Tag Archives: France

France – Le Puy-en-Velay, Day 1

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4th September 2022

After the night parked in Jen and Bev’s, we played again with Lottie the dog before departing with J&B to Brantôme en Périgord, where we had a coffee in a cafe run by a couple of South Africans. A quick look around, and then we headed our diverse ways, J&B back home and us onto Le Puy-en-Velay.

Why Puy-en-Velay? We had never heard of it. I drew a line on the map from Cussac to the Verdon Gorge, our selected destination. Then I selected a campsite halfway along the line, preference given to campsites in a town. Puy-en-Valey came up, it looked interesting with its volcanic history. There was an ACSI campsite in town, as we prefer to be within a short walk of shops, restaurants and bars

The drive to Puy-en-Velay was fairly tedious, again a slow route across country on minor and departmental roads. Some areas were ski resorts, and there were road markers for the inevitable winter snow. The highland moors were being patrolled by numerous kites and buzzards. Never seen quite so many. We eventually arrived after 5 and half hours at 17:16 and took the very last pitch available in the campsite. There were at least two other vans waiting behind us. We set up under a tree and had supper.

Steve with a wasp sting on the lip.

The drama of the day occurred after the sun set. I took a last swig of his beer without looking and offended a wasp who was having a drink. The wasp stung me on my lip. Rosemary removed the quite large barb from my lip and administered internal and external antihistamine treatment. We both reread the instructions on the EpiPen in case it was needed. Other than a swollen lip, which partly subsided during the night, the services of the hospital next door were not required. R issued a new standing instruction to check glass & bottle before taking a swig – crunch & stinging sensations should not occur.

France – Jen and Bev

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3rd September 2022

A shorter trip today and drove to Jen and Bev’s new (to us) home. In 2020 they had moved some 4 miles from their previous home which we had visited a few times before. On the way, I filled up the van. Morrison had achieved over 600 miles on the tank with plenty more to go. Found fuel at 179 euro a litre, significantly cheaper than the UK. Later we found if you filled at Total, the price was down to less than 160 euro a litre.

Rosemary has known Jen since school days (ie a long time). Amazingly they still have much to talk about.

Lottie their dog entertained us all by chasing one of her balls as we admired the many small birds on the feeders. Mad creature wants you to throw her ball. Unfortunately, she never quite brings the ball back to you to throw. It was exercising the humans, who had to get up and retrieve the ball to be thrown again. A Labrador puppy should be arriving late September, so Lottie will have a young dog to teach. Jen also feeds a couple of stray cats, but at night, so they rarely see them.

We went out for a quick snack lunch in a local village. Coming back, we set up the van for the night in their driveway.

Later in the evening we went for dinner at Auberge de la Vallée de la Gorre in Saint-Auvent.

Both the restaurants we visited were British owned and run. As you can see, the Auberge had a stock of English beers for the Brits.

France – Arçais, Day 2

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2nd September 2022

A complete day in Arçais. I went for a morning walk and an afternoon walk through the woods and along the canals. Typically walking into many dead ends and having to retrace steps. The chain ferry was closed, so I was unable to walk on the northside of the canal. Google maps is not particularly good for walkers. I did use the Outdoors app, which actually showed the paths, and where they ended. I wish I had started using it earlier.

Rosemary went out with Linda once to meet someone Linda knew who was staying in the town and again to the local farm to buy mogette beans and other bits. This year Linda bought only 5 kg. They watched as one customer bought 70 kg. Even allowing for the weight of the pods, that seemed a lot. Perhaps they were buying for their entire village?? Not sure if Linda will bottle or freeze the beans.

Vegetarian lasagne for supper in the garden. Entertained by Furbie. He was actually called “Forban” (aka pirate) when they first got him, but they thought “Furbie” easier to say. He is a very lovely Griffon Korthal.

France – Arçais, Day 1

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1st September 2022

We were only staying a couple of nights at Le Bec, so in the morning we packed and headed south to Açais to meet Mike and Linda in their now expanded estate. The drive down was slow, again missing the toll roads. The experiment with 80kph roads had been partially revoked, with many of the larger roads going back to 90kph. Google still thought they were 80kph. We shared our location with Linda through Google Maps, and she appeared outside as we arrived. She had noticed we were eschewing the toll roads and had wondered what had happened in Niort. We had stopped to buy wine and had also been held up by a traffic jam there.

It had been four years since we were here last. Since then, the family had purchased the next-door house, barn and field. The house had been renovated and they live there now. The barn was in the process of being renovated into a home for their son. I would most definitely like to live in the new barn when it has been completed. It will looks fabulous.

Morrison, the T5 van was parked around the back of the house and connected to the electricity. Dinner of spatchcocked chicken, vegetables and oven roasted Tesco potatoes was in their new garden along with their charming dog Furbie.

The night started with a very low, very noisy fly past by a military jet followed a bit later by a tremendous lightning storm with some torrential rain. The storm finally passed overhead and disappeared into the distance.

France – Le Bec-Hellouin Day 2

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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

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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.

Back Home

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On Monday, we said goodbye to Camping des Playes and headed to Camping Champ d’ete in Pont-de-Vaux, a short distance off the Autoroute du Soleil. A large flat campsite near to the town. There is a small river which joins the nearby Saone. I say a small river, it was big enough to have boats and a marina in the village. It looks like it is easy to walk into the town, and the river must have some good walks along the banks. Alas, the weather was wet and not conducive to walking. The campsite was also about to close for the winter. I shall put this down as a possible place to stay in the future.

The Tuesday we headed off back to Chalons-en Champagne to stop in the same place as when we came out. Not sitting outside for supper this time, instead, there was rain and more rain. The grape pickers had all left as well. We did stop off at the large Carrefour.

Wednesday was an uneventful drive back to Calais and a trip across in the Euro Tunnel. We caught an earlier train and managed to miss most of the holdups crossing the Thames.

Six-Fours-les-Plages

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We had had good weather in Provence, and now it was soon time to make our way home. We decided on a couple of stops on the journey back. This meant we had a couple of days spare. The weather was wet to the North, so we decided to head to the South. We had visited Six-Four-les-Plages a couple of years ago, and there was an open ACSI campsite, Camping des Playes. We headed on down, stopping at a Carrefour Market in La Brillanne for some essentials and dinner.

We arrived at the campsite. nobody around so selected a spot and set up home. The campsite is on the uphill edge side of the town. The site is very hilly, though the individual pitches were all level. There were not many, as most of the site is now small holiday pre-fab homes. They really are everywhere now. There is no way you could get into this place on spec in the season, and I count ourselves lucky there was space. Anyway, we checked in when the receptionist arrived. We didn’t go anywhere today, just chilled out, drank wine and cooked supper.

The next day, Sunday, we were awoken by shooting above us. Yes, the hunters were up before dawn. Today we would go out for Sunday lunch. We headed down the hill to the beach. There is a lovely walk along the beach. Swimmers and surfers on the sea, bars along the road. We walked along the beach examining the menus and stopped at one place, L’Eden bar/Bistro/Millesim for a pastis. The bar was split into several separate areas, a rougher bar, restaurant and night club. Marked it as a possibility for lunch.

We continued into the main area where there was a market in progress. we have been here before, so were acquainted with the fish stores with their whole Tuna fish being caved up to order. We did purchase some bread and started looking for somewhere to eat, the restaurants were beginning to fill up. Headed back to L’Eden, seemed reasonably empty, but of course, as we were not booked, placed inside the restaurant and not on the terrace. The restaurant soon filled up.

We had an excellent meal there, and I had a Negroni.

Walked slowly back to the campsite for the evening.

Les Mourres and Forcauquier

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Our last day had a little less Geology, with more emphasis on the historical and sightseeing. The geology was Les Mourres, a barren area with rock pinnacles rising up. This all started 25 million years ago. The pinnacles were islands of water plants and primitive seaweeds which became embedded in the limestone deposits as deposits were laid down. Over time the limestone was eroded leaving the harder rock to survive, hence the grotesque shapes.

Next, some sightseeing in Forclquier where we wandered through the narrow streets, bought some pastis and then made our way up to the Citadelle. Here we had a picnic lunch and then walked back down for a beer in a bar. The final stop was to the Salagon Museum and Gardens. The Gardens have areas dedicated to Provence agriculture, so there were many lavender varieties. There were also planted areas of medicinal herbs, and finally a world area planted out by continent and country of origin.

There was an issue with their guide which ran from a Samsung galaxy phone. The idea was good, it knew where you were and tried to show you what there was to see. In practice, most of the devices didn’t work for long. We could have been there longer, so much to see. We didn’t get to look into the church.

Back at the Cruis was our final meal. A continuous supply of pizza from the wood-fired pizza oven. The pizza oven was indoors and had been used for most of the cooking throughout the week. The pizzas were good, probably was one of the best meals we had during the week. Seems two of the chaps on our trip have built outdoor bread ovens. Much discussion as to design.

Verdon and Vultures

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A small group of able-bodied strong males and females headed off down the mountain in Wiz’s 4×4 to try to rescue the stricken vehicle. They took a huge jack and rope. The rest of us stayed on the refuge for breakfast, and then walked back down to the one van at the barrier. Here some geology took place. Examining the map of the Geology of the area and trying to see it in the rocks. Only started to work when it was figured out exactly where we were standing.

Afterwards, some of us went down in the van, while the rest walked down to the D17. The stricken van had been rescued. The advice of the Anglo Saxons had been ignored, which was just to tow it out of the hole. Instead, fruitless work with rocks and jacks was performed. This would apparently have gone on for some time. Luckily some French foresters came along, they looked at the problem and advised towing the van out. This was done with no issues.

There was an ancient Roman wall near the junction, some bits were quite stable, other bits totally trashed. While the walkers came down, the guides asked a few to go mushroom hunting for supper. As I arrived down I heard the guide throwing most of the fungus out with cries of Toxic, Toxic.

We headed to the Otherside of the Verdon Gorge to Rougon. This windy road had a lovely stopping place where we could view, Belvedere de Trescaire bas. The cliffs were vertical and we were told this is the highest verticle drop in France. The French guide had climbed it with her father when she was five. The vultures were flying and I photographed some fabulous pictures of them. You could see their nests on the other side of the canyon. Oh, there was a sole climber, on the other side.

We continued down the gorge and at Col d’Ayen stopped. Here took a photo of a mating butterfly and other insects.

At Chapelle Notre-Dame de Beauvoir, we duly admired the star hanging between two rock outcrops.

Soon we were back at Cruis, where the rest of the group were dropped off, and we were left at our campervan for a well-earned shower and clean up. Soon we were back at Wiz’s for supper and wine.