Category Archives: France

Day 32 – Mont Saint-Michel

Just another manic Monday. It was so nice to just hang around the campground some more. The sun rose through morning fog, the owner of the campground bought us fresh baguette at the bakery and the kids loved all the opportunities for play they had here.

We didn’t leave before 10am with a long drive to Mont Saint Michel ahead of us. Flo let all of us sleep a bit until we arrived at 11.45am. This is actually our lunch time but we hadn’t stocked up on bread and now we were in the giant parking lot with all these other people streaming towards Mont Saint Michel or the free shuttle buses. I just got caught up in all the commotion and the impressive mountain castle in the middle distance (3km does not look like a lot anymore) so we headed on in without having eaten.

The free shuttle ride was cramped full of people but it’s still a great service that you don’t have to walk the three kilometers with the kids. Plus, Number 3 was excited about another bus ride.

Leaving the bus on the bridge, you have ample opportunity to take in the view (and take pictures) before you actually enter. We arrived at low tide or rather what we thought was low tide but the water retreated even further in the time we spent there.

Going through the gates, you are hit in the face with tourism. Toilets cost 1€ even for the kids, there is overprized food on every corner and quite a lot of people everywhere. Still, the whole thing is impressive. The gate alone is very thick, the wooden doors plated with metal. Followed by layers and layers of fortifications around the hill with an abbey right at the top of it. It gave me quite the Minas Tirith vibe. Climbing up the ramparts, we had great views of the bay and fewer people to deal with. Up and up we went till we were at the steps of the abbey. Thinking it might be good “doing” the abbey before lunch since we were already here now, we bought tickets, audio guides and got in.

The abbey itself is a great structure as well. Many people have added to what was originally there so even here, you have layers upon layers. It is especially visible when you’re on the big west terrace which is also overlooking a lot of the surrounding coast.
Both kids were getting very hungry by now. The Agent had already been nibbling on her pain au chocolat for the past 30 minutes before trying to hand it back to me. A seagull that had previously perched on the low wall as a perfect picture-taking opportunity was suddenly airborn, grabbed the rest of the pain au chocolat, hit Flo in the face with a wing in the process and was off.

The Agent was startled, upset and hungry now. Flo was startled, hungry and hit in the face. At that point, the battery of our camera died. *le sigh* So we decided to get through the many, many rooms of the abbey quicker now to avoid disaster with the kids and only take a few pictures with the iPhone. Pro tip: Only go into the abbey if you have eaten already in order to properly enjoy all of the sights and information. 😉

The Great Hall of the abbey where kings would be entertained

By the time we left the abbey, we were hustling towards the next eatery. Both kids held themselves with surprising grace and reason so we had no reason to tempt fate any further. The next crêperie was ours for sandwiches and galette, the savory version of crêpe.

Now it was time to leave the small lanes of Mont Saint Michel. Taking the bus back to the gigantic parking lot, Flo and I thought about what to do next. The next rustic campground was half an hour away but in the wrong direction, back towards the Bretagne. In the direction convenient for our travels, it was another 1 ½ hours. Still, we opted for the second campground.

Given that there hadn’t been any charge points for our car at Mont Saint Michel, we planned a top up at a Lidl while shopping for dinner. Through a missed exit from the motorway which added another 20 km to our mileage, we were running REALLY low on charge. Then, the charger at Lidl wasn’t as fast as advertised, meaning we had to spend more time at Lidl while getting less mileage out of it than we had thought.

When we finally arrived at the campground, it was late and the car already complained about needing a top up. Pfff, that was a close-ish call but we made it. It added unnecessary tension to an already slightly stressful day. The campground turned out to be lovely though. We got in, plugged in the car, everybody had ice cream for dinner and we got the kids into bed. The fact that you could only pay cash here and we didn’t even have the 25€ for that anymore barely registered with me anymore. In the end, while Flo asked around if we could send anyone money via PayPal and they’d give us some cash, lovely people took pity on him and gave him a 5€ donation.

Day 31 – Who needs a plan …

Good morning, France! Queuing at the border check point, ferry in the distance

I might give a few years off the tail end of my life if I could ensure that all days work out like this one. To begin with: We did not miss our wake up or run into any sort of issue disembarking the ferry. We woke up at 5am Irish time (6am local) to both my alarm as well as the gentle Irish folk music provided curtesy of Brittany Ferries. We had breakfast, bought just in time to avoid the mad rush and vacated our genius cabin in due time to leave the ship among the first waves. I even had time for a quick shower in our ensuite.

Running around, chomping on a pain au chocolat…what a good life our kids have 🙂

Next up, first destination back on French soil: Boulangerie patisserie – one of the few things open on Sundays in this land of liberty. By the time we had our first baguette in hand we were greeted by a wonderful sunrise over Roscoff’s old harbour. The light of the new day revealed what a quaint and pretty little town Roscoff was. We stuck around for a while, admiring the strange bell-tower, walking out on this seemingly endless pier. We liked it.

Still early in the day on a beach just out of the old town, we sat for a while thinking about what to do and where to go next. We were sorely missing a Lonely Planet guide for Brittany – it has become such a part of our traveling by now. Just something to sharpen the focus and find inspiration. Without such aide, we decided on an ambling “long way” route to a campsite only 140km to the east. We were glad to be able to draw upon the Rustiek Kamperen site again.

Before hitting the campground early for once, there was some road to be travelled. The ride was pretty high up there, following along through more cute villages along the shore as well as the cities of Morlaix and Lannion. The former of which was such a sudden revelation of cool and picturesque that we had to stop for a coffee and a wander. The main feature (for us) was this absolutely enormous railway viaduct crossing the narrow valley right at the point where the estuary was capped off by a small harbour and covered over to make space for the village square. Best of all, there was a path on the first level of arches accessible to cross and take in the views. A perfect surprise.

Just a short while after the baguette from this morning was ritually sacrificed on another of our now almost customary beach-side lunch stops. After lunch, given our early start, I was the only one left to really admire the scenery as snoozing ensued all around me for most of the rest of the way.

Bringing people together for an Indonesian Rice Table. The kids had their own table…mostly

That also meant no additional stops or delays before the campground, though. What a jackpot it was. Le Cheval Rouge was a rural farm renovated and run as a B&B / Glamping site by Dutch couple Chantal & Oliver. It was like it was made for us – very small and intimate, exceptionally kid friendly and without big campervans. Or many other campers at all – most other guests took the chance to stay in big family tents kitted out as glamping sites for families. Just as we were about to set up and enjoy the afternoon, the cherry on top was delivered: Sunday was the day for a communal dinner. Today it was Indonesian Rice Platter. We were just in time to decided to join in. Indonesian food? Mostly vegetarian, as Chantal is vegetarian, too! So many times, yes.

And so, we had, completely by accident, one of the coolest evenings of our European travels. A perfect warm late summer evening, everyone around a long table set out in their garden. Although we were the only non-Dutch guests, everyone was very kind in switching to German or English to accommodate us. Most of the guests were families with young children as well, the kids were playing, and the wine was good. I even got to spend a few minutes at the campfire even though the rest of my family has called it an early night.

Good times!

Leaving the ferry at 7am to see the first light of dawn behind it

Day 3 – Range of Emotions

It‘s my birthday! But we forgot! Well, until we were in the car already, that is. First time in over a decade that I am not “home” to celebrate my birthday with friends. But holidays are short and we wanted to make the most of it. Plus, as a bit of a reprise of my childhood trauma, we are back in sync with the school holidays, which means my birthday is ALWAYS at some inconvenient time in the middle of them.

But back to the car – we left the campground in record time this morning, as we had a train to catch. Le shuttle eurotunnel to be precise. Departure 9.10am, arrive one hour early. Getting up at 6.30am as usual this meant breakfast in the car. But without an awning, we were even faster than that and on the road by 7.30am.

Much to our delight, the Eurotunnel is happy to deal with that to everyone’s satisfaction. Would you like to take the 8.35am instead, at no charge? Don’t mind if we do. There was just enough time left to grab an overpriced (but pretty decent) Starbucks coffee and munch down yesterday’s pain au chocolat (still excellent, obviously). Apart from the 20 min in the cue for the border checks (whee, Brexit!) that got Nina a bit worried for a moment, it was an absolutely smooth operation. Almost a bit too much, making this marvel of engineering feel a bit underwhelming as an experience. In – 25 minutes of gentle swaying in a dark tunnel, out and off.

With the time difference it was now 8.15am in England and not much in sight other than getting past London. We made it a proper push, stretching our range to one of the few fast chargers on the western route north (towards the A1). Just after Cambridge, with 40km range left, we pulled up to four Ionity hyperchargers … only to find them all offline! A call to the service line was no good. Two more fast-chargers from another company were at this service station, but full. In the end, about 20 minutes after we had arrived, the Ionity sprang back to life and we could proceed to a more relaxed lunch.

All should have been well, it was still early, only 160km to go and enough charge on the battery now. Campground was pre-booked, a pub to watch the game close by. But when we arrived, the warden took one look into the back of our car and flatly exclaimed: “adults only – you can’t stay here!” That’s it – good luck with your refund, not my problem (booked for 2 adults and 2 kids, obviously). Are you serious?! Its 2.30pm now. Breathe – double check. Not much nearby. Adults only … +45 camping … members only … what the !”§$% …

Then, Nina got the one we needed, kids almost mental in the car by now. We promised to get out, now its another 30 minutes plus the time spent searching. What a lot of horse manure. Although, in the end …

… 25 minutes later, at the new camp we had the warmest welcome and a big headshake from this warden for the behaviour of his colleagues. The space at Lupine Woods Camping is perfect for us – rustic but we have it almost to ourselves. There were only maybe 5 other places occupied and he had no issue with us charging the car. A bit of forest to roam free and explore and (as it turned out) other kids to find and play with for the little ones. And to top it all off, the wifi was good enough to stream the game!

So, with catastrophe nearly avoided, we settled in, made some new friends, had a real nice dinner that I cooked instead of oily pub-grub and got to sit down to watch the game. A loss, alas, but that would have been too perfect now, would it not?

P.S.: Dear England, I am not mad, just disappointed!

Day 2 – Cows in fog or find the best pastry in France

After a good night’s sleep, where the temperature dropped to surprisingly low 14 degrees, we were the first ones to get up at the campground. Everything was covered in fog. Our new neighbours on the pasture were hard to spot but their young ones had breakfast at the barn and they delighted our kids.

The calfs get some good hearty vegetarian breakfast too (small bugs not counted)

Even after breakfast, we were the only ones moving around the campground so we tried and failed to get the kids to be quiet. I feel like this is going to be a thing on this trip, especially with the Agent of Entropy. Either she’s going to be asleep, or she will get out as many words as she possibly can. Given that her repertoire is limited…that means a lot of repetitions.

Though we took a bit of time, we hit the road nice and early. Arrival at the Atomium in Brussels was 11am, but we hadn’t booked anything, not for the restaurant or even going up the tower. All the people there plus the queues convinced us to put “Belgium” on the list for a shorter holiday some time else and just look at the Atomium from the outside today.

it will take you more than a few moments to realise that he is not actually looking at any part of the structure

An overpriced grilled sandwich later, we explored the nearby park a little bit while walking back to the car. So far, we’re still in the pre-planned, getting-to-Ireland stage of the holiday and don’t have as much leisure as we’d usually have. Another 2 hour drive was looming for the afternoon to get us as close as possible to Calais as we’d booked the le shuttle through the eurotunnel for tomorrow morning, our best shot to get through the channel quickly.

Number 3 fell asleep in the car but since the Agent had already slept in the morning, she was wide awake and sang “Happy birthday” for about a 100 times.

Shortly after 3pm, we stopped at a cozy little bakery. Flo had googled a nice place for us to get coffee time treats as well as bread and a quick up-and-go breakfast for tomorrow morning. We all opted for pain au chocolate which will still be delicious, even a day old.

The campground this night is called “al la plage” and while I can’t see the beach from here, Flo and the kids have gone to explore how close you can get to the sea.

An hour later, they came back. Dinner was made from things we brought from home and we progressed into the evening routine.

Day 54 – A hell of traffic jams

The last thing of our trip dawned on us: Drive to the Netherlands and visit dear friends of ours for a couple of days before returning to Frankfurt in one go. Thus, today was a driving day. We wanted to get from North-east France through Belgium and into the Netherlands.

The sat nav told us that it’s about 400km which is 50km more than we did on long driving days so far. Better to get going then!

Despite the grey, low hanging clouds, we managed to pack everything dry. We had another hour to go in France which left plenty of opportunity to stop at one more Intermarché and buy some more pain au chocolat. In a combined effort we even got Number 3 to stay awake until we reached the supermarket so he could roam around before passing out in the car. So far, so good.

We made good progress until Number 3 woke up and it was about lunch time anyway so we stopped at a motorway rest. Having our own bread-and-cheese lunch felt slightly odd but it was definitely tastier than the McDonald’s option of the rest stop.

Things started to go slightly wrong from here. Back on the road, the ring road around Antwerp, we were instantly in the first traffic jam. What had been an 8 minute delay because of roadworks before we stopped for lunch was now a full blown jam, probably with an extra accident thrown in just for fun. It took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. For the next 45 minutes, we drove maybe 15 kilometers. The sat nav found other ways for us, off the motorway, but these started to clog up quickly as well and they also had roadworks. Baby was not amused with the whole situation and started screaming on top of all the other stress we already experienced.

Finally, finally, we were through this blockage and back on the road. However, Belgium had two more traffic jams for us and the Netherlands one small one. If you are wondering, why we were in so many of them…yes, traffic around the big cities is usually bad. However, we chose the Friday before a long weekend for our longest driving day so really, we should have known better.

Instead of arriving around 4pm, we met our friends at 5.30pm, dead tired and stressed out. Things got a lot better from here on out. We spent most of the evening at out friends’ flat, meeting their little boy (to be known as Mini van Bartang) and just generally catching up and eating pizza. Back at the camp site, we set up in record time and were in bed by 9pm.

There was a storm warning for this part of the Netherlands for the evening and night. Just in case, we left it to the tent and storm cover, planning to set up full camp tomorrow.

Did we get lost near Hogwards?
welcome to country #2 for today …
Motorway reststop
Yeah, better than McDonalds
nompf
Ah, Europe. Country number #3
Great shop from real adventurers
I think they might get along
Storms? Are they also lost in traffic?

Day 53 – vive la France!

Our last real day in France – and last rest day before we shift gears one more time. Oh, and also 75^th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy. Glad we did not take that route 😉 – security procedures must be a nightmare. While the world leaders played politics with remembrance, we had much smaller goals for the day.

Actually, apart from taking a final breather, there was really only one thing: To organise bread for lunch or dinner. Everything else would fall into place. So I brushed up my limited French to work on the owners and find out how we could get some bread without taking the car. My idea was to go on a very small hike to a restored old mill and bakery nearby, but that one it turned out only opens twice a month. The 45 minute walk into the next village seemed a bit much, so I tried for bicycles instead. Once I finally had communicated the reasoning for all this questing, I got the offer to get some bread from the lady of the house and save me the trouble. Fine by us!

Weather is still a mixed bag, but for most of the day it stayed dry, even sunny at times. It still took until the afternoon to get comfortably warm outside. So much so in fact that my winter coat that I took as a last minute addition got dusted off once more by Nina (who from there on out had a big grin on her face and said something about walking around in a blanket …).

That was it, really. By the afternoon, we had the campground almost to ourselves. Once the lawn mowing and hedge trimming had stopped, we got to fully soak in the tranquil and beautiful place all around us. The day slipped by and we soaked in the last bit of sunshine and afternoon warmth with another cup of tea / coffee.

Oh yeah – and I got a sunburn. Ridiculous, the rainiest day in a long time, but that’s what we whiteys get for skipping the sunscreen.

everything sagging a bit, but overall ..
… camp took the rain well.
Number 3 played for an exceptinally long time by himself …
… indulging in his love for pebbels
with this view, we did not mind much

Day 52 – A bit more of France, vive le déjeuner!

Number 3 didn’t ruin yet another set of clothes while we packed. 😉 Luckily, the morning weather was fine again so that we didn’t have to pack our things wet.

Today was another short day, as in only 200km to the next camp ground. Flo had found another rustiek kamperen close to the Belgian border where we will spend our rest day if it is nice. I’ve decided against camping in Belgium for one night…somehow I wasn’t mentally prepared for yet another country (and thus another post card to Aaron. It’s important to keep one’s promises) and I really wanted to take advantage of French patissieries and boulangeries longer.

The road was much less pleasant than yesterday, way more like a regular motorway. However, Number 3 had troubles staying asleep so we stopped at a rest stop after just an hour on the road. Given how he’s walking around with the zipper of his jacket in his mouth, the new tooth can’t be that far off anymore. Flo wasn’t so sure what to do with today, as we would arrive on the camp ground at lunch time if we kept going now. So we looked at the map and realized there was at least one more town called Abbeville we’d go to (well, mostly around) so I suggested eating out for lunch. French food is almost always a good idea.

Flo checked online for an eatery and found “Chez Mel” which was added as a destination. We arrived about 10 minutes before it opened so I got to go to a bakery and buy sweet treats for the afternoon tea that we planned to have on the camp ground. French bakeries are heaven. Or really close most of the time. Even Flo found treats to his liking and he doesn’t even have a sweet tooth. So we left with a bag of four treats and a hungry toddler who had pointed on almost every treat in the shop, making chewing sounds.

“Chez Mel” turned out to be a creperie. I went for a savoury one with goat’s cheese, honey and walnuts while Flo chose the decadent meaty version that was rolled up, dunked in creamy sauce and then put back into the oven with cheese on top.

We all enjoyed the meal and being somewhere dry when the rain returned. Now we just needed another short stop to pick up fresh bread before heading right to the camp ground. We arrived there before 3pm. It’s a tiny camp ground with maybe 15 spots all in all. The owners, a lovely French couple, were like “oh non, la pluie” and “le bébé” and just really a bit flustered that we wanted to camp in the rain. They spoke literally no English. But, they gave us the prettiest camp spot we could have asked for. With a little pause in the rain, we set up everything dry and then cuddled up in the tent for a bit. But Number 3’s mind of an explorer couldn’t be contained for long so he was dressed in his rain coat and wandered around in the rain however much he liked.

Oh, we even had time to tuck into those treats … the French, they got pastries right down …

So hard to choose…
Pretty despite the rain
Our own lawn
Looking towards the village

Day 51 – Avoiding revolutions

Once again, we started the day with a bit of indecision about the immediate next steps: Stay and spend our rest day here? Move on? No rest day but super short days instead? It actually took us all of 10 minutes of pulling off our chateau camp (so no rest day today) to make up our minds.

I briefly brought up the option of visiting Versailles. Paris we wanted to avoid for several reasons, but maybe a one-day sightseeing stop the day after tomorrow? In the end, we decided against it – the weather was the biggest factor – I had seen it once in the rain, only a sunny day would do for making a detour worth it. Plus, avoiding Paris’ traffic and potential Gilets Jaunes disruptions was definitely a factor.

Lacking a good target in the area we wanted to end up in tonight, we took sort of the best path avoiding Paris on a northern route and aimed for a “regular” campground with good google ratings.

We were really quite pleasantly surprised by the route we ended up on. It really had this road trip feel to it, where making distance is sort of first priority, but the landscape zooming past is part of the experience. Rural France can be quite enchanting. The N-routes took us past most villages, but through enough that it had far less of the sterile feel of toll motorways.

A great but slightly too sunny lunch spot was easily found just by the road – a little artificial lake. Same goes for our coffee break at 2, just stopping in a picturesque village square and dropping into the local café for a bit of a booster and some local colour.

barefoot saves shoes, but he sat down in the puddle to find other ways to make us work for it

The campground was nothing to write home about – but it had a picnic table ready for us, saving some time. The real event of the evening was the thunderstorm hitting us right after arrival, with just enough time to set up the tent and get the storm cover, literally seconds before a good old summer storm hit us. Number 3 was a little scared in the beginning but it got better fairly quickly while we all cuddled in the tent.

It even got a bit sunny after that and Number 3 managed to wear through two sets of clothing jumping into puddles and exploring before the sun came out again. He finished his day off with a round on the playground, impressing us once more with his motor skills and fearlessness. Early bed time it was for us. With little happening today, it still felt like a good day. Just the three of us, in tune with the road and ourselves.

“I can sit everywhere now!” – “yeah, but breakfast is back here …”
bye bye, almost cliché France
tree lined driveway leading up to the place — trés posh!
“I’m hungr .. zzzZZZzzz”
Bigger Chateau diplomacy
Picnic tables are superb climbing terrain …
who the boss here?
Stuff happening in the skies
cool tower in cool town, names are all a blur
first time we tested out the storm cover – did it’s job!
exploring in puddles
barefoot saves shoes, but he sat down in the puddle to find other ways to make us work for it
he used the bobble thingies for the first time on this trip – now he has them figured out
“you call this an obstacle?”
“ok, this is a bit scary now”
“no, never mind … wheeee”
he sat down in the end … RIP pants #2

Day 50 – Maintaining …

… velocity, direction, purpose & gear.

Today was all about keeping it up. A steady pace north-northeast. Chipping away at the last 1100 km to our final “sight”. I think we mentioned that we will round off our trip with a visit of dear friends and fellow travellers in the Netherlands. We managed to sort the details out last night as well, so the goal is set: To the camp in the Netherlands by Friday night – spend a long weekend camping with friends and then swat down the last 350km home in one go on Monday. All we need to do now is fill in the blanks in between.

Our first idea: push and rest, was less to our liking than we thought. So today, we changed tack a bit and only tackled 250km to the next campground. We are not planning on any more sightseeing in France, but try to find nice campgrounds instead to make this more than a just a drudge to get where we are going.

[and this is where I (Flo) realise that I am writing for the wrong day. So off to Nina, I do day 49 now. This is what you get for letting the Blog slip]

We left the camp ground to make our way to another rustiek kamperen later on tonight. 250km is really just half a day of travelling. Nothing of note happened before lunch when Flo found a lovely little secured place where we unpacked the chairs and dug into food. Number 3 explored a bit more; he really likes to walk around after sitting in the car for a while.

The drive after lunch wasn’t even long enough for Number 3 to fall asleep. We arrived at 3pm, set up and had coffee and tea respectively. This camp ground was on the “lawn” next to a small “castle”. It’s a really pretty sight with slightly less space and privacy we’ve had the night before. We used the extra time on the camp ground to exhale, enjoy the sight and plan a bit further. Unfortunately, the weather seems to turn for the last couple of days as more rain and thunderstorms are forecast.

[oh, and Flo did some GPS stuff and “fixed” his shoes]

Number 3 exploring the roadside lunch spot
He would come a bit when called …
… but is easily distracted
Side road off a side road off a side road somewhere in rural France
Also, very rural France: Chateau!
Mate’s dead set on helping with dinner …
it was … a bit too slow for Flo’s pace
Seems easy right? A stirr …
… a taste …
… you have a lot to learn, young padawan!

Day 49 – Adios

That was it then – with our lovely riverside camp in the mountains, we felt like we had our fill with Spain for now. A brief debate whether to go for one more round of sightseeing in San Sebastian or take more time on our way back was quickly settled in favour of the latter. Anything but a rush now.

So off we went. Right away, we have to re-learn the doing distance part again. Fuel is a lot cheaper in Spain and the car was in dire need of a bit of a rinse after a bunch of dirt roads had left their dusty mark. So we stopped, before the border, not even 45 minutes in. So far so good, but Number 3 had already fallen asleep and his uncanny butt-sensor detected the stop right away. The rest of the pre-lunch drive portion was therefore a bit less quiet than we had hoped for. Oh, and I fumbled and got the wrong fuel (98 octane), so the whole saving money idea did not work out either. Thus, we left Spain.

So happy when he is allowed behind the wheel

Lunch was a nice change. We stopped in Bayonne and found a good spot near their fortifications not 5 minutes off the main road. We were at that point still on the “avoid toll roads” setting, which lead us through a lot of densely settled areas. But the spot was good, a lot of green for Number 3 to run around and get some pent-up energy out of his system.

After that, we gave up and opted for the 10 € toll to get us to Bordeaux – there is just no good alternative route. We went past and finally turned off to more rural highways to find our camp for the night. Another Rustiek Kamperen site, this was right up there again. It felt more like camping in a park, with trees dotted around a nice lawn and a distinct lack of fencing.

To top the night off, a Canadian overlander turned up on his 1200 GS. He gave me a good reason to open that bottle of Rioja that we picked up in the last Spanish supermarket and have a pleasant bit of shop talk.

The border here as right in the middle of a town so I missed the sign with the European flag
Lunch spot in Bayonne right next to the moat of the castle
Number 3 wandering off on his own to explore
So happy when he is allowed behind the wheel
Our spot for the night
Chance meeting with another long distance traveller

Chaos roaming the world

random pieces of life of Nina and Florian