Granada and back with broken fridge door

[DavidG58]

Great write up Dave Been following your travels.

Thanks Dave looking forward to reading yours soon

 

[Mousy]

David, you are on a slippery slope, once Lola has had a taste of the sofa it won't belong before she's on the bed And my fear is Bev may well prefer her company!

Me thinks you've got some crawling to do..

I am vicariously enjoying your hols.

 

[Madwife]

Enjoy the food at Dinos and give our regards to Bob and Di.

Kath and Howie

 

[DavidG58]

Enjoy the food at Dinos and give our regards to Bob and Di.

Kath and Howie

Just back from lunch,

have done and will do

see you at Brewery Daves meet soon


]

 

[DavidG58]

David, you are on a slippery slope, once Lola has had a taste of the sofa it won't belong before she's on the bed And my fear is Bev may well prefer her company!

Me thinks you've got some crawling to do..

I am vicariously enjoying your hols.

Dawn you have no idea how tough it is being a married man

I spend my entire live crawling for reasons mostly unknown

as for Lola and the bed, that is just about the one good thing for a high level transverse bed

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[canopus]

Dino's wife comes from Donny - hope she didn't dish you up pie n chips

Did you put in an offer for PV whilst you were there? Its on the market for £165k

 

[DavidG58]

Dino's wife comes from Donny - hope she didn't dish you up pie n chips

Did you put in an offer for PV whilst you were there? Its on the market for £165k

We had a great chat with Sue at Dinos, no chance of pie and chips she has really got the French way of life under her skin

Saw PV was for sale, too much like hard work for me

 

[DavidG58]

Met a new Funster today, PORKSTER has parked up next to us at PV, on his first trip over seas with MH, he has escaped to Dinos for a drink, hope to catch up with him some more before we move on tomorrow

 

[DavidG58]

Saved some more subs today, 10% funster discount on the site fees, that paid for the beer at Dinos

Plat du jour was brilliant, ham and egg starter, chicken and roast veg, cheese, rice pudding

Decided to have a half carafe of wine with lunch, went to pay 31 euros, result, even queried if they had included the wine, it is included in the price of the meal, proper result and it was a decent wine too

Happy days, no navigation at all today true harmony restored

Ooer, Bev has just got map book out, things may just be about to change

 

[TheCaller]

Day 16 (I think) just realised not even sure what day of the week it is

Proper holiday mode at last!

Pleased to hear marriage is still intact - you would miss Lola.

You are well placed for route advice where you are and anyway, the safest solution is just to drive under instruction - you are bound to get to Calais eventually.

Probably not any help, but a work colleague just returned from Limoges on Monday (by car) & I reproduce part of the email I got on his return.

We made a few errors in terms of which roads to take and took the advice of some ex-pats for the return. In brief, take the motorway Limoge-Orleans and then go due north on the N154 via Chartres & Evreux to Rouen. Ignore Tom-Tom and skirt the east side of Rouen to St Saens where you pick up the motorway to Calais. Apart from taking 2 hours off the journey (some of it because of roadworks and our human error), it took 40 Euros off the toll charges. The N154 is now mostly dual-carriageway.

No idea which way they went on the way down, but I suspect via Paris.

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[DavidG58]

Proper holiday mode at last!

Pleased to hear marriage is still intact - you would miss Lola.

You are well placed for route advice where you are and anyway, the safest solution is just to drive under instruction - you are bound to get to Calais eventually.

Probably not any help, but a work colleague just returned from Limoges on Monday (by car) & I reproduce part of the email I got on his return.



No idea which way they went on the way down, but I suspect via Paris.

Sounds like they were recommended more or less our staple route, we miss Rouen to the east crossing the Seine at Pont de l'Arche

Decided to head towards Niort tomorrow, looks nice, seem to recall a couple of reports of aires there or there abouts

Only about 90km as well, what can possibly go wrong.................................................

Back tomorrow with the results

 

[sedge]

The aire in Niort is in one of the carparks but it's a properly separate, fenced and gated area. The pitches round the outside have the EHU points and nobody came for the money when we stayed there! Close to the town; has a donjon and a FAB market hall, old and lots of glass. Mainly pedestrianized centre these days and interesting - some nice shops Bev will like !

 

[PORKSTER]

View attachment 45516

I was up the observation tower that you will have done I am sure, still plenty of ducks to feed

four wheels only , 2 axles 2100kg front 2400kg rear

Met a new Funster today, PORKSTER has parked up next to us at PV, on his first trip over seas with MH, he has escaped to Dinos for a drink, hope to catch up with him some more before we move on tomorrow

Real sorry we didn't catch you again great to put face to name. Its raining @ PV today but the brides done ladies things like cleaning changing beds and laundry.Just going to chill maybe getvavwalkmor cycle in and head for Spain tommoz.

 

[DavidG58]

d

The aire in Niort is in one of the carparks but it's a properly separate, fenced and gated area. The pitches round the outside have the EHU points and nobody came for the money when we stayed there! Close to the town; has a donjon and a FAB market hall, old and lots of glass. Mainly pedestrianized centre these days and interesting - some nice shops Bev will like !

Found it, arrived in torrential downpour, all electrics taken, (technically I could have some by running cables over concrete roadway) but for one night it makes no odds, funnily enough had an interesting conversation with another English MH (before it really poured down) he said how will you cope w/o electrics, seeing I was too far away from the posts, I said what do you need yours for? His wife pops her head out of door and says, this will be interesting he keeps telling me we 'NEED' electrics. He says what about heating, ours is gas or electric, so is his but he is concerned about the fan running his battery down

Told him about MHF and advice he need is all on here, but it will be to fit another battery and solar panel and not worry (like I used to, to start with )

Nice looking area, aire is really tight to get to, we are 8m, I would not like to have been 9m+, but well signed, very tight turn off road leading to car park, then routed right round outside of car park, do not turn into first entrance that is dump area only, go through gap in wall, you should be able to drive right round and out again even if full, but there is not a lot of room to manoeuvre

Sun looking like its coming back out will takes photos later hopefully

 

[DavidG58]

Great drive over from PV today, left there at 11:00 only 8C and felt colder, heading for Niort as planned, only a 100 journey today

The roads seem better, had too many not really wide enough busy lorry rat runs coming up to PV, no going cross country hardly any lorries again, but wouldn't mind as the roads are a metre wider, typical

Drove through downpours and bright sun, now at aire in Niort, chargeable apparently, but nowhere to pay, hoping for Sedge's luck, I haven't paid yet for an aire, liking that, but would feel more guilty if we avoided it rather than picking a free one

Drove through some lovely towns, earmarked for next time over, the towns and villages seem far prettier here, some further south have been quite unloved even grim, maybe all it needed was sunshine

Sun is back out here, off shopping and looking for eating options, back soon with photos hopefully

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[DavidG58]

So this in the Niort aire, as said before tight access, tight bays when in, but very convenient for the town, which has many pedestrianized shopping streets

starting with main entrance, all electric points are to the left of this roadway, although being French they are doubled up and run over the roads

the dump / refill area is outside of the walled aire and appears to be completely free to use

there is recycling and general bins

all in all a good aire, will be even better if they don't turn out in the rain to collect the 7.70 euro published fee

Heading for Chenonceaux tomorrow, stayed on a site there years ago with caravan, hoping for an aire this time or an open ACSI site if we have to

 

[funflair]

Hi David and Bev

According to my Campercontact app there is parking for 15 MH right at Chenonceaux.

Keep up the good work.

 

[DavidG58]

Oh and navigational update

All OK today in MH, TT had a couple of attempts at silly side roads which I ignored

Bev did the map bit with some input from ipad to find the aire

todays navigational debate (mini row) happened on foot, on our way in we saw signs for tourist office, no idea where now but somewhere on our road route in, so Bev suggests we retrace that route in, but now on foot. Well I was not having that, all the bars were off left, that was my preference

Negotiated walking towards the big church must be some touristy stuff there, so off we went my way (luckily!?), the church looked to be severely uphill and no bars that way, so renegotiated and went down hill which turned out to be by the station

Now this is where I got it a bit wrong, Bev says lets go to the front of the station there will be something there, I have a different opinion and suggest heading for the town hall on a similar logic. Town Hall was wrong choice, nothing there at all, by now we are 1/2 mile from station and Bev says she wants to go back that way

Again I chanced my arm and proposed walking back via the shops, and also asked why exactly did we need the tourist office anyway, for a map I am told, OK, but why do we need a map, I am a man and can find my way

Turns out Bev really wants an SFR shop to top up her sim in the ipad, well we are in the shops now so I suggest asking in the Orange shop where the SFR shop is, not allowed to do that apparently, so walk on with Bev possibly sulking a bit about 5 paces behind. We bump into an independent phone shop

In goes Bev, doesn't have enough paperwork from original deal, but nice young man in shop downloads an app for her and it starts working again, no idea how, but problem resolved

Right now it goes back to persisting with rain, under a canopy for shelter and discuss options, cant see a bar in sight, so wait for rain to ease and head back (ish) came to a place I recognised, back would be a right turn, I suggest going straight on just because we haven't been there yet, but it ended in same general area

Mistake number 2, this took us to the front of the station, where not only was the tourist office, but a stall with free maps of the town

We take a map we no longer need and decide it is now too wet and cold to sit outside a bar with Lola, so head back to MH to have a drink, cook our mince, mushrooms, shallots, and I will rewrite the peace treaty

Actually all things considered I think Bev took it all quite well , I had better do a decent job with dinner though

 

[DavidG58]

Hi David and Bev

According to my Campercontact app there is parking for 15 MH right at Chenonceaux.

Keep up the good work.

thanks very much Martin

Bev also wants to pass on similar she thinks that app has been fantastic

D + B

 

[champers]

It's a shame we missed you whilst you were in Granada as we are not too far from there .. We could have easily found a bar and shared a tale or two... Hope you are keeping up the geocaching .. Plenty about .. Sorry you went back to the van "dry"in one way lolol
Ps it is always TT that is too slow to find a aire or site not Bevs fault

Safe journey
John n Kath

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[DavidG58]

It's a shame we missed you whilst you were in Granada as we are not too far from there .. We could have easily found a bar and shared a tale or two... Hope you are keeping up the geocaching .. Plenty about .. Sorry you went back to the van "dry"in one way lolol
Ps it is always TT that is too slow to find a aire or site not Bevs fault

Safe journey
John n Kath

Hello Kath

Bev has done a few caches while we were in Spain and a couple near PV, the old railway line has about a dozen of them within a few miles

We were about 20 miles coast side of Granada at a town called Durcal, stayed at a friends house

Looking forward to meeting up again, plenty to catch up on

D + B x

 

[champers]

Will defo have to meet up somewhere again..glad Bev is keeping up with the geos xx

 

[sedge]

Glad Niort was OK and yes, I'd forgotten it was tight - it is. But it's quite pretty for a council carpark isn't it, with all the trees and river and little bridges?

I love this thread, sounds so much like an account of our own travels, especially the arguments with Tim - you know when he tells you to eg turn left and it's No Entry ? and you chorus in unison. Don't be (flippin) stupid ! or Shut up you idiot ! etc etc.

I insist on following where he's sending us on the Michelin road atlas, he's sent us a number of places we wouldn't and shouldn't have gone, but there again especially if we've been off the AutoRoute for quite a long way, he gets into the habit of sending us 'the pretty way' as my dad used to call it when he got lost and arrived somewhere late. You know - well, he'd say - I came the pretty way .....

But anyway, we get to see some really pretty places we'd never have seen if we went main road way.

What is we do sometimes is to navigate to wherever is near the aire by map, then turn TT on with the aire details when we get reasonably near our destination.

We don't row though - but we do have any number of spirited discussions ........

 

[scotjimland]

So this in the Niort aire, as said before tight access, tight bays when in, but very convenient for the town,

Nice aire as you say and VERY tight.. stupidly I we went in with the 36ft RV + trailer.., but couldn't fit any of the bays.. caused quite a stir..
so we left and found a lovely aire at Coulon , right on the river bank.. We then visited Niort by bus, there is a bus stop at the aire.

Coulon Aire .. well worth a visit .. the Venice of France .. GPS 46.3212,-0.589781

BROKEN LINK

 

[DavidG58]

so we left and found a lovely aire at Coulon , right on the river bank.. We then visited Niort by bus, there is a bus stop at the aire.

Coulon Aire .. well worth a visit .. the Venice of France .. GPS 46.3212,-0.589781

Technically that was where we were heading, another long story, Old Mo went there a month ago and posted how good it was, my fault couldn't find his thread or remember its name


edit - and photos of you in and trying to get out of Niort aire would have been good, no idea how you made the left turn out, I guess you might have had to reverse back out

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[DavidG58]

Grey day here 13C, but much warmer than PV the night before

heading off towards Chenonceaux in a bit, hoping to avert todays crisis, potentially the crisis of the holiday

We come back on the tunnel on Tuesday late morning, have overlooked getting Lola to the vets, now realised we only have this morning (Saturday) or till 10:30 on Monday or we will be past the 24 hour window

 

[DavidG58]

Saturday, (still) day 19, (I think)

15 miles covered, three mini events

1. Got robbed by a French vet, no great news there, but at least she is done, one massive worry removed. Vet first tried to convince us we needed a tick treatment to get back to UK, discussed deeply including him getting books out to see we were right. Then Lola refused her worm tablet, despite our usual con of wrapping it in ham, ate the plain ham, spat out the tablet, he then insisted on an injection for the same treatment. No real option but to accept, so pay 30 euros for consultation (10 minutes at most) 15.30 for the injection and 18 for something else, not going back there again, 63 euros might be the highest price ever paid by a brit

2. Need supermarket, saw a Leclerc, turned left, committed a turn right to see sign and barrier 2.9m, now I reckon the barrier was much higher than that but not prepared to find out the hard way. Hazards on into reverse, three cars behind me at the time, number 2 + 3 reversed enough to help, no. 1 didn't move. Bev gets out points asks explains, but no movement. Only option left was to move across to out lane and reverse back onto roundabout, not easier but lot quicker than waiting for madame la mini to work out what was going on, by now queue back to main road so quite an audience, luckily reversing went well, abandoned that supermarket

3. next town Bev noticed a market, can we stop? well the road is stuffed full but I can try, then see a car park so offer to park, now get no reply, you only get a few seconds to think of these decisions, so decided for her, amazingly decided to park and look at market. So did so, started walking up through stalls, Bev says seems like only clothes shall we go back? I say I have bloody parked now you can look at the lot now, anyway you really cant see from here what there is.

So we do it all, not sure just out of spite we bought another bag and another 5 scarves, but at least I had made the effort, or so I thought, I am now told you never wanted to stop did you/ Of course not, it is just another market, pretty much like all we have at home as far as I can see

Back to journey now all calm, MH a bit heavier, but not much if I am honest scarves aren't too bad, seen more Kestrels today than we have seen for ages, bit like it used to be in the UK

Taken on TT again and chosen some 'better' options than her, one of hers was into a no entry road (again). Stopped for lunch, Chenonceaux in about 2 hours

 

[DavidG58]

Chenoceaux, without the x if you are heading for the chateaux for some reason

Now this aire is both hard to find but brilliantly located, although I will reserve some judgement on that till tomorrow, a german comment in the aire app mentions trains which are only a few metres away

That said there is some confusion when you do find where to go, there are 2 signs for the aire, my guess is the original has moved a few metres away from the railway, but both signs remain. However I have not yet found any water or dump facility where we are, dark now, will check and record tomorrow.

The location for anybody coming in the future is right beside the main car park for the chateaux, best way in is the chateaux entrance, the actual address in rue du chateaux, which is narrow and tight leading to same place

Chenonceaux is very pretty, plenty of eating options plus the chateaux which is quite unique although not very chateaux like, it straddles the river le Cher

Tomorrow we will look round the town, will not take long, but will do so anyway, mainly to get bread, what is it with French bread, lovely today, inedible in the morning?!

been for walk round chateaux will post some photos from there next

 

[DavidG58]

the chateaux, mainly photos that speak for themselves

first one though is of the local grape vines, even they are showing off amazing autumn colours

 

[DavidG58]

Geo caching, I have regularly described this as a good walk ruined, well today has gone one step beyond, Kath are you reading?

we pay 25 euros to round the chateaux and its grounds, Bev gets out her ipad and discovers a geo cache close to the perimeter of the chateaux grounds, so instead of admiring the formal gardens we traipse off into the woods (Oh Please!) 500 yds away there is supposed to be a Tupperware box full of 'treasure' well woopy doo, off we go, Lola likes the less formal walk though

So we get 500 yds out into the woods and come to the moat, geo cache is still 25 yds away

most of you will not have a clue what I am on about, a few will, some of you will have my sympathy maybe

the treasure was over the other side of the moat, clearly laid by somebody too mean to pay to get in and equally mean not to make that obvious in the instructions of how to find it




what say you Kath?

sorry the photos are not better but it was nearly dark and still 500 yds of woods to get back through to civilisation and more importantly before they locked us in

(we made it)


another brownie point for me maybe, I am lacking a few of late

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