Thursday 27th September 2012 - Sunday 30th September 2012

Stenay continued,

The area around the aire is quite pretty, but, the rest of the town has seen better days.

Normally, we see few if any Brits, but, here today, there are no fewer than five British vans, all taking up the prime spaces, next to the canal.

Note, I said British, not English, in deference to our Scots neighbours.

Thursday, and it is still pouring with rain!

One of our diversions under these conditions, a drink in a cafe, is ruled out, because the cafe is closed, in fact it is for sale.

As you can see, we are reduced to trying to take interesting photographs, using the limited settings on our point and click camera!.




Friday, the rain has diminished to just being heavy.

We set off for Catillon sur Sambre, an aire we have used before.

It is quite an attractive spot, but has space for only about 4 vans, so clearly space is at a premium. When we arrive, one English and two French vans are already in residence. 


The weather improves, with the sun putting in an appearance.

Within 15 minutes of our arrival, who should turn up but, Mack & Josie yet again, but, we have bagged the last available space and there is already (what we believe to be) a French van hovering.

The (supposed) Frenchman and his wife, continue to hover, we consider the possibility, we are taking up more than our "share" of space. After much deliberation, I think I know how to say (in French) that perhaps, if I moved over a bit, and the French van next to me also moved over a bit, they could squeeze in.

It turns out, they are English, living in France, and speaking only marginally more French than me! Plus, they are not intending to stay, just to have their lunch and charge their laptop from the electric hookup.

Having tried to be helpful, I cannot extricate myself from what turns out to be one of the most talkative English men I have ever met, I am almost fainting from hunger since it is well past lunch time.

The English pair in a French van depart, then one of the other French vans decides to leave.

Almost immediately, another English van arrives, Phil and Noula. We set off investigate if there is somewhere serving meals in the evening. Nothing doing, so we settle for a drink in the bar

Saturday, we set off for our final stop of this trip, via couple of supermarkets in order to do final wine shopping.

Gravelines, is well populated as usual, being probably the best "overnight" spot before catching the Ferry or Tunnel.

This year, the French have started charging 6Euro, for what used to be a free stop. A bit rich, since there is nothing provided except a space on the quayside.

On the brightside, there are a selection of bars and cafes, and, according to Google, a church, with Saturday evening Mass, so Kathleen is able to attend.

Although I have never seen it in the UK, in several European Countries, it is not unusual to have beggars at the church door, so, I pass my time waiting have a discussion (in a mixture of French and English), with the resident beggar on his opinion of the state of the French economy. He tells me, he is forced to sleep rough and has not been able to find work for ten years. I must say, although he is shabily dressed, he is remarkably well groomed for a rough sleeper. He is not a fan of the enlarged EEC, presumably because (as it has in the UK), it has created competition for jobs from East Europeans.

Kathleen indulges in the "Sun Set Photographs".

You will note, I have still not worked out how to "turn them around", in the blog!

Sunday, up early, off to the tunnel, again disappointed with the lack of "smoothness", lots of waiting around. Perhaps, Sunday is not the best day to travel, since it is "maintenance day".

Saturday 30th April 2011 - Tuesday 3rd May 2011

Saturday April 30th 2011, Rainham, Kent.



The traffic on the southern section of the M25, past Gatwick Airport, is surprisingly light. We had expected jams because there would be many people returning from London after watching the Royal Wedding yesterday, but no, the traffic was moving quite freely, and we arrived at Brian and Linda’s ahead of schedule.

On Saturday afternoon, we all went to Rochester, to attend the “Sweep’s Festival”. This is a very old festival (400 years old, according to the literature), which has been revived for the past 30 years or so. It is connected with Chimney Sweeps (hence the name), and seems to consist mainly of Morris Dancing, with of course copious amounts of Real Ale.

Saturday is rounded off with a Chinese meal, cooked by Brian, ably assisted (that is supervised) by Linda. Victoria is the only daughter at home, so we have her company, along with her boyfriend Graeme. I hope his meeting the "Reays" experience has not put him off.


Sunday Morning, we have the obligatory church going by Kathleen.

While she is there, Brian takes me to see the area where our Great, Great, Great Grandfather (on our mothers side) was born, in Gillingham, before he moved to South Shields. It is an amazing coincidence that over a hundred years later, Brian should return to live within a few miles of our ancestor’s birthplace.

After a Sunday “Brunch”, we set off for Dover and the Ferry.

This is the first time we have used Norfolk Line since they were taken over by DFDS. They are running almost an hour late, not a good omen!

We wait patiently on the Dockside, watching the seagulls.

Once the ferry arrives, it is quickly unloaded, and we are equally quickly onboard, and on our way to Dunkirk.

We do not make up any time on the crossing, so we arrive almost an hour later than expected, at about 20:00 French time.





Guines, La Bien Assise (ACSI-2011 945)


Our regular overnight stop, when we need one after getting off the ferry.

It is well placed being just a few miles from Calais, but for some reason it always gives the Sat-Nav a problem. So, as we leave on Monday morning, Sat-Nav wars begin. To prevent divorce, the Sat-Nav is turned off, and Kathleen relinquishes the driving to take over the navigating.

As far as I can see the only difference between and female navigator and a Sat-Nav with a femail voice, is, when the Navigator makes a mistake (and they do occasionally, but we will not mention that), the Sat-Nav does not shout abuse at her.


Monday 2nd May 2011 Aire at Catillon sur Sambre (N50 32.155’ E1 35.563’)


Just off the N43, with room for four vans, right beside the La Sambres et L’Oise Canal.

It is a very pretty spot, spoilt a little by the noise as heavy goods vehicles pass over the bridge (which is able to open to allow boats to pass) on the N43. But the traffic died away to almost nothing overnight, so it did not disturb our sleep. 

There is free unmetered electric hook up. The Aires Book (All the Aires France, 3rd Edition), and the sign at the Aire say it is 5Euro per night to stay, but no one turned up to collect any money, and there is no facility to pay with a credit card or whatever, so we had a freebie. 

There is a path/cycle track along the canal, in both directions (ie North towards Belgium, and South).

I cycled along the path to the South for about three miles, after about two miles you come to a lock and a cafe (closed when I got there).

I went on for another mile, but did not come to any further signs of life, except for a few people fishing from the banks of the canal.

As you can see, Kathleen opted to top up her tan, rather than join in the healthy cycling.

We had a major panic in the evening, Kathleen could not find her bottle of Gin. Now a campervan is not a very big place in which to lose something the size of a 1Litre bottle of Gin, but we had managed it. After turning out all of the cupboards, she eventually found it, I have not seen as big a smile since I gave her 100Euro to spend.

Villers-les-Nancy, Campeole Le Brabois, (ASCI2011-1268)

A sat-nav free journey, with Kathleen sharing the driving for part of the way. Since this put me in charge of the navigating (well as much in charge as a man ever can be), I took us via the more twisty and hilly road of the two options we had.

The site is on a hill, just a short distance from Nancy. It is not full and so far seems very nice. We got free wifi (because we said we staying for three days), I am not sure if this concession is extended to everyone, or if the chap in reception did it as repayment for the entertainment we gave him with our poor French. We went there to ask for a Bus Timetable, a tourist map of Nancy, and a Wifi password. 

Just time to explore a little, and find a shop to buy wine for this evening.