A light hearted and (I hope) amusing record of some of our Campervan Trips.
It is mainly intended to inform friends and family where we are, plus, to keep our children updated on what is happening to their inheritance.
I do try to include details of Camp Sites and Aires, we visit. Checkout the "labels" listed in the right margin,
Please comment if you feel inclined, at least then I know I am not talking to myself (again).
Thursday 1st October 2015. Autun, is 290 metres above sea level, which presumably accounts for the cool (actually, bloody cold, at 2C), start to the day. The good news is, the weather forecast says it will be another sunny 20C plus day, the bad news is, the weather forecast is wrong. It stays cloudy and positively cold for most of the day. It is not until about 16:00 the sun puts in an appearance. Not to worry, today's plan is to visit some of the interesting "cultural" sites, eg, Cathedral, Roman Remains, etc. I am pleased to say, the plan comes unstuck, in the nicest possible way! We set off from the campsite on foot, armed with our tourist map, and walk along "Promenade Albert Montmerot", by the river, then, with much consulting of our map, through a tangle of streets to the Cathedral. By chance, we meet our German neighbours, who tell us, yesterday, in the heat, they were looking for ice cream, today, it is so cold, they are looking for a place which sells hot tea with rum in it! The Cathedral is very impressive, but, sadly, in the process of being renovated, which detracts some what from the spectacle. By the time we leave the Cathedral, it is approaching 13:00, lunch time, so, we begin our search for a place to eat. There are several attractive looking places in the streets around the Cathedral, but, Kathleen is not impressed. We walk toward the main square in the "modern" (ie early 1900's) town centre. In Rue Saint-Saulge, we chance upon a place called "New St George Salon de The". It looks quaint from the outside, but, this in no way prepares us for the inside! Kathleen has resolved to be "adventurous" and have something "French", in we go. The Restaurant is a narrow space. It looks as if it has been furnished by someone who likes to acquire "interesting things". There are not many tables, perhaps seven or eight. When we arrive three tables are occupied. We notice, one couple are in the process of eating their meal, the other two couples have not yet ordered, or, are finished, we are unsure which, but, this becomes significant, read on. The Patron, I cannot call him the waiter, since, it becomes apparent he is both Head Waiter, Chef and all things inbetween, shows us to a table, then scurries off. We do notice, there are smiles all round from the already seated couples. After about five minutes, we are presented with a veritable book of drinks, starters, teas, main courses, and sweets. The book, yes, it is a book, includes some hand drawn sketches, presumably by a child, a page or two of comic strip cartoons, and, a narrative on the "New St George Salon de The", in French, naturally. My French is not magnificent, but, I think the gist of the narrative is to say, the objective is to serve good food, in interesting surroundings, and, at a leisurely pace. Now, for those reading this who know Kathleen, they will be aware, patience and leisurely pace, are not her key virtues! The Patron is helpful and amusing, as he explains the menu, in English. We order Gallettes, and, a "demi pitcher de vin rouge". There is a further ten minute delay before our wine arrives, but, the time passes amicably, we watch the Patron as he presents the bill, with full explanation, to one of the seated couples. They pay, and leave, to be replaced by two Dutch (?) ladies. Next, he asks another of the seated couples, who have finished their food and are drinking coffee, to write a few words about the establishment in his "visitors book". It transpires the couple are American, who appear to speak English with an Italian accent. They oblige with a written paragraph, I know not in which language! The next event may not appear remarkable, but, patience, all will become clear. One of the Dutch (?) ladies enquires as to the location of the "toilette", the Patron shows her to a door, then, proceeds to give her a lengthy explanation of how to find the toilet, this will become clear when, later, Kathleen goes through the same routine. Next, a very elderly French ladies enters, and is shown to a table. She is clearly a regular, from the conversation. Another couple (French ?) enter and are shown to a table. All of this activity is being handled by the Patron, in between arrivals, taking orders, serving drinks and nibbles, issuing and explaining bills, he disappears into the kitchen area, to cook a little, we assume, or prepare coffee or tea. The elderly French Lady is served with coffee, then, a freshly cooked Almond covered tart, still in baking tray, is brought out. We assume it may be for the couple by the window, who were seated when we arrived, but, no, the Patron cuts a large slice and serves it to the elderly French lady. Next, he appears with two gallettes, can they be ours? As he passes our table, he tells us, "this how the gallettes will look, but, these are not yours", and presents the gallettes to the couple by the window. Next, he takes the order of the two Dutch (?) ladies, explaining to them, it may take some time, since there are two more gallettes to prepare (gesturing towards Kathleen and I), and he will have to make more Gallette mixture! The French couple decide they will have Tea and Almond Tart, and, are duly served with a slice cut from the freshly prepared tart brought out for the elderly French lady. Kathleen has now started eating smarties and chocolate buttons from a small selection on our table, to fight off hunger pangs. We are served with a portion of nibbles (peanuts, chorizo etc), to keep us amused. Our Gallettes arrive. They are excellent! The couple seated by the window pay their bill and leave. The elderly French lady leaves. The French couple finish their Almond tart and tea, pay their bill and leave. It would appear, the rule of thumb is, only one couple can be eating their main course at once. The two Dutch (?) ladies are served with their Gallettes. We finish our wine. Kathleen decides, she will "go to the ladies". At this point, she discovers why a lengthy explanation was necessary, after passing the "the door" (or should that be la porte). The door opens into any alleyway, she is instructed "walk past the two bicycles, up the wooden stairs, and you will find the toilet at the top of the stairs". Kathleen tells me, having climbed the stairs, which appear to date from the middle ages, she did find a perfectly functional, clean, modern toilet". I pay the bill, Euro23.50. Like everyone else before me, I am given a full explanation of the breakdown of my bill, in English! We have been in here for about two hours, it have been entertained, amused and very well fed, Kathleen has learned to chill (well, a little), an absolute bargain, in my humble opinion. If you are passing this way, do try it! Although we have had a thoroughly enjoyable day, we have only seen one Roman remain, and that from a distance, so, our "culture day" did not work out too well, never mind, there is always tomorrow, after all, all of this Roman stuff has been here for 2000+ years, another day will not hurt.
Tuesday 29th September 2015 Sunny and 20C An easy cycling outing, after yesterdays 24 miles, we cycle to Fontaines, a mere 14 miles round trip. Then, lie about in the sun. Wednesday 30th September 2015 Another beautiful sunny day, with 22C by mid afternoon. First, a shopping trip to replenish our dwindling supplies of food and, more importantly, wine. Then, we drive the short (less than 30 miles) distance to Autun. I had joked with Kathleen that Autun was close enough to cycle to, it was meant as a joke, but, when we see the hills we would have had to cross, it is definitely a joke!
Autun is not really "on our way", but, we have been told it is worth a visit, and, since it is such a short distance, there seems little point in missing it, Autun has a Roman connection, with, we are told, many Roman remains, there is certainly an impressive Roman Gate, much of which is still standing, after 2000 years. Will Mssrs Wimpy, Bellway, Barrett etc be able to say the same I wonder? I am always impressed by some of the large structures civilisations, like the Romans, managed to construct, with little or no mechanical aids, and or course, no Computer Technology. The canals, we have spent our time cycling along, although of much more recent origin, are equally impressive to me. There an enormous amount of earth moving (manually achieved, presumably) to construct them. In addition, although I understand the relatively "low tech", but accurate, Theodolite was available to them, how on earth did they survey and plan a contour hugging structure over hundreds of miles? Today, we limit ourselves to finding our way from the campsite (Camping de la Porte d’Arroux) to the town, a little explore of available shops and places to eat drink, then, refreshments in the sun.
Monday 28th September 2015 Autumn is clearly here now. A cool start to the day, but, sunny. By lunch time it is a respectable 20C, and by mid afternoon, it is sun bathing weather. After a weekend of R and R (that is Rest and Recreation for me, Rest and Religion for Kathleen), we are up for some cycling. The Canal du Centre is just under a mile from the campsite, once there, there is a traffic free cycle track to Chalon-sur-Soane and beyond in one direction, and St Leger and beyon in the other direction. We have been told by another English couple we met, that the section towards Chalon-sur-Soane is the more attraction, so, that is the direction we take. At the Halt Nautique, about 1.5 miles from the campsite, the signpost tells us, Chalon-sur-Soane is 16Km (10 miles) away. Being fresh, after our "weekend off", we go for the whole distance. It is a beautiful day for cycling, sunny, but, not too hot. It is noticeably "downhill", in the direction of Chalon-sur-Soane and we pass several locks, I carefully do not mention this to Kathleen. Soon, we are passed Fragny, and into the outskirts of Chalon-sur-Soane. A brief rest and, we set off for the return, I assume we will be stopping off for "refreshments" along the way, but, Kathleen is in full "health and fitness mode" and decides she will settle for water to fortify her, for the return trip. So, we resist the temptation to turn off into one of the many villages, signposted en-route, and settle ourselves one one of the strategically placed canal side seats to rest and refresh ourselves. For those who know Kathleen, I promise, that is water, and not gin and tonic, in the bottle!. Soon after we set off again, after our brief stop, we come upon one of the large pleasure boats we passed on the way to Chalon-sur-Soane. It is just in the process of entering a lock, so, we linger to watch the process, it is quite a large boat, and completely fills the lock.
In the afternoon, as I mentioned, it is sunbathing weather. We need at least one "essential" bit of shopping, ie, Tonic, for Kathleen's Gin and Tonic. There is no way Kathleen is going to be prised out of her seat in the sun, after a 24 mile cycle ride this morning, so, I set off, armed with a shopping list, whilst Kathleen gets herself "browned off". We have checked out where the "Commercial Centre" is, so, I head straight there, and manage to buy all of the requirements in Lidl, except, the Tonic. So, I next go to Carrefour, which is next to Lidl, and select a bottle of Schweppes Tonic, sugar free, as instructed. As I go through the checkout, the "shoplifter" alarm goes off. No problem, I am quite happy to show the checkout operator and supervisor who appears on the scene, the contents of my backpack, ie, shopping from Lidl, complete with receipt. What puzzles me is, what set the alarm off? Do they security tag Bananas, Maltesers, Pasta, Bars of Chocolate ?
Surprisingly, I cannot convince Kathleen to go cycling today, you would have thought that, after two consecutive days of 20 miles plus, she would be "in the groove", so to speak. Yesterday, there was an invasion of Dutch caravans, today, they are leaving as quickly as they arrived, by 9:30, they have all gone. We decide we will move on too, just a short distance, to Chagny, a little over 50 miles away. The forecast is for a 23C sunny day, and, so it turns out. For some reason, as we cruise along the N80 (E607), we collect a first two, then three Motor Cycle Police riders, after a while, they are joined by a fourth, then they ride off. Don't know what that was all about, Kathleen's explanation is, "they must have mistaken us for someone important".
We are soon at Chagny and find the campsite, more or less no problem, although, it would have been wise to have used the ring road to approach, rather than the "town centre" route selected by the Sat-Nav. The "easier" approach is signposted, just, immediately after the roundabout after the Canal "Port" or Marina, but, our Sat-nav did not direct us that way, and, the signposting is not exactly prominent, as you can see below, at roughly 8:00 minutes to 9:30 minutes into the video.
Having missed the sign, we took the more difficult approach!
The campsite, Paquier Fane, is very pleasant. It is a rather odd name, I have no idea what it may mean. Chagny appears to be a reasonably lively place. Sunday 27th September 2015 Disaster! As Kathleen gets ready for the ritual of hair washing etc, she discovers, she has run out of shampoo. The full bottle of what she thought was shampoo, is, in fact, Conditioner. It is Sunday morning, in France, the small shops are closed, we have just arrived here yesterday, and have not yet found the Supermarket(s), which MAY be open on Sundays. Frantic searching in the various bags in which numerous hair care products are kept, unearths, a long forgotten, half empty bottle of shampoo. Phew! panic over. Back to more mundane matters, another bright sunny day, in the 20's Centigrade. Church for Kathleen, whilst I explore routes to the Cycle track along the canal, from the campsite. Then meet up with Kathleen to walk around the Sunday Market, which, true to form, takes over almost all of the streets in the town. After lunch is spent searching for the Carrefour and Lidl supermarkets, which are tantalisingly signposted at the entrance to the town, with no further indication of how to find them. After walking for almost three miles and taking numerous wrong turnings, we do find them, about 3/4 of a mile from the campsite. Kathleen takes credit for the discovery.
Friday 25th September 2015 Light cloud, but, mild and bright. The sun actually breaks through the clouds periodically through he day.
Our English neighbours and lunch companions, of yesterday, Jerry and Norma, leave this morning, heading for the ferry at Caen.
Despite yesterday's mammoth cycle ride, Kathleen expresses a willingness, indeed, an enthusiasm for going cycling again today.
Accordingly we set off, along the Canal, in the opposite direction to yesterday, towards Diou, which is 25km (15 miles) away.
Unlike yesterday, we see very few people cycling along, but, we do see quite a number of boats cruising along.
We make it just to Pierrefit-sur-Loire, (10 miles) before Kathleen expresses a desire to call a halt (ie, declares she is not going any further). I manage to coax another 3 miles out her, before a final halt is called.
At Pierrefit-sur-Loire, as well as some amusing canalside artworks, there was a signpost for a bar/cafe, so, we return there for lunch.
The bar/cafe is certainly quaint, as we arrive two British motorcyclists are just leaving. The bar is attached to a "grocery" shop, which appears to sell just about everything. I do think the impression given, of live music, in the sign, is slightly miss-leading, the whole Bar is smaller than our Lounge at home!
We are served our beers in English style pint pot glasses.
Whilst we are having our drink, another cyclist arrives. We are not sure what nationality he was, but, given the torturous exchange to order a sandwich and a drink, he was, presumably, not French.
The barman disappeared to make a sandwich for the new arrival. When he reappeared he had the largest sandwich I have ever seen. It consisted of half of a very large baguette, filled with ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato.
The cyclist only managed to eat half of it, before, admitting defeat and requesting a bag to take the rest away with him.
We returned via the Supermarket in Digoin, where I purchased among other things some "Digoinaise sausage", which I cooked for our dinner. Kathleen did actually try some, but, said she did not like it, so, I have the rest of the pack to eat, at some later date!
I also purchased some cheese, local to the area around Annecy, called Reblouchon, I suspect I will have to eat all of that too. Our little detour, via the LeClerc supermarket, means, we have completed 28.5 miles, today.
On our return to the campsite, we find it has filled up, almost exclusively with Dutch people. I do not know what is going on in Holland, but, it would appear they are evacuating the place, given the number of Dutch who have arrived here in the course of the day.
Wednesday 23rd September 2015 A cloudy and decidely cool start (9C) to the day. It does not improve much, cloudy and cool (14C), until 17:00, at which point, sunshine. We explore Digoin, which is much bigger than we thought, but, it would appear mostly closed for the season.
Thursday 24th September 2015
A misty start to the day, but, by 9:30, the sun is beginning to burn off the mist, and a sunny day is promised. It does indeed turn out sunny, by 11:00, it is a warm and sunny 20C, with 23C in the afternoon.
This prompts Kathleen to think about (clothes) washing!
What is it with women, sunshine = clothes washing and drying, when, it should be sunshine = fun? In the event, Kathleen has her fix of clothes washing, by which time, the sun has burned off the mist, and we are "all systems GO" for cycling. It would appear several people on the site are of like mind, our German neighbours pedal off, whilst we are still getting ourselves ready, and, our English neighbours Jerry and Norma. Eventually, we are off too. Kathleen is in fine pedalling form, and, we overtake our German neighbours at the first lock. We do not catch up with Jerry and Norma until we reach Paray-le-Monial, some ten miles away. It should be pointed out, Jerry and Norma may be a little older than we are, but, they are on electric bikes! Paray-le-Monial is a very pleasant place, with a beautifully restored Basilica. While looking for a place to have lunch, we chance upon Jerry and Norma, who are on the same quest. It transpires we may have met someone who is even more picky about food than Kathleen! We find that Norma's mother came from Blyth, in Northumberland, given their complex list of things they do not eat, I theorise, they may be related! Soon we are having a very pleasant lunch at a small cafe in the centre of town. The French know how to relax! The round trip is a commendable 24 miles, rounded off with sitting in the sun, drinking a cool beer.
The weather forecast for today is cloudy, but mild. We had planned to leave Annecy tomorrow, but, decide we may as well travel on a cloudy day, and hope for sunshine tomorrow!
The eternal optimists we are! We have about 150 miles to our next planned stop, Digoin, in Burgundy.
It would appear, this year, we are to be plagued by road closures. We are enjoying an almost traffic free and reasonably scenic drive, when a dreaded "Route Barree" sign appears, soon followed by a barricade across the road, to leave us in no doubt, the road is closed.
The closure is at a place called "Serrieres" and affects what appears to be the only bridge across a river, for several miles, so, we follow the "deviation" signs. Note, I say "signs" in the plural, there are actually two signs, a record in my experience of French signposting.
Several miles later, following a road which does not even appear to be on the map as far as he sat-nav is concerned, we emerge at a bridge, and a road leading in the direction we want to go. We arrive at Digoin, Camping de la Chevrette, late afternoon. We are fortunate enough to get parked and hooked up to the electrics just before the heavans open and we have a half hour downpour. The good news is, the site appears to be well located for the town, and cycling opportunities (if the rain stops!), Although it is "out of season", the place is more than half full.
