Mon 27 Feb 9° rain

Sat Nav came to life this morning for first time since return to England,  typical, with appointment on Tuesday for TV and sat nav check.

Stone walls abound in this area,  diving fields and along the roadside, not such a good day for photos in the rain.

Swollen river running parallel with road, as we wound our way north, trees blown down from storm  Doris, knocking down part of stone wall into river possible flood danger, workmen there trying to clear blockage.

Stopped at Morrisons Buxton, got a hot gammon hock £3,70, which reminded us of Saint Cyprien,  so that's lunch and dinner sorted.

Good deisel price at Morris ons  £1.19 Ltr, got £60 fill.

Onto the Silk Road A523 up and over the Peak District National Park,  massive black cloud looming overhead.

Thought there were plenty of roundabouts in France, but lots on this route too.

Sleeting in  Dutton, turned to snow, but too wet to settle.

Pub stopover  for the night The Tunnel Top, just along the road from Falcon for our visit tomorrow.

Sun 26 Feb 10°

Wet day for touring northwards to the Peak District for our stop over in Derwentwater Arms.
Came across our first toll bridge 60p .
Past a massive shopping complex Ravenside Retail Park, it was chocker block full, obviously the in place for a Sunday shopping trip.

Our pub stopover for the night, right in the heart of surrounding  walks all over the Peak District National Park.

Met the owners Tom and Kat Keogh , Irish heritage could be distant relatives of Tony's golfing mate Geoff Keogh.
Lovely young couple at the heart of the village community of Calver, we had a couple of local ales and small Sunday roast £6.50. Very nice.

Wed 22 - Sun 26 Feb

Holed up in Lincoln with Ena, Pat and Les away in Spain,  had a lovely few days relaxing and sheltering from storm Doris, high winds rocked poor Bessie but all OK.  Glad to be off the road for a few days with family.

Heading north tomorrow  to get TV and Sat Nav looked at.

Tues 21 Feb 36 years wedding anniversary

Took Bessie in to Oaktree, Dave got Ian to check the fridge and he confirmed not able to repair so new fridge required. Dave rang RAC insurance for approval which he got. He rang to order a new one, delivered tomorrow but workshop fully booked till Friday 3 March.
Meanwhile Ian fixed the 12v, locker hinge and ground out the roof scrape and applied the gel coat. They will fill and paint the damage on back corner when they fit the fridge, so all good.

Hogshead again tonight, good place to stay, big carpark and friendly staff.

Mon 20 Feb 13°

Good night sleep, few car doors banging but nothing much. Left about 10am sat nav would not even come so used Google maps, route looked easy enough......famous last words. Road closed,  re direction, ended up down a too narrow road, couldn't get through  couldn't turn around, hit a post, had to reverse all the way back plus the traffic behind us and those on the main road. Very understanding and obliging drivers and we eventually found our way out and never been so relieved to see the motorway.

Good run up M1 arrived Awesworth at our pub stopover for the night the Hogs Head, where we stayed before, just around the corner from Oaktree for our morning fridge inspection and repairs.

Nice lady in the pub remembered us which was good and no problems staying as long as needed.

Very light showers as I caught up on the blog and Tony enjoyed reading an English newspaper.

Very good meal again and nice pint of  good old English stout.

Sun 19 Feb 10°

Morning at Jenna and Alex, coffee and French pastries,  last night at 9.30 Alex ordered a USB stick for us and it was there at 10am...........amazing service. So he was able to put some films on for us. Fantastic thank you Alex and Jenna, really appreciate it, as we have watched nearly all the ones Elliot gave us to bring.

Alex's sister Nicole, husband Tim and 3 children came, first time we have met them all, good hour or so then Stephen and Noemy arrived, a day back from their holiday in Tennerif.
Nicole and family went home and the 6 of us went for a drink and late lunch at a local pub, never got to Orpington as no need with being able to park so nearby.

After lunch, we made use of Jenna's shower and luxury of a hairdryer, then went down to the  cinema room/lounge to watch a movie,  complete with popcorn.

Another fun evening , lovely to spend the time together. Well done again on finding such a good place for us to park.

Sat 18 Feb 8° sunny Calais Le Shuttle to Folkstone

We have circumnavigated France and our French adventures are now over. Got the train back to UK. Out of cite Europe and topped up on lpg .66c took 9ltrs, also had a brown waste dump, so were able to do that before we left. Very good stop for night in the huge car park with a whole large section for motorhomes.

Au revoir France.

Emerged from the tunnel no cling ons (refugees) in sight, as we had heard they were returning to Calais.

Grey sky greeted us but it soon turned to powder blue with white cotton wool clouds as we're neared Streatham. Jenna and Alex had  been out walking the area to find a suitable place for us to park nearby. Three streets over from  them, 5 min walk, perfect, big wide road and a space just made for us, another motorhome parked up nearer the main road so knew it would be OK.

They were  just waking back from The Rookery with friend Greg so called in for and cuppa. They left saying Alex would cook a Bolivian chicken meal for dinner. We walked up to Tesco for and few bits and spotted and a battery beard trimmer for just £10 a bargain, so we got that as recommended by Alex and Greg who also both had beards.

Lovely evening with Jenna and Alex, good meal and wine, played a boardgame and walked home about midnight. Good fun, good company, great evening.

Fri 17 Feb 6° clear

Good day for our drive to Calais, en route  there were lots of individual stone statues of Mary and Jesus along the roadside. As we neared the city the houses became more modern and reminiscent of England. Filled up with gazol  €1.24 got €48 39 ltrs. Found a Carrefour with a new Laverie (laundromat) so we're able to do our washing €8 wash and 2 x €2 15 min dryer.

Arrived at Cite Europe, what a massive shopping centre with a huge Carrefour with people stocking up big time, buying wine by the case, our humble purchase included a couple of cask wine, bubbles, beer and whiskey as well as last bit of French pate. €72, not bad it will keep us going for a while. Had our last meal here in one of the many restaurants.

Our total mileage  3,700 miles since collection on Nov 15th.

Thurs 16 Feb 4° light fog

Electric hook up for 2 hours to charge all  devices and wifi €4. The sun came out and Tony researched drive to cemetery,  Battle of the Somme, where his Grandads cousin, Hubert Wiramu Steel fought and died in 1916 aged just 23.

Cemetery named Catterpillar Valley, headstone coordinates VI. D. 19 at Langueval 45 mins from Arras, so decided to go and find him.

Walked up and down couldn't find him in D. 19,  Tony found the registrars book and using his powers of deduction, deciphered that the VI as in 6 was the row D and 19 was the headstone.  So looked for row 6 counted along 19 and there he was, success. The sun came out, it warmed up to make a perfect day for our visit.

This wall has the names of  soldiers who were killed in action, but never found.

These are the fields where a lot of the bodies were found, just opposite the cemetery. 

Tony visited the Australian war memorial,  the scene of biggest loss of life in Australia's wartime history.
A very surreal day pleased we found Hurbert.

Wed 15 Feb 6°

Domestic  morning ,filled water and gave Bessie's underbelly a good clean after the muddy farm track detour, as coordinates missed the mark.

Met English couple in motorhome next to us in a Bessacar, very helpful with sites in  Uk said Ireland was very expensive so be warned and not many places to stay.

Returned to information site to get tokens for elec hook up and walked to find NZ soldier bronze statue which was supposed to be by the station, there was a large concrete memorial with a French soldier, but not what we were looking for, kept walking but with no success, returned to tourist information site, had them on  merry hunt, but to no avail,  the whereabouts of the Margaret Fountain bronze statue of the NZ soldier,  shall remain unknown.

Returned to Bessie, where the skip  cooked a very nice chicken fillet with veg and little boiled potatoes.

Tues 14 Feb 4°

HAPPY Valentines day, lovely sunny day, very flat ploughed land, with wind farms and signs for war graves which are beautifully clean and very well kept, frequently along the very straight road to Arras.

Good site for next few days,  free with good service near town and historic sites.
Fabulous day for a walk into town to the Tourist Information Center.  Bought tickets for the Wellington Tunnels and walk up the clock tower.

Great tour of the tunnels where the miners from Wihi went to help connect the existing caves from the old limestone quarries. 24,000 soldiers were housed in  the mines for 8 days for a surprise attack on the Germans.

 

45 mins walk back to the tower, lift up then 45 steps on a tiny spiral staircase up to viewing platform under the clock.

 

The square was a picture and buzzing with people, the sun  was shining and there was one table outside waiting for us. What started as one drink in the square,  turned into 3, it was such a lovely place, we were enjoying people watching. Some were rolling their own ,some had vaporiser artificial cigarettes and some of the young women were wrapped in what looked like blankets, bit too big for scarves.

After about 2 hours the temperature dropped so we set off back to Bessie, me being a cheap drunk, staggered and tripped on the cobblestone paving,  but made it back safely. A lovely end to a very good day.

Mon 13 Feb 1° fine

Lovely day, blue sky, sun shining, saw ladies with fur bonnet hoods like I used to have as a child growing up in London winters with thick snow, brought back memories.

Very flat ploughed fields and green new sown fields making a patchwork of the countryside. Followed by acres and acres of brown newly ploughed fields.

Tony decided to take the road less travelled along the D18 Chemin des Dames, path of the ladies. King Louis XV daughters would walk this route to their ex lady in waiting who was now the King's mistress.

Modern church and  graveyard at Cerney en Laonnois, quite a contrast to cathedral's and abbeys seen so far.

On to St Quentin via Gauchy, which proved a good move, as we avoided big city and were able to get supplies to Aldi plus top up gazol (diesel) €1,24 ltr and gpl (lpg)€.67 ltr took 16 ltrs after 10 days, therefore average €1.20 a day for cooking and heating.

Drove on to proposed aire using coordinates and fingers crossed as she has taken a few back turns with those before.
Passed wind turbines through pretty countryside heavily planted and ploughed very sunny day lovely relaxing drive, drove past 4th division Australian and commonwealth graves.

Finally reached destination  of Marcoing after 1/2 mile detour across muddy field, Bessie's first test at off road driving. Bloody coordinates  off skew again , she wanted us to turn up at railway track before we found the turning, perseverance paid off again, excellent driving from the ex farm hand. Nice sunny tarmac location but unfortunately the elec and water turned off for winter, rang the council phone number, but the man couldn't speak English and hung up on me. Still it's free and good for one night.

Gave the bearded one a trim outside before settling in for the evening.

Sun 12 Feb 1° Showeres clearing.

4 months retired, beats working.
Cool wet start, had an inside morning, doing budget, on track so all good, waiting to see if weather cleared. It did and turned out to be a stunner.

Another big walk this time the other way to fhe Basilque Saint Remi,  another huge church, but not as big as cathedral.

 

Next door to the Museum Saint Remi,  which was once the Royal Abbaye of Saint Remi, which houses the holy ampula used to anoint the King's of France.

As seniors over 65 cost us €6 entry for both.

This is a massive building of corridors and rooms with everything from,prehistoric ,  bronze age, pre Roman to 2nd world war and modern day art exhibition .....of  which we were 'boar 'd to chairs'....

Plus amazing artifacts and remains gathered in one place, including the most beautiful marble sarcophagus conserved in France and belonging to the General in Chief of the Roman Army who was born in Reims.

From here walked to Verve Cliquot, Pommery , Demoiselle Vranken and Taittinger ,  they were all closed but we got the photos .

Walked back along the river in late afterthought sun, sore feet but we'll worth it. We reckon we walked 7 or 8 miles.

Pork stir fry for dinner with cleansing ale, another good day.

Sat 11 Feb 1°

Full day in city today, first stop the Tourist Information Center, well positioned next to the Cathedral Notre Dame  world heritage building.  It was huge, the size a Royal wedding would be comfortable in, one of Europe's most important Gothic buildings a masterpiece of13th century. Also famous for it's statue of the smiling angel.
It was the coronation cathedral of 25 French kings.

From here we walked to covered markets, fresh produce,meat, fish, pate etc and what we hoped was chutney.

We had lunch in a cafe bar, €31, very light omelet for me and chicken and chips for Tony in tasty mushroom sauce, only disappointment was lukewarm  coffee.

Walked back to the I site, it was freezing cold, they were having a Champagne tasting from Dominique Boulard  a family owned and run business near Epernay . 3 very generous servings and 3 very different Champagne 's very good use of time while waiting for 2pm for places to open, that warmed us up.

From here we went to the Museum, Mansion House of Hughes Krafft, millionaire champagne family,  biscuits makers and textile producers. His parents died when he was 28 and with his massive wealth that he inherited, he travelled the world, twice,  his most favourite was Japan. He built up a huge collection of furniture and artworks. He wrote many books, took hundreds of photos and won many artworks wards for his work.
An amazing  place well worth the €5 each entrance fee including a thorough tour in French and English by the guide, who went between the two fluenty.
Also learnt more about the earliest champagne houses and their female owners, Madam Cliquot and Madam Pommery.

So after a very interesting 2 hours, we walked back towards Bessie, happening upon a brass band of students,  bashing out a Saturday afternoon jam session.
Bought more baguette and escargot aux raisin. Noticed lots of people of all ages pulling their trolly bags with their shopping in, such a good idea. Also many, many smokers in France.

Back at Bessie heater on full to warm up, Temps dropped now, good day out in Reims.

Fri 10 Feb 1° light fog

Cold morning for our explore of the town today, we were looking for the 16th century historic Monument that is now Hotel du Lion Noir. Old, but not as old as where we have been living in the Dordogne 12th century house. After asking and receiving help and directions, finally established it is not to be seen from outside as they have built a new building in front and around to protect the ancient wooden staircase that was built on the outside of the original building and is still standing. Access we were told was through a door to the side of a shop. However when we found it is was surprisingly, once again, Closed!  All that was to be seen was the plaque on the wall.

Walked around a bit more, purchased our baguette and pain du raisin, and back to Bessie for a warming cuppa.

 

In this ancient building a pizza restaurant now flashes it's red neon light.

Heading north again, we had plan A, B and C in place with no hurry as we are ahead of our schedule .

Good roads here and a lazy, hazy day but definitely not of summer.....
There is a distinct lack of service stations and driving around trying to find sites plan A and B were consuming more diesel than we would like. When we did find service stations they were un manned and again, couldn't use our card.
Put a search into sat nav for petrol stations.......next one was just before Reims!  With fingers, toes and everything in between crossed, we drove North.  Sat nav proved her worth well and truly and we were able to get €50 worth at €1.33 ltr.  A fine dusting of powder snow started to fall mixed in with a very light rain, nso it didnt settle, nice! Happy now have diesel, on the road to Reims.
Terrible main roads into Reims, bumping and juddering along nearly all the way. Past the Cathedral, 

Over the river and got to our free park at the back of a public building, no services but fortunately don't need any. We can stay all weekend as they told me there is a lot happening this weekend it is also holiday here.
So hunkered up for the night, it is going to be a cold one 0° then we will walk over the bridge to the Tourist Information Center tomorrow, which we were informed will be ...open!

Thurs 9 Feb 3° light fog

Into Dijon where some of the cobbled streets led to small squares, very rickerty to drive over, thankfully not much traffic which made driving round in search for the illusive park painless, for a change.  However our patient search was to no avail, so North it was to Troyes and the start of the Appelation of Champagne-Ardenne.

Traffic jam in Dijon

Sample of buildings as we drove around Dijon

As we left the city the countryside turned into green plantings, surprisingly not of mustard, but of rape seed for oil, which roll and undulate in shades of green. Don't  know how we got so high up but now winding our way down and up again through forest. Little village Le pays de Saint Seine de L'Abbaye  I site sign, so pulled over. Tony went to get some info and came back with fine foraging from little market, salad, veg, fruit and beautiful fresh mini quiche each for lunch with a fresh baguette and the all important jar of Dijon mustard. He even managed to crouch down to get through a very small doorway into the Abbey 1840 which is still operating as as working church, he reported was quite beautiful inside with stain glass windows.

Our lunch fresh from the market here.

The I site told Tony that the source of the seine starts up here and several tributaries meet further down to make the main river.

After lunch we  began to climb again, gentle rolling green hills but glimpses of the seine as we drove on through forest, rolling pasture like patchwork quilts.

Chatillian sur Seine Lidl's for couple nights dinners, have great carparks to make our shopping easy.

On through lots of modern homes and new housing area and just out of town. The sun came out and warmed up the day. The river is wider as we enter the Appelation of Champagne. 

Bar sur Seine for deisel, wouldn't take card but we're able to check tyres €1 65psi = 4.5 bars 70psi = 4.8 bars, rear 2 were a little higher than front 2, now all the same.

On to Troyes 3.5 t weight restriction,  sorry Les......into massive car park site free overnight no services, we chose quiet corner, tree lined border, pleased with lighting as whole car park lit up,10 minutes walk to town which we did on arrival at  4.45 for preliminary explore, before bigger outing tomorrow, but too cold to stay stay out long.

our camp for the night,

Troyes from the air forms the shape of a champagne Cork.  This is a Renaissance town from 17th century ,  I love the ancient buildings and the thought and feel of all that history .  The Hotel  du 

Lion Noir is 16th century with an external wooden staircase which we hope to see tomorrow . Apparently this is also the heart of textile industry and theire are lots of designer discount stores in town.

 Bought a box of vegetables for soup complete with bouquet garni,  so after our rekki we chopped it up, put in the pot and had fresh homemade soup for tea with fresh baguette , perfect for a cold night yummm. 

Got another motorhome in front of us for company so after null good.