Saumur, Rugles, Neufchatel-en-Bray, Gravelines

Tuesday 14th October 2014 - Sunday 19th October 2014   

This will be our last day at Saumur, indeed, it is effectively the last day of this trip, since from tomorrow we will be heading, slowly, toward Calais, to be there for Saturday evening, then catch our ferry, early Sunday.

But, let us not jump ahead.

Another beautiful day, with clear blue sky and sunshine, spent cycling along the south bank of the Loire.

We go from the campsite on Ile d'Offard, to Dampierre-sur-Loire, and return of course, just short of 10 miles.

At Dampierre-sur-Loire, we discover a new Aire, which does not appear to be in the Aires book.

It is in an area laid out as a picnic area, just off the D947, between the edge of the village and the River Loire. All rather pretty, with the usual "borne" to dispense water, dispose of waste, a toilet, but, no electric hookup. 5 Euro per night. (N47.241044' E-0.022341)

Refreshments, sitting in the sun, in Place de St Piere, in Saumur, courtesy of my generous wife.

The rest of the day is spent in a mixture of packing and chatting to newly arrived neighbours, David and Barbara, fellow Armitage Trailer owners and scooterists.










Wednesday, time to be moving on again.

A hundred and twenty miles, more or less, due North, and we park at an Aire, in a small town / village, called Rugles,  (N48 49.370' E0 42.619'), in Haut Normandy.

It is a pity it is not Sunday, we have this old church, about 25 metres away!

It is no longer functioning as a church, the main church is in the village, with, it would appear some very enthusiastic, campanoligists.

The Aire is just a few minutes walk from the main street of the village.

It has space for about seven vans. Six free electric hook ups, and a free service point for water, waste etc.

The space is in two areas, three vans and two EHU's in one area, and four vans and fours EHU's in the other.

There are no signs to indicate there is a charge, and, so far, no one has appeared to collect any payment.

It is on the edge of a very attractive public park, with an old water mill.

You can stroll through the park to the High Street, where we contributed to the local economy by purchasing apple tarts, and a couple of beers.

It all seems very pleasant, the customers in the bar even shook hands with us, when we went in for a beer!

This is the town hall.

Now, remember, this a town / village with a population of only about 2,500.

How can they possibly support / fund such a grand town hall?, not to mention the rather grand public park, shown in the photographs above?

It makes no sense to me, but, it appears to work.


Thursday, on to Neufchatel-en-Bray, our old favourite, Camping St Claire. Still as well kept as ever, this ACSI site is only two hours south of Calais. Not that it concerns us, since we are "pet free", but, I told there is a good English speaking Vet in the Town, who can do all of the Pet formalities far cheaper than the Calais based Vets.

Apart from the fact the campsite is very well run, and inexpensive at 14Euro, we use this stopover to fill with cheap diesel (at Le Clerc), and stock up with cheap booze at Le Clerc and Lidl.

Weather is not too kind, warm and bright for most of the day, with just the odd shower, but, right at this moment, as I type this (20:00), it is pouring with rain!

Friday, our friends, (Bryan and Joan, Crick) arrive.

We have a wonderfully sunny day, which we spend in a very decadent way, ie sitting in the sun, chatting about our adventures and drinking beer.

We vary the theme in the evening, by drinking Red Wine, White Wine and Manderine, not all at once!.

Saturday, is another bright and sunny day, Joan and Bryan have an extra day compared to ourselves, so, they head off for an Aire on the coast.

Kathleen has a hair washing session, whilst I go shopping, then we head slowly for the Aire at Gravelines, our usual last overnight stop, when we have an early morning ferry / tunnel crossing.

Gravelines has a few advantages (in our opinion) over the Aire at Calais, ie,

• it is near a Church with a Mass on Saturday evening,
• it is far enough away from Calais to avoid any "asylum seeker problems" (not that we have seen any asylum seeker problems either , on previous occasions).
• There are enough places to walk, cycle to fill the time
• there are a number of bars and restaurants
• it is almost, scenic

Sunday morning, we are up at 6:00 to make our way to the 07:45 ferry, only to find, the travel arrangements administrator (Kathleen) has got the time wrong, it is the 08:15 ferry!

We could have had another half hour in bed!

Home by 16:30.

 
 

 

Neufchatel-en-Bray, St Claire

Friday 25th April 2014 - Sunday 27th April 2014

Oh dear, Friday and it is raining!

Kathleen decides to bring forward "hair washing day", from tomorrow, to today.

I amuse myself playing on the computer, and, doing what men do best, ie "pondering" on important topics, like, "why do women live longer than men?".

I think, perhaps it is a case of natural balance. Women need to live longer than men, to make of for the time they spend "doing" their hair, and other such tasks.

For example, washing my hair takes 2 minutes maximum, and, is incorporated with taking a shower. No drying / straightening is required, a quick comb, and that is that for the day.  If by chance, I have worn my cycle helmet, or motorcycle helmet in the course of the day, a further 15 seconds of hair care MAY be required.

So, in the course of a week, say 35 minutes total?

Kathleen's regime averages at least one hour PER DAY, so, something in excess of 7 hours per week.

It is not hard to see why, natural balance, dictates that women need to live longer than men, just to compensate for that alone.

Saturday, we move up to Gravelines, near Dunkirk, for our last overnight in France, or this trip.

Sunday, through the tunnel, and, off to visit brother, Brian, for a couple of days.

Nefiach, La Garenne, La Couvetoirade, Faverolles, Dry, Camping St Claire

Sunday 20th April 2014 - Thursday 24th April 2014

It is Easter Sunday, the plan is, Kathleen will attend church at 10:30 in Nefiach, I will wait for her, and we will leave at about 12:00.

The Priest is late in arriving (an hour late!), slept in again?

So, the plan almost works, we just leave a bit late!

Sunday, La Couvertoirade, Mid-Pyrenees (N43 54.766 E3 18.970). 

The Aire is part of a Car park for a 12^th Century Knights Templar Village. 

3Euro per each time you leave (there is a barrier on exit, which costs 3Euro to open it), no facilities except toilet. 

The village in an amazing state of preservation!, and is open to wander around freely. 

Rather high (approximately 800 metres), so rather chilly at only 12C. 

The aire is convenient as a stop over as it is only about 3 miles off the A75. 

Tip, if you use this Aire:

when you leave, if you are heading North, do not follow the signs to A75, for some reason known only to the French it takes you on a cross country route for about five or six miles, to rejoin A75 South of where you left it, with a massive hill to climb! Just go back the way you came, to the A75 services at the top of the hill!

Monday. Faverolles, Auvergne (N44 56.339’ E3 8.858’). 

We first checked out Ruynes en Margeride (N45 0.075’ E3 13.437’), which was just fine, village perhaps had more going for it than Faverolles. 

Decided to check out Faverolles (which is less than 5 miles from Ruynes en Margeride, both of them are just a couple of miles off the A75), on the basis, it has a toilet. When we got there, toilet was locked. Not sure if that is because it is Easter Monday, and the person whose job it is to unlock it, is on holiday? Decided to stay at Faverolles anyway, perfectly pleasant, with stunning views. Nothing open, not even the bar, presumably because it is Easter Monday.

Tuesday Washing up disaster. 

As we are preparing to leave, and Kathleen is washing the breakfast dishes, suddenly, (hot) water starts gushing from under the sink unit. 

Quickly we turn off the water pump and water heater, to kill the water pressure, but, not before the contents of the food cupboard are soaked, and the kitchen floor is awash. It turns out, the “push fit” water hose for the taps hot water supply has come adrift. This gives us a problem, we cannot turn the water pump on, that means no water from any of the taps, no shower, no toilet flush.

An hour of mopping up and we are on our way at last.

Neris Les Bains, Auvergne (N46 17.207’ E2 39.137’). 

An excellent aire. 

Located alongside a campsite, for 7Euro / night, you get toilet, shower, usual aire services included, 10amp electricity. Maximum stay is 3 nights. 

Neris Les Bains is a spa town, a sort of French version of Harrogate.

The Aire is located next to what used to be the Neris Les Bains, railway station. 

What a magnificent building it is. But sadly, it had a very short life as a railway station. It was build 1929-1931, then enjoyed a short period of use, before the outbreak of WW2. Services were suspended until the end of WW2, and, when they restarted in 1946, they never achieved profitabilty, with the result, the French version of Dr Beeching closed the line for passenger traffic in 1957. The station is now a exhibition centre etc (I suspect that means an under used liability for the local council).

Once we are “settled in”, I manage to fix the water leak, so we have a functioning water system again. Kathleen assures me, she had every faith in my ability to fix it, why do I not believe her?

Before leaving on Wednesday, we have a walk around the very pretty lake, just alongside the aire.

Wednesday. An Aire, just south west of Orleans, in a village called Dry (N47 47.896’ E1 42.857’). The aire has the usual services. 

The village is a sleepy little place, but, it is most certainly not “dry”. It has a single cafe (Cafe du la Paix), which doubles up as the bar, restaurant, newsagent, tobacconist.

Thursday. It is back to one of our old favourites, Camping St Claire, Neufchatel-en-Bray.

Every time we come here, I suspect, I say the same things!, but, this is an excellent First or last stop after / before Calais, the site is superbly well kept by the owner, it is only 120 miles south of Calais, so, an easy drive.

 There is good cycling and a town with plenty of shops to stock up on wine etc.

There is also a sort of French version of Quick-Fit, which is useful when I discover we have a puncture in a trailer tyre. Fortunately, I did buy the optional spare wheel!. The bad news is, tyre is not repairable, so, an unexpected 23 Euro to spend.

Thursday 6th June 2013 - Tuesday 11th June 2013

Marboue (N48 6.744' E1 19.722'). Another Aire. Toilets and emptying facilities for free, but Electricity and Water are chargeable (Electricity 2Euro for 55 minutes, extortion!). There is space for about ten vans, and, by evening it is full. Not surprising really, it is a very pleasant spot, on the banks of the River Loir and off the busy main road (N10).

It is here, I find, the helpful French people at Uzerche did not do the internet registration correctly, so, I have no internet. I try the French couple parked next to us. They fiddle about with it, but, seem to think it has not worked.

I cycle the 2 miles back down the road to McDonalds, to use their Wifi to do my essential banking transaction.

When I get back, I fiddle around some more with the Orange SIM card, suddenly, it works, problem is, I do not know what I did to make it work!

Turns out, that was a false alarm, still not working!

An early start on Friday (well 09:00), and we are in Neufchatel-en-Bray by lunch time, for our regular stop over at Camping St Clair.

This place just gets better and better, but, the downside of that is, it is becoming very popular. A queue of campervans and caravans waiting to check in when we arrive!

We will have to stop recommending the place!

I find my Orange-France SIM card is not working after all, this is beginning to be very irritating!

Fortunately, there is an Orange Shop in the town, and the problem is soon sorted. It would appear you cannot register a top up from a non-French telephone number.

Only a one night stay, we linger until just before lunch time and then we are on our way towards Calais.

Picnic, French motorway Aire style.

Toilets, plenty of parking, neatly mown grass, no litter, picnic tables provided, and, sunshine of course.

But, the French do not get everything right... we arrive at Gravelines to find it is almost empty, clearly levelling a charge of 6Euro per night, with no facilities except parking has driven people away.

A lesson to Politicians everywhere, if you drive up the price, you do not necessarily increase the income!

We amuse ourselves by watching the street entertainment from a pavement bar. 

Next morning, the plan is to have breakfast as we wait in the boarding queue for "Le Shuttle", but, we are whisked onto an earlier train, before we have even had time to have breakfast!

Once in Dover, it is a short, and almost traffic free (well it is only 8:00 Sunday morning!) drive to the Caravan and Camping Club site at St Neots, to meet up with Gary, Susana and Gabriel.

Here are the "boys", it was both Gary, and Gabriel's birthday, a few days ago (June 2nd and 3rd respectively), so, this is a belated "birthday meeting", plus, Gabriel and Susana plan to return to Baku with Gary next weekend.

Our last chance to see them for a while.

Gabriel has grown a lot since I last saw him, and his talking has come on leaps and bounds (in both English and Spanish).

He is currently fascinated by spiders and their webs.

Here he is studying a spider in it's web, you can just see the spider above and to the left of his right eyebrow!

We visit Cambridge, and take the obligatory trip in a punt, but, not even a family of swans can keep Gabriel awake!

Wednesday, June 8th 2011 - Friday, June 10th 2011

Neufchatel-en-Bray, Camping Sainte Claire, ASCI2011-974 continued

Forgot to say, in my last post, I have had some adverse comments about the font size. Some people wanting me to pay for new glasses for them. So, I have reverted to the "normal" size font!

Hope that is better for you all.

Despite her concerns for her waistline, I convince Kathleen we should buy an apple pie from Le Clerc. They are on offer, are rather large, and look very appertising!



We buy a can of disappearing cream, to go with it.


I call it disappearing cream, because after you squirt it on your plate, it disappears faster than you can eat it!

Sunset at camping Sainte Claire.


As I have said before, this site is in within 2 – 3 hours driving distance from the ferry at Calais or Dunkirk.

However, our ferry is at 08:00 in the morning, and check in time is 07:00. This would mean leaving here at no later than 05:00 in the morning, which is not possible (Gates are closed overnight, 23:00 – 07:00).


Instead we leave just before 12:00, do some last minute wine shopping at the supermarket, and then rejoin the A16 toward Abbeville, stopping for lunch on the way.


We plan to check out upto four aires, from the All the Aires – France book, (Hondschoote, Gravelines and, Bergues, Petit Fort Phillippe) and choose the best one.


As it turned out, Gravelines is the first one we come to and it is perfectly acceptable, so we park there.


Beware if trying to find it, they have built an new roundabout on the D940, which is not mentioned in the directions, but if you keep your eyes open, you can see the campervans lined up on the quayside, so just head for them. You need to be on the East side of the small river.


Gravelines, All the Aires – France Page 450, N50 59.310’ E002 07.363’

As you can see, we are not alone, I have not counted them, but there must be at least fifty vans here, presumably all waiting to go to the ferry terminal.

We have actually overflowed the 'official' parking area. We, along with three others, are parked in an area marked "no parking camping cars". The painted lettering is faded, and hardly ledgible.

Two passing Frenchmen point out to us that we should not be parked there. One is grumpy about it, the other, on hearing we plan to be gone by 06:30 in the morning, is more amenable about it.

We get a spot overlooking the habour, this is the view from our back window.


Actually manoevering into place caused a bit of a problem.

My reversing camera (Kathleen) took fright as we approached the edge of the dock backwards.

There was a mutiny and she deserted her post, continuing the directions from outside the van, just incase I went into the dock.


We have a metre to spare, no problem.


Once we had finished parking, and Kathleen had composed herself, we discovered we had parked next to someone from Seaham, who just happened to be a patient at the surgery where Dana used to work!, small world and all that.

Sunset at Gravelines.

The evening passes without any excitement, except that, even more vans arrive.

After a quiet night, and therefore a good nights sleep, we are up at 6:00 and on our way by 06:30, to check in for the ferry.

Despite eating my usual breakfast of Cereal and fruit, while we sat in the queue waiting to board, we avail ourselves of a full English Breakfast on the boat.

The usual nightmare journey, on the M25, and we arrive at Henley-on-Thames.

Henley-on-Thames, Caravan Club - Four Oaks Site.

As is always with the Caravan Club sites, it is spot on.

The afternoon is spent in arranging a hire car, so we can travel to Windsor tomorrow and Sunday.

Monday 29th June 2009 – Tuesday 30th June 2009

Sainte Claire, Neufchatel-en-Bray (ACSI2009-728) N49.73781 E1.42803

We return to one of our old favourites. This is one of the first sites we stayed on when we began the campervan journeys, and we have returned at least once each year since I think.

Just to show anyone who is concerned about driving here, this is a shot through the windscreen as we drive along, this is typical of traffic levels even during the day.

The site is beautifully kept, and the chap who runs it always takes you to your pitch and guides you onto the hard standing so that you don’t damage his grass, which he obviously cares for very carefully. We have been here so often now that one of the French families who have a static van here, recognise us on our arrival.

The site is much busier than we have seen it before, and for once I would say the GB’ers out number the Dutch and Germans, we will have to stop recommending it to people, otherwise we will not be able to get on ourselves!

After we get settled and have our lunch, we are just about to set off along the cycle track (in preparation for eating cream cakes for afters), when the David and Carol the Welsh couple from the previous site arrive.

From here there is a cycle track which goes in one direction to Dieppe (about 20 miles away), and in the other direction to Forges-les-Eaux (about 13 miles away). Dieppe is on the coast, so overall going there must be downhill there and uphill back, while Forges-les-Eaux is inland so it must be uphill on the way there and downhill on the way back. On previous visits here it has always been my intention to cycle both routes. But Kathleen has always wimped out after a few miles. So on the first day, we set off for Forges-les-Eaux, and (someone) wimps out after about 8 miles. To be fair we set off at about 15:00, so we had the heat of the day to deal with and it was hot (30C).

In the evening Kathleen gets out the guitar, but the singing is cut short by our French neighbour, who informs us that she has just been informed today that her nephew has committed suicide by driving his mother car into a wall. So she is understandably upset and having difficulty with being surrounded by revelry from us and our English neighbours. Kathleen stops immediately and we try our best in our inadequate French to be apologetic and sympathetic.

It turns out that two of our English neighbours Jack and Joan are from the north east, Joan from South Shields and Jack from Boldon Colliery, although they now live in South Shields, they are on their way to Costa Brava towing a caravan.

Next day we set off at 09:30 in the morning before the heat builds up, and we make it comfortably to Forges-les-Eaux. Kathleen says she is training for the Coast-to-Coast when we get home.

We decide we will go to the nearby Lidl to buy “a bottle” of Gin for the Boss. We go on our bikes. When we get there she cannot resist buying three bottles of gin, six bottles of wine, and two three litre cartons of wine, oh’ and a bottle of coke and a bottle of cheap “Bacardi”.

Try carrying that lot on a bike, it is not easy.

As if that was not bad enough the “Bacardi” was rough. I swapped a couple of large glasses of it with David & Carol for a lemon, and I think that I got the bargain, but there again, for 4Euro what do you expect!