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.
