The ferry home

After a lovely breakfast at the Chateau this morning we made a fairly quick getaway for the 300 km drive to Calais.  All was going well until just before St Omer where we headr there was a bouchon on the motorway.  We were quite early so we diverted to St. Omer for lunch where I had another nice Andouilette.  We also bought some nice French cheeses at a local deli to enjoy at home.

There was a massive queue for passport control and ferry check-in (about 3km!) so we missed the 4pm ferry but we were put on the 4.30pm ferry so no great loss.  It was good to see the white cliffs of Dover in the low sun.  We got home, via Sainburys for some food, around 8pm.

The start of the journey home and a posh castle

We left the campsite in Ribeauvillé today, leaving behind the wonderful Storks that inhabit the area (Alsace is famous for them).

We drove about 420km to Etôges where we are spending our last night in France.   We are saying in a local Chateau which seems lovely so far.  It's nice to have a proper room and a proper bed after nearly three weeks of camping. 

We had a fantastic meal at the Chateau and a very good night's sleep.

Day trip to Strasbourg

This is our last full day of holiday in Alsace so we decided to visit Strasbourg.  We drove about 60km to get there and used a Park and Ride at Baggersee.  They are served by good trams right into the city centre.

Strasbourg is a big place so we couldn't really see everything in a day but we did manage to see the Cathedral and have a good walk around some of the other sights of the area using the Michelin guide vert walking tour suggestion.  We visited the Musée Alsacien and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary art.  We also climbed several hundred steps to get the the 66 metre high viewing platform at the Cathedral.

At the end of the afternoon we got the tram out to the European Parliament building and saw the European Court of Human Rights.

We got back to Ribeauvillé around 8.30pm and had a nice meal and some drinks in a local restaurant..

A walk up the hill, a visit to Riquewihr and a wine tasting!

We had an early start this morning so we could get the walking in before it got too hot.  We walked from the campsite through Ribeauvillé and then climbed up the hills, through vineyards, to the (remains of the) Chateau de St. Ulrich.  That was a steep and tiring climb.  Then we walked on to Monastery de Notre Dame de Dusenbach. That was quite a level walk.  Then we did quite a steep walk down back into Ribeauvillé and had some nice Crèpes for lunch with ham and cheese.

The next job of the day was to get a slow puncture on the car fixed (I've already fixed several on the airbed!).  That was quite quick and then we went to visit the very pretty (but rather over-run with tourists) nearby town of Riquewihr.

Following a short walk around that town we went to the wine cooperative in Ribeauvillé which has been supporting grape growers and wine makers in the town since 1895.  We saw an interesting exhibition and tasted some nice wines.

We popped into the local Leclerc on the way back to the campsite and picked up food to eat with the wines we had bought at the wine cooperative.  As I write this we just finished the bottle of sparking wine and are tucking into some nice steak haché with wild garlic.

A trip to Colmar and Dinner in Ribeauvillé

We decided to visit Colmar today as we were a  bit late getting up after a late return from Freiburg.  Colmar is the capital of the Haute Rhine département and quite a pretty place.  It includes the famous Unter Linden museum which we enjoyed visiting.  It includes the famous Issenheim Altarpiece as well as lots of other interesting art and historical objects from Colmar.

We enjoyed walking around Colmar and also visited the collegiate church of St. Martin.  We also visited the protestant church and the dominican church.  We saw a lovely covered market where I sampled some of the local Quiche Lorraine.

We came back to the campsite around 7pm and then walked into Ribeauvillé where we had a fairly traditional Alsatian dinner - Gordon had a local dish, choucroute with various sausages, which looked to me very like German Sauerkraut and Wurst!

Freiburg and visiting Rhodri and Sita

We drove about 60km from our campsite into Germany today, to visit Freiburg.  Germany's warmest City. It has almost as much Solar PV microgeneration installed as the whole of the UK!

We parked at the Hauptbanhof and walked into town.  We found a nice lunch of bauernspätzle which was perhaps a bit heavy and then visited the Münster  - a pretty big and impressive building.

We also visited St. Martin's church and tried to visit the Augustiner museum but it doesn't open on Mondays.  We finished our exploring with a walk South and then West along the river, crossing to the West of the railway and coming back to the Hauptbanhof from the West. 

Having spent the afternoon exploring we met Rhodri at the hauptbanhof at 7pm.  We went for a drink in a bar called schlappen (which Rhodri thought was like the Marsh Harrier!) and Sita joined us.  We went on then to find a Mexican restaurant where we had a nice meal although I must say there were no discernible chillies in it.  Germans don't really do hot and spicy in the way that we do.

Leaving Switzerland for Alsace

We left Penny and Rob's this morning after the obligatory group photo and drove through Switzerland via Bern and Basel up the Rhine Valley towards Colmar an on to Ribeauvillé, the site of our final campsite.  The drive was quite straightforward and not too far, at around 300km.  We were a bit early for the campsite so stopped for lunch in a town called Ostheim, which despite its name is actually in France, not Germany.  I am struck by how German Alsace feels but I guess that shouldn't be a surprise given its history.

We got to the campsite in good time and got the tent up up in time to walk the 10 minutes into Ribeauvillé, which is another picture-postcard town, if a bit full of tourists.   We had a light dinner of cured meats and cheeses in a wine bar while tasting some local wines and beers.

A trip into Lausanne and a walk around the lake

We were with Penny and Rob all day today and the weather was great.  In the morning Penny took us for a nice walk around Lausanne and its market. We returned to their house for lunch.  Lausanne is a very pretty City and we had a good walk around.  There was been a lot of new development in the last 10 years and an area with lots of old derelict warehouses now has them converted into trendy shops, wine bars, cinemas and so on.

We went for a walk near Lake Geneva in the afternoon with Penny and Daniel.  There is a beautiful beach around some parts of the lake and there was lots of people there enjoying the sun with barbecues and so on.  It's amazing how there is pretty much no litter in Switzerland.  I wish it was the same at home!

In the evening we had a barbecue back at Penny & Rob's.  Rob cooked lots of nice food rather expertly and it was nicely accompanied by some excellent salads.

Leaving the Ardèche for Switzerland

We packed up camp today and drove about 440km to Penny and Rob's.  We had a lovely dinner and it was nice to sleep in a proper bed!

A tour along the Cèze

Gordon did some more washing this morning and I had to fix a little leak in the airbed!  After that we drove to Bagnols sur Cèze for lunch at a nice restaurant called Dap’s and we had a wander around the pretty town. 

 

After lunch we went to La Roque sur Cèze, a real picture-postcard little village up a hill.  Cars are not allowed there so we had parked by the river at the bottom of the hill.  While there we walked along to the Cascades de Sautadet.  A part of the Ceze that a lot of people were enjoying as it was a really hot day.  There were some big rocks and some very choppy water flows.  Most people seemed to be ignoring the swimming ban.

After that stop we drove up to Les Concluses – another interesting site on the Ceze where there are huge natural holes in the river bed.  There is also a portaille where the sides of the valley almost meet.  We walked about 2km there in the incredibly hot weather.

On the way back to the campsite we got a bit of shopping and then came back to the campsite for a wash and then dinner at the snack bar.  Tomorrow is the trip to Switzerland to see my cousin Penny and her family.

A trip to Nîmes

Gordon did some washing this morning then we did a trip to Nimes. It's an interesting City and the highlights are the 2000-year-old Roman Temple the Maison Carée and the Roman Arena. We visited both.

We had lunch at a small restaurant in Nîmes called Le Napoleon.

We also visited the Jardins de la Fontaine in the north west corner of the City and climbed up the Tour Magne, an old Roman tower that is at the highest point of the City, in the Jardins de la Fontaine. It offered some spectacular views. We managed to see the outside of the cathedral at Nimes but it was closed by the time we got there.

We came back to the campsite and had chicken and chips at the snack bar with a few beers. Spotting a theme yet?

The Gorge d'Ardèche

We visited the Gorge D’Ardeche today.  This is a driving tour with Valons-pont-d’arc at one end and St. Martin d’Ardeche at the other.  We did the route in that order and stopped at some amazing belvederes (viewing points) seeing  some amazing views of the gorge including the natural Pont d’Arc.

After lunching in the car we visited the stunning natural caves – Aven D’Orgnac.  These caves are millions of years old but only discovered a few centuries ago.  We walked down hundreds of steps, stopping at 7 points to observe the incredible rock formations including many stalactites and stalagmites.  Thankfully there was a lift to bring us back up the 121 metres to the surface!

We rounded off the day with a wonderful dinner in Barjac at a little restaurant, followed by a couple of beers at the snack bar in our part of the campsite.

A visit to Orange

Today was a bit of a late start but then after breakfast we went to visit Orange. The highlight there is the ancient Roman theatre, that is one of the best preserved in the world. We had lunch at a restaurant called Le Pigalle and I enjoyed my first Andouillete of the holiday. There was an excellent audioguide to the theatre and I learned a lot about Roman entertainment and its curtailment by the arrival of the Christians. Some things never change! There is also an Arc de Triomphe in Orange that we visited. We returned after that to the campsite and enjoyed a pizza and a couple of beers in the campsite restaurant. I comprehensively thrashed Gordon in 3 games of Rumikub.

Moving on to the Ardèche

I managed to break a hose off the heater in the car this morning whilst checking the oil and topping up the screen wash. This of course meant I couldn't start the engine as coolant would have soon sprayed everywhere! I was very impressed with Europ Assistance who, after my call, sent someone within an hour who took me and the car back to his garage in Parsac (about 25km away) and did a temporary repair (bypassing the heater) that will last for the rest of the holiday.
We were supposed to have left Creuse before lunchtime but eventually managed to get everything packed up and left around 3.30pm. We had chosen a shorter but rather more mountainous and windy route which proved extremely hard work driving. We got to the next campsite, near Barjac, around 9pm, just in time to get the tent up as it was getting dark. We shared the remains of a bottle of wine and went to bed exhausted!

A very wet day

We woken by rain around 5am today and it carried on pretty much all day.  We went for a little drive and visited the Eglise St. Valerie (an abbey church) in Chambon Sur Voueize.

After eating lunch went on to Evaux les Bains.  We drove into Montlucon and had a bit a wander around in the rain including visiting a church there.  We got back to the campsite for 6.30pm to get ready to go out for a wonderful dinner at La Bonne Auberge in Nouzerines, about 10km away.  It was a truly wonderful dinner.  The best meal of the holiday so far and the best fillet steak I've had in ages!

A viewing tower and some big stones

We drove to Toulx Sainte Croix today where there is a viewing tower from which you can see 7 French Départements.  It was a but murky so I'm not sure we could but the views were good nonetheless.  We also walked quite a way to see an ancient lavoir (a public place set aside for the washing of clothes) that supposed to be being restored.  It looked more like a pile of mud to me!

After that we went and found some coffee at a café in trois fonds and then drive on to see Les Pierres de Jaunatre. Some pretty impressive natural stones in a beautiful setting.  We drove on to Betete after visiting the stones but failed to find the Abbey there.  We popped into the Boussac Carrefour on the way back to the campsite for a few bits and then I had another swim at the campsite.  We had dinner at the pizzeria in Boussac, which wasn't bad at all - if a little over-cheesed!

The sun has got his hat on!

A gorgeous morning today, Thursday.  We got up fairly early and had a nice breakfast at the campsite again.  Thursday is market day in Boussac so we went and had an explore.

Before leaving Boussac we also visited the Chateau de Boussac and had a fascinating tour.  It was in French and I think Gordon understood more than I did.  The Chateau was in the same family for quite a few years and then it became the seat of the smallest sub-prefecture in France.  It was an office of the Gendarmerie Nationale and was bought by the current owners in the 1960s.  They have installed a number of objects authentic to the time (although not from the Chateau) and a number of Aubusson tapestries.

At the market we had bought a huge cèpe mushroom for lunch which Gordon cooked with some parsley and garlic. We ate it with some of today's baguette.  It was delicious! We had a lazy afternoon around the campsite then had some pasta for dinner,

A wet day and a trip to see Wolves

We got up around 9am today and got some bread from the van that visits the campsite every day.  We had breakfast outside and I made some baguettes for lunch using some rilletes and tomatoes that we'd bought the day before.  Breakfast was fried boudin (like oniony black pudding), mushrooms and eggs.  It all tastes so much better cooked and eaten outdoors!

We drove to Guéret after breakfast and had lunch in the city centre.  It was a pretty rainy morning.  After a quick wander around rainy Guéret we drove the short distance to the Loups de Chabrieres wildlife sanctuary and saw some amazing wolves as well as tame and miniature deer  and other animals.  Feeding time at 4pm was really interesting and a bit of a frenzy!  The noise in the video is Gordon's camera in burst mode.  The weather had cleared up by the time we left.

We went back to the campsite for a quick wash (and I had a swim) then we went back into Boussac for dinner, having a really nice meal at the Restaurant du Centre.  On return to the campsite a couple of beers at the bar rounded off a nice day.  The sky was really clear and it always amazes me how many stars you can see from a non-light polluted rural campsite.

The drive to the Limousin and the first night camping

We had a quick wander around Rouen this morning, visiting the cathedral and buying a PAYG SIM for my smartphone so we can use data at a reasonable price while away (not for email, I might add!).  I did the first part of the drive which was quite hard work on not very major roads and driving through a few towns.  Gordon did a longer motorway drive after lunch and we eventually got to our campsite around 6pm, having stopped off for a few groceries and some petrol in Boussac.

We had a fairly average steak haché in the campsite restaurant while a huge thunderstorm started.  We were glad we had got the tent up before that.  The bar area was a bit like a giant kindergarten nightmare as there were so many kids in there, presumably hiding from the thunderstorm.  We went to bed around 10pm after being hounded off our table by a bunch of six-year-olds playing cards!  The rain was incredibly heavy but the tent managed to keep us largely dry.  The storm eased sometime after midnight and after that we slept quite well.

Start of the Summer Holiday 2011

This is another year of camping in France.  We start in the Limousin, move to the Ardeche, spend a couple of days in Lausanne with my cousin Penny and her family, and then spend our last five nights' camping in the Alsace area.

Today we left home around 10.30am to get to Dover for 1.40pm to check in for our 2.10pm ferry to Calais.  We dined in the on-board Langham's Brasserie (a welcome escape from screaming kids), getting into Calais around 4.30pm.

From Calais we drove around 140 miles to Rouen where we were booked into the Hotel D'Angleterre.  We went out for dinner and then had a quick drink in a bar before a fairly early night.