Monthly Archives: September 2017

France day 22 – Luxémont-et-Villotte

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Today was meant to be a cloudy day with a bit of sun.  Give me more of these days, it turned out very well.  We decided we would take Van the Van our for a ride to Lake Der.  This is an artificial lake which takes the winter flood water from the river Marne and stores it until the Summer when IT is slowly released back into the river.  The River Marne is a tributary to the river Seine, and joins the Seine where it enters Paris at Ivry-sur- Seine.  This lake and other control mechanisms were built to control flooding of I assume Paris which occurred several times in the 20th century.

Lake Der is now a habitat for birds and there’s also a place for water sports.  We were trying to locate places where we could stop and view birds.  It seemed difficult, all car parks were limited to 2 meters high vehicles, whereas we are a little higher.  The alternative were the Aires, but they were all gate controlled and thus needed to be paid for.  We drove around and were about to give up when we saw a road that allowed us on to the top of the dyke.  At least we could now see the mud flats and the hundreds of birds feeding.  We drove slowly along.  Grabbed a few pictures, but the feeding grounds were too far away for a decent picture.  The lake is at a low point at this time of year because the water is being let out for the winter floods. 

At the end of the road we were back at the parking.  Stopped and decided to check the Aires for the prices.  Was free during the day.  Hurrah, so parked and walked to a nearby hide.  We spent a while watching the birds. 

Now we tried to find a restaurant for lunch.  Nearby, closed, must be Monday.  Another place located, but Google took us down the N road, and there was no way off.  Gave up and went to Leclerc and bought some bread and pain au raisins.

Nice picnic late lunch at campsite, and then a walk down to the Etang.  We walked around it, seeing the work which was in progress.  The place was rather devoid of birds.  There was excitement when we heard a snort and splosh as we walked up to some reeds.  There were tracks in the grass and down the bank.  Some mammal which we never saw, I expect it may be a coypu.  

Back at campsite consumed another bottle of Vouvray and then ate supper, emergency rations of lentils and tuna.  Able to sit out later as warmer in the evening with the protective lay of cloud.  Fun watching one mobilehome moving around trying to connect to the satellite TV.

Tomorrow we are off back home.

France day 21 – Luxémont-et-Villotte

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The night had been chilly, with heavy dew in the morning.  Breakfast of chocolate pastries and coffee.  Lovely sunny day.  We wanted to walk to the Etang available for campers.  So off we set on the short 1K walk.  As we crossed the canal we saw the campsite owner’s wife, dog and another woman on the towpath.  One woman was sitting on the ground and R became a concerned citizen.  So we walked along the canal to investigate, our pretext being to look at the lock gates further on.  The woman on the ground was an artist drawing the canal and bridge, madam was just there chatting to her.  We continued to the lock gates.  They were automatic hydraulically operated gates, much wider than UK locks.  Like the railways, British canals were built on the cheap and are smaller than the continental ones. 

We turned right here and headed out into the country with the intention of doing another right hand turn to get as to the target Etang.  The tarmac road we were on was by far the worst road we had encountered in France.  It still was far superior to most of the country lanes in Buckinghamshire!  After walking across a stream and through a wood we were into open country, huge fields going on for miles.  Next, we came across a marked Etang (on the map) on the left advertised as Carp fishing holidays.  There were some fishermen, and they were English.  On the right with no mention of an Etang on the map, was another stretch of water.  Possibly a newer flooded gravel pit, all fenced off with permission for nothing including building.  It though had one swan.  Here we turned right along gravel road heading for our Etang, passing another Etang very overgrown around the edges, but with three swans.

We came to our Etang, all fenced off, so we walked along the side of it towards our campsite.  We then came across the entrance.  There seemed to be much redevelopment work going on.  This Etang was for the campers, and allowed fishing, bathing, walking etc.  The lake now seemed recently to have been divided into two and had a stoned beach created.  We left, walked back to the campsite.

The afternoon was spent eating, Sunday lunch of pork.  Alas not grilled as we were only on a 6 amp supply, but more stewed on the gas with beans and tomatoes.  We spent the afternoon lazing and reading, then eating a cheese sandwich for supper.  During the afternoon we both were amazed at the number of blackbirds inhabiting the hedges of the campsite.  Not only blackbirds, but woodpeckers, who alas flew away as soon as a glass lens was produced.

Again, the birds provided a musical accompaniment as we ate. Once it was night, the bats and owls arrived.

The village has a pack of dogs somewhere, who decide to howl at irregular intervals.  Also, being Sunday night the lorry traffic on the distant N road picked up and we could hear a distant but constant sound of traffic through the night.

France day 20 – Luxémont-et-Villotte

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We packed up on a reasonable day with the sun attempting to dry the awning out.  The awning was, as usual, a sod to pack.  It is so heavy with the inflatable tubes which are also a pig to totally deflate.  Each time we take it down, the folded package seems larger than ever.  The awning is so difficult to manoeuvre, and you end up dragging it around on the ground making it dirtier and dirtier each time you erect and take it down.  Yes, I was beginning to lose it and wish I had never bought the blessed thing.  A sale on eBay I expect.

We set off in a northerly direction on the toll road toward Dijon and beyond.  Our aim was to reach a small campsite near to Vitry-le-Francois.  Google pulled us off the toll road early to take us on the N67 towards Chaumont.  An excellent choice by our silicon friend.

On the payage we tried to have lunch.  I had always considered French motorway cafes to be superior to our UK ones.  Not anymore.  The first attempt we could not find anywhere to park, except for some useless empty car parks on the other side of the motorway a good 10-minute walk away.  The signage was appalling as well.  The next attempt, at least the café was on the same side of the road, but again the signage was crap, and the place seemed full.  We ended up parking with many other cars in the lorry park.  Then the food, on one counter doing croque monsieurs and coffee, was one poor over-worked girl with a large queue.  Ended up buying iced Starbucks coffee and sandwich.  Christ, white square bread and it tasted sweet.  No sorry UK has it right, choice of foods and now we have M&S or Waitrose selling pretty good sandwiches / wraps / couscous / salads etc.  Sorry France you have lost the plot on convenience foods.

We made it to Vitry-le-Francois and went shopping in a Leclerc. Provisioned now for the next three days.

We drove to the campsite Camping Nature, in the village of Luxémont-et-Villotte, priced at  15 Euro for the night, small campsite.  No nudity, despite R’s initial thoughts on its name. No delineation of parking spaces, but nice green grass and very quiet.  There are five of us here for the night.  Looking forward to the walk to the Etang, and along the canal.  Fifteen kilometres away there is a large lake, built to alleviate the flooding of Paris.  It is meant to have some good bird viewing hides, so maybe Monday for that.

Tonight, we had a bottle of fizzy Vouvray, and the remains of yesterday’s meal (lardons with onion, pepper and tomatoes) with some cravats.   Tasted delicious.  For Carbohydrate some du pain, which I reckon was stale the moment I bought it. But after a quick heat through, it was fine.

Sitting in the quiet as the sun set, there was a raucous chorus of birds settling in a bamboo grove on the campsite.  This was shortly complimented with an aerial display by some bats. Not seen so many bats flying around like this for a while.

The facilities here look good, nice and clean tiles etc. Yet to test the temperature of the shower. R had already complained about the lack of loo seat and chilly water in the plate cleaning area. There though was hot water available in another large laundry sink nearby.  Problem solved.

Near the campsite are rows and rows of flashing red lights.  Are they a landing strip for UFOs?  Google maps show nothing.  Investigate tomorrow on our walk. (Turned out to be lights on wind turbines.)

France day 19 – Cormoranche-sur-Saone

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Another sunny day, Rosemary went off to pick up the bread, it was a baguette, small thing, should have ordered a flute.  Just can’t to get to grips with the varied sizes of French bread.  After breakfast walked up to reception to decide on where we could go for some sites.  We were Abbeyed out, so they were off the list.  I got the list down to three places, a Grand Place where there were outcrops of rock and archaeological stuff, a wine pace and some caves. 

Instead we had a quiet day, walked around the lake, watched the birds and studied the numerous fishermen who had set up camp for the day.  We admired the seemingly empty TGV trains on their way to Lyon and beyond.  We would soon have our HS2 passing nearby us.  Yes these are noisy, and where there is a curve there are screeching rails.  At least they seem to disappear for the French lunch, and don’t start until quite late in the morning and are gone quite early in the evening.  (I am writing this at 21.00 and have not heard a TGB for a while now.)  Ate lunch, read books, nosed at the other mobile homes and campers.

Found an intriguing 2006 Landrover Defender with awning and attached tent.  The tent and awning were in Landrover brown and green.  Transpired they had been to the island of Sardinia.

The Brits across the road in a bigger van were on their way possibly to Spain, but were considering apartments as they were almost the same price as a campsite.

We planned the next day as we were going to be on the move again, this time it was going to be towards Reims. Three campsites, one with horrendous reviews, mainly because people had been refused entry as they were too young, and the onsite mobile homes were in poor condition. Also reports of midges, it though was on a lake and recommended for bird watches.  The ACSI site was in a middle of a town, the guide book said it could be noisy in September because of the grape pickers.  It was next to a vinery.  A third site was called Camping Nature, R immediately thought this to be a reserve for nudists.  Looks OK to me and a relatively small site.  This is my next target, I think. 

The weather looks OK for the rest of our holiday!!

France day 18 – Cormoranche-sur-Saone

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Today was meant to be a lovely blue-sky day.  It did not disappoint, despite a slow start as the thin cloud was burnt off.  The morning was quite chilly, and our feet felt it as we wandered around doing our morning tasks.  Another happy camper informed us it had been 5C during the night.

The late morning and early afternoon were spent in a leisurely walk which took us through fields and woods, along the bank of the river Saone.  In one of the fields on the way to the river we saw three grey herons. 

The Saone is a large navigable river, we saw several small boats motor down and up and one large Swiss river cruise liner travelling down.  There were a few people on the top deck, and a few on their balconies looking out.  It did not look very full, maybe everyone else was a lunch.

On the other bank there was a stork’s nest on top of a large dead tree.  There was even a stork standing there peering in.  On the river itself there were numerous grey herons perched on the banks.  In the river we came across a small group of juvenile swans still in their grey colour.

We continued the walk, through silver birch plantations and back to the campsite.  We should have passed through the village, but a slight navigation error caused us to bypass the village of Cormoranche-sur-Saone.

Back at the campsite we ate a late lunch and one-day old French bread which was soft and soggy. Actually, the pain complet does last a little longer than the white pap stuff the French pass off as bread.

I took a walk around the lake, especially to get close to photograph the TGVs as they trundled by.  They did not look that impressive in their speed here, maybe a slow section of line.  I did like the way that where the line divided, they built a bridge so that as one line crossed over the other it was on a bridge and not by crossing lines.  This presumably is to allow faster speeds and easier scheduling of trains.

Back at the tent, we opened a bottle of fizz from Borgognone and then started our burger and “chip” dinner.  Rosemary let herself down big time, the beans she thought must be French were from Rwanda.

Next door a British mobile home moved in, it also had a Silver Screen cover for the front windscreen.  Their’s though seemed not to fit as well and snugly as our’s does.

French pap bread ordered for the morning and a final JD nightcap as I write my blog and continue to read a Sci-Fi book by British author Charles Stross who used to work in IT from the 1980s to 2000.

Tomorrow is our last planned day here, not sure whether we are going to veg, or maybe we will look at the local sights.