Tag Archives: Camping Saint Nicolas

French Camping 2023, Day 2 Le Bec Hellouin

Blasdale Home Posted on by

31st August 2023

Today it started to drizzle in the morning. Breakfast in the van. Lunch in the van – Camembert cheese and some excellent brown, sliced, French bread. I went for a short walk down to the village, and along the cycle path that passes through here. The path is metalled, and could take a small car down it. The surface is absolutely perfect, nothing like a Buckinghamshire road. This metalled path is part of a cycle track built on an old rail line. I walked back on a path, across the river and back up the road. The Abbey tower was always in view.

France - Le Bec Hellouin
France - Le Bec Hellouin
France - Le Bec Hellouin
France - Le Bec Hellouin
France - Le Bec Hellouin
France - Le Bec Hellouin
France - Le Bec Hellouin
France - Le Bec Hellouin
France - Le Bec Hellouin

French Camping 2023, Day 1 Le Bec Hellouin

Blasdale Home Posted on by

30th August 2023


We left home early at 5:30 am to go to the Channel Tunnel. We got to the terminal at 8:10, which was well before our scheduled 9:23 Tunnel departure. Surprisingly, they offered us an earlier crossing, but we decided to stick with our original reservation. Looking back, we realized our timing calculations were a little off, and we could have taken the earlier crossing. While we were at the terminal, we explored the duty-free shop not buying anything., but planning for our return trip to make the most of the “world beating” duty-free allowances introduced by Johnson.

While we were at the terminal, I had a great conversation with a woman who was demonstrating the features of the Ford Mustang electric car. It caught my interest because, three years ago, I had been thinking about getting a Mustang EV. However, I ended up choosing a Polestar 2 because it could be delivered faster. The woman knew about the Polestar, and we had a nice chat about electric cars.

Getting on the train was a bit different from normal. Loading the cars seemed to have some issues, so we had to wait for a while. Eventually, we got on the train, and interestingly, we were the last to get on and off. We departed about 15 minutes later than scheduled.

We took our usual toll-free route to the pretty village of Le Bec Hellouin. We arrived at the Camping Saint Nicolas campsite at 3:44 pm. Before we got there, we made a quick stop at a small supermarket in the nearby village of Grand Bourgtheroulde to get food for the first few days of our stay. Since Brexit, there are strict rules about what food can be taken into France.

The weather was a bit chilly, but we decided to eat outside and enjoy the setting moon. To start our evening, we opened a bottle of Vouvray from the supermarket, as is our tradition for fizzy wine on the first night. With our meal, we had a glass of Abbey beer, which is a rather strong 10% beer. Dinner was pan-fried pork fillets with a side dish that was like ratatouille, all cooked in one pan.

Strangely, there were very few bats out tonight, maybe because it was cold. The weather forecast for the next few days didn’t look great.

My eSim, with 30GB of data from Bouygues Telecom, worked well. I just had to be careful not to accidentally use data on my physical SIM card, which I really wanted to avoid. Meanwhile, Rosemary still has her old EE contract, which allows her to use her phone in Europe. It came in handy when my reception wasn’t great. I started calling Bouygues Telecom “Boogie Tell” as a nickname from that point on.

France - Campint Saint Nicolas
France - Campint Saint Nicolas
France - Campint Saint Nicolas

France – Le Bec-Hellouin Day 2

Blasdale Home Posted on by

31st August 2022

We had planned to stay here for a couple of nights. So today was a relaxed day. A short walk down the hill to view the Abbey. Though we had seen the Abbey before, in later visits we had ignored it. Today we went into the Abbey grounds to view any changes. There were some. There was now a shop, and organised tours. The bells were rung while we were there, but at some odd times. Unlike English bells, they are untuneful. Watch the short video below to hear the bells.

The village has several restaurants / bars. On previous visits only one was open, the restaurants seemingly taking turns opening during the week. Today several were open. There definitely were more people visiting the Abbey than we have seen before. We stopped at l’Archange, which was the least formal, so we could buy a beer and not eat. It has tables and seats on the town green. Of course, we did end up consuming an omelette for lunch along with a beer each. it was somehow simple, but French and very good. Rosemary paid partly with the PO debit card, asking the waiter to take the exact amount left in the account, and paid the rest in cash. He was perplexed, not understanding why she would pay that way. But he smiled and nodded.

France has taken to contactless payments in a big way. I don’t believe, in France that we paid for anything contactless three years ago, now it appears to be the preferred payment method.

On the way out of the village I photographed a number of houses, wooden frames with brick or mud infilling. I would be worried about living in them. Our neighbour at home has problems with their possible wattle and daub front elevation. So we looked at these houses with great interest.

Back up the hill to the campsite for the afternoon siesta, and a little wander around. During the evening, the bats came out again to play, making swoops in a circle between a couple of trees. I did not want to be beaten by Rosemary so attempted to photograph the bats again. They move so fast that you can’t rely on autofocus. I set the camera to manual focus and made a guesstimate where they would fly. I also used flash. Well, it was dark. I did get several pictures and got one that was better than Rosemary’s mobile phone one. Hurrah!

France – Chunnel and Le Bec-Hellouin

Blasdale Home Posted on by

30th August 2022

Holiday time, our first trip to France in three years!

Early morning alarm, 4:30 am, and off on the road at 5:05 am. We needed to make the 9:50 Chunnel crossing. Poor old Google was sure there was a closed road on the route. We hoped we knew better so ignored her. The traffic down the A41 and around the M25 and M20 was light. The parking lot on the east bound lanes was devoid of the anticipated lorries awaiting their turn to cross the channel. Predictably we arrived exceedingly early and could go on the 8:20 crossing for free or pay £33 for the 7:50. The 8:20 crossing it was. The formalities at passport control were quick, a stamp in the passport, no inquisition on our finances or where we were booked to stay. No questions regarding ham sandwiches!

At the other end, we were straight onto motorway and heading down south, to Le Bec-Hellouin. Soon we were on to the local roads, ignoring the faster toll roads. At Rouen, we took a different route to how we normally progress, more into the city and along the underpasses. Thankfully, Google took us off the underpasses at the point where they went down to 1.8 meters high (the campervan is over 2.00). I just managed to see the height restriction at the same time 🙂 Wow that was a near one.

Out of the city it was now a short distance to Le Bec-Hellouin, so we made a supermarket stop to stock up on meat and dairy (both of which we can’t bring from the UK). We were trying to run down our preloaded Euros on a PO debit card. It was due to expire on the 31st. We searched for a cash machine to remove more of the Euros from the prepaid account. The bank at the first stop was closed, with no machines outside. These French lunches!! The second stop was in a busier area, and I was able to withdraw some Euros.

We headed to Camping Saint Nicolas in Le Bec-Hellouin, a site we have stayed at several times, the first time was in a tent as we were returning to England. It is a pleasant site, with a bar and restaurant. The site is a convenient distance from Calais for a first night. There is also the Abbey to visit withing walking distance. The campsite was very quiet, just a few vans and caravans which stopped overnight. Never seen it so empty.

A lovely supper of a precooked vegetable and bean chilli plus rice and a smashed avocado. During the evening, we were entertained by bats swooping within centimetres of us and a large, black cat. Rosemary was more successful in photographing the bats on her mobile phone than I was on my new EOS R7. Both though did not make the grade for inclusion in the attached gallery.

The black cat was quite a fat cat, doing well off the campers. Late at night Rosemary had trouble with him, tripping over him as he weaved in and out of her legs in front of her. A black cat on a black night was difficult to see.