Lost in France « Thread Started on Jul 6, 2009, 9:58pm »
Day 3 We arrived in Saint Jean de Monts at 1.30 in the afternoon. Temperature a very hot 25 degrees. Sunny and bright. We had left Belfast on Day 1, not surprising really, on the 10.30am Liverpool ferry and it seemed a long long way to here. The first day actually took us into the second day because we didn't put the legs down until we reached a suitable Aire in France at 5.00am local time. We only had a few hours kip and then we were back on the road for 9.00am. That was a mistake! We weren't fully rested and so had to have frequent stops on Day 2 to recupperate - finally we gave in to tiredness and stopped at 5.30 pm 170 miles short of our destination. That was a great nights sleep, and when we finally hit the trail again on day 3 it was a leisurely 10.30 start; but all the better for that.
So here we are, landed, awning up and car all unpacked - heaven.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #1 on Jul 7, 2009, 9:55am »
Why is he using the computer on holiday, I hear you ask? Because I can! She allows me. A certain person brought her mobile phone away on holiday and texted and phoned all the way down through Ingerland but then it stopped the minute we hit French soil - guess who hadn't reistered the phone for use abroad and was barred from international calls and roaming then. NOT that I would mention the fact that on frequent occassions I asked if her phone was setup for France and pointed out that Vodafone were advertising for free roaming this summer.
Internet to the rescue - vodafone contacted, phone sorted, me a hero and allowed to play on the computer. That's not the only reason I'm on the computer - It's raining in heaven. Anyway, look on the bright side - the awning is working. TTFN
Re: Lost in France « Reply #2 on Jul 8, 2009, 9:12pm »
Oooohhhh, it's soooooo hot I must go into the pool again. ] OK so I haven't actually been in the pool yet, but I was very close to it. The kids were on the slides and in the water until it closed.
I simply flew my kite on the beach when I could find a clear spot
Back to the G&T before bedtime. Have a nice time at Portora, Thinking of you.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #3 on Jul 9, 2009, 9:52pm »
Day 6
Sixth day of my hols but fourth on site. As a family it's been mostly pool and ping pong.
For me it's been mostly sun, sun cream and after sun cream; in that order. Incredibly hot and deceptively cool because of the breeze - makes falling asleep in the sun all too easy after a heavy day of croissants, pain au chocolat and the odd tartlet frais. c'est la vie.
We haven't ventured too far yet as we are just aclimatising first. There must be a winery nearby that needs visiting and wants my expert opinion on their product, free of charge of course. Maybe tomorrow I'll research l'office tourisme for some suggestions, until then the supermarche will have to suffice.
Aurevoir mes amis.
apologies to any French speakers or linguists who may have been offended by the above message.The Snod.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #4 on Jul 11, 2009, 9:32pm »
What have I learned so far?
WiFi pronounced weefee in France. Available at Mcdonalds for free, everyone knows that, but also at shell motorway stations for 1 hour with a voucher, coffee spot is the provider. Also, some Tourist Offices have it for free in the local towns. And the inevitable coffee houses eg starbucks - mostly in the larger town or cities.
In this area there are three main supermarkets, E Leclerc, Intermarche and SuperU. They have Marche, Supermarche and Hypermarche varieties. The larger ones usually have a petrol station attached and this is the good bit for me - the petrol stations appear on my satnav and so when looking for a supermarket look for a petrol station. When looking for shops it tends to identify large shopping centres - not so many of them around here. Other Sat Navs are available and you may experience different results.
A cup of coffee in a cafe gets you an espresso - so you leave thirsty unless you steal your kids coke.
Off to fly a kite tomorrow at the festival of wind - least I hope it's kites and not another French Wind Artist!!!
Re: Lost in France « Reply #5 on Jul 12, 2009, 10:19pm »
Day 8
I laugh in the face of adversity. In the early hours of the morning it crept up and then started to batter the roof of the van, then the awning took the full force. We were nearly deafened, if it hadn't been for the fact we were asleep we would have woken up with a jolt. As it was I mearly turned to her and said "Did the rain wake you up?" I had to say it 3 times before she answered and even then she just said "No" - well "No" is is the only part of what she said that I could print.
Undeterred we arose at the ninth hour, early for us, brought in the washing, which was now wetter than when we hung it out and planned the day. We had already decided to head up to the Kite festival and so we packed the picnic:- flask, tea, coffee, soft drinks, water, milk, cups, spoons, biscuits, crisps, juices, bread rolls, baguettes, sauce, hotdogs, saucepan, gas stove, cooking implements, camera, video camera, phones, teeshirts, plates, knives, butter, coolbox, ice blocks. It was to be an all day expedition. It was still grey but reasonably warm and the rain had stopped. Waterproofs, cardy, jacket - to be sure.
We arrived at the festival to glorious midday sunshine like we never had before - we were melted. We threw off the duffle coats and jumpers, and tee shirts and baked in the midday sun. Maybe we should have brought a wide brimmed hat or a parasol but we didn't seem to have one of those. Sun cream would have been useful too.. The Kites were wonderful and we stuck it as long as we could but had to leave before we went crispy, we even gave up on the idea of a picnic, instead we wanted back to the pool. On our return to the car it registered 29degrees. Back to the campsite and I enlisted the help of the kids to unload the boot - "Just put the stuff over there beside the cooker" I said. "That would be the cooker you were going to cook our picnic on.." She said.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #6 on Jul 15, 2009, 12:19am »
Ciao! ?? Ciao!??????
You lot never said you were going to Italy, the Vendee I was assured ?
Have you had 'Moules, Frits' yet or a succulent dish of escargot dripping in garlic butter just waiting to be mopped up with that last piece of baguette? I would ask if you had tried a frog's leg but, depending on what type of 'frog' it was, that might just get you into bother with with your delectable other half or, indeed the 'frog' himself if it was this one !
A nice Muscadet would be perfect with the moules.
Suppose you are down posing round the pool or on the beach with the six pack now? Pain au chocolat, croisants and white wine won't do that a lot of good, have to do a least 50 lengths of the pool a day for each croisant etc.
Still, you'll get plenty of exercise next week. it's a very big hedge!
Keep enjoying it, it's better than the Port, (well except for the Sunday carvery in the Lodge Hotel at Colraine)
Re: Lost in France « Reply #7 on Jul 15, 2009, 10:01pm »
Day 9, Mon 13 July
Tomorrow is Bastille Day, the National Holiday, so in anticipation of no supermarche access for at least one day we planned the usual panic buying spree. We were up at very nearly 9 o'clock and into the Super-U not much later. It was bunged, I've never seen queues like it this side of Christmas. Even the weigh it yourself scales at the fruit et veg section were staffed by highly efficient weigheuse. I no longer had to struggle with translations of a picture of a french apple and the ludicrously high price of fresh produce. The high prices were eventually explained when I realised that the French invented Europe and therefore they make the rules. While Europe is busy dealing in Euros the French insist on marking goods with the Franc price as well, pretty much 10 times the Euro rate and the cause of my initial palpatations.
I like bread. So do the French. I realise it is holiday time but what do they do with the stuff? We witnessed shopping trollies half full of French Sticks, not unlike small fields of wheat on wheels, lined up at the cash desk. If you want to walk around the streets between the hours of 8-10 am there must be a bye law that dictates you have at least one baguette under your arm, a small dog on a lead and a cigarette.
Back to the Supermarche, a notice on the door proclaimed that it was open dimanche matin anyway, so there was no need to panique.
The rain came down again as we popped into St Jean so we abandoned thoughts of the beach in favour of sightseeing (shopping). We drove down the coast to St Gilles. I don't know who all these Saints were but they knew a good spot for a seaside town when they saw one, presumably St Tropez got first pick. OK, that's all the culture for now.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #8 on Jul 16, 2009, 6:48am »
Ah Le Eurogypsy!
Ca va
Non je ne mange pas les moules frites.
But now that you mention it, the six pack has long gone. I haven't done any lengths of the pool, but I did do a width and length once, to get to the bar and another length and a width to get back. Yes, it was a front crawl but it was especially difficult; done, as it was, along the deck and inbetween the sun beds.
I am reminded that chocolate is a food group and it goes with everything - croissants, pain, petit pain, brioche, panini, crepes, Chi Chi, donuts, frais, ananas, baguette and you even get one with the mini cups of coffee. So in short, I need a day or two of manual labour as pennance. However please note that Bier is also a food group full of essentials like wheat, barley hops and water - or is that just guinness?
Speaking of essentials - Wine. Way too much choice. French supermarkets, my specialist subject, have a small shelf unit with tea, coffee, soap and cereals, all of the other 147 shelves have bread, cheese, fish and wine on them. In simplifying my choice to Table wine I find there is a full run of shelving for that most basic commodity. I resort to following the mobile wheat fields, note what they have in the other half of their trolley and lift a couple of bottles of that. So far it has made my cheeks go pleasantly rouge.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #9 on Jul 16, 2009, 6:52am »
Day 10, Allons Enfants de la Patrie
Damp start to the day delayed our attempt to land on the beaches until this afternoon. When we did arrive we noticed lots of people leaving - obviously they had had their fill of sunshine. We settled in with everything except knotted hankies and soaked up the sun. Then we went into the water which was surprisingly warm once you passed the ozone level. Then we lay in the sun. Then we flew my old kite. then we retired my old kite when a forced landing disabled it permanaently. Then we lay in the sun. Then we flew my new kite. Much too complicated to be trusted to kids. So there I was flying my kite when a young girl, suitably impressed by my prowess with a kite, rode up on her quad and started chatting me up. My good lady was out of sight so I smiled and said "yes" She repeated her chat up line, only a little more animated this time, I smiled again and said "Yes" more loudly (the only way to be understood in a foreign language). This time she tried english "This kite! It is forbidden on the beach" and off she rode into the distance on her red quad, with her red swimsuit with the white writting, SECURITE.
Later on we returned to the beachfront for the obligatory fireworks. Fantastique! The entire show lasted about 15 to 20 minutes and included several false endings; the final finale was breathtaking and I can honestly say it was the best fireworks display I have ever seen. We took photos but you know they cannot capture the moment as it was actually experienced. Fireworks are much nicer than burning loads of pallets and tyres, don't you think.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #11 on Jul 16, 2009, 9:15pm »
I can almost smell the freshness from ici
Freshness! - Around these parts there are lots of pine forests and this part of town is separated from the beach by a large pine plantation. Now after a shower of rain, when I stepped outside the van I was convinced someone had been overgenerous with the disinfectant. Instead it was the entirely natural aroma from the raw materials of a Magic Tree air freshner factory.
Perhaps if cows ate pine cones, the world would be a nicer place. Auf wiedersehen.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #12 on Jul 17, 2009, 11:57am »
What, disinfectant flavoured milk?
That was actually quite a relevant point for us recently, the existing conifer hedge (the very long one mentioned above ) had grown to about 3 m thick and the farmer whose cow is pictured above, had to put up an electric fence to keep his dairy herd away from it as they are quite fond of nibbling some fresh leylandi now and again. He explained that it taints the milk and could result in a whole tanker load being made unusable !
He was very pleased when I took into the said hedge reducing it down to about 0.5m thick and so much easier to look after.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #13 on Jul 17, 2009, 10:01pm »
Zo ze plan to sabotage ze franch meelk produzion is nearing complezion.
The next consignment of Castlewellan Gold will be dispatched in a crate marked as Massey Ferguson parts and parachuted in at midnight.
In the mean time... 34 degrees of heat yesterday and she says it's for thunder. Last night it was very like thunder and lightning and very like heavy rain too. But, it all dried up again in the heat of the day. That old camping adage - "It can rain as much as it likes during the night" still applies.
Thankfully, the last few nights were bootifool. That meant we could enjoy the open air concert on the beach front. It was Madagascan, Louisianna fusion played on an accordian. I don't know to describe it any better to do it justice but it was another magical holiday experience.
Re: Lost in France « Reply #14 on Jul 23, 2009, 6:34pm »
Alrite Wak!
All ensconced in Birkenhead waiting for the ferry. Two days of travelling, followed 2 days with Eurogypsy and then we have a day or two waiting for our Saturday ferry.
Working backwards, we had a short 90 mile trip this morning to a lovely campsite in the Wirral, just a short hop from the ferry. Church Farm http://www.churchfarm.org.uk/caravansite.htm.
That short journey was possible because we made such good time on Wednesday after we got off the Dover Ferry. We docked at 6.30pm and covered 200 odd miles to north of Birmingham by Mid Night, including 2 stops, one for fuel and one for a meal. The traffic was light and there were no hold ups at all. Occassional roadworks, but because of the light traffic no delays experienced.
The previous 200 mile journey, on the French side, to Calais took 6 hours including one meal stop and a fuel stop. The fuel stop was not scheduled as early as it happened. Her indoors had a sudden panic attack that the passports had been left behind and demanded that we pull in to check. I decided to simultaneously fill with fuel to maximise the pit stop. We identified a nearby hypermarche on the sat nav and went for it. Naturally it took us off the main road, into Centre de Ville via road humps and chicanes for traffic calming measures. Needless to say I was anything but calmed. To rejoin the main route we had to drive out the other side of the town. Considering all this happened within 50 miles of the start of our journey I was not looking forward to any additional delays - none occured, which meant that divorce was not necessary. Oh yes, the passports were safe and sound in the van, all the time.
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