canal du midi à la chaser Feb 2017 (4 Viewers)

[FIDGET]

Hi David,
Snap my photo in sept , vary similar to yours

Bonneval aire

 

[bigtree]

@DavidG58 Watch when you get to this point in Bonneval,gets a bit narrow and the local drivers go a bit fast round this bend.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@48.1...4!1s264R-Qco3G0IJoEpDiZlHg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

[Clarky]

@DavidG58. Bread in the morning will be OK.
Walk out of the aire to the road and turn right. Follow that road towards the town centre and you will come across some shops. There is a boulangerie on the left.
If that one is closed carry on to the junction with the town square and turn left. There is another boulanger on the left after a couple of hundred yards (metres?).
The croissants from either are thoroughly recommended, preferably with peach jam.
If all else fails there is the supermarket about 200 yards on the left from the aire, that is open on Sunday. They have bread etc.

Richard.

 

[Clarky]

@DavidG58 Watch when you get to this point in Bonneval,gets a bit narrow and the local drivers go a bit fast round this bend.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@48.1...4!1s264R-Qco3G0IJoEpDiZlHg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

There is a video on my YouTube channel showing the way in to Bonneval aire. Only recorded last December so is up to date.
There was a travelling fair in residence on part of the aire when we were there but there was still room for about 8 vans.

 

[DavidG58]

just had a quick wander, not a best ever but a nice sunset, seemed to be all round us

also had a peep at the borne, free drive over dump but needs one of those damned jetons I never seem to know where to get, nothing to say where to buy one, I guess they may all be the same, but another aire usage thing I still need to sort out that and the now oh so common 24/24 auto petrol options, they seem to be taking over from normal fuel stations now, we have tried a couple and only once made one work with the help of a local

On the way here drove through St Pourcain sur Sioule saw a sign for a MH aire, town looked to be more awake than most with a fair in the centre, will try and track down the aire another day, but anybody used it?

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[bigtree]

There is a video on my YouTube channel showing the way in to Bonneval aire. Only recorded last December so is up to date.
There was a travelling fair in residence on part of the aire when we were there but there was still room for about 8 vans.

@Clarky We must have been there a day or so before you as they were setting up the big tent and hadn't raised the roof yet,we didn't stay as the car park was full.Backtracked to Marboue after empty/filling,think it was the 1st of December.
Trev.

 

[Clarky]

"Your wish is my command Sire"
The closest I think is the tabac across the road, turn left out of the aire and its just a few yards.
I hate having to go and find a jetton when we need water, a credit card option is much easier but I can quite understand why they do it that way.

 

[Clarky]

@Clarky We must have been there a day or so before you as they were setting up the big tent and hadn't raised the roof yet,we didn't stay as the car park was full.Backtracked to Marboue after empty/filling,think it was the 1st of December.
Trev.

13th December when we were there, on our way back from Spain.
They seem to have been using the place as a winter quarters and just opening for a couple of hours in the early evening. Don't think they took any money though and didn't disturb us.
The car park was pretty full when we arrived but we bagged the best spot as the first moHo there. About 8 others turned up later and they all squeezed in as the car park emptied in the evening.
Nice little town with some lovely buildings beside the water.

Richard.

 

[Clarky]

While on the subject of jettons.
I assume that jettons are all different for each town/village, even for the same make of bourne.
Is it any use getting a little stock of different ones and keeping them in the van or is that just daft?
As David said, it can be a pain going to look for somewhere to get one.
What does everyone else do?

Richard.

 

[bigtree]

13th December when we were there, on our way back from Spain.
They seem to have been using the place as a winter quarters and just opening for a couple of hours in the early evening. Don't think they took any money though and didn't disturb us.
The car park was pretty full when we arrived but we bagged the best spot as the first moHo there. About 8 others turned up later and they all squeezed in as the car park emptied in the evening.
Nice little town with some lovely buildings beside the water.

Richard.

It is a lovely town and will stay sometime,was totally rammed that day between the fair and a boule competition.

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[DavidG58]

While on the subject of jettons.
I assume that jettons are all different for each town/village, even for the same make of bourne.
Is it any use getting a little stock of different ones and keeping them in the van or is that just daft?
As David said, it can be a pain going to look for somewhere to get one.
What does everyone else do?

Richard.

worthy of a thread of its own I reckon, will get a bigger audience

good topic though yet to buy one

 

[peterc10]

worthy of a thread of its own I reckon, will get a bigger audience

good topic though yet to buy one

Not even at La Mailleraye?

 

[TJBi]

While on the subject of jettons.
I assume that jettons are all different for each town/village, even for the same make of bourne.
Is it any use getting a little stock of different ones and keeping them in the van or is that just daft?
As David said, it can be a pain going to look for somewhere to get one.
What does everyone else do?

Richard.

They are different for different service point manufacturers, but certainly not different for each town/village. Don't know whether any service point manufacturer offers clients (commune, etc.) the facility to choose to operate with anything other than a standard token (if going the token route rather than free or debit/credit card).

 

[Manic]

On the way here drove through St Pourcain sur Sioule saw a sign for a MH aire, town looked to be more awake than most with a fair in the centre, will try and track down the aire another day, but anybody used it?

We've stayed a few times, only in the summer when it can get very busy.
Nice spot near the swimming pool and along side a river, free to stay but pay for water and to dump WC.
Nice walk in some park land the other side of town, also a newish Lidl and Carrefour within walking distance both a few 100 hundred metres from each other.

 

[DavidG58]

Not even at La Mailleraye?

when we go it is free, not needed water yet, is that another jeton? only ever arrived full so far

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[Taran_Las]

On the way here drove through St Pourcain sur Sioule saw a sign for a MH aire, town looked to be more awake than most with a fair in the centre, will try and track down the aire another day, but anybody used it?

A nice and lively place to stay. Aire is behind the stadium and next to the river. It's also not far from the tourist office. As previously said it's a busy aire due to it being free. There is also a small overflow area after the borne (pay for water and dumping). I stayed for a couple of nights and would definitely stop again.

 

[Manic]

when we go it is free, not needed water yet, is that another jeton? only ever arrived full so far

Yes I'm afraid it's another Jeton job for water, you can dump black and grey free ( use grey to swill out cassette)
Buy your Jeton from the Boulanger opposite the Vet.

 

[peterc10]

when we go it is free, not needed water yet, is that another jeton? only ever arrived full so far

You need the jeton for the clean water. Dump is free as is water for cleaning cassette from memory. Get the jeton from the bar at the crossroads in town. 2 or 3 Euros from memory.

They only charge for parking in the summer time and it is collected by a man who comes around late afternoon and early morning with a little duplicate book to give you a receipt for the windscreen.

 

[DavidG58]

morning all, had about 10 on here last night, just 2 of us left and I think the other is unoccupied

another beautiful day here in France

 

[chaser]

morning all, had about 10 on here last night, just 2 of us left and I think the other is unoccupied

another beautiful day here in France

View attachment 148686

Bet you wish you had gone for longer

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[DavidG58]

Bet you wish you had gone for longer

more I wish we 'could' go for longer, Mum is only booked in for three weeks, ends on Friday morning

we both still work as well, Bev does at least, I just turn up and pretend to these days

 

[chaser]

I know the feeling As we are retired We tend to not book a return now, when you have a fixed time to return it always spoils your last week thinking where you have got to be on a certain day instead of just wandering around.
Anyway you have another day or two in the sun and by all accounts it's going to be warm here next week.

 

[DavidG58]

another full on sunny day, now arrived and set up at Bonneval, first time here, many thanks for the tips

just setting up satellite here reminded me that when we arrived at Sancoins, turned sat tuner on, which always results in a whirring noise from above as the dish inside the dome looks for a satellite (I presume) but nothing then, zilch, but the locked on light comes on, try again still nothing. Turn TV on, picture already there, I can only presume that we were parked in exactly the same alignment as we had been at Mende, but you would think we would need to be nearly mm perfect, but whatever it was still in perfect tune without a murmer of movement

today back to normal, no real issues waiting a for a minute to lock on, but never had it not need to before

Beautiful drive up today, sun all the way, we did have an early battle between Bev and TT, I let Bev win, she gets even more cross than TT if ignored , we were at Bourges, I had thought the ring road looked best at my quick check before leaving. TT say turn left onto bypass, Bev who will not let me look at the map when driving says straight on through the middle it looks a long way round

So through the middle we went, not overly bad, but it does get a little narrow in places and you feel they would rather you were on the bypass , no harm done we pop out the other side in one piece

Classic French roads, dead straight, loads of unfenced fields or masses of woods, and still the sun shines, start looking for a place to stop after Salbris, passed before I noticed a nice looking aire option at Nouan - le - Fuzelier, just south of the town, appears to be a brand new complex, kids park, park area and aire de camping, considered a U turn to go back and stop, but couldn't easily find one, so trundled on.

We then found another that broke a dream from yesterday, we had been discussing, one of those do you remember when chats, an aire we stopped at many years ago, I think in a previous MH so 5 years ago, we sort of knew we were describing the same place but both recalled massive differences

well blow me, we stopped at it again, Lamotte Beauvron, possibly wouldn't use it overnight, but nice location beside a canal basin, good place for a lunch stop and free dump and free water if turned on

so lunched we move on for the next navigational battle between 2 of the ladies in the MH, luckily apart form the odd reassuring nudge on my arm, Lola doesn't intervene too much with the driving bit , but the other 2 are falling out fairly big style

we arrived at Orleans, we have done this route before but I think either without TT, or totally using TT, not both I have told TT no tolls, which Bev is working to as well, we see the route on the map we think will work, cross the river and turn left, that left turn is the key to where I think it all went wrong. So many left turns involve a right turn first then a complete loop under or over the road you were on. So when TT say bear right, Bev says no, luckily although Orleans has low bridges they are not as low as Rouen and eventually we do pop out more or less in the right place, having had words regarding my suggesting the Le Mans road looks a good option, well it probably was the right road, but I was told no, all OK we were not in a rush anyway. TT did keep trying to take us cross country, but we ran across to Chateaudun then north

Now parked at Bonneval, a bit of park where you want to aire area, but lovely looking town

and free water even if right by a flooded waste drain

 

[scousebird]

We stopped at Bonneval for lunch one day last year and thought it was a lovely town, maybe a return visit one day.

 

[DavidG58]

note my parking above, the only risk I could see was a bus in the morning needing a big swing

no such wait, a couple of beers and 2 large G + T's I see the world's biggest artic come into the car park and attempt to come round behind us, now it is already totally dark and even if he got round there was no way to go forward without a 90 degree turn left or right, either would put us in serious risk of damage

luckily he stopped and got out, asked some kids if the van dead ahead was theirs, no such luck, so Bev being Bev, a guide leader you know, goes out to help

we now have a stuck lorry driver, who really should never have come so far in without looking first, now being assisted by Bev who although a very competent driver would need to be told LH down or RH down to get out of anything tight, starting to discuss in a foreign tongue what to do next

we had no choice but to move, no real problem provided I didn't clip anything, or the gendarme turn out and breathalyse me, we are now parked 20ft to the left of where we were, my prize is the TV doesn't work now , moved back a few feet, sorted that and a 50ft or so lorry has parked across where about 10 MH's could be parked, but this time of year and time of night no harm done and no gendarmes appeared

second bonus of the night, Bev checked her geo caching app (don't ask please) one nearby, first real bonus it is in sight of the MH and Bev sets off alone, saves my wasting time as well, 5 minutes later she is back, found it and logged it (whatever that means)

back to tea which has been happily simmering while we moved around

life would boring without the exciting bits

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[Scout]

did you chatch many goe's, did you have them for tea? do they taist like chicken

 

[Al-Di]

Todays update please @DavidG58

 

[DavidG58]

evening Alan, Di and all others still sticking with us

I walked into town (Bonneval) this morning to get bread, had a lesson in bread ordering, now know a baguette is thin and short, we need to order pain, in our case deux pain a one is never enough , weigh in on Friday could be painful and embarrassing

I am sure when I got back to MH I said in my best French i'lya une petite marche, Bev didn't say anything, but when we drive out via town centre Bev says you didn't mention the market, well I thought I had, may need to work on the lingo

A suggestion to any visitors here, best not to take on the main road north, easier to head south west and rejoin main road there, the town centre is very tight especially with a market on the road, French drivers really do not seem to look any further than the end of their bonnet, a good few times this trip we have avoided grid lock by allowing for others

drove to La Mailleraye today, via Bevs shopping fix at Chartres, La Mailleraye has grown a barrier since last year, currently not in use, possibly time of year, more likely not yet wired in fully, will be credit card entry very soon

and the borne is academic as out of action, all taped up, possibly as turned off for winter, that would at least answer my concern of buying a jeton then finding the water turned off

so today is about the worst weather we have had, bit like November in UK, grey and drizzly, but not cold at least, arrived about 3, Bev walked to vets to change booking for Lola for tomorrow at 18:00, now booked for 10:00 in morning, price is €15 which will be the cheapest we have paid by around €10, will confirm price tomorrow, but well worth the detour to here for any other dog travellers

done a good bit of boat watching through the murk, even at night they hardly use any lights, but so impressive to pass within 50' of our windscreen more or less at the same level

Looking at moving to Le Crotoy tomorrow, only reference I have ever seen was from Phil @Taran_Las hope we are not taking too big a risk at this time of year

If not raining in the morning will take a few photos, boats and barriers here mainly, then Le Crotoy

nite all

 

[peterc10]

David, if it is any consolation here in Kent we have had a nice sunny warm day with temperatures up round 16C.

 

[Manic]

La Mailleraye has grown a barrier since last year, currently not in use, possibly time of year, more likely not yet wired in fully, will be credit card entry very soon

They haven't waisted anytime getting a barrier in, we stayed there on 30th December , 10 vans that night and no sign of work then. They have probably realised how popular it is all year and want to charge all year.
Hopefully they won't make it like Equihen Plage aire and spoil it.

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