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).
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.
Friday 18th September 2015 In terms of weather, a re-run of yesterday, ie rain in the morning, clearing to a very pleasant afternoon. As soon as the sun appears, we set out on our bicycles. There are excellent cycle tracks along the lake, it is an old railway line, so, no serious gradients. It is also traffic free, but, you do have to watch out for the "real" cyclists, whizzing along on their racing bikes. A nineteen mile round trip, with a stop for a refreshing beer. Saturday 19th September 2015 The first day for quite some time, we woke up to sunshine, A cycle ride to Annecy and a little beyond. I thought Kathleen was going for the "round the lake" trip, but, not quite, "only" 15 miles today. The sun stayed out for us, until we were passing Annecy on the return trip. We were able to dive into a bar to avoid a shower, then continue on our way. The afternoon is filled by Kathleen doing the "hair washing" exercise. A little panic when the mirror she uses during the hair-drying and straightening phase could not be found. It is very difficult to understand how that can happen, when the mirror is in the care of the tidiest person in the world. Sunday 20th September 2015
Another beautiful day of sunshine. Rather cool in the morning, but, by 11:00 a very pleasant 22C. Kathleen does her duty by going to church. We cycle the four miles into Annecy. In previous years we have had a spate of buying shoes or handbags, this year is clearly the year of the hat, since the second hat of this trip (so far) is purchased at the Sunday Market. A pleasant lunch in a restaurant overlooking the river and town square, followed by lying about in the sun. Just as Sundays should be.
Wednesday 16th September 2015 It has rained for most of the night, and, it is still raining when we wake-up. The weather forecast (provided by the BBC Weather App, on Kathleen's Android phone, and the weather App on my iPhone) tells us, "Rain until 11:00, cloudy but dry until 13:00, then, sunny until sunset. Temperatures rising to 26C". With uncanny accuracy, this is exactly what happens! How come the BBC cannot produce an accurate weather forecast for the UK, but, can achieve pin point accuracy for at least three days in a row for Annecy, France? We have a little worry about actually reversing off our pitch. Because other vans were already parked when we arrived, we had to park by driving on to the pitch, rather than reversing on. This means our front (driving) wheels are furthest from the tarmac. The ground was wet enough to produce a little wheel spin on arrival, it has rained quite a lot since then, but our worries are unfounded and we manage to get off without difficulty. After checking out, we drive the two miles or so to Camping du Coeur de Lac. At reception, we are advised to take vacant pitch 97, because, "it has the best view of the lake". Sure enough, this appears to be true. Facilities on this site are not as good as Camping International du Lac, but, the views are certainly better, and, the place has more "life", since there are a reasonable number of people here. Lunch over, and sun shining, we stroll out, find the church and Mass times, Kathleen is all set for Sunday. Thursday 17th September 2015. This will be a short post. Not sure what happened overnight, but, it POURED with rain all day, until 15:30, plus a few thunder claps. Actually, today's weather forecast was a little inaccurate, it forecast sunshine from 16:00, the sun actually came out at 15:30. Temperatures quite acceptable at 17-19C, even in the rain.
Monday 14th September 2015. Chalon-sur-Soane is very nice, and, I am sure we still have lots to see here, but, Kathleen is determined to visit Annecy. When we check the closing date for her preferred campsite there,(Camping International Lac d'Annecy) , we find it closes September 19th, so, if we are going, we need to go now! Accordingly, we pack up and set off for Annecy. Annecy is East and slightly South of here, so, I suspect, we will be following yesterdays storm, which was moving East.
A hundred and twenty miles approximately, mostly of it almost traffic free, and good road. The climb up to Cerdon is a bit slow, I miss my chance to overtake this lorry. There are only two realistic chances to pass him, I manage the second chance. You have to admire these guys driving such large trucks on these roads, not much clearance here! We have been to Camping International Lac d'Annecy twice before, it is a well appointed campsite, but, on our arrival we find the number of "little houses" has increased dramatically, never a good sign on a "touring" site, in our opinion. We left Chalon-sur-Saone in sunshine, we arrive at Annecy in pouring rain, we have caught up with yesterdays storm I think. By evening, the rain has stopped, the sky is clearing. After our evening meal, Kathleen is munching Maltesers, her favourite chocolate. She complains that the resealable bag, does not reseal very effectively. I point out her that she is probably the first person in the world to attempt to reseal a bag of Maltesers. I ask you, who ever heard of anyone NOT eating the whole packet, at one sitting! Tuesday 15th September 2015 The weather forecast is boringly accurate, sunny in the morning until 11:00, then cloudy until 15:00, then sunny until 17:00, then cloudy again. A cool 19C. There were only four campervans here, including us, this morning two of them leave. The site is like the Marie Celeste. Kathleen has found another campsite (Camping Coeur du Lac Annecy) in the ACSI book, which is open until end of October, and is only a couple of miles along the road, nearer to Annecy. We cycle along there to give it the once over, looks good, we will probably move there tomorrow. We cycle on to Annecy, but, I fail to persuade Kathleen to do the round the lake circuit. Instead we sit drinking coffee, watching the world go by. Back to the van for lunch, and we have cycled 16 miles. In the afternoon, I cycle another 15 miles, just to keep my average up!
The campsite, Paquier Fane, is very pleasant.
