After an overnight stop in a
free Aire de Camping Cars close to our (now back in the UK) friends John and
Marguerite at Selles-sur-Cher (it was a real shame to have missed them) we
arrived on the coast of Brittany near an old favourite of ours, Pornic. Even
more popular and busy than we remembered it when we had free camped on the
beach at nearby St Marie de Mer with the kids oh so many years ago, Pornic
still has a charm and Breton feel – although we were glad we had opted for Plaine-sur-Mer
just a few kilometres up the coast which was a lot less busy but just as
charming.
This area is known for its
seafood and the ‘sheds-on-stilts’ fishing shacks that line the coast and Plaine
was no different.
We were really lucky to get
a pitch at Camping Guichardière, as not only was it the weekend of the final of
the Euro football cup, but we were well and truly on the start of the French
‘grand vacances’ period. We were offered the only pitch vacant for the time we
wanted – and it was just fine, with loads of space and the site itself just 300
metres from the beach and boasting an adjacent cycle path into the nearby town
of Plaine.
Although we had free camped
here in the mid 90s, the boom in campervan ownership and other live-in campers
had led to a severe restriction on where campervans could park. Being France of
course there were plenty of well provided for Aires nearby, but none of them
matched the ‘on-the-beach’ experiences we’d had back in the day. Indeed it
looked as if the area had even planned against bigger live-in campers
explicitly – we’ve never come across signs like these before!
And so, with an evening walk
along the beach and the sighting of thousands of oyster and mussel shells
confirming for us that we must make the effort to get out to a local eatery
whilst here… we headed back to the site for a proper steak BBQ instead! (We had
already shopped for the meat – honest!) Of course we could also have taken one
of the local options for ‘pêche-a-pied’ – the gathering of a range of shellfish
directly from the rocks at low tide, with strictly set out sizes and quotas per
person – what a great way to get fresh shellfish if you know what you’re doing!
Lucky for the local shellfish population though, we missed the low tides….
The weather was amazing and
with temperatures in the high 20s we found it very easy to laze by the pool,
the van, or just cycle along the coastal pathways – all of them picturesque and
affording views of the crazy ‘stilt huts’ around every bend.
This part of France has a
very distinctive feel and at the end of one of our coastal evening meanders, we
spotted a makeshift tented area on the beach where, after taking a promenade,
the locals could, for a few Euros, enjoy a ‘sardinade’ where bread and sardines
were all the menu offered by way of food. The signs advertised that it kicked
off at 6.30 and, as we walked past at 7.00, it was already rammed, leaving no
space for linguistically challenged English folk to try and nab a table… Still,
we’d spotted a couple of promising eateries not far away and we promised
ourselves that we’d head off one night – but not this night, as we’d organised
our own seafood extravaganza back at the van…except the ‘one, maybe two’
glasses of chilled rosé that accompanied our blog updating at the bar soon
turned into a one litre carafe and a ‘pizza parisienne’ that took no prisoners!
One of the other interesting
things about this bit of coast is the proliferation of plots of land that have
been bought up and used as ‘private’ mini camping grounds. Some had what looked
to be water, waste and electricity and most had a resident caravan, campervan and/or
tent. They were all pretty well tended and had a cool vibe about them – almost
a commune of campers who had their own little get-away for the weekend or
longer stays. Some even had mini allotments to augment the provisioning!
The next (and final) night
of our stay in Guichardière turned out to be the footie final – with everywhere
(including nearby restaurants and bars) given over to supporting ‘Les Bleus’ (and
then absorbing their loss to Portugal in extra time) – so we reconciled
ourselves to returning to this area in the future for a shellfish spectacular, and
decided to award ourselves a consolation prize of tucker out at Dieppe the
night before we got the ferry back to Newhaven – as I write this section only two days
away!
Before then though, we
decided to give a bit more of north west France an explore and after a short
hop up the fast roads from St Nazaire to Caen, we stopped off at Pontaubault
near Avranches and Mont St Michel. We’ve both been over to the ‘Mont’ before so
decided to take the opportunity of exploring the nearby village of Pontaubault
and Camping Vallée de Sélune. This site is excellent value as at €14 without
ACSI discount (and no electricity for us) and it offers plenty of grassy
pitches (some sloping – note the use of the giant ramps here!), a village
nearby for essentials, and a convenient ‘voie verte’ that goes in one direction
to Mont St Michel, and in the other, almost to Paris (at least that’s what the
site owner David told us!).
We only ventured as far as Ducey
on the eastern leg of the voie verte, enjoying the site of the disused railway
bridge designed by M Eiffel en route and a glass of wine at our turning round
point in Ducey. The cycle path is a real treat of well-maintained (and EU
co-funded) investment and as we passed by so many desirable houses, our
thoughts turned again to what returning to the UK might mean as potential
non-EU residents…
After a tranquil night’s
sleep we bade farewell to Camping Vallée de Sélune, its idiosyncratic level
crossing barrier and its affable and very helpful English owner David, both Mrs
B and I were thinking that we’ll likely make a return trip to this area as part of
an amended route to Dieppe – or other French port depending on whether the
French will continue to support the ferry link to Newhaven or not – already under
threat before the referendum result!
And so the last leg of the
2016 summer trip commenced – with the obligatory stop at a local supermarket
for some bits and pieces to remind us of mainland Europe once back in the UK!
Usually we set a well-rehearsed
route back to Dieppe – but as we were coming from much further west than we
have for a while, we opted to take a more scenic route along the coast once we
had cleared Caen. Unfortunately, my attention to road signs must have lapsed at
some point and we ended up taking a slightly longer (but very pretty!) wander
around the Seine estuary as we headed east. We’d also remembered that our
overnight camper stop at the Dieppe port last year, whilst convenient for a
good choice or restaurants as well as the ferry, also meant we got to hear the
arrival of the night boat and the disembarkation. So, in search of a quieter
night, yet still somewhere to have an enjoyable ‘last supper’, we opted for St-Valery-en-Caux
with its 50 van capacity Aire de Camping Cars (€6).
They’re funny things these
coastal Aires, with many of them (especially near ferry ports) very busy. They
also tend to follow the ‘car park bay’ layout in that your choice of which way
round (and where) to park is predetermined. This means that vans are
cheek-by-jowl and would cause your average Caravan Club warden to have kittens
about the fire hazard! The fire risk tends not to bother us – and it’s down to
luck whether you have considerate neighbours, so we only tend to use them with
an ulterior motive (the nearby ‘Restaurant du Port’ in this case) and just as a
place to sleep. And how lucky were we – the very last bay was waiting for us to
reverse into – less daunting than it looks with the great turning circle these
Ivecos have!
And sleep we did, with no disturbances
from ferries – just fond memories of a delicious seafood meal taking on the
usual cheese-board-fuelled oddities of dreamland! Of course, being our last
night it rained (as now seems customary) just enough to prepare us for the UK.
Morning brought more dull
weather and, as I was getting the van ready for departure, a lecture from a
fellow (French) camper about the poor behaviour of one of our (English)
neighbours who had emptied his waste tank under his van – and consequently
under the French neighbour’s van as well. We really don’t get this
un-neighbourly approach, which seems depressingly common amongst a number of
British campervanners on Aires – and even some campsites. It’s not unique to
the Brits of course, but when I pointed out to the owner when he surfaced that
he might get an on-the-spot fine if the Gendarmes should pass by, he seemed
non-plussed and passed it off as an ‘accident’. Hmm…
As I write this we are on
the ferry back to Newhaven – grateful to have had yet another fabulous tour
around mainland Europe and already looking forward to the planning of our next
van adventure! As with last year’s trip to Italy, the final entry for this trip
(to follow shortly) will be a summary of some of the key data (costs, distances,
fuel consumption etc) as well as a map of the places we visited.
Thanks for reading – and if
any of you are also blogging your own van trips, do send the links so we can
add them here!
Until next time…
S.
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