Coast to Coast in two days – almost!

Finding ourselves in the bizarre situation of heading north to enjoy cooler weather (!) we discovered that this year’s great leap north looked to be a relatively easy affair, as we were not that far from the fabulous and free A25 motorway, which we could take all the way to Clermont Ferrand.

Making sure we were well stocked with all our favourite southern goodies (including a stop at the excellent local wine cooperative in Sérignan), we managed to head onto the A25 by midday, not entirely sure of how far we would get, but grateful that we should get a good chunk of the route home out of the way.

Apart from the heat being pretty intense in the mid 30s; our non-aircon cab maintaining the same temperature as outside for most of the time; and our shouting skills becoming finely tuned as we battled over the wind noise from the open windows to hear each other – the first leg was problem free.

We stopped for a break at the roadside aire near Garabit to take a look at the fabulous viaduct/bridge, built by none other than Gustave Eiffel of tower fame. In years gone by we would have driven past it a good number of times, but this was the first occasion that we’d actually stopped to take a peek. Built in 1885 and the highest bridge in the world at the time, it’s still in use today although with speed limits, and is a good reminder of the building skills of the 19^th century.

Mrs B was on duty for finding somewhere to stop for the night, and she soon spotted that we might be able to make it to a small but lovely lakeside aire that we had last visited in 2012, in St Pardoux. It only has spaces for four campervans and is accessed via a narrow road a few miles into the countryside – so we knew we were taking a gamble, but took some comfort in the large number of campsites not too far away – just in case.

We had been tailing a couple of other campervans as we headed towards the small village, where we would need to turn off to get to the aire. And sure enough, they both turned off in the direction we were heading…

Luckily, they also both turned off towards one of the campsites, so our spirits soared that we might stand more of a chance of nabbing one of the four places. And sure enough we did, with two vacant spots left – phew!

With enough space to get the table and chairs out for our evening meal (and noting that both of our French neighbours were already tucking in) we heaved a big sigh of relief that our gamble had paid off. And it didn’t take long before our neighbours wandered past to say hello, looking as is so often the case at our Scottish flagged number plate and asking where we were from, in French of course.

For regular readers and people who know him, yet again Mr B didn’t let his limited grasp of French get in the way of a conversation, little expecting that his new bezzy mate Jerome would keep him talking for an hour whilst Mrs B was left to labour over the food. Even its arrival and the commencement of eating and drinking didn’t deter Jerome from his desire for a natter. And neither did Mr B’s obvious linguistic limitations put him off ranging across a range of topics, including of course ‘Le Brexit’!

We figured that Jerome must have been pretty starved of conversation and/or was just one of those super-friendly people out there, but we did benefit enormously from his sharing of an App that was new to us for seeking out places to camp up overnight (or park during the day). Park4night.com is another Dutch managed app that works reliably all over Europe and, as we discovered subsequently, was pretty useful in locating some interesting places to sleep for the night. Used in conjunction with the Camper Contact and ACSI apps we had been using for a while, and this year’s other discovery, Pass E’tapes, we came to learn that we now had some pretty reliable resources to do more advance planning than ever before – so thanks Jerome!

After a lovely peaceful and cool night, (as St Pardoux is high enough to cool down overnight) we got off to an (unusual for us) early start as we continued towards the northern coast. It turned into a longer and slower day, but we managed to get as far as St Rémy-sur-Avre where one of our apps showed us a good value Municipal campsite. Coincidentally, we had stopped here before to have lunch, never guessing that there was a campsite in the middle of the village! We knew we could have gone on further, but as we had left enough time to spend a few days on the Normandy coast before our ferry, we decided there was no rush.

With the weather still holding steady in the mid-30s, it didn’t take us long on arrival to find a spacious and shady pitch tucked away on the edge of the site. And what an amazing view through the skylight in the morning!

With all available skylights and windows fully open and the (almost silent) skylight fan on full to maximise airflow and to try and drop the inside temperature as much as possible, (as the Canicule sat stubbornly over this part of France and kept the night time temperatures in the high 20s), the hum of nearby aircon units on turbo from the large office block across the other side of the site, replaced the southern drone of cicadas. And although we were both used to the background noise of cicadas, Mr B struggled to convince himself that this noise was close enough to ignore!

Making another unusually early start, we stopped for lunch at the aire at Lamotte-Beuvron– another regular spot for us from the past. We’ve not been there for a while and were amused to see that there is now a floating restaurant on the small artificial lake, well positioned to admire the fountains and capture more of the tourist-euro…

We used the stop in the shade of the trees to make some decisions on where to stay near Dieppe, having sworn last year that we would swerve the aire at the port at all costs because of the inevitable noise from the arrival of our morning ferry! Using our growing suite of helpful apps, we plumped for an ACSI site in St Valery-en-Caux that would give us a discounted rate until our very last night, when we would then need to pay what we expected to be a small-ish increase (Normandy not having the pull of the Mediterranean, we thought…).

We’d decided to go to Dieppe before the site, so we could have a more relaxed ‘last chance’ shop in the large Auchan hypermarket there, as well as test the journey time to and from the site. So we arrived at Camping Etennemare mid afternoon and were presented with a free choice from a good number of vacant pitches, and also the news that our ACSI rate of €16 a night would rise to €28 for our final night! Clearly this part of Normandy was more popular than we had anticipated – as we soon discovered when most of the vacant pitches filled in over the weekend!

We found the site to be very ‘English’ in its layout, with box hedges surrounding a lot of the large grass pitches and quite unlike most of the other stops we had made across France. Still, with the weather set fair the day we arrived, a heated swimming pool and a short walk into the town where we could have our French ‘last supper’ as we planned, it seemed to be a great alternative to the noisy port-side aire in Dieppe. It certainly had some novelty value in terms of having one of the tiniest caravans we had ever seen!

We managed to squeeze one last day of pleasant sunny temperatures lazing about on the site, before, on our final day of the trip (and in classic return-to-the-UK stylie we have experienced before) the weather changed for the worse, with cloud, drizzle and temperatures almost half those we had been used to! It didn’t stop us from exploring the town of St Valery-en-Caux though, along with loads of locals undeterred by the weather as they swarmed to either the enormous boules festival right near the site, or the mackerel festival at the port. With huge queues waiting for barbequed mackerel, we plumped to lunch on home made quiches from a small stall on the quayside, and very warm and delicious they were too.

We discovered that as well as the charming mediaeval centre of the old town, and a very beautiful contemporary church with stunning stained glass windows, built after the war, St Valery-en-Caux was (in)famous as the location of the ‘other’ and untold Dunkirk of 1940 when around 9,000 allied troops were surrounded by the German army whilst they awaited rescue from the beaches. Unfortunately, the ships never came and although most of the troops were British (the 51^st Highland Division) they were under French Army control and on the 12^th June French officers surrendered. With escape virtually impossible, the 51^st Division also surrendered. Over 1000 soldiers had been killed and 4000 wounded. 8,000 were marched into Germany and Poland to spend the rest of the war working in fields, factories and the salt mines of Thuringia alongside inmates of the Nazi concentration camps, as slave labour. We also discovered that a few soldiers to the west of the town managed to escape and a few made it on foot to Le Havre and were evacuated. Others made their way through to Spain, and then Gibraltar before finally sailing home.

Having visited the D-Day beaches at the start of this trip, it was fascinating and sobering to discover a part of the pretty well documented history of WW2 that we never knew about – and probably still wouldn’t had we not visited St Valery-en-Caux.

With the weather unexpectedly improving to a glorious sunny day and clear blue sky on the day we headed for the ferry, our good fortune was boosted by the campsite only charging us the ACSI rate for all of our stay – woohoo!

And unusually, as we sat at the port in Dieppe waiting for the ferry, we knew we were not yet at the end of this year’s adventure, as we were returning to the UK but were then heading west for a final week of adventure and catching up with friends in Somerset and Dorset. What a great opportunity to compare and contrast campervan travel in the UK and mainland Europe!

And, as if to set the tone, as we entered the port of Newhaven, the good weather that had stayed with us across the Channel was clearly settled in the UK, and we were treated to an aerial display by paragliders over the old fort – another first for us!

S&J

Sérignan Part Two – and that heatwave! Sizzling in Sérignan…

 After our adventure along the Canal-du-midi, we clearly felt we had need of some serious down-time – so much so that the eventual length of our stay was a whopping 18 nights – probably the longest we’ve stayed anywhere on a camper van adventure! Not quite the type of exploration of France we had envisaged at the start of the trip, but a welcome reminder of the fabulous times we had spent on a very similar beach at Oliva in Spain.

So, what was it that kept us there and would we visit again?

The short bike ride along a dedicated cycle path between the town and beach was one of the factors that helped us laze away the days – and importantly, not need to move the van off the pitch until the day we left. It’s not really that hard to pack down and go off for supplies or even a day out, but when you’ve drifted into that laid-back vibe and there’s really no need, those folding bikes come into their own! Between us, there’s enough carrying capacity in panniers, rucksacks, baskets etc to fetch a few days’ supplies in one trip. And with local fruit and veg suppliers, an artisan bakery and a few decent resto/bars all within a 15 minute walk of the site (plus the site’s own shop) it all became very easy indeed to feel at home on our corner pitch, five minutes from the beach…

The beach is probably one of the biggest factors that made it so easy to stay, as it stretches for miles in each direction with easy access to safe and shallow warm water. There’s plenty of chance to raise the pulse rate with different water based sports or, as we opted, just to wander up and down the beach and enjoy the ever changing scenery and listen to the different languages drifting across the sand. Needing only to load up our festival trolley with whatever we felt we needed for the five minute walk to the beach, it soon became part of daily life to spend a few hours there most days. Or even an evening tipple and apero on the handily placed bench overlooking the beach…

The site itself is worthy of praise, and not just for its discounted ACSI prices! With touring pitches dotted amongst a range of cabins, and most pitches offering shade at some point of the day with imaginative and colourful planting, it was easy to see why it was so popular with campers that favoured a more traditional and slightly old-school site. With a sheltered pool, outdoor gym and free paddleboards and canoes on the beach for guests, as well as a children’s play area and ping pong, low key entertainment and a decently priced restaurant and shop (star buy – 1 litre of draught local rosé at €3!), it was pitched just right for us!

We’re not usually that bothered about the sanitary arrangements so long as they are kept clean, but we loved the fact that our nearest block was home to a small group of ‘hirondelles’ or barn swallows, that did an excellent job of keeping the insect population down (including it seemed, mosquitoes) as well as providing a daily display of aerial mastery accompanied by some jaw-dropping flight paths in and out of the block!

On the days that we were able to drag ourselves away from the beach, the town of Sérignan delivered a lot more than we were expecting. The main square where we had lunch with our friends on the first Sunday also hosted a market three days a week. As is the case in many provincial towns with more than one market day, different stallholders would visit on each of the days. 

Prices were reasonable (and very good at the road-side stores too). Over the length of our stay we worked out that we could survive easily without getting the van off site, and that there was more than enough to keep us well fed and entertained, with a small supermarket, poissonerie (where we discovered the delicious Limande Cardine which we think is a Megrim/Whiff), local wine producers, oyster bar, vegan café, butcher, more artisan boulangeries than you could shake a baguette at, and a pretty interesting range of restaurants. Plenty to make us confident that a return visit would still be delivering new places and experiences! 

For any fish experts out there, here’s that fish:

One of the entertaining things we noted as we settled into near-resident status, was the noise that wafted on the breeze from nearby camp sites of an evening. Noisy enough to be vexing on occasions, but always over by midnight, we were intrigued to find out exactly what was going on at one site where, night after night, we would hear the raucous DJ shouting loudly (if mainly indecipherably) including lots of numbers… With curiosity getting the better of us, we ended up taking a walk into the site, only to discover that it was a form of video karaoke/dance moves with the happy campers (of all ages) stomping their stuff to the on-screen animations, and the DJ (whose speakers were placed so that nearby camp sites heard as much if not more than those dancing and singing!) shouting out count-downs to new dances and then scoring participants at the end. And once we knew what it was, it became a whole lot less annoying, strangely!

And as our stay at Sérignan drew to a close, Mr B discovered a new talent for lock picking! After returning from one of our bike rides, he had noticed that his heavy duty chain lock had come undone on the return journey, and thought nothing of it when he locked the bike to the van. Except, when we came to set off for our next ride, the usual combination wouldn’t work – eek! Reaching for the hammer and hacksaw out of the tool box, and wondering why he hadn’t packed the bolt croppers, fortunately, Mrs B managed to head him off by suggesting that a quick trawl on the Interweb might be more useful. And so it was that after a couple of YouTube demos on how to crack a combination cycle lock, and a hot and sweaty 45 minute steep learning curve for Mr B, he managed to get it open! And as if to check on his learning new skills, a couple of days later Mrs B’s lock also changed its combination on its own (we never did work out how any of this happened) but after a mere five minutes, Mr B had it open. We are, of course, now reconsidering what we lock our bikes up with…

What eventually encouraged us to move on was the by now infamous ‘canicule’ or heatwave that had sat over France, delivering 41 degrees centigrade on site and then ‘cooling off’ to the mid 30s. The idea of arriving on the northern French coast a few days earlier and chilling in temperatures forecast in the low 20s gained more traction, until we eventually decided that we could probably do the drive north with maybe only a couple of overnight stops, leaving us three bonus days somewhere in Normandy before our ferry back to Blighty…

S&J