LIDL | Chaos roaming the world

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.

I like to socialize with strangers, a lot more than Nina at least. So, I struck up a few brief conversations with other guests – and connected a little with another couple over having a one year old on the road, but also through COVID. Most hilariously they were called Florian and Janina and their son’s name had been on our short list as well 😀 Seeing that as a bit of a sign, we used the opportunity to give our one year old the chance to interact with another kid their age. The Agent, at least blessed with having Number 3 for company, has met kids her age maybe a hand full of times. Number 3 at this age had some group activity on thrice a week.

The blanket with toys was held in high esteem by the little ones

The two were soon joined by a third baby on parental leave and there was all of a sudden a bit of a party. I think all of us really enjoyed seeing the little ones play with other kids for once. Number 3 joined in for a bit and then attached himself to Florian, inspecting every nook and cranny of their considerably larger RV.

In short, we took our good time packing up, mixed with a bunch of socializing and a bit of praising some of our gear. After all, we had only one thing roughly planned – to stop for lunch in Cremona and then check in at the camp near Parma for tomorrow’s city exploration day. In the end, a last round of excellent coffees was had and we said our goodbyes to everyone.

Number 3 said goodbye with a bit of a meltdown. There was a ping pong ball lying around after the kids had been playing with it in the morning. A car which left the campground drove straight over it and it explode quite spectacularly. Number 3 had started to run towards it to save it but was held back by Nina…when it was broken, he screamed for about ten minutes on the top of his lungs. It hadn’t even been his in the first place but Florian felt bad enough to give him one of their remaining oing pong ball as a farewell gift. He treasures it.
Nina

We made good time on the toll “Autostrade” and decided to combine shopping with a brief top up of Puru Hiko. Once again – if you offer a charger at your supermarket, you have gained a customer (LIDL, this time) and we got 40km of range for free out of it.

Unfortunately, that’s where the smooth sailing ended a bit. The first restaurant we tried was closed. The one Lonely Planet recommendation turned out to be a bit too posh and pricy for a pit stop and after that we struggled for a bit too long. I chickened out of a self-service place. So, in the end, we waited until 1:30pm at a mediocre café with views of the Duomo before we could tuck in. And the veggie options were … limited. Nina took it like a real hero without complaint.

Campgrounds seem to be few and far between down in the Emilia-Romagna, so we went purely for convenience for the next two spots. Tonight’s offering was, by that margin, a pleasant surprise. It had loads of “permanent campers”, sure. And the “four star” rating advertised reminded me a lot of former eastern block holiday locations in the 1990s. Loads of dilapidated charm. It was also the first campground where we could not charge Puru Hiko. 3A fuses on 16A plugs. Ah well, we are pretty topped up and there will be charging in Parma for sure.

On the plus side, they had a big play area and swimming pool and were mostly deserted of other guests. We first had some fun with the crass clown-vomit-coloured playground and then even went for a swim in the huge pool (which was actually doubling as the local public swimming pool). But we were wise enough to leave the pool and prepare to hide when we saw the thick black clouds coming over the next hill.

Sure enough, by the time I’ve had my shower, Nina had already emergency-packed the camp and evacuated all to the tent. The mightiest summer storm we had so far passed right above. Thunder cracked so loud right overhead, for once even the Agent of Entropy lost her bravery for a minute. I huddled into the tiny remaining dry patch in the center of our awning and whipped up emergency dinner with caprese and some antipasti. I even managed to get the cooker going for a cuppa tea and coffee for Nina and myself respectively.

We got the kids to bed a bit later than usual, but as the storm had passed and only left the constant patter of rain on the roof, they fell asleep within minutes. We followed soon after …

Chaos roaming the world

random pieces of life of Nina and Florian

Tag Archives: LIDL

Day 32 – Mont Saint-Michel

Day 13 – Thunderstruck