France

It rapidly became clear that this blog could not go on as planned, as a detailed record of our trip with reviews of sites and so on. It proves to be just to difficult to marry together free time with a Wi-Fi signal, available bandwidth and a power supply. Bandwidth has been a particular issue.

Regular readers will have noticed a new style of posting – I am trying out Instagram as a way to squirt a literal snapshot of where we are and what we are up to. I am not very good with Instagram or my phone aps in general so there may continue to be some hiccups until I sort myself out.

Apart from these Instagrams I will try to write odd posts as a summary or to highlight special features. The site reviews are almost certainly going to bite the dust completely.

There is a draft post on file for the fifth week of our trip but as we are leaving the site we are currently on, I may well not be able to complete it for a while yet.

So, here’s a very quick and dirty summary: It is the eighth week of our trip and today begins our fifth week in France. Time is passing quickly and we are enjoying ourselves. We have reached Brittany and are at Camping Les Salines near Plurien and Sables d’Or Les Pins.

The weather has been mostly kind but we have had some refreshing rain from time to time. Will try to add a gallery of photos for our travels whenever I can. Today’s featured photo is from Monet’s garden at Giverny, a stopover that certainly requires a gallery all of its own.

The drive from Huntingdon down to Folkstone began in less than promising fashion. It was raining and the traffic was slow, tailing back from roadworks. The sun did emerge eventually. We wanted o get the M25 over and done with before stopping. Services were few and far between thereafter and we were not far from Canterbury, so we did not stop at all until we reached the park and ride.

We had lunch at the nearby pub and serviced the van and killed time until we could set off for Folkstone, where we were moved up the queue and caught the 20:50 hrs shuttle.

Waiting to be called at Folkestone terminal

We were on the other side almost before we knew it and took the brief ride to Cité Europe where we parked with seemingly dozens of other vans in the car park.

We took advantage of our proximity to Carrefour in the morning and bought a few supplies before setting off for Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The Friterie van across the road provided our lunch of frites and mayo and, fuelled up, we set off to walk into town.

We were looking for a Pharmacy as it appears that off the counter remedies are not a thing in French supermarkets. Pharmacies don’t appear to be all that common either as we failed to find one.

I was very taken with this monument and the bird upon it

our Carrefour purchases provided a delicious evening meal.

a Special Offer that could not be refused

On Wednesday we left Boulogne and on spotting an Intermarché on the edge of town, we called in for more supplies.

Our destination was a France Passion site not far distant. We wanted to take a scenic route (and it was, very) so turned off Motorways and Toll roads on the satnav. This resulted ultimately in our being routed round a single track road with no passing places but plenty of ditches. We met the school bus coming the other way. He appeared to desire us in the nearest ditch.

It was a relief to arrive at Les Vergers de Brunembert, where we had a very pleasant stay and fully sampled the produce before moving on to Montreuil-sur-Mer on Thursday for a two night stay on the free Aire there.

We had a fabulous time in Montreuil, which is actually nowhere near to the sea any longer. It is an attractive historic town within walls which can be walked in a complete circumnavigation. The weather was wonderful and we were able to take full opportunity of walking on the ramparts and indeed without the walls, where a leafy green area surrounds the town. This area can be accessed directly from the Aire, which is a positive bonus for travelling canines. Nell was a happy dog indeed.