On the morning at Siblu reception, we discovered that there had been complaints from vans further away than ours, so this indicates the lever of volume from their van. The Siblu reps had been helpful but seemed powerless to do anything about the situation but in my opinion these people should have been thrown off the site for their unacceptable behaviour. So I also then made a complaint to the campsite main reception.
After visiting main reception I retuned to Siblu reception and asked if we could be move to another van further away from the noisy people, again the Siblu reps were helpful but said the only available van was still too close to these people. They said I could upgrade but when I asked if this would be free, they could not answer without contacting the office I even said I would pay and argue later but again they could not answer without contacting the office.
To cut an even longer story short, in the end we moved to a nice van away from the noise but this was not before we had a day worrying about what that night would bring, not to mention having to move all our stuff between vans, more later.
Even after all of this we where out early (I think part of it was wanting to be away from the people next door) and in Chateau de Coucy before 11:00. As we parked up here was a large police presence around the main square, we asked a policeman what was happening and there was a cycle race coming through in about an hour. Well we all wanted to see this but an hour sat in the hot sun waiting was a bit much, so we set off around the outside of the castle walls to pass some time. We left via the la porte de Laon (the Laon gate) and headed anticlockwise, this I knew, was the shaded part of the walk.
When we got to the porte de Chauny (the Chauny gate) there was a small gathering of spectators waiting for the bikes, we asked them when they were expecting race to come through. The answerer was about 20 mins, so we sat on the fence there and waited.
Over the next quarter of an hour we watched service and police vehicles passing and got cameras ready until the breakaway group of three came passed (see photo for more information), closely followed by a lone rider. It was another 30 seconds before the main group (the peloton) came round the corner and up the hill towards us, I though as they were going uphill it would be easy to get photos, wrong, I should have had the camera set on continuous shoot. Even though it looked very calm and organised in the peloton there was some shoving taking place and I have no idea how they manage to get though the gates. Within seconds it was all over but it did take another minuet or two for all the support vehicles to pass. Then it was back to our walk, by the way, we later discovered it was the 90th running of the Paris- Bruxelles, cycle race (it actually goes from Soissons to Bruxelles).
It only took us another 25 mins to walk to porte de Soissons (the Soissons gate) and the church of Eglise St Sauveur, after the church we looked for somewhere for our picnic. The porte de Soissons has been rebuilt since the last time we did the walk in 2008.
First thing we noticed was something going on at the cenotaph, quite a few people in the finery and medals and carrying flags. We never did find out what they were commemorating, we even asked at the bar next to where this was happening and they didn't know.
We did however have a beer, it was the bar that was closed earlier in the week and it was the one were we had a beer with Mick and Bren in 2008.
It was while we were having a beer we all realised that with all the bother reporting things to reception and trying to arrange a different van, I had not had any breakfast and it was now about half twelve. So we had another beer each, it was while we where having these I received a phone call to inform us that we had a new van, well away form the horrible people. In a good mood (we were never that down) we went to look for somewhere to sit for the picnic. We sat on a stairway on the walls close to the church and after lunch we finished the last section of the wall back to la porte de Laon where we had started. Here, at the hotel Dot and I had beers at earlier in the week, the people from the ceremony at the cenotaph were having a very boisterous meal in the hotel reastraunt.
Back at the site we got the key for the new van and rushed to move all of our belongings, we didn't have to rush but we did and in the heat it made me feel sick. After a short rest and a cold beer, I felt better and we had a walk into town. The girls stopped on the way down to look in a shop but Dave and I just carried on to the tabac, not for cigarettes but for beers.
I thought Dave and Claire would like to go to the reastraunt for their last evening meal but they were quite happy for me to make meatballs in tomato sauce back at the van. So we moved down to the port area for another beer before heading back. I had wanted to look down there since last time we were here, the bar we chose was a bit rough and I do not think the girl behind the bar knew what she was doing. Claire got the smallest glass of wine I had ever seen and Dot got a bottle of beer with the top on and I had to ask for the bottle opener but we did have a laugh.
It was while we were having a beer we all realised that with all the bother reporting things to reception and trying to arrange a different van, I had not had any breakfast and it was now about half twelve. So we had another beer each, it was while we where having these I received a phone call to inform us that we had a new van, well away form the horrible people. In a good mood (we were never that down) we went to look for somewhere to sit for the picnic. We sat on a stairway on the walls close to the church and after lunch we finished the last section of the wall back to la porte de Laon where we had started. Here, at the hotel Dot and I had beers at earlier in the week, the people from the ceremony at the cenotaph were having a very boisterous meal in the hotel reastraunt.
Back at the site we got the key for the new van and rushed to move all of our belongings, we didn't have to rush but we did and in the heat it made me feel sick. After a short rest and a cold beer, I felt better and we had a walk into town. The girls stopped on the way down to look in a shop but Dave and I just carried on to the tabac, not for cigarettes but for beers.
I thought Dave and Claire would like to go to the reastraunt for their last evening meal but they were quite happy for me to make meatballs in tomato sauce back at the van. So we moved down to the port area for another beer before heading back. I had wanted to look down there since last time we were here, the bar we chose was a bit rough and I do not think the girl behind the bar knew what she was doing. Claire got the smallest glass of wine I had ever seen and Dot got a bottle of beer with the top on and I had to ask for the bottle opener but we did have a laugh.
We had a look at he river and the was a Pétanque competition going on we could have entered if we had been a bit earlier. On the way back up to the town we notice memorial plaques on walls from WW2, presumably people shot by the Germans, well that's all we could think it was.
Then it was back to the van for my cooking and a film all went well and the rest all fell asleep during the film. Then a enormous explosion woke them all and frightened the shit out of me. It was followed by more bangs, we all immediately knew what it was and rushed outside for a fantastic firework display. I am not sure where is was coming from but it was close and it was a full 20 min professional display, very nice indeed, we never did find out what it was for.
We told Dave and Claire that the firework display was all arranged by us for them, if fact the whole holiday was, that we knew the BBC were filming at Pierrefonds and we knew the Paris - Bruxelles was coming through Chateau de Coucy but they didn't believe us.
Then it was back to the van for my cooking and a film all went well and the rest all fell asleep during the film. Then a enormous explosion woke them all and frightened the shit out of me. It was followed by more bangs, we all immediately knew what it was and rushed outside for a fantastic firework display. I am not sure where is was coming from but it was close and it was a full 20 min professional display, very nice indeed, we never did find out what it was for.
We told Dave and Claire that the firework display was all arranged by us for them, if fact the whole holiday was, that we knew the BBC were filming at Pierrefonds and we knew the Paris - Bruxelles was coming through Chateau de Coucy but they didn't believe us.
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