Travels in a Campervan: st valery en caux

Wednesday, 23 May 2018

Homeward Bounders!

Wednesday 23 May 2018 - Day 80

Change of plan! We’re parked up at Cite Europe in Calais, just a few minutes from the Eurotunnel terminal. We’ve moved our crossing forward to 0650 tomorrow morning.

We woke to a grey, windy day, cool at 10’C, although the forecast over the coming days was improving and warming up. We drove about an hour up the coast to an aire we’d stayed at before, but on arrival it looked a bit bleak and uninviting, so we decided to drive on. To make it worse the van grounded on the way out - a horrible crunching sound. Reversing off I checked underneath and the securing bolts on the electric step had caught the top of the steep exit. It sounded bad, but luckily the damage was minimal and the step’s still working. So we drove to the other end and exited via the one way entry sign! Instead we moved on the aire at St Valery en Caux. Again, we’ve stayed on this one before. It’s right next to the harbour entrance, by a stony beach and under a high chalk cliff. The weather wasn’t great and although we ventured out for a walk, we were soon back in the warm of the van!

The afternoon was spent snoozing and reading and I had a thought that we were just marking time, making our way up the coast to cross over next Wednesday. We’d seen the forecast of great weather back home, so we made a decision to amend the booking. This only took a few minutes and didn’t cost a great deal more and we were soon packed up and back on the road for the three hour drive to Calais. The alarm’s set for 0500 tomorrow and we’ll make a flask of tea before switching off the gas, so we can have a hot drink on the train.

So our three month journey has ended one week early, but we're really happy with the decision and really looking forward to getting home tomorrow. I’ll post a retrospective on our trip another time, with some costings for those that are interested in the numbers. Until then, Anglesey here we come!

Wednesday, 8 October 2014

Day 5 - Wissant to St Valery en Caux

Tuesday 7 October 2014

There was a fierce thunderstorm most of last night, with waves of very heavy rain and this continued well into the morning. There was no way I was walking into the village in that, so breakfast was boiled eggs with bread and butter. Just after the weather worsened with very strong wind, heavy thunder and lightning and a huge downpour of large hailstones - I thought the skylights might smash!
We considered changing our plans and heading for where the sun 'might' be, even getting Steph & Ian to text us the forecast. But in the end we decided to keep to our original plan and take whatever the weather threw at us. We left the Aire at Wissant at about 1000, heading for St Valery en Caux, a small town right on the coast with a free Aire overlooking the sea. I'd forgotten to set the satnav to avoid toll roads, so we ended up on the motorway for about 20 miles. But when the weather forced us off to take a break, I reset it and we came off at the next exit towards Le Touquet. After that our route was on D roads through towns and villages. We skirted Dieppe and stopped at a large Auchan to buy some food and drink, plus top up with diesel.

We arrived in St Valery and followed the signs to drive on a single lane road, with an open drop to the harbour on the right and sheer cliffs to the left. The Aire was about half full and we picked a spot in the shade of the cliffs but still with a sea view. We enjoyed our lunch and then went out for some fresh air. The journey down had been a mix of sunshine and showers and now the sun was out, although with a fresh, stiff breeze off the sea. I had a walk around the town to find the nearest Boulangerie, while Cathy walked along the beach. When I joined her she had written 'Myrtle' in large stones and I took a photo as proof - let's hope it's big enough to pass! Back at the van I looked up where we might head tomorrow. Despite our plan to travel far less than last year, we still seemed to be driving a lot, so we may need to adapt our plans to cut this down. So at the moment our thought is to head for the coast near Granville tomorrow, then work our way around to spend a few days in Brittany, perhaps stopping for two nights if we find a nice spot. After that we'll see how we're doing before deciding where to head to next. So tonight we're chilling out, reading and snoozing. We may get an early start tomorrow and have breakfast en-route.