France - 1st trip - Days 1-5
A little drama
This is the first post in a while as we have had a bit of drama in the household. We were due to travel to France and onwards on the 12th September however Bridget slipped and fell when cycling, on the 19th August, and after a trip to the hospital we found her wrist fractured.
The hospital put her left arm in a 'slab' cast for two weeks and told us to come back and review the situation 2 weeks later at the fracture clinic on the 3rd September! They cheerfully told us the fracture was actually a break all the way across and we left with B a proud owner of a light blue fibreglass cast for another 4 weeks!
Rather than wait we decided to change our bookings and go as soon as possible and return after 3 weeks to have the cast removed and get some physio done. So we are now in France - Day 4 and the remainder of this post is the journey to date.
Getting ready to go across the channel (La Manche)
Our original plan was for a trip across the top of France, into Germany, Switzerland, southern France and Spain. This was changed and we decided to just go south and try and follow the sun somewhere down south of Paris. We re-booked the crossing for Saturday morning and the return trip for the 30th September.
We stocked up with food for 3 nights and headed south to have a night near Folkstone on the Thursday. Thanks to a little book we bought called 'Britstops' we stayed Thursday evening at a place called The Dog House about 20 minutes from the Channel Tunnel port.
This was a great find and we parked all by ourselves in the car park at the back of a rural business park. It does not sound great and was not that nice to look at but was ideal, with lots of fields in which to walk the dogs, a 1 min walk to the business park and everyone was a winner - we stayed for nothing but the park got our custom for dinner, cakes and some last minute clothes for M!
It turns out we were very lucky indeed as the M20, the main road to the Channel Tunnel port was closed at 6pm on the Friday evening all weekend with diversions in place across small country roads and an additional 40 miles driving! As we were so close were were able to drive cross country and miss the traffic all together on the Saturday morning.
Le Tréport
We were in France by 2 pm after getting the tunnel - an entirely uneventful trip which left early. We decided to head down to Le Tréport, in the Seine-Maritime department, about 2 1/2 hours from Calais. B had spotted a very nice cliff top aire and we planned to spend the first night there.
Our new Camper Tom Tom sat nav worked really well and kept us on the pretty backroads and took us directly up to the aire! We have never seen so many camping-cars (motorhomes in English!) in one place except at an exhibition! The aire is meant to have 30 and there must have been 50 or more! Chaos. No room for us and we would not have wanted to stay anyway - maybe as it was a Saturday, we were a bit late in the afternoon and not far from Paris!
We headed down into the main town and found another aire! This was also full and not very nice and a bit smelly from a local factory. There was however a spot on the road and we parked there and took the dogs for a brief walk and wondered whether to stop or move on. On the off chance on the way back we asked the local campsite if they had any room and they had one pitch left. So we decided to stay there instead - somehow better for our first night than the roadside! In the evening we had a short walk into town before the rain hit overnight.
On the Sunday morning we had a good explore of the busy seaside fishing port including a trip up the unmanned funicular railway which Luna found very scary!
The view from the top is amazing - we then walked down the hundreds of steps to buy some fresh bread, croissants and french cheese.
After a late breakfast we headed off to Foret d'Eau, the largest of northeast Normandy's great beech forests. We drove in circles trying to find the parking but once parked enjoyed a lovely walk, although due to the number of trees did not see any of the promised amazing views. We did encounter a number of moutain cyclists taking part in a race. We quickly walked round a small deserted roman villa then made our way to Neufchatel-en-Bray.
Neufchatel-en-Bray
We arrived at Camping Saint Claire at about 4pm. Nice campsite with a posh aire next door which was unsuprisingly full. We walked along the quiet cycle way into town for a quick look round the very quiet town then enjoyed a local cider at the campsite bar.
Chartres
On Monday we drove 185km south to Chartres. We parked at the free aire which is right on the side of a road into the town but decided that it was too dangerous for the dogs and we would not be able to sit outside so drove into the campsite next door. Lots to watch; an English motorhome being backed into a tree (woops), a french motorhome getting stuck on a slope and a dutch women regularly walking her siamese cat on a lead!
Chartres is a beautiful quiet city with lovely narrow streets in the old town around the magnificant gothic cathedral. The cathedral is famous for its stunning stained glass windows. These were dismantled and stored in a secret location during both World Wars hence their survival. When we arrived at the cathedral we realised that a big service was due to take place as the area was full of press, tv cameras and police. In the cathedral chairs had been labelled ready for a congregation. We worked out that the funeral of Anthoine Hubert, the French racing driver was taking place at 2pm. Chairs in the cathedral were labelled for famous drivers. As the day was warming up we decided to head back to Vincent via a boulangerie to spend the afternoon relaxing in the sun.
After supper (Moroccan Chicken), here is the chef preparing food, we decided to head into town to see Chartres en Lumieres. The campsite stated the gates shut at 10pm so we asked the man at the desk if the pedestrian gate remained open. He said it did but B was definitly not convinced his English and our French was good enough that he did not mean 'yes' it closed! Anyway, we left Mitzi asleep and headed into town with Luna. The light shows are featured on many of the bridges and buildings along the river plus on the outside of the churches. The show on the main facade of the cathedral was stunning. It told the story of Chartres - well worth risking having to climb over the fence into the campsite (although not sure it is possible with a cast on). After seeing the phenominal lights we marched home and phew the gate was still open at 10.30pm.
