, tomorrow we intend to be in Calais, so when the flying bugs started to get a bit too much we packed everything away ready for the journey home.

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Now that's more like our holiday weather. It's raining!

A dull, grey morning with frequent rain showers, though still quite warm. There's not a lot to keep us here so plotted in a route to take us north again but going a slightly different way than we've done in the past.

Roundabout Art - Pont D'Eveque

So avoiding the autoroute we crossed Pegasus Bridge then through the delightful town of Pont L'Eveque, studiously not noticing the weight limit signs - hmm a bit tight here......... Nowhere to park unfortunately, besides which it was pouring down again so we continued and crossed the Seine at Pont de Tancarville, which neither of us have seen before. Impressive enough but still no match for Pont de Normandie (but it's cheaper!)

Pont de Tancarville

Aiming to stay on reasonable roads our next aiming point was the coastal town of Fecamp and as it was lunchtime, the rain was showing signs of abating and there was a space, we parked at the marina-side aire along with the rest of the French motor-homing community.

And that's where we stayed. The weather looks like it's drying up, it looks to be a pleasant spot so we may go and explore later. Good WiFi connection here so got the opportunity to bore our many (well one or two) blog-watchers again.

Monday 29 July 2013

Moving on time again as we continue the slow trek home – boo hoo!

The weather is now significantly cooler then we experienced last week but still with lots of sunshine and very pleasant though rain showers, generally in the afternoon.

Cathedral at Flers

Nothing really interesting to report on today, just more of the long straight roads for which France is well known. Stop-offs for provisions and lunch before making away into Normandie and the area around Caen. Couldn't really make our minds up whether to stay around here for a couple of days or carry on up to the Opal Coast, that is within closer reach of Calais. We finally headed for Ouistreham, where the Portsmouth ferry comes in and which in itself is a nice holiday area.

There is a reasonably sized aire close to the ferry port, although it is a bit like a car park but with bigger bays. It was reasonably full but we thought it would be ok for one night, the only problem was the pay machine would not accept any of our cards and told us to pay at the municipal campsite which is miles away. To hell with that, there are plenty of other aires along this bit of coast.

So we moved on to the next village of Hermanville-sur-Mer where there is a small 6-place aire behind La Poste and we joined a couple of other vans at this very quiet peaceful spot, right in the centre of the village.