A bimble from Cherbourg to the lakes and mountains of South East France and back

[Abacist]

 

[Abacist]

And stalls all around the outside!

 

[bobnick]

Today we caught the bus down into Troyes, number 12 or 1 from near the entrance to the outlet centre - €2 each return.

We started with breakfast at Paul, a salon de the opposite the market hall with almond croissants and coffee.

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Love the Piaggio delivery van!

Big chain that Paul. Got at least 6 outlets in Dubai.

 

[Abacist]

Big chain that Paul. Got at least 6 outlets in Dubai.

Decent mug of coffee and excellent very fresh croissants and seemed to be delivering to everyone!

 

[Abacist]

The old part of Troyes has lots of timber framed buildings - there is an alleyway called Ruelle des Chats ‘cos the cats could cross the alleyway from side to side as the tops of the houses are so close together.

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[Abacist]

 

[Abacist]

 

[bobnick]

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Mate you need to learn how to do a bit of rotating of the pics. Turning my PC on it's side so much is doing my head in
Great pics by the way.

 

[Abacist]

Mate you need to learn how to do a bit of rotating of the pics. Turning my PC on it's side so much is doing my head in
Great pics by the way.

Sorry but I’m on my phone and haven’t worked out how to do it yet! Portrait pics end up sideways but landscape are fine as you no doubt have seen!

 

[Abacist]

Today we moved on to Chartres as we have for years admired the spires of the 800 year old Catholic Cathedral for hours when travelling but never seen it up close or the inside. I would urge you to Google it and read up on the history and see better pics than mine below:-

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[Abacist]

 

[Abacist]

 

[Abacist]

 

[Abacist]

Our stop in Chartres was on an aire not recorded on park4night or elsewhere as far as I could see. There was parking but no services other than 2 small waste bins. You can however find it on Google and it’s just outside Chartres on the road to the campsite but only 2kms walk to the cathedral. Smaller vans park reversed in between the trees and we and another German van had to park lengthways but trees need to grow a bit more as they scraped the roof and prevented the sat dish going up.

I’ll post the more precise details in a moment

 

[Abacist]

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[Abacist]

The aire will take about 30 vans

 

[Abacist]

After Chartres we decided to head north to be just short of Caen ready for the Leclerc Hypermarket at Caen. We chose the free aire at Grainville Langannerie which is at the Marie’s car park in this village. Free toilet and grey empty and night stop! Only the adjacent church bells to disturb us and a very dark sky.

 

[Abacist]

The Leclerc at Caen and up on the coast were both hopeless with height barriers so we went to Auchan and then Intermarche and topped with fuel to be full to come home. A small quantity of choice wine and cheese to come home with us for family presents. Today the weather has been awful raining cats & dogs but hopefully now brightening up as we head for the port for the 6:15pm ferry from Cherbourg to Poole.

 

[Abacist]

The French Navy at Cherbourg!

 

[Abacist]

Threatening skies at sunset on the crossing back to Poole

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[Marie-Claire]

Hi abacist, is that a sonic tag i saw in youre great pics?, we have just bought one and would love youre thoughts

 

[Abacist]

Hi abacist, is that a sonic tag i saw in youre great pics?, we have just bought one and would love youre thoughts

If you mean the Motorhome it’s a 2014 3 litre auto Niesmann & Bischoff Arto 88F.

 

[Marie-Claire]

My mistake, how do you find the tag axles in europe?

 

[Abacist]

Bought mine in the UK and it’s RH drive. Just have to keep looking everywhere and jump quick when you see one.

 

[Marie-Claire]

Thanks , i didnt ask rhat very well, we ha e just bought an adria tag and was thinking more about access sites , aires that sort of thing , at 8.1m on a swift atm

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[Abacist]

There are sites in Europe that have bigger pitches - see the ACSI sites books. As far as aires are concerned we have never had a problem and always found somewhere to stop even though it’s sometimes not the first we look at. Here at home the C&MC prefer you to phone if you have a big van over 8m. Ours has a tow bar so is probably 9m. We don’t do Europe during school holidays however!

 

[Abacist]

In addition to Total discounting fuel in France, the population have been giving vent to their feelings about fuel prices. A number of French supermarket chains into selling fuel are now selling their fuel at cost in response to their customers complaints. Fat chance of that happening over here!

 

[Marie-Claire]

Sounds like we are in for some great adventures , been abroad in the truck before but not in the motorhome , thanks for youre wisdom

 

[kenhaus]

I would second Doussard and Camping Lac Blu. Great lakeside site, a little less hectic than sites further up the lake. Great to watch the absailers coming into land next door having swooped down from the mountains opposite. Good cycle path into Annecy from here but equally nice quieter road route on the other side of lake into town…ready to go back!

 

[Johnhc]

Feeling like invaders as it’s Normandy with all of the WWII reminders. They do keep the cemeteries very well
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Think it is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that looks after the cemeteries or at least those in which commonwealth soldiers are buried.

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