Well what can one say about the past two years? Yes, it has been two years although every day I need to remind myself that it IS 2022 – just where on Earth has it gone?
The Dreaded 'Vid...
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| The Dreaded 'Vid... |
What seems an eternity ago but was only May 2021, Del and I were lucky to
spend a week in Devon in our caravan, Daisy. It
was a good week but slightly strange - obviously the ‘vid was still prolific
and we had to be very careful – masks, antibac, social distancing etc. were
very much the ‘norm’. Anyway, the
weather wasn’t bad for May but as the rest of the UK seemed to have descended
into the South West actually travelling anywhere was really really
difficult. Fast forward to the end of
the week and our return we both separately came to the conclusion that our days of
caravanning were over. It was all
becoming quite an effort – after all, we’re not getting any younger and after a
long journey, the actual setting up was just too much. However, we weren’t prepared to give up our
holidays and leisurely weekends and decided that we’d go back to a motorhome. Of course, our pending retirement, financial
cutbacks and love of easy travelling had a lot to do with our decision.
Fast forward a few months.....
It took a while but having sold Daisy quite early in the Summer we
didn’t actually pick up Mollie the Moho until January 2022! We spent hours talking about what we liked
about motorhoming, what we didn’t like, what type we wanted, what layout,
measuring (the driveway), planning, worrying, etc. etc. and we finally managed
to come to the conclusion that it was an Autocruise Starspirit that we wanted.
Well, Hello Mollie!
February 2022
Our first trip was to Canterbury, there’s not that many campsites open and we thought it maybe fun to go slightly further afield. For anyone thinking of going to Canterbury, please make sure you read the note on the Camping & Caravanning Club page – we didn’t, and ended up driving through the small village of Bekesbourne.
"Please avoid approaching site driving through Bekesbourne village as may be suggested by Sat Navs, as lanes are too narrow for touring units. Safe approach instructions can be found here"
Canterbury site is lovely, there’s slightly different levels and two toilet blocks – although one isn’t open at the moment. Just outside the site is a bus stop that takes you into Canterbury bus station (5 minutes) which is in town and short walking distance to the Cathedral. I’m not quite sure what I found so amazing – the Cathedral or the fact that the town centre was full of …… shops!!!!!!!!!
We had both been to the Cathedral many many years ago but really
couldn’t remember it. Despite there
being scaffolding up the sheer beauty of this amazing building was breathtaking
and we spent almost two hours wandering around.
Our tickets were returnable within the year, so we’ll definitely go back
and visit again.
Fast forward to May 22 and we have visited Canterbury 3 times – it’s
really not a difficult journey and the site is not only very nice but the bus
journey into town makes it a good weekend.
We’ve been lucky with the weather and managed to enjoy a cold beer
sitting outside a bar with the Cathedral in the background.
We’ve always had a holiday in May half-term, but with the Platinum Jubilee on the horizon we decided to stay relatively close and not have a week away but a very long weekend. How difficult is it to choose somewhere when the road is your oyster…. After much deliberation Suffolk it was! Both Del & I had been to Flatford Mill separately and both wanted to revisit so it was a no-brainer. We booked into Camping & Caravanning Club site at Polesdon, not knowing what an absolute jewel of a site this is! Small, quiet, beautifully kept with each pitch divided by hedgerow, so you have your own set space with no one over-looking. There are bus stops just outside and 5 minute walk to The Brewer’s Arms where a damn good Sunday roast can be had!
According to ‘Sally Scenic’ (Del’s name for Google Maps) we took the
scenic route to the campsite from the main road, there’s some lovely villages
and most of the locals were quite happy to move over and let Mollie through the
very narrow roads – apologies to the one ‘lady’ who let us know in no uncertain
terms that she was NOT happy – Madam I hope you feel better after your little
outburst…. So much pent up anger is not good for you… good job you have that
great big 4x4 to keep you safe from your road rage….
Anyway, Sunday bought showers/sun all day but we were happy to just
chill and walk across to the pub for a wonderful lunch. We’re still trying to work out the best
places for things inside Mollie and made the decision that the wardrobe space
was a waste of space and had already become a open-door-throw-it-in-close-door-quickly
scenario. Some moho owners have built
shelves but I’m not to keen on having something permanent so have decided on
hanging shelves. Thank you Mr. Amazon!
Monday we decided to have as a day out. Unlike the caravan where you just locked up and left in the car, going out in a moho for the day needs a little more planning. Our hosts at the campsite informed us that parking at Flatford Mill/Dedham wouldn’t be a problem – and it wasn’t!
Once again Sally Scenic took us all round the bloody fields of Suffolk
just to cut 2 minutes off our journey!
Come on Google get your app camper/caravan friendly! Flatford Mill is just 10 miles from here and
is easily found. Great big car park at
the National Trust owned building – parking free for members, £5 for
non-members.
Flatford Mill, Willy Lott’s Cottage are just a short walk from the main
entrance, pass the shop and tearooms.
However, we also found a lovely little boat ride up the River Stour,
nothing ‘oh-wowish’ about it, but it did give you the opportunity to understand
why John Constable found painting in this area so inspiring. Despite the cloudy sky, the light is
something else. The River is clean and flows
through banks of rushes concealing moorhens, mallards and although we didn’t
see them – Canada Geese and Otters. Dragonflies
and Mayflies scooted around the surface while the lily pads threatened to burst
into colour at the slightest hint of some sunshine.
Flatford Mill was not how we remembered and to be honest, we walked
straight past without realising THAT was the Mill! However, just walking another few steps to
the right and we were able to see Constable’s vision. Del has always had a love of art and felt
quite emotional, but this time I could see and feel it too. Beautiful, tranquil, English countryside – it
really can’t be beaten.
After our visit to the Mill we continued to Dedham. Nothing to write home about, but it is a
very pretty village with at least two tearooms, a wonderful Church and a huge
car park!
So, our first ‘day-trip’ in Mollie has proved to be a success. We really didn’t have to put away much, our
chairs etc. remained on the pitch and we just had to plug her back in.
June 2022
Eager to continue our adventures we booked into Chiddingly campsite for
the weekend. We’d read some really
lovely reviews on what a lovely place it was and we weren’t disappointed. There are just 6 pitches with EHU and then a
separate field for campers. The weather
was warm and sunny and there’s a pub just a short walk away down very quiet
country lanes. We definitely will be
back as it was so peaceful.
The next few weeks were all systems go for our holiday to France. Del had decided to install some solar panels
on the roof so that we could ‘go wild’ if need be – I hasten to add at this
point but our idea of ‘going wild’ is NOT what the average camper would agree
to. With the ever-increasing,
spine-chilling, bank-breaking price of utilities we know that before long more
of the campsites will either be installing meters for electric or charging a
lot more for EHU. So, although the
initial outlay has been quite a lot (thank you Mr. Ebay) in time, we will not
pay as much.
BUT (written in capitals) this is Del we’re talking about – Mr. "I don’t
do things by halves" and we are now the proud owners of not 1, not 2 but 3 solar
panels – one of which slides out!
Hmm.. where’s the big map of France?
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| Not 1, not 2 |
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| But 3 solar panels |
The BIG one - France – August 2022
As is becoming the norm now we stayed overnight at Black Horse Farm, it
was Del’s birthday and we went across to the pub for a very nice meal. Saturday morning we were on our way to
Eurotunnel, just a short 10 minute drive from the campsite. Of course, now we weren’t in the EU we were
getting better deals on the Duty Free and I managed to pick up some perfume and
a bottle of gin far cheaper than I could buy in the shops in town. The Eurotunnel centre was heaving with
people and the queue for Starbucks was about 30 deep so we decided to leave
quickly (still very ‘vid aware) and to our surprise some 10-15 minutes later we
were called to make our way to the train.
Hurrah we were finally on our way!!!!!!!!! Note to self… remember the phone chargers
Saturday 13th August
Our first planned stop was Giverny, back to the campsite we’d visited
before. It’s about 3/3.5 hours from the
tunnel so it’s quite a nice stop to relax and get your bearings, there’s a
restaurant and bar on site, swimming if you want it and the toilet/shower
blocks are very good. We were allocated
pitch 55 which just happened to be the one next door to where we stayed 2 years
ago. The weather was okay, sunny, not too
warm but there were SO many children!
Maybe I’m just getting old, or the fact that I work with children, 2
days was more than enough and I was pleased to be leaving. Hmm… (they’ll be several Hmm.. moments
throughout the blog) where’s big map of France? Hmm… où est la boîte grise?
Monday 15th August
The journey to Azay le Rideau took us about 4 hours, it had it’s
moments and we often found ourselves turning round – Sally Satnav had been
switched off and we were relying on Del’s Snooper to get us there. Unfortunately, Snooper had travelled better
days and what with out of date maps and battery going flat we often found
ourselves going down roads that either ‘didn’t exist’ or on the motorways which
we had thought we’d try and avoid this year.
Fortunately, we had replaced our ‘tag’ and we could just Bip &
Go! We did pass through some lovely
villages and through one particular village – St. Anet – we turned the corner
to find this:
Tuesday 16th August
Today we went to the Chateau Azay-le-Rideau, such a beautiful building. There were several rooms filled with
beautiful furniture and some lovely views over looking the gardens. A very lovely, well-kept Chateau, one
definitely worth a visit.
After the Chateau we had a coffee and a walk around the center-ville, a
lot (and I mean a LOT) of restaurants then we found a little area where they
sold pate, quiche, cheese etc. With pate
de campagne and some of the local quiche we headed back for lunch and a
rest.
Wednesday 17th August
France wouldn’t be France if we didn’t go to Kathy & Dave’s
campsite. Now don’t get me wrong we
LOVE France and want to visit many many areas of it, but we both work and lead
busy lives so we both need some R&R to sit and do nothing – once we’ve
retired we can do more travelling. The
trip from Azay to La Fosse de Tigne was about 3 hours which included a
‘stock-up’ visit to Intermarche.
As is quite normal and equally as wonderful we were met with a very warm welcome and several glasses of wine before we’d even pitched Mollie! Words are hard to find to explain just how perfect this place is, but here is an extract from a message I sent my daughter.
Thursday 18th August
The Dutch couple ‘Bill & Egbert’ were just lovely and we had a real laugh with them. They had been at K&D’s the week before, had gone off to meet some friends but had decided to come back again! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of us all and they left at 9am this morning – along with the gorgeous Lizzie (brown collie dog), but they came over to say goodbye and we all wished each other ‘safe travels’ or veilige reizen!
The bbq was a real bring
& share and there was a LOT to eat!
With the meat (we took pork chops) – Kathy had made a huge bowl of roast
potatoes. It seems the French love them
and the Dutch had never eaten them!
Followed by bread and pate, apple tart and bananas & custard and
THEN cheese! Of course, there were
cheese from around Europe – French, Dutch and some of our favourite (and the
only thing we smuggled into France – oops) some Marks & Spencer Cornish
Cruncher! This was followed by several
rounds of boules with Pascual as lead man and the only one who actually knew
how to play the rules!
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| The new road layout in La Fossé de Tigné |
Fortunately, the top of the ground here is quite soft and Del managed
to hammer in enough to keep everything tied down.
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| The only camper in the Orchard! |
Friday 19th August
The weather was ‘changeable’
to say the least today. We woke up to a
heavy cloudy sky, which soon broke up into large patches of blue and then a few
minutes later it was blowing gales and raining hard. In between all of this I did manage to get
all my washing dry – this makes June a happy girl as I hate having dirty
washing around.
We’re the only campers at the moment, it doesn’t bother us, it’s quiet and peaceful and it’s fabulous to watch the sky changing around you. As I sit here typing all I can hear is the wind in the trees, the awning flapping and the birds. We’ve just come back from a lovely lunch with K&D in Vihiers – the poor restauranteur had been really busy as he was the only café in the village open and when I said I could not eat rabbit (the only thing left) he cooked me a steak & frites, with avocado & some sort of coleslaw (not as we English know coleslaw) to start and a crème brúlée for dessert, coffees and a large carafe of very quaffable wine, it cost just 30 euros per couple (and that’s with a tip). That’s about £12 a head! After a quick trip to Super U there wasn’t much to be done except return to Mollie and sleep it off!
Saturday 20th August
Well the weather has changed, it’s quite overcast and you get the occasional rain, but it’s still very warm and we are quite comfortable sitting outside under the awning. Dave – our wonderful host came over earlier and asked us to a barbeque. We are the only campers here so it was nice to have a bit of company. There were just the four of us and we shared a lovely barbeque with quite a lot of wine consumed and a lot of talking and laughing. I think we finally got back to Mollie early evening!
Sunday 21st August
Today it’s been ‘changeable’
– the weather is beautiful in the morning and then overcast from about lunch
time onwards. Del and I had a lazy
morning and then in the afternoon we were invited to Kathy & Dave’s for
some board games. Two new ones for us –
Mexican Train dominoes and Sequence – both REALLY good games and we shall be
ordering them as soon as we return to the UK.
They’ll be great Christmas table games.
Once again, we rolled back to Mollie in the evening and realised we’d not
eaten since breakfast! Quick pasta and
sauce dinner and then we settled in for another episode of Downton Abbey!
I’ve not mentioned TV or
anything since we’ve arrived in France, mainly because we haven’t watched any
and really not missed it either. But, we
did bring the DVD player with us and have been watching the box set of
Downton. I’ve seen it all about 4 times
but Del maybe just twice. Spoiler
Alert…. Bates has just been sentenced to hang for the murder of his wife… It’s fabulous watching and I’ll never get
tired of it. Note to self…. Remember
the controller for the DVD player….
Monday 22nd August
Not a bad start to the day,
it’s a little overcast but still very warm and sitting doing nothing under the
awning isn’t too much of a chore… Today,
our lovely camping friends Bev & Steve arrived – we knew they were coming
but they didn’t know we were here. It
was so lovely to see them again, can’t quite believe it’s been 3 years. They have a new moho which is always a good
opener conversation! (Not that we ever struggle for things to talk about).
Kathy had arranged the
traditional ‘wine tasting’ at the local vintner in the village, both Jean-Marie
& Allan were there along with some locals, much ‘tasting’ was had and of
course, we bought ‘some’….
I’m not sure I’ve ever really
described much to do with the wine tasting.
The cave (pronounced cav) is in the village, the walk to the cav is
along the lane outside the campsite, it’s like you’ve stepped into the set of
Cider with Rosie. Fields on both sides,
the chateau in the distance, the sheep wash, beautiful wild flowers growing in
the ditches, hot summer’s evening, silence except somewhere in the distance you
can hear a farmer finishing off his work for the day. The cav is literally a cave where the wine
is stored, there is a bar and some stools but stacked in pallets on the floor
are all the different wines from grapes picked 2 years or more ago. Jean-Marie was excited to tell us that the
grape picking (the vendange) will be starting next week, and so another vintage of wine
begins.
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| Allan & Jean-Marie |
Walking(?) home is decidedly
a different matter, much giggling and ‘I wish I’d eaten before’ conversations
are had, before crashing into the chairs for a recovery!
Tuesday 23rd August
BBQ day again today, I sometimes feel I’m in The Durrells (but French version rather than Greece). Sitting at a long table full of people eating, sharing, talking, laughing from lunch until the early evening, hot sunshine, wine – parfait. Hmm… this afternoon a van arrived in camp with an English family Mum, Dad, Daughter, Granddaughter wanting to “have a look around to see if it was the sort of campsite for them” Kathy being the ultimate hostess invited them to join us for a glass of wine following the look around the campsite etc. I don’t know and it could be just me, but something just didn’t seem right about it. Accents changing, conflicting answers to questions and a hasty retreat, so hasty he actually hit a large boulder in the garden.
Wednesday 24th August
This being NWD for me, Del
and I decided to get out for a few hours and give Mollie a run. We headed out towards Doué to Super U for
some goodies to take home and lunch at the Bistro. Very good food, homemade steak burger and
frites but boy was it hot today! The
temperature was above 30 degrees and quite exhausting. From here we visited Chateau Brezé one we
thought we’d not visited, it turned out that we have in the past but never mind
we went round again but it was just too hot, so we went back to camp. NWD? –
non-wine day…
Shortly after getting back a
camper van turned up and out got this goddess in the shortest shorts you could
imagine, and asked to camp for the night.
I’d like to be able to name her and her boyfriend but they were Swiss
and I struggled to repeat the names let alone write them. Very very confident, vivacious young lady with
a lot to say but you just couldn’t help feeling old and frumpy against this
blonde, Swiss ‘strumpet’ with shorts far to short for her long brown
legs!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, as we were
invited to the bar for the evening my NWD went down the PAN!
Bev & Steve came to our
place(!) to finish off the evening (and another bottle of fizzy), talking a
load of “b*llocks” as Del would say but great company and lovely friends.
Thursday 25th August
Hurrah! Chinese day!
Dave has a 7 seater car so was able to take us all to the Rainbow
Chinese restaurant this side of Saumur for an all-you-can-eat Chinese
banquet. The food is superb, fresh and
tasty and there’s a huge choice through from starters to desserts. I ate so much!
Our last evening at La Fosse…. Such a strange feeling, that the peace and quiet
– silence will all soon stop and we’ll be heading back up North to begin our
return journey. I’m not ready to leave,
I’m NEVER ready to leave, this is truly a very special place. We spent the evening with Bev & Steve,
drinking wine, eating chocolate and talking.
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| Sunset over the solar panels |
Friday 26th August
Oh well, it had to come at
some point – leaving day…. We took our
time, there wasn’t much to do really (the joy of a moho compared to a caravan). Kathy offered bacon sandwiches to see us on
our way, but we’d already had breakfast.
With lots of hugs, wishes of ‘safe travels’ and even more hugs we left
La Fosse.
We had a great journey up to
Neufchatel-en-Bray, with a couple of little stops at the excellent French motorway
aires. We’d not stayed at Neufchatel
before but had some great reviews from fellow campers. The campsite is easy to find – although at
one time we did question Sally Satnav as we were driving through a retail park. Steve had told us it was next to a huge
LeClerc and it was, but once through the gates you could easily have thought
you were in the middle of the countryside.
We ordered croissants for breakfast and a table at the campsite restaurant
for 8pm, giving us plenty of time to set-up, wash-up and chill-out!
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| Neufchatel-en-Bray |
Hmm… I really don’t like to
write negative things on here and probably wouldn’t have if there hadn’t been
some dire consequences, but we were really not enamoured with the
restaurant. It took nearly an hour
before our meal was brought, no bread, no water, despite other diners getting service. I mean, the service was so bad that I was
beginning to think I was a ghost! Eventually,
our meal was brought – we’d both chosen beef bourguignon, Del with frites and I
chose rice. The food was ‘warm’ and had
mostly certainly been sitting on the pass (or dying on the pass as restaurants
would say) for quite some time as the gravy was dry and congealed. However as were so hungry we ate it without
complaint. Mine was okay, Del’s was full
of gristle. At this time I noticed that
tables were being cleared and the restaurant was being tidied up for end of
service! We paid the bill and left –
the only tip they got was "get a different chef!" (joke courtesy of Robert Worley)
Saturday morning came far too
quickly and we soon found ourselves munching croissants and packing up for the
short(ish) journey to Tunnel sous le Manche via LeClerc for some last minute
shopping. Whilst packing we both talked
about how Mollie had done us proud and we were so happy with her…. So within the space of 2 minutes upon leaving
the campsite, we took a wrong turning, the engine went completely dead and the knob
on the gearstick decided to ping off leaving bits of spring and shattered
plasticky things all over the cockpit! Fortunately,
the engine did restart – Del seems to think he knocked it with his knee and
with some brute force and ignorance Del got the knob back on and we were able
to turnaround! Hey ho… little things
are sent to try us….
And so that brings us to the end
of our trip to beautiful, wonderful France.
We sailed through Eurotunnel on an earlier than scheduled train and the
usually nightmare journey home (motorways) was quick and easy.
Oh yes! Remember the “dire consequences”
mentioned above? Well, the “rice” I ate
at the restaurant gave me horrendous food poisoning!
Au revoir France
Best Campsite - Del & June agreed - Kathy & Dave's at La
Fosse de Tigne.
Best Place Visited - Del & June agreed – France!
Best San Facs - Both agreed - Kathy & Dave's.
Best Food - Both agreed – Rainbow Chinese
Restaurant, Angers.
Best Entertainment - Both agreed - Kathy &
Dave's (no competition there!)
Biggest laugh - Bev "I thought you were waving at me Del".... "no, I was winding out the awning!"
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