France Sep 2010, Day Five

Day Five 8th Sep

It was overcast, so we thought we would have a drive out again and as yesterday, no real plans as to where. Armed with a picnic we headed west on the north side of the river Ainse towards Compiègne stopping at every river crossing for photos. We found a small campsite on a lake in Attichy, that looked promising for any future visit, I had a quick look round but it started to rain and I had to quickly run back to the car.

We eventually got to the edge of the Compiègne forest and stopped in a small car park overlooking a lake for lunch, it was raining fairly heavily as we ate. Close to where we had our food, was the armistice clearing (the armistice between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in a clearing in the Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918).  We we drove the to the official car park and walked the short distance to the clearing.   There is a replica of the carriage in a very small museum there but you have to pay to see it, the original railway carriage was destroyed by the SS in Germany in 1945.

After that, as it was still wet, we drove through the forest to Crépy-en-Valois and then into Soissons to stock up from a supermarket, we got stuff for a barbie tomorrow.  We also filled up with fuel (600 miles on one 60 litre tank), pretty miserable day so not many photos. 

Dot was woken during the night by noisy neighbours, although I didn't really notice but this is very unusual for a campsite.

France Sep 2010, Day Four

Day Four 7th Sep

A day for having a drive, no plans just set off and see where we end up. After a meandering drive, taking the odd photo along the way, including a canal, we ended up in Noyon and pulled in at the train station to use the facilities but it was locked up, we later discovered there was a strike on.

We moved on and parked closer to the centre and had just missed the market, they were all packing up as we arrived. We walked round the cathedral and then back to the car to find somewhere to have our picnic lunch.

We didn't find anywhere to stop and ended up in a car park in Chauny, so we had our sandwiches there before going for a walk. After a short walk, the shops where just starting to reopen and we had a quick look round, although we didn't buy anything.  We then drove to the canal for a look around.

On the way back to the site we stopped at Coucy-le-Château, we had been before and just had short walk and a beer sat in the hot sun and anyway, we planned to be back there later in the holiday. The bar where we intended to have the beer was closed, it looked like it was closed for good, but a sign in the window, said it was open again tomorrow. The other bar there at the hotel was good for a beer anyway and off the road. 

France Sep 2010, Day Three

Day Three 6th Sep

We had to be up early to catch the coach to Paris and even though we were relatively early we were lucky to get a seat together on the bus. The traffic in Paris is that bad and some road works on the N2 meant it took us about two hours to do the 60 mile to the drop off point, the Palais des Congrès de Paris.

Off the bus with instruction to be back for 18:45 (but what sounded like best to get back for 18:00), armed with a map of Paris and with no plans (although we did have sandwiches), we set off towards the Arc de Triomphe.

The Palais des Congrès de Paris, is at the end of Avenue de la Grande Armée and if you walk towards and through the Arc de Triomphe, it becomes the Champs-Élysées. So that is exactly what we did, access to the Arc de Triomphe is via a subway, where you can pay to go up to the top but we didn't have time to queue, so we just walked around the outside. From the Arc de Triomphe, looking back the way we came the Paris skyline is very different than you would expect, it is very modern and high rise.

We continued along the Champs-Élysées, thinking we may walk all the way to the Louvre, on to Notre Dame, then over the river and back to the Eiffel Tower, before heading back to the bus. We didn't know it but that would have been about 8 miles, anyway towards the bottom end of the Champs-Élysées, we changed the plan and headed to the river.

We arrived at the river, at Pont Alexandre III, a very nice ornate bridge, it was funny there watching a group of tourists on segways waiting at a pedestrian crossing, and then even funnier as the all crossed over and moved off in a line, looking like ducks following each other. 

 We took the steps down to the lower level by the river and found a place where shuttle boats (the batoboat) left every 10 mins and made several stops in an anticlockwise route along the river. At €13 for a one-day pass, it looked like a good option for getting to the various tourist attraction along the river and photo opportunities of the many, many, bridges for me.

So we bought a a one-day pass, and hopped on the next boat, there was an open platform on the back, perfect for taking photos of the bridges, unfortunately the light and weather were not good for photos and it even rained for a while.

From where we got on at the Champs-Élysées stop, the boat headed along the right bank to the the Eiffel Tower where the boat turned and made its first stop at the tower on the left bank.

We decided to stop on he boat and go back along the river's left bank to Notre Dame, where we would get off and have our sandwiches before looking around the cathedral. So from the Tour Eiffel, the boat continued along the left bank stopping at Musée d'Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Nôtre-Dame (we didn't get off on this side of the river) and Jardin des Plantes. It then turned round and headed back along the right bank where we got off at Hôtel de Ville.

It was raining quite heavily as we got off the boat, I got the umbrellas and waterproofs out of the bag and Dot carried the bags, unfortunately Dot slipped and could not stop herself as her hand were full. I wondered why Dot had asked if white trousers were ok for the day, I understood now that they were mucky. We sat on a bench and cleaned them as best we could with wet wipes, then had our sandwiches watching the river traffic going past. When we got up to leave, Dot had also got something on the back of her trousers from the bench, it had stopped raining so Dot tied her waterproof round her waist to hide her bum.

Instead of crossing to the island and heading straight to the cathedral, we had a look in some of the shops to see if the was anything for Dot to change into, we didn't find anything suitable. We did however have a look at the Centre Pompidou, or as it was called last time we where thereBeaubourg Centre. We only looked round the outside we had been in before but there seemed to be quite a few beggars about so we moved on.

We headed back to the river and crossed over via Pont d'Arcole, to Île de la Cité, to have a look at Nôtre-Dame Cathedral. I wasn't sure about having a look inside but we did anyway and it is quite impressive, not good for photos though, as you are not allowed to use the camera's flash, although it didn't seen to stop most people in there from using theirs. This is a very crowded part of Paris, very popular with sightseers. After a relatively short visit to Nôtre-Dame we headed back to the right bank and the Louvre, this was also where the next river stop for the Batobus is.

I am glad we didn't walk the whole way as originally planned, as my feet were already hurting (I really need to get the doctor to sort this out when we get back), we crossed back to the right bank via Pont Notre-Dame.

Even the short walk along the river to the Louvre was further than I thought it was, especially with these feet. We came across a pedestrian bridge over the river, the Pont des Arts, that has thousands of padlocks locked to the railings. They are known as "love padlocks", lovers attach a padlock to the bridge with the names on and then, throw the key into the Seine, In May 2010, the town hall decided to remove them, as of September they are still there.

At the Louvre we only had time to look around the outside, there were queues to get in and we didn't have that much time in Paris to visit somewhere that big, you would need to be in Paris for a week or so to do all of the attractions properly. There is another Arc there, the Arc de Triomphe du Carousel and if you look through the centre of the arch you can see the Arc de Triomphe, with Cleopatra's needle in between (the Luxor Obelisk), a very nice view. 

From there we headed back to the river to get the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower.  The boat left from close to the Pont du Carrousel, we didn't have to wait long before the next one arrived and we were on our way to the Eiffel Tower.

We got off the boat at the Eiffel Tower, I never though of it as being on the river but it is. It is also a lot bigger than you would imagine if you haven't been up close, it's massive. Again we didn't have time to queue to go up the tower and to tell the truth, I didn't want to, I am a bit dodgy with heights lately, must be my age. There was quite a lot of security around the base, army with machineguns (later in the month the tower was closed after a terrorist threat). There were also many Africans selling souvenirs, illegally from blankets on the ground, there are that many of them they get in the way and in my opinion, spoil the experience.

With plenty of time to spare we set off from the Eiffel Tower to find our way back to the the bus station. From the tower the route across the river on the Pont d'Iéna and through the Jardins du Trocadéro, up the steps to the Place du Trocadéro, is all littered with these aforementioned souvenirs sellers.

As we had plenty of time we had to stop for a drink and surprisingly, it didn't seem to be any more expensive than the campsite or anywhere else in France for that mater. We also had another drink (or two) closer to the pick up point.

The journey back to the campsite was a lot quicker, it took about half the time as going. On arrival at the site, we were quick off the bus and straight to the takeaway for pizza, beating others that had the same idea and so not having to queue.

France Sep 2010, Day Two

Day Two 5th Sep

Bit of a rest day, a bit like having a holiday, in fact we spent the morning sat in the sun reading and decided to check with reception to see if there were any seats left on the bus for the next days trip to Paris.

After complaining that the carpet was still wet, we went for a walk around he campsite. I was amazed by how many frogs there were round the lakes and how many people were fishing, a lot more that on our last visit. We also found some part of the site we didn't know about, another large field in the trees by the river, also a lot of mosquitoes and we got some nasty bites down there. We also booked the Paris trip €20 each.

Later on in the afternoon we went to the pool complex, the outdoor pools had been modernised since our last visit and they where very good. Went inside to use the Jacuzzi but we preferred it outside in the new part and when I had had enough water I sat and read my book while Dot soaked in the pool.

For tea we had the lasagne we had brought, with a baguette.

France Sep 2010, Day One

Day one 4th Sep

We had to be in Dover for 11:00 to catch the 12:00 ferry, so we checked the route with AutoRoute and it reckoned that the 322 miles would take 4 hours, 42 minutes. Well we don't trust AutoRoute it usually takes a lot longer than predicted, so instead of setting off at 06:00 to get there just in time, we set off at 03:00. It took us about 4 hours, 42 minutes to get there and we had slowed down for the last 50 miles, we arrived as the 08:00 ferry was leaving and luckily where allowed on the 10:00 sailing. The new (since last time we used them in 2006) ferry was quite nice although most of the toilets where out of order.

As it was 12:00 by the time we arrived in Dunkerque, we decided to stop at the first convenient Aire for our lunch but it was miles before we found one, we were starving and guess what, the toilets were unusable. We had borrowed Nicole's SatNav and it worked pretty well until I noticed we hadn't turned off the A26 onto the A1 and ended up on minor roads for the last 35 miles, not really something you want when you have been up since 02:00.

We had filled the fuel tank the day before we set of, so we had the full 60 litres and I reckoned that was just enough for the 480 miles or so to the site. In the end we had enough for another week of short trips and in eventually got over 600 miles on the one tank.

BERNY RIVIERE La Croix Du Vieux Pont Rue de la Fabrique - 02290 Berny-Rivière Web Site

Checked in, the Mobile Home seemed to be nice, we unpacked the car and got changed into warm weather gear, it was then I noticed, that part of the main bedroom floor was wet. I reported it to Siblu reception and found the reason for the wet floor was, that a new shower tray had just been fitted to replace a broken one, we got a fan heater in the room to dry out the carpet. I also got the satellite working, we take it with us in the van, it is a portable system, so why not and there was an England match on, again.

As we were tired after a long day and it was about 16:30 all we did was head to the bar for a drink. It looked like we were in luck and that there was a better selection of beers than there had been last time we visited in 2008. We knew it was going to be expensive but if the beer was good that was fine, Dot got a Edelweiss and I ordered a Affligem, not just halves either, pints. We sat out in the sun to drink them, I tasted mine and it was not good, I thought it was half beer and half cider and set off back to the bar.

"This doesn't taste like Affligem" I said,
"yes it is" said the barman,
"it taste wrong" I said,
"it is ok" says the barman
"it doesn't taste like Affligem should" I say
"it taste like Affligem Red should" says the barman, I then reread the beer list.
"sorry I didn't look properly" I sort of apologise.

It was strawberry flavoured and not to my taste at all, mercifully, Dot agreed to swap half of her beer with me, we didn't have another.  We where supposed to be having lasagne we had brought with us for tea but we just went to the takeaway for pizza.  We also got a couple of beers there for less than half the price in the bar, it was also stronger and more drinkable.

After the pizza and beer we just went back to the van watched a bit of TV and had a relatively early night.

France Sep 2010, Planning

September 2010

Usually around this time of year, when all the kids are back at school, we like to get away for a couple of weeks. Since we got the van it has been mainly in the UK, or a cheep flight to somewhere warm but this year, we did something we hadn't done. We had plenty of Tesco Supermarket holiday vouchers left, that could be used for campsites pitches with Siblu holidays (see previous write-ups) or, hire a Mobile Home from them and what with the price of diesel, using the car seemed like a good option. The vouchers, together with a £36 retune crossing to France with Norfolk Line (now DFDS), we booked our first Mobile Home holiday and all we would be paying for, would be fuel for the car.

We also had spare rooms in the Mobile Home so our friends Dave and Claire agree to meet us over there for the second week on the holiday. As it turned out, through circumstances, they where only with us for three days in the end.