It's warmer up north

Wednesday 18 September 2024

Nido's parked up on the aire in Forges-Les-Eaux.  We've stayed here a few times; it has large tarmac pitches with electric, a nice view over the fields and is on a natural route travelling from and to Calais.   It's very warm out this evening with a large harvest moon. We'll stay here until tomorrow afternoon as Cathy has her first online Welsh language lesson of the new academic year, then we have to drive fifteen minutes to Buchy for Salty's appointment with the Vetty Man; I've had a text saying he'll be seen by Docteur Vet William Addey.  It's almost like he's seeing a hair stylist, rather than taking his worming tablet and having a rabies booster!

Yesterday was a bit of a transit day to get us this far north.  The drive was about 2.5 hours and included a stop at a Super U Hypermarket.  We had a list of food and stuff we want to take home, as well as a few presents for those who have looked after our garden and kept an eye on the house.  Luckily Cathy is very good at packing, as we bought A LOT of things - in fact €267 worth of things! They're all safely stowed under the bench seat and I've kept the receipt in case 'the Revenue' want to see proof of purchase when we book in for the Shuttle.  There's only a couple of bottles of wine and a few beers though (all of those are presents) and the rest is food, coffee etc.  Once that mammoth task was done, we carried on to the Camping Car Park aire at Lyons-la-Forêt.  The CCP app said the place was full, but I've known this to be inaccurate before and sure enough there were about four spaces.  We managed to bag the pitch right at the end with the sliding door opening out on to a fence and hedge, which provided privacy for us but, more importantly, meant nobody would be walking by to freak Salty out.  He's fine with people but definitely not fine with other dogs - long story based around a sad and cruel first year until he was rescued and re-homed with us - poor dog (on both counts!).

oooh - new chairs!

It was hot and sunny, so we sat outside for a quick lunch before taking a walk through the beech forest to walk around the village.  Recognised as one of the 'beautiful villages of France, Lyons-la-Forêt is a hidden gem situated in the heart of Normandy’s largest forest, the Forêt domaniale de Lyons-La-Forêt, which covers an enormous 11,000 acres. There's an array of magnificent half-timbered, pink brick or tinted cob (clay and straw) houses. The village boasts tearooms, little restaurants, the odd hotel, antiques shops and the beautiful 18th-century timber-framed covered market. A long street leads you beside the Lieure river to the picturesque Church of Saint-Denis, which dates from the 12th to the 16th century. This little village, with some 800 inhabitants, became a favourite place for the cultured individual to come and find peace and for artists to find inspiration. The composer Maurice Ravel even penned some of his most beautiful pieces of music here and we walked past the house where he lived, complete with ornate, green-glazed chimney pots.

Ravel's house is the big one in the background with the pointy roof

Ravel's house (courtesy of the Lyons Andelle Tourist Information website)

Back at the van we sat outside with an ice lolly and cold drink, next to the clear chalk stream flowing alongside the site.  Cathy made a delicious Thai chicken soup and, back on EHU, we did some more YouTube catch up before I caught up on Môn SAR training group emails.

This morning we drove a short distance to the aire in the small village of Saint Saire.  It's on a square patch of grass next to the Avenue Verte cycle path, which used to be a railway line.  The adjacent railway station is now a restaurant and café, but wasn't open today.  The original plan was to stay here tonight and tomorrow for Cathy's Welsh lesson and I'd go for a bike ride to a town up the cycle path in search for a coffee.  However, the small village had a busy cut-through road next to the aire and the grass area felt a bit exposed.  Added to that, the internet signal was too weak for a 2.5 hour Teams video call, so we decided not to stay.  

However, an interesting looking 6km circular walk started from the railway station, so we had a cup of tea and headed off south along the cycle path.  It was a warm and sunny day with a steady breeze and we enjoyed the stroll, listening to the birds and watching the leaves fall as autumn marched on.  A combination of cycle path, lanes and sunken paths, we wandered past fields of maize and cattle, old farms and charming cottages.

Once abundant hedgerow destroyed by the flailing machine

....all in the name of 'tidiness'

The drive to Forges-Les-Eaux was only ten minutes and after I'd paid at the campsite on the opposite side of the road, we sat outside in the warm sunshine with a cup of tea and a shared lemon tart.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing, reading, snoozing and eating dinner.  All is quiet now and it's an early night, ready for a busy day tomorrow.

Getting ready to return home

 Thursday 29 September 2022

Nido's parked up on the aire at Forges-les-Eaux, which is run by the campsite opposite - Camping de la Miniere. Although €9, which includes EHU, it made sense to come here as it's mid-way between last night's stop and the vets in Buchy, where Salty has an appointment tomorrow for his pre-UK worming tablet.  It's a calm, peaceful evening with a nice sunset; probably set to turn quite chilly tonight.  We've stopped here a couple of times before, first in 2013 on our first ever trip to France in a motorhome and again in March 2018, on the first day of our  three-month trip to France, Spain and Portugal.

After leaving Honfleur we had a fairly long drive to Saint Romain de Colsbosc to service the van for free (the aire also had free electricity), before stopping off at the nearby Hyper-U to do some food shopping.  We both went around as we had a list of items we wanted to take home - all foodie stuff.  We don't bother taking alcohol back as we don't drink much and it takes up too much room in the van.  Our stop for the night was a wild-camp by the beach at Saint Jouin Bruneval.  The approach is down a steep series of hairpins from the top of the high cliffs, dropping down to quite a rough parking area, backing on to trees at the base of the cliff.  There were already a few vans parked up, including some surfing dudes as the waves here are quite wild; it must get very busy in the summer.  The area between the cliffs and the high-tide mark was large pebbles and other types of rocks, with a sandy base as the tide receded.  There's a restaurant (closed which was a shame as we could have enjoyed some moules-frites!), a cafe, lifeguard station with first aid post and toilets. All except the toilets were closed.  On the other side was a very large supertanker jetty with oil or gas storage tanks.  We took a good long walk along the beach, with Salty enjoying the opportunity to have a good run-around.  It was very windy although quite sheltered back at the van as we were tucked behind a raised levee which protected us from the onshore wind.  It was a quiet evening.

The next morning we left to head for a park-up I'd seen in some woods on Google Maps, not for an overnight stay, but for somewhere to stop for lunch then head out for a walk in the forest.  Long walks this far north have been few and far between.  The stop turned out to be one of over 140 World War 2 sites where the Germans prepared and then launched V1 rockets towards London - at a place called Val Ygot.  Most of the concrete bunkers had been blown apart in a number of allied air raids and there were plenty of huge bomb craters still around the site and trees. But enough remained to provide a feel for what it would have been like and there was a mock V1 rocket on rails, looking ready to launch.

Our stop last night was a Camping Car Park site in the town of Formerie.  It's only small with six pitches on tarmac.  It's very new and the facilities were immaculate and well designed.  The included wifi signal was also good, so we were able to catch up on some YouTube videos.  It also allowed Cathy to use it for her weekly online Welsh course lesson, while Salty and I had a wander around the lanes and town in warm sunshine.

Van serviced, we drove the 30 minutes to Forges-les-Eaux, parked up, EHU plugged in and a quick lunch before taking Salty out for a walk.  I had some charity work and accounts to do, so made use of the data remaining on our MiFi, before we closed up the van for the evening for dinner and a bit more YouTube.

Tomorrow we'll head for Buchy for Salty to take his worming tablet and get it recorded in his EU Pet Passport, which is a requirement for returning to the UK.  We'll also be meeting up with a friend who lives in the next village to us (also a member of Mon SAR), who's been in France for two weeks in his A Class motorhome and his two dogs.  They're both also booked into the vets, then we plan to find an aire to stop at together tomorrow night, hopefully with a pizza machine, so we can have a lazy dinner with a glass of wine!

We've brought our Shuttle crossing forward by a couple of days.  We've done all we wanted so we'd only be hanging around for the remaining days just to kill time.  So we'll be heading towards Calais on Saturday, finding a park-up for the night close enough to allow a short drive to the Eurotunnel Terminal very early on Sunday morning.

Beach at Saint Jouin Bruneval

Salty looking longingly at the sea - he's missed it!

Camping Car Park - Formerie

Forges-les-Eaux aire

Run to the Sun Day One

Tuesday 6 March 2018 - Day 1 & 2

This is the first full day of our longest ever trip, following our retirement last year. We're planning to drive down the west coast of France, into Spain at San Sebastian, then decide our route depending on the weather - 'run for the sun'!  We've three months to enjoy our time away, so plan to visit different parts of Spain and Portugal, plus some new areas of France. We're SO looking forward to it.

Nido's parked at an aire in Forges Les Eaux.  I hadn't realised until we were close, but we've stayed here before, on our way back from a holiday trip.  It's a quiet spot and fine for a night stopover, as we're aiming to drive south until we reach the better weather.

We left home early yesterday, heading for the aire at the Canterbury park and ride.  On the way down we stopped at A&E Leisure (who converted our campervan) to get a small leak fixed on one of the water push-fit connectors; I'd noticed it the day before when filling up the fresh water and priming the Truma boiler.  The boss - Roger - was manning the service desk and he came out and quickly fixed the problem with a new o-ring and trimming the plastic water pipe.  No charge and free water top-up too!  They really are a great company if you're looking for caravan or motorhome maintenance and repairs in the North West of England. They also have a large accessories shop.

We continued our journey to meet our daughter - Nicola, and her husband - Chris, at the Milton Keynes stadium 'mall'.  They're moving to Washington DC next month (Chris has a job at the British Embassy) and had just returned from a week's visit to check out the area and look at potential houses to rent - they were very excited.  We enjoyed lunch and a chat before saying our goodbyes - see you next year hopefully!

Next stop was the 'aire' at the Canterbury park and ride.  This is an excellent facility - parking for about 30 vans with water and waste dump, all for £4 per night including a free bus into the city.  It was dark when we arrived and we were tired from our journey, so a quick cup of tea and an early night.

This morning we left and arrived at the Channel Tunnel a couple of hours before our booked departure time. We were able to get an earlier train free of charge, so were soon on the other side and pulling into the motorhome parking at Cite Europe in Calais.  Euros extracted from the ATM and a quick zip around Carrefour for some groceries, we had an early lunch before driving off.  We're heading towards La Rochelle/Niort as our first major stopping point, so for now just finding places to stop over once we (meaning me!) are fed up with driving.  Tonight's dinner was prepped at home so it just needs warming up, then I think we'll crash out early again once it's dark, ready to head south in the morning.