France 2022 – Part 1

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• December 2021

  We are intending escaping the English winter, leaving Monday the 20th December, heading ultimately to Corsica and Sardinia. Posts about our trip will be added below.

• Fri 17th Dec

  Yesterday was full panic mode. I was just about to press “confirm” on the booking for the Eurotunnel, when Hazel rang and told us France is effectively stopping all visitors from UK from midnight tonight. We were planning on crossing on the 20th. Rearranged antigen test ( surprisingly easy), tried to book Eurotunnel for today – fully booked. Finally managed to book ferry Dover Calais. That took about an hour. Throwing everything into MH. No antigen test results. When back to the clinic, took ages watching a bloke faffing on a computer – it seems that because my original booking was for two days hence, the negative (fortunately) result was dated the 19th Dec. Finally received the correctly dated certificate, plus the one dated two days hence. Nice to know I will not get covid for at least the next two days. Rosie came round after work, so we could go through house things as she will be over wintering in our house whilst we swan off south.

  This morning set out in good time, and drove to Dover. Just before getting there we realised we hadn’t bought a UK sticker, or headlamp deflectors, so stopped at a service station, and looked up Halfords Dover, drove there, confronted by a sign “permanently shut”. Permanently or temporally hardly matters, failed. Eventually got them from a garage (who would guess garages sell anything to do with cars, thought they were about Twix bars, sausage rolls and fizzy drinks).
  Drove to ferry terminal – chaos! Fortunately we were well early, if must have taken two hours to get to French customs, but eventually got on ferry, which was 45 minutes late.
  But, we are now in France, beaten the restrictions (which we failed to do last year), just.
  Drove to the Calais Bio Coop, which was disappointing, but bought food for tonight. Now nicely parked up at Wissant.
  I had purchased an external aerial and router, and had that fitted before we left. The router, HUAWEI, (not my capitals, an IPad decision, perhaps iPads are in awe of HUAWEI. There it goes again, more capitals), and a giffgaff sim (no contract, works throughout the EU) doesn’t work. Is it the Sim or the router? If you are reading this, I have managed to connect one way or another.

• Sat 18th Dec

  Today started well enough – grey but mild and dry. The weather improved through the day, in contrast to our day which just kept sinking. We decided to drive to Rouen, and to a big E. LeClerk store, usually good for organic goodies, and part of a complex which usually includes a mobile phone shop. It seemed a good idea to take the slow road, avoiding the expensive Peage toll roads. It was certainly slow, but uninteresting, which was a pity. Arrived in Rouen, the shop was very disappointing, and the mobile phone shop could only sell us a SIM if we had a French identity card. I tried using my (still)EU passport, strictly “Non”. But, they did suggest a Tabac, near an Aldi store, where we could park. We did find an Aldi, I’m sure not the one suggested, and a Tabac. After considerable difficulty, and with great patience from the chaps the shop, we eventually got it working. However, we may have completely screwed up Sue’s passwords on her phone in the process – a problem for another day. The new SIM is Lycramobile, seen signs for it often, it’s expensive, and I have failed to master the app. The good news it doesn’t keep telling me how easy it is.
  By the time we left the Tabac it was getting dark, so we drove to the convenient municipal campsite, in a less than salubrious looking part of town, except it wasn’t there. So we drove to another site, which dumped us in the middle of a very anonymous residential area, no parking or stopping anywhere. We were then swept up in (surprisingly) heavy traffic, onto a dual carriageway going we knew not where. Eventually left the dual carriageway, looking for somewhere to stop and find a place to go for the night, and ended up parking off the road behind a large trailer, just off the road. Closing blinds and curtains, and switching the heating on, the outside becomes forgotten, and the road is getting quiet. Not sure where we are, but I’m sure SatNav will sort it out tomorrow.
  Very frustrating, spend ages trying to sort out internet connection before our overseas trips, and so often goes wrong. Even worse is the mobile phones, this is our seventh overseas trip with mobile phones, and our seventh failure to phone each other whilst abroad. I really don’t understand how other people manage – perhaps they only use their mobiles to fry bacon and eggs, and don’t actually make phone calls.

• Sun 19th Dec

  A more upbeat entry today, I’m pleased to say. Slept surprisingly well last night, if there was any noise, I was oblivious of it.
  Decided to try Rouen parking again, as we were very short of fresh water. Found directions to a site in the marina area, put details in SatNav, and set off. We were near marina, could see it, but was confronted by a barrier controlled by some sort of card system, no sign of motorhome parking. We were able to stop there, and Beckie and I set off to have a look. Some way along, at a road junction, I saw the familiar motorhome sign, very easy to got to from where we had parked. SatNav had got us very close, and we drove to the site. Big security fence, locked gate. Wandered around a bit, sign directing us “to the office”, office locked. By now Sue had wandered off I knew not where. I had just worked out the sign, site open all year, but office closed on Sundays during the winter. Today is Sunday. Then Sue reappeared, with someone in tow, who could open the gates, and we were in. Filled water tank, and parked up. Spent quite a bit of time just messing about, Sue did a lot a cooking, I went for a walk, going out through an open access gate. Had lunch, and Beckie and I set off for another walk. Found the access gate was locked, requires a fob to unlock, which is obtainable from the office closed on Sundays. Goodness, I was lucky earlier to get in and out.

  

  I’m not sure if today counts as chilling out, but I went out and it was certainly chilly.

• 20th Dec

  A lot of driving. Tried to pay for last night’s stay at Rouen, office opens at 9.00 am. We arrived after 9.00am, and the office is locked. We managed to contact a girl from an adjoining office, who suggested we phoned the number displayed on the door, but we managed to persuade her to make the call for us. No reply, so we left, as did the other person trying to pay. We tried to be honest, honest!
  Drove to Chartres, finally finished shopping at the excellent organic shop there, and drove on to Fontainebleau, only to find it is closed on Tuesdays. Tomorrow is Tuesday. Should have stayed in Chartres.

• 21st Dec 2021

  Woke to a thick frost – very cold but sunny.

  

  

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  Drove south to Bourges, and visited the cathedral

  

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  As well as being magnificent medieval structures, always worth a visit, they also have the great advantage of being open.
  This cathedral was unusual in having no transept, but was unusually wide, and four stories high. Although the information boards were in both French and English, there was no mention of any history throughout its 600 odd years life. Surely something notable must have happened!

• Wed 22nd Dec

  Another very cold morning under grey skies. Walked to the palace of Jacques Coeur, Sue complaining of the cold every step.

  

  

  Jacques Coeur was Steward of the Royal Expenditure to King Charles VII in the 1400’s, and presumably some of the royal expenditure found it’s way into this palace. Very impressive, although a lot of detail has been lost when it was turned into a court house last century.

  The presentation of this most interesting palace is so very typical of property outside UK, empty rooms, no attempt at the history of the place. Once again underlines the value of the National Trust and English Heritage.
  After lunch, drove a couple of hundred kilometres south. At 4.00pm, the grey clouds dissipated, the sun came out, and the temperature soured to a giddy 10 degrees.
  Now parked up for the night at a pleasant “Aire de camping car” at a place called Capdenac. Bet you’ve never heard of it!

• Fri 24th Dec

  Woke to a fine sunny day.

  

  After a walk across the fields, and round a lake, continued our drive south. (After scraping the mud off our boots!). Drove to Siorac-en-Perigord, and found, with a little difficulty, Greta and Damian at Greta’s house, an arrangement made before we left home. The road to get there was certainly interesting, and not a little challenging at one point, driving between two houses with barely an inch clearance either side. Most enjoyable evening, and a meal in a local restaurant, pleasantly good for such a small place.
  Left this morning, and went west to Bergerac. Topped up the LPG, don’t want to run out tomorrow! This vehicle really does chew through the gas, obviously the heating uses a lot, but the fridge appears to be chronically inefficient. The sent off to find an Aire for Christmas Day, went to one in Bergerac, and as we drove in, we said in unison “We’ve been here before”. Two years ago, on our return from Portugal. Busy, quite a few people who, we’re sure, live here permanently. All services are free, including (astonishingly) electricity. Unfortunately, our connection (the last one available) seems to have conked out. Oh well, we weren’t expecting electricity, and can do without.

• Christmas Day

  Rained overnight. Took Beckie on a nice walk round the adjoining park after a latish start. Sue cooked a superb dinner, which we ate in our decorated vehicle.
  

  The Christmas tree lights, battery operated, expired durning lunch.
  There was much cuffufling about electricity, eventually we plugged into the adjoining vehicle’s extension cable, after finding out our mains switch had tripped. Hope it is because the Aire’s electric point is damaged, rather dangerous, and clearly not maintained. Later this evening, the electricity supplied failed again, much coming and going outside, we gave up, don’t really need it, but it does mean the batteries are fully charged, so grateful thanks to the good citizens of Bergerac for supplying this.
  Had a welcome nap, another dog walk, and now wondering what will be open tomorrow, as we need to do our washing. A very pleasant day wobbled by, helped by a bottle of wine generously provided by Greta yesterday. Managed to avoid the showers, more by luck than judgement.

• Sun 26th Dec

  Washing done, vehicle topped up, and drove to Montignac. There seems to be several interesting places centred around here, so we found a suitable Aire – this one machine operated, €7.00, our first paid stop this trip, and a modest charge for a pleasant place a short walk from the town. We took a stroll round, old, probably sandstone, buildings, narrow streets, next to a fast flowing river. Watched a couple of ducks going against the flow, looked like hard work and slow going.
  To get here, the SatNav, which claims to find the fastest route, sent us along slow narrow roads, many of them single track roads with passing places. Except there were no passing places. Fortunately, there were almost no other vehicles. I’m sure there must be bigger faster roads, but as we were in no hurry, I’m glad we came the way we did, driving through rural backwaters. Scenery, which was nice, would be much improved if it wasn’t a grey December day. We always miss the best time of the year travelling in winter, but then we miss the worst English weather.

• Mon 27th Dec

  Very heavy rain in the early hours this morning, which fortunately stopped around 8.00 am. Set off to the nearby Lascaux caves, prehistoric paintings. Before setting off, I reconciled our Eurocard, and, in the interest of tidiness and orderliness, then threw away all the unrequired receipts. The Aire is equipped with a cavenerous hole topped with a revolving drum for discarding rubbish. Very hygienic and irreversible.
  When we came to leave, drove up to the barrier, which remained stoically closed, Sue asked where the entry receipt is, as it has a code on it to open the barrier…….
  Oops! Sue tried phoning the emergency number, but couldn’t understand the fast talking ansaphone. We enlisted the help of a French fellow camper, who also phoned, but there was no reply. Language was a difficulty, but he did try hard to be helpful. I was feeling not a little guilty, and in desperation tried lifting the barrier. Much to my surprise, it was easy to lift. So, drove MH up to the gate, Sue lifted the barrier, which then took pity on us a swung to a full open position, and remained open long enough for me to drive out. Phew!
  So, went to the caves. Lucky to arrive just as an English tour was starting.Not allowed, of course, to visit the actual, but a millimetre accurate reproduction, to save the original from damage. The Lascaux cave paintings are famous for their vivid colours, and vivid they were.
  No photos allowed in the reproduced cave, but after exiting, the next gallery had full size sections which were shown much more accessible than in situ.

  

  And close ups of the paintings.

  

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  Really nicely done.
  Drove back to the same Aire, am under strict instructions not to throw away the ticket!!

  Now raining again. Yellow warning for heavy rain/flood in this area until 4.00pm tomorrow. Great! At least, the temperature is mild.

• Tue 28th Dec

  Very heavy rain last night. The river here is a fair size – probably about the same as the Thames in east London. Yesterday, we walked along a riverside path. Today, the path was under about two or three foot of water.
  Drove a few miles south to:
  

  A cliff riddled with caves, the earliest occupation 50,000 years ago, and occupied until the 1600’s. The whole inhabited length is one kilometre, over five levels.
  
  

  Difficult to capture the scale of this in a photo

  Model of one section, as it looked in the medieval period.

  

  If the whole cliff was modelled to this scale, the model would be 30 metres long!

  Then, a few miles up the road is Maisonette forte de Reignac chateau, a chateau built into the cliff, with walls and in one room the ceiling is the actual cliff.

  

  
  

  There is then a difficult series of stairways to various levels way above the roof of the building. And, most unusually, this was furnished!

  We are both very surprised at how much we are finding open in France. Have always thought everything closed for half the year, but we are enjoying ourselves, the weather is very mild, just wish it would stop raining!

• Wed 29th Dec

  Drizzly grey morning. Drove to Chateau de Beynac. Started as a castle in the 11th century, and like all massive medieval structures, is added to, usage changes, falls derelict, restored…….

  

  Imposing! And, the village they grew up round it looks as venerable.

  

  

  

  Inside, a mixture of castle and grand house, lots of empty rooms, not much history, although Richard the Lionheart was here for a few years.

  Conques

  

  After the Chateau, set off for Conques. Narrow winding roads, through some spectacular scenery, the roads, always empty of traffic, became narrower and windier, eventually leading to a cul-de-sac at Conques, a huddle of about six houses and two farms, and a dead end. Well, it was Conques, but not the right Conques.

  With some difficulty, turned round, and with some more difficulty found somewhere to stop, to find out where we are (OK, we’re at Conques, not helpful). Found there was an Aire a short distance away, so set off. The road went down and down and down. Sue became increasingly worried about flooding – the Aire is next to the Dordogne river, there has been a huge amount of rain, there is a flood warning continuing, and the river is well above normal levels, clearly by some feet.

  We were parked around five feet above the (swollen) river level. Sue was still worried, I said it would be fine. We moved to higher ground.

   

• Thu 30th Dec

  The river rose by around 5 or 6 inches overnight, so no problem, but a spectacular flow of water gushing past. The grey skies fairly rapidly started breaking up, and we had a spectacular drive to Aurillac, under clear skies. Quite a lot of mist patches, because everywhere is so wet, but not enough to pose any problems. After stocking up with food to see us through the New Year weekend, we found a motorhome parking area adjacent to the old town, so spent the afternoon walking round, with the aid of map from the Office de Tourisme. Many of the buildings date back to the Middle Ages, interesting, but nothing very spectacular. What was a real pity, was that every building had a loudspeaker wired up to Radio ClapTrap, pop music on every street corner. Hateful.
  

  The former church of Norte Dame (The church authorities are not always very original in their naming…). Dating from 1245.

  Not sure why Sue looks so cold – it was a very pleasant 17 degrees. In fact, so pleasant, we found a bar, and sat outside with a beer (me), and a glass of wine (Sue).

  When we returned to the vehicle, another motorhome had arrived, and they had hooked up to an electric point, which I had missed, so I hooked us up as well – another free parking with free electricity!

  Rather noisy, just the other side of the road is a river, La Jordanne, hurtling loudly over a weir. Still, it drowns out the traffic noise.

• Fri 31st Dec

  Conques! Finally made it.

  

  Our original plan was to leave on the 20th Dec. The weather was wet and cold, and I worked out that Conques would be a comfortable drive, to arrive here to spend Christmas Day. But then President Macron suggested we should leave a few days early. The weather turned warmer (and very wet), and we found that a lot of historic and interesting places were open at this time of the year – a pleasing change from previous visits to France – so we delayed the Conques visit to a couple of days ago, when we went to the wrong Conques. Now at Conques Two, picture above.

  We started by going to Chateau Pestiells, but it may have opened at 2.30, we arrived at 11.00, and we were unable to find out if it was going to open. We decided to give up, I will ever wonder if we should have hung around.

  

  But we didn’t, and under cloudless blue skies had another stunning drive, culminating in a narrow windy road down the side of an enormous, very steep valley.

  Arrived to late to do anything except visit the Office de Tourisme, and ascertain that everything is shut tomorrow – New Years Day. So, repaired to the Aire de Campingcar, where we found out the dispenser thingy for water (after inserting 2 euros) doesn’t work. Hope water doesn’t become a problem. Incidentally, it wasn’t my 2 euros that found this out, but a Frenchman in another camper. Seems he was completely out, and drove off in something of a lather.

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