Tuesday 13 December Rochefort Sur Mer

Misty morning turned into any other warm, sunny day.
Day off driving today, walked into town, took our time browsing the huge Leclerc shopping mall. Purchased car seat covers for Bessie for Xmas very smart red and black, Crusaders would approve.

Had coffee and croissants from coffee bar before tackling the supermarket and the Polar Bears lurking around while we got the 'BEAR' essentials.........

Tony said hey I do the jokes.

Cooking dinner tonight set the smoke detector off, warning......don't try to cook oven bag chicken in fry pan....it melts.......dahhhh another lesson Learnt!  Such fun.........

Tomorrow short drive to Cognac.

Monday 12 December 2 months retired

What a roller coaster, this morning we had to find diesel,  lpg and water. First 2 wouldn't accept card and couldn't connection to to the lpg. Third time lucky with card and got diesel, no lpg to be had today.

Finally search for sites paid off whewww, lovely spot near Rochfort with water yeah
Sunshine nice and warm, so decided to stay for couple days here easy walk into the town,  it says, so got all excited and did some washing, Never been so excited to get water  and do washing,  haha amazing how much we take for granted in life.
Happy at 3.30 in the sun.

Sunday 11 December - What a day!

After no Internet last night, realised how much we are dependent on it, especially for planning for the next day, but also to keep up with everyone back home.

A very misty dull day dawned with our first little bit of fine misty air. But we were in a lovely wild camp just up the road from our chosen 'site' that was no longer, just a dirty place to park. It was a car park to a bar restaurant,  so of course had to go into to sample their wares. Got a map of Samaritan for shop tomorrow.

Huge Leclerc shopping centre, took us ages to find our way around, hour and half later we left. By now it was almost lunch time, so had coffee and a bite, deciding weather and time was against us going to local Château.  Plenty more ahead of us.

So drove happily south to site we had chosen for the night on the way to LA Rochelle, only to find it was closed.
Found plan B and Cafe and drove on and on and all around the streets of La Rochelle and across town to plan D only to find no longer were moho friendly or closed!, Very, very  frustrating.  By now it was getting dusk and fortunately Les quickly sent us another down the coast, only to get there and discover it also was closed. Obviously not a good time to be traveling.

Eventually found one thanks again to Les at Chatelaillon-plage, but parked on grass verge with 2 other motorhomes.
Whewww needed a wee Jammie to calm our frazzled nerves.

A new day tomorrow .

Saturday 10 December Fontevraud Abbey

A frosty start to a stunning day,  left Torquant 10am after coffee and croissants from local shop.

Arrived at Abbey sun shinning and we'll worth the €15 each for 3 hour walk round with audio. Good heritage site built in 1056 lots of history  including burial tombs of Alien or D'Aquitaine, King Henry I I Plantagente, Richard the Lion heart and Isabelle l'Angouleme.

 

Friday 9 Dec

After a slow start getting out of carpark, as machine wouldn't take any of our cards, had to go to information site to pay cash!

Tony had been reading up in a magazine Pat gave us about Fontevraud Abbey so decided to go there and work our way back along the Loire Valley.

Found campsite at Turquant near Saumur, over the Loire and not far from the Abbey.  Not many sites open this time of year, but this one in a little village with nice park area with picnic tables for summer.

First sight of Loire, not much in it.

That's more like it.

Had to pull in both side mirrors to cross the bridge when passing cars!

Thursday 8 December Mont St Michel

Church bells rang on the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and on the hour all through the night. 5am struck 5 bells again for 6, 7 and 8. Discovered the  church car park was also a bus park and primary school, so pretty noisy and up at 7 still dark. Very mild, no moisture on the silver windscreen cover.
Tony made a solo trip to village shop , deux lait et quatre  tomate sil vous plait. Merci. Well into it now. Left when it was still dark saw amazing sunrise on our way south.

I hour drive to Mont St Michel, found a campsite and emptied the necessaries, loads of room so drove on to the main car park for the Mont, intending to go back later. However the car park was €17.50 for 24 hours,  so decided to spend the day here and stay overnight.
Stunning day, parked near to a Swedish couple who spoke very good English and we walked to the shuttle and a round the magnificent heritage site. Up so many steps, proving how unfit we are.  After a good explore around, most of the shops and Cafe closed for winter and restorations, we got the shuttle half way back to a hotel and shopping area.
Had lunch here, 2 Baguette and 2 coffee's,  which are very strong €17.40 then decided had to have one of the pastries,  a treat for all those steps heehee, another €6 with a fresh baguette for tea time.

 

Wednesday 7 December

Fecamp proved difficult to get out of, sat nav took us out of town and back again. In between called in to little servo (service station)to get lpg as we ran out again last night half way thru cooking dinner. The 11kg bottle only lasted 4 days, but full on heating and cooking with the oven, so that probably used a lot. Good job we keep the 6kg cylinder off as back up.

Learnt a not very nice lesson,  to keep an eye on Height!! As we went under a very low petrol pump canopy and took about 18" of paint off bit of roof. Kind attendant let the tyre down so we could get out and then inflated it again. Alas they had no lpg anyway so high tailed it out of there with a big wave of thanks.
Drove back into Fecamp to the Texaco station where a lovely female attendant filled up our lpg (gpl) and diesel. GPL .70€ litre €14.80 and diesel €1.28 23.4 litres €30

Sat Nav keeps losing gps signal, which doesn't help and then it's different to what looks the right way on map book . Very frustrating but in the end went with sat nav route re route - north, West,  South bit of a run around today.

Ended up in little village church car park in St samson-de-Bonfosse.
Planned route for tomorrow to campsite near le Mont-St-Michel. Sat nav has no gps signal, again, so will have to put it in tomorrow.
Enough for today.

Tuesday 6 December Boulogne to Fecamp

Lovely day again for our drive south, stopped at Aldi en route to Hautot sur mer for lunch, pate and baget.  Decided to keep going to Saint valery en coux. Gorgeous spot but closed for winter season so drove on to Fecamp, free park by port at office of tourism. Bit noisey  but easy walk into pretty village and public loos not too far from park.

Well driven again by cool, calm skipper, after one missed turn and a bit of a map nav blunder by moisture.

Monday 5 December A day in Boulogne

Light frost but sunny and not so cold. Rugged up with kiwi scarves and beanies to walk into town, about 1 1/2 miles. Really only needed our caps as was very sunny. A grass and seaboard walk, dodging doggy doos, as in this town anyway, they don't seem to pooper  scoop,  so,watch where you're walking.

Light lunch in town, very proud of my school girl French managed to order and make ourselves understood. Even Tony requested the toilets in French successful.

Went to carrefour supermarket for provisions and hole in the wall for cash, yeah our euro card works.

On walk home spotted something swimming in the sea, much cooler now the sun had gone behind the clouds. The little black head and tell tale flipper, turned out to be a French seal, confirmed to Tony by a local Frenchman passing by.

Back to Bessie, found other stickers in my kindle, and much relief were able to put on nz flag and silver fern.

Sunday 4 December 2016

Hythe - Eurotunnel- Boulogne  sur mer

A sad day today as we woke to the news that our brother in law  Andrew passed away in wellington after losing his battle with cancer. Our love and thoughts are with them.

After a noisy, windy night on the seafront of Hythe between sea and golf course. We set off on the short drive to Eurotunnel.  After getting in freight lane and a long reverse back out manoeuvred our way to correct lane and waited for call up. Empty point nearby  so we're able to leave with empty waste cassette.

Quick jaunt through tunnel to arrive in  Calais but with no wifi, no Google maps or apps to help us find our way. Quite scary but my wonderful husband and skipper stayed cool and calm and drove beautifully on right hand side of the rosd down to Boulogne sur mer and found our first aire for the night. Magnificent day for our travels. Good spot €6 a night.

Put our europe headlight stickers on, although no plans to drive at night, but better to be safe and legal.
Also put on our kiwi sticker and searched Bessie thoroughly for silver fern and other stickers only to come up with none. So hope they turn up before too long.

Saturday 3 December 2016

Another sunny day greeted us, after breakfast we packed up and followed Sue to Lidl's only to get our first 'warning' from sat nav to say bridge too Narrow!  yeah  it works. So said goodbye to Sue and drove on to Hythe. Had our first successful park and shop at sainsburys then continued on to Princes Parade where parking on seafront is allowed free.

Lovely view for the night and good position 10 minutes from the eurotunnel in the morning for our train to Calais. France here we come 😎

 

Thursday 1 December 2016 To Wateringbury

Awoke to the refreshing rural sounds of the crows and Llamas in this delightful ex winery of Barnsgate Manor.  No frost today, sunny and mild.

Good drive to my friend Sue 's in a little village near Maidstone of Wateringbury. She has a big front drive just made for our Bessie and we parked there easily.  Lovely bungalow and she insisted we sleep indoors in her spare room. Went over to her son Gavin's for a quick visit, they have made some great changes and alterations to their home. Had an great catch up with with them and Sue.

Friday was a lovely sunny day again,  been very lucky with the weather. Sue's 2 grandchildren came over for the afternoon while mum went to work. Sue said good practice for us with any future grandchildren haha.

Went for a walk around the local area, very rural but not far to towns either, good little spot here in Kent.


Walked to The Wateringbury local pub, live music very good female singer where we had a very good meal. Lovely evening.

Paignton to Merley East Sussex

Said our farewells to Heather, all set to go, flat Battery!  rang the RAC who came within half an once we finally got through on the phone. The wonderful guy not only got us up and running he also did a quick fix to the TV. Thanks Gary . Lovely sunny day for us to set off.

Filled up near Doncaster with LPG 65p ltr took 32ltrs and diesel  £1.20 ltr took £50.

Nice camp site at Merley all cosy, electric hook up, emptied waste and filled water.

Woke to -4  and a white world but sun was shining and after scrambled eggs on toast, all chores completed set off for next stop.

Went to Arundel for provisions and photo opportunity of the castle. Perfect parking and excellent driving by the skipper.

Thursday 24 - Monday 28 November Paignton

Drove from Awsworth to Paignton after wee detour and arrived at Ian and Heather 's 4.30 quite unexpectedly a day early whoops that  was the beginning of a hilarious few days together. Great hosts, tour of the area, lots of laughs, freezing cold walks, Devonshire cream teas, more laughs and good company.

1 empty gas cylinder at 2am so Tony had to be the hero of the hour and go out to turn on the other one. But at least we now know 1 cylinder lasts one week.

Frustrating time trying to book site for Tuesday,  either closed or had to register to go into site for details. Finally got one booked with Ian's help £16.80.

Christmas lights in Exeter and great carvery at Smugglers Inn, Dawlish,   £10.50 large £8.50 over 60s.

Watched  Strictly come dancing and saw Ed Balls finally go out.

Thanks Heather and Ian for showing us around and sharing great laughs. See you back 'home '.

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Thanks for your comments and emails,  it's lovely to keep in touch with everyone.

Today we went to Oaktree Motorhomes for Bessie's makeover. It took all day, but well worth it. The friendly team were very patient and helpful,  nothing was too much trouble and we even got our name put on,  so we are now officially The Grape Escape. Oaktree have exceed our expectations .

 It's dark now but will take a photo in the morning before we head off to Ian and Heather in Paignton Devon.