France/Spain 2021 some pictures and information.

[ManTheVan]

It’s lovely to be reading about your adventures PhilandMena. Not able to go this year, but looking forward to next, so your pics are a great taster.

 

[Wingman123]

I said I would post some pictures after crossed from Dovet to Calais yesterday and will start here. I'm not even going to try and do a blog but will provide some information that newbies might find helpful
Diesel cheapest infringe so far around 1.40 €. GPL between 90 & 99 cents.
When we crossed we had to show up to date covid vaccination status and we copied out the one from the NHS digital App (not the covid 19 app). The declaration document and a private antigen negative test. This can be from your phone or on a document. If your unlucky and get a pig of a border police expect to me well scrutinised.we were pulled in by customs as we left the ferry at Calais, we were the only motorhome on board and they were polite ask us some basic questions and wished us a safe holiday. Fridge was not checked.
So, Drove to the aire at Nonancourt and managed to squeeze in between two French vans who were very welcoming. A peaceful night, short walk through the town this morning and off tour next stopover South of Tours and find a restaurant that shows tonight's semi final. France is a smashing country to drive through too.View attachment 513998View attachment 513999View attachment 514000View attachment 5140016

Hi Phil and Mena,
Really Interesting hearing your report of your journey so far. We are planning to travel from 22 August (fingers crossed) along a similar route down to southern Spain if we can sort moving house out beforehand!
As we have not been abroad in our motorhome yet although have used a caravan for 30+ years in France we are not up to speed with motorhome Aires yet.
We have downloaded some apps e.g. Park4night, Camper Connect, and a couple of others, and note that is not possible to reserve on the day for the free Aires. I Expect Most of the Free Aires would be full in the busy period so what do you use as a backup plan at short notice?
Have a good trip and keep the photos and chat flowing!

Colin and Yvonne

 

[PhilandMena]

We set off late this morning after a quiet night on the Aire. Roads were surprisingly quiet as we were expecting to see a lot of HGV traffic but hardly any. Once we got to Potiers we were really flying as its all duel carriageway from here and we are happily crusing along at 90 KPH. I would take pictures as we drive but Mena not keen to operate my camera. A pity as we have driven through some very nice scenery today. Another hour to our stop for today,one we have used before and a delight to visit. I'm getting back into it again as have found decent bottles of French red wine for under 2 euros. I still have the nack, can't wait to cross the Bordet and find the one euro bars again. Oh yeah! One more thing, all the typos your seeing is because I can't spell properly and had nothing to do with predictive txt on my phone. Why do the French have only one egg fir breakfast. Because in France one egg is ............enough!

 

[jongood]

Most of the N10 is a fast dual carriageway but over 3500kg limited to 80kph & no overtaking. Also it's the main route for trucks to Spain thousands of them on it. I've only been down it once, I said never again.

It was blighted with roadworks for years but last time we came that way we used it and it was much improved. Handy if you can do things like that on a Sunday when regular commercials traffic is banned so a lot less lorries.

 

[MichaelT]

Hope you enjoy your trip, no Quarantine on return now. 7 more weeks for us so hopefully our cases are not 100k a day cos if they are i have a feeling the EU will lock the doors and throw away the keys...

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[PhilandMena]

We have arrived at our stop for today. Chateau Bertinerie just above Bordeux. Parked next to the vineyards with free lecce and you can sample and buy locally produced wine. We were alone when we arrived but its just before 17.30 here and the French will be rolling in soon no doubt. Saying that, we are not seeing many motorhomes at all on the road today. Maybe there all on campsites or Aires.

 

[PhilandMena]

Hi Phil and Mena,
Really Interesting hearing your report of your journey so far. We are planning to travel from 22 August (fingers crossed) along a similar route down to southern Spain if we can sort moving house out beforehand!
As we have not been abroad in our motorhome yet although have used a caravan for 30+ years in France we are not up to speed with motorhome Aires yet.
We have downloaded some apps e.g. Park4night, Camper Connect, and a couple of others, and note that is not possible to reserve on the day for the free Aires. I Expect Most of the Free Aires would be full in the busy period so what do you use as a backup plan at short notice?
Have a good trip and keep the photos and chat flowing!

Colin and Yvonne

Park4night, Camper Contact (paid version) and search for sires (paid version) plus ACSI is all you need.

 

[PhilandMena]

One more anomaly, we can't get any French TV. All the regions we have tried so far find plenty of stations when tuned yet everyone now says wrong format on our Axtex t.v. We have never 3xpwrianced that before so a bit lost on us. Belgium guy next to me yesterday had the same issue. ???

 

[Don Quixote]

I think France changed its TV systems about 2 years ago and is now all HD which earlier Avrex TVs don't support.

French TNT uses MPEG4 with DVB-T. So a UK HD STB/TV (which is MPEG4 capable of course) should find the channels but probably won't put them in the correct order (ie they may well be up in the 800s in the channel list).

I imagine that you took a SD TV or STB with you, and it was defeated by the use of MPEG4, being only capable of MPEG2.

Britain has *partially* leap-frogged France, as although they've gone virtually entirely HD by using MPEG4, they've yet to move to DVB-T2 (which is what we use on our HD channels).

So they have more HD channels than Freeview does, but when they eventually move to DVB-T2 there are going to be howls of anguish, because very little equipment sold in France (even now) is DVB-T2 capable, although for years everything in the shops has catered for MPEG4.

 

[PhilandMena]

This €1.98 bottle of French Red and Keb Mo are going down very well. A beautiful evening.

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[busby]

Have a good trip Phil & Mena.
Your beloved N10 is OK if you are a lightweight but best avoided like the plauge if you are over 4500kg.

Got fined on that road last year,BUSBY.

 

[Chris Laing]

We have arrived at our stop for today. Chateau Bertinerie just above Bordeux. Parked next to the vineyards with free lecce and you can sample and buy locally produced wine. We were alone when we arrived but its just before 17.30 here and the French will be rolling in soon no doubt. Saying that, we are not seeing many motorhomes at all on the road today. Maybe there all on campsites or Aires.

There will be hundreds of Motorhomes heading in your direction in the next few days as the Tour de France gets near the Pyranees.

 

[jongood]

One more anomaly, we can't get any French TV. All the regions we have tried so far find plenty of stations when tuned yet everyone now says wrong format on our Axtex t.v. We have never 3xpwrianced that before so a bit lost on us. Belgium guy next to me yesterday had the same issue. ???

Thats why we're using the firestick, we ve watched all the matches and the F1 on i player, ITV hub an d all4 in places thst I would have been struggling with satelite.

BBC has done something right as i player has an internet setting that uses half the data of the others.

 

[bigtree]

This €1.98 bottle of French Red and Keb Mo are going down very well. A beautiful evening.

I keep reading about these cheap bottles of wine and can never find them,do you have a picture of it ?

 

[Landy Andy]

Thanks for all the info. We’ve now (yesterday) booked crossing for a weeks time when we will potter around France, no Spain for us as we don’t like.

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[Chris Laing]

Is there anyone going to Germany this year. We spend most of our 2 weeks in Germany and will be doing so again, but it looks like it might a lonely place this year. It's always nice to bump into the odd Brit now and again.

 

[MichaelT]

Is there anyone going to Germany this year. We spend most of our 2 weeks in Germany and will be doing so again, but it looks like it might a lonely place this year. It's always nice to bump into the odd Brit now and again.

We will be in Germany or France depending on the weather forecast. Was thinking more France this year for a bit of beach but will see if we turn left or right off the train

 

[Twos company]

Portsmouth to Caen on 2/9 then who knows where????

 

[makems]

This €1.98 bottle of French Red and Keb Mo are going down very well. A beautiful evening.

Keb Mo - one of my favourite artists.
saw him years ago when we flew into San Diego for a long weekend (Lived in New Hampshire at the time). Checked into hotel and started reading the entertainment section of the local free paper and saw Keb was in concert about 45mins away. Phoned the theatre to book tickets, jumped in the car and got there just in time for a drink before the concert. Just him and an acoustic guitar - brilliant.

 

[Twogirls]

We have arrived at our stop for today. Chateau Bertinerie just above Bordeux. Parked next to the vineyards with free lecce and you can sample and buy locally produced wine. We were alone when we arrived but its just before 17.30 here and the French will be rolling in soon no doubt. Saying that, we are not seeing many motorhomes at all on the road today. Maybe there all on campsites or Aires.

If you fancy another similar stop ihighly recommend Chateau Marquis de Vauban at Blaye, near Bordeaux. Free with all services inc EHU and free wine and nibbles served every evening! They do tours as well, great little tour into the town on a little tourist "train" with a visit to the castle for views across the Gironde,, cheap as chips.

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[busby]

Thats why we're using the firestick, we ve watched all the matches and the F1 on i player, ITV hub an d all4 in places thst I would have been struggling with satelite.

BBC has done something right as i player has an internet setting that uses half the data of the others.

I have my Firestick on the lowest of the three settings and it still gobbles data.Is there a separate setting for BBC.?BUSBY.

 

[MichaelT]

I have my Firestick on the lowest of the three settings and it still gobbles data.Is there a separate setting for BBC.?BUSBY.

Same here, we can go thru 25GB allowance in a few days and only using a couple of hours a day.

 

[RichandSal]

What's the general consensus on how Brits are being received on holiday in Europe ?
We are planning 6 weeks in Spain and Portugal later in the year.

 

[PhilandMena]

What's the general consensus on how Brits are being received on holiday in Europe ?
We are planning 6 weeks in Spain and Portugal later in the year.

Well they love us don't they. No issues with Europeans on this or previous trips. All very polite and friendly and I'm ugly too. Mena a tad past her best to but just a tad.

 

[PhilandMena]

Just a short post today, we're putting in a big run and will cross into Spain later this afternoon. Its scorching. Pictures and more info tomorrow. Keep Safe. The 1.98 € bottle of red was OK.

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[John Barrett]

Portsmouth to Caen on 2/9 then who knows where????

We are on the 5th Sept. sailing. Three nights at Camping Sous Les Etoiles Normandie, a few days stop over in Nantes, some time in Le Lot, and then heading for Biarritz!
12 months over 70s travel insurance with Nationwide with 90 day stays, £129! Nobody else comes close.
Janet and John

 

[Drum Major]

Thanks again for all your info and really enjoying your trip have a good one

 

[PhilandMena]

Stopped for lunch. Its that hot Ted's gone commando up front. Minger!

 

[DerryW]

Most of the N10 is a fast dual carriageway but over 3500kg limited to 80kph & no overtaking. Also it's the main route for trucks to Spain thousands of them on it. I've only been down it once, I said never again.

We used the N10 on the way home last trip back in Oct 2019 loads of gendarme hidden in the bushes. It is a good road now with the various new stretches' of dual carriageway, but there's no denying it, can't get away from it 1000s and 1000s of trucks no mater which direction you're heading.

 

[busby]

What's the general consensus on how Brits are being received on holiday in Europe ?
We are planning 6 weeks in Spain and Portugal later in the year.

No problems in either Spain or France..BUSBY.

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