Two Go To France (2022)

[Riverbankannie]

Have a great trip
So so envious, I think I might have to give up reading as stuck here !

 

[Manic]

The ferry must have found a way through all the Channel traffic and we've safely arrived and are now currently sitting in the MH parking area at Roscoff port drinking a cup of tea. We were about the 3rd vehicle off the ship and had no problems at customs. Passports stamped in case we over-stay!

Had a problem getting the Teltonika router to connect. The usual turn it on and off trick didn't work so I had to go into the configuration settings and get it to manually scan for operators and connect to Orange France. It hasn't been used outside the UK for over two years so I'll forgive it. But this did get me thinking a MiFi controlled through an app would be a lot easier for most folk. The Teltonika configuration settings you access through a browser are a bit daunting.

Strange because my recently bought Teltonika Rut950 connected straight up using a three sim, usually Bouygues.
I’ve also set the data limit to 12gb and an alert at 11.5 gb

 

[DBK]

Strange because my recently bought Teltonika Rut950 connected straight up using a three sim, usually Bouygues.
I’ve also set the data limit to 12gb and an alert at 11.5 gb

Ours does normally but it has been switched off for 6 months so perhaps it forgot some settings? Or EE did something recently which de-railed it?

But all working well now with around 30 Mbps where we are now.

 

[DBK]

We came through the Pyrenees today and saw a lot of the Garonne but don't know
where it starts. We came via the Viehla tunnel. Have fun!

You were very close at Viehla. A little to the east is Baquira and the source is just east of there. Looking at the map does the twisty road there look MH friendly? A check on Streeview in Google Maps suggests it is. If we get there I'll let you know!

 

[DBK]

Spring tides are coming, the full Moon is the 16th and the "biggest" low tide will be on the 18th, conveniently around lunchtime here in Brittany. I suspect we may see a lot of folk out foraging for shellfish etc when the tide is furtherest out, especially as this will be on the Easter weekend. We've seen this foraging, with a variety of nets, rakes and hammers elsewhere and it can be quite a social occasion. I might see if there are any razor clams in the sand, for which I'll need to buy some salt when we go shopping tomorrow.

We had a gentle walk today before lunch, just an hour each way, turning round at the Rocher du Singe, or Monkey Rock. I've posted photos of it before but it always makes me smile. It big and very thin, about 10m high I guess and most of it only a metre or so thick.

There are other rocks here, such as a Rooster Rock and even one which looks like Darth Vader! Seeing familiar shapes in objects or clouds is called pareidolia. I will see if I can find some of these rocks this week. I think I know which one is Darth Vader but the Rooster has a few possibles. More research needed, success may be linked to wine intake. This is known as vinparedolia.

There is an abandoned quarry just up the coast. Troughs were a speciality when it was working. There was even a stone roller but curiously it was finished, in the sense the axles were inserted with lead. I wouldn't have thought that would have been done at the quarry.

This sign gives a bit of history. They have been quarrying granite here for a long time.

Tailleurs de pierre (I looked it up!) means literally stone cutters. The sign says, over 200 of them worked here, or perhaps more accurately in this area.

The beaches here look so inviting - except the sea temperature is about 11°C.

Wild garlic is everywhere at home in Devon and I thought I saw some in the distance today. But closer up it turned out to be three-cornered leek, which is perfectly edible and tastes of onions. It should be called the three cornered onion. You can tell it from wild garlic by the thin leaves, like a bluebell's.

The fields around us are full of growing globe artichokes and of course the famous Roscoff onions - but we are too early in the year for those. We must return in the autumn.

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[DBK]

I forgot to say this site is filling up. Only 9 pitches left out of 33 this evening. Almost all of them French and paying their €11 a night.

 

[DBK]

A puzzling start to the day - we woke up to no Internet! This is of course a First World Problem but it was frustrating not to be able to read the paper or check emails. Temporary fixes were using my phone as a hot-spot and later today digging out the Huawei MiFi and putting the EE sim card into it.

I finally sorted it by doing a factory reset on the Teltonika router, after which all worked fine. Why it was working last night but not this morning given it wasn't switched off remains a mystery. I hope it isn't on the way out.

We went shopping this morning and after paying the bill the checkout lady scribbled on the receipt and said we should take it to the information counter - or that's what we interpreted from her gestures. I'm glad we did because we were handed this!

This is a French custom I didn't know about. I think yodeli can explain it better but this, in English, is a King Cake, which is why it came with a crown. Apparently other countries have a similar custom but it originates in France from what I've read.

This is the box it came in, which explains things, or perhaps not!

Epipheny is 6 January, also known as 3 Kings Day. So why hand them out now? Was it frozen and after de-frosting they were now giving them away? We had a slice each this afternoon with a cup of tea and it was very nice. It has a layer of frangipani running through it and wasn't too sweet.

A recent discovery has been the Locus map application. I've used Google Maps a lot but Locus has much more detail. I used it this afternoon to take us on a walk using inland tracks and paths to Port Neuf which you can see in the bottom right of this screenshot. We returned along the coastal path. There are of course other apps which do a similar job.

Along the way we came across this sign, which was another test of my French language skills.

But the answer was obvious when we looked. A "bocage" is a hedge and here they are restoring them.

In a previous post I was musing about the rocks around here which have been named from their appearance. One is called the Rooster and a possible candidate was spotted early on in our walk.

Is this a Rooster (cockeral)?

A dog/horse/cow licking something I think. So not this rock.

We finally spotted the rock from a distance.

It's in the centre of the photo. Zoomed in, with the inevitable loss of quality, it looks like this.

I'll put that down as a rooster.

But when you get closer the illusion is lost. From the path below it the rock looks more like a camel!

Charlie got a bit hot towards the end and needed a lie down.

But he had a paddle later on.




A sea mist has rolled in this evening. This was taken earlier, its thicker now.

 

[yodeli]

Quelles sont les différentes galettes des rois ?




Les différents types de Galette en France?

• La Galette des Rois Parisienne.
• Le Gâteau des Rois.
• La Galette des Rois Dunkerquoise.
• La Galette des Rois Franc-Comtoise.
• La Galette Coco ou Goyave.

La galette des rois traditionnelle est composée de pâte feuilletée fourrée de crème frangipane. La galette de Besançon est une galette sèche à base de pâte feuilletée couverte de beurre et de sucre. Le gâteau des rois est une brioche aux fruits confits réalisée dans le sud de la France.

As you can see many different types of cakes are made to celebrate the 3 kings day according to where you stop when touring France.

I'm very surprised they offered you this cake that long after the 6th of January even though you can share this cake all along January. What is mainly celebrated is the sharing not really the 3 kings. Vatican II, decided Epiphanie should be celebrated the first sunday following the 1st of January but it is not really supposed to be a religious thing.
Was it frozen? No idea but it should be written on the box, otherwise they are outlaw, knowing that anything de-frost should be eaten within the next 24 hours.

 

[DBK]

Quelles sont les différentes galettes des rois ?




Les différents types de Galette en France?

• La Galette des Rois Parisienne.
• Le Gâteau des Rois.
• La Galette des Rois Dunkerquoise.
• La Galette des Rois Franc-Comtoise.
• La Galette Coco ou Goyave.

La galette des rois traditionnelle est composée de pâte feuilletée fourrée de crème frangipane. La galette de Besançon est une galette sèche à base de pâte feuilletée couverte de beurre et de sucre. Le gâteau des rois est une brioche aux fruits confits réalisée dans le sud de la France.

As you can see many different types of cakes are made to celebrate the 3 kings day according to where you stop when touring France.

I'm very surprised they offered you this cake that long after the 6th of January even though you can share this cake all along January. What is mainly celebrated is the sharing not really the 3 kings. Vatican II, decided Epiphanie should be celebrated the first sunday following the 1st of January but it is not really supposed to be a religious thing.
Was it frozen? No idea but it should be written on the box, otherwise they are outlaw, knowing that anything de-frost should be eaten within the next 24 hours.

Frankie, thank you. I think it is a new type: Galette des Rois Super U. I have thrown away the box but, looking at the photograph, I think it was made on 8 04 2022 and had to be eaten by 14 04 2022, which was the day they were giving them away. Perhaps it was just a trial of a new recipe or baker?

 

[yodeli]

No idea really. I have contacted their client service and asked why at this period, but the young man answered each Unico or super U is independent and can propose things on special offers. He needed the name/town of yours to make searches, and I didn't remember whether you had mentioned it or not, I just said as it's a forum, names are not always given.
As long as you saw the date on the box, fine. Quite strange anyway to do this in April

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[Andy MacD]

A recent discovery has been the Locus map application.

We’re crossing through Eurotunnel a week on Tuesday and looking forward to our first time with the MH in France.

Re the map application I can’t see it listed as “Locus” on the App Store. Does it have another name?

 

[DBK]

Re the map application I can’t see it listed as “Locus” on the App Store. Does it have another name?

It is listed as "Locus Map 4 Outdoor Navigation" but having checked it is Android only, there is no iOS version. A quick Google suggests Gaia GPS is an alternative for iOS - although I have no experience of it of course. I am sure Funsters can suggest others. You might want to start a thread and ask for ideas. There will be no consensus but you should get a few to look at.

 

[Andy MacD]

Ok, thanks.

I subscribe to the Ordinance Survey map app. Just checked and it works in France too, result!

 

[DBK]

Ok, thanks.

I subscribe to the Ordinance Survey map app. Just checked and it works in France too, result!

I've got it too and yes it does show the OSM mapping if you select "Standard mapping". A quick compare of the two suggests Locus is clearer to read but there's not much in it. I might post some screen shots at some time and let folk decide.

 

[DBK]

We've had a quiet day, it's after all Good Friday. Mrs DBK did a socks and "smalls" hand-wash and hung them out to dry. The problem was a thin sea mist surrounded us almost all day and with an 80%+ humidity, according to my weather station, the drying was a tad slow. The interior of the MH now looks like we are hosting a street party with strings of bunting everywhere. Except it's bunting made from socks and knickers.

There's some interesting bird life around here. If you click on their names below it should open up an RSPB page with more information. The stars must be about 20 Brent Geese which are winter visitors. It is the smallest of the geese family in Europe and breed in Iceland and Northern Europe. The Iceland geese, which have pale bellies, over-winter mostly in Ireland. These ones are from mainland North Europe I think.

The other interesting bird I've spotted are Wheatear . These are very strikingly marked.

Charlie went for a paddle in a very calm sea.

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[DBK]

This CCP site is filling up. Only 3 places left out of 33 and one of those is next to us. Is it Charlie keeping them away or the underwear hanging in the windows?

 

[Orion]

This CCP site is filling up. Only 3 places left out of 33 and one of those is next to us. Is it Charlie keeping them away or the underwear hanging in the windows?

Could be the colour and order in which your smalls are hanging and what they signify - “England expects that every man will do his duty” - might not go down too well on that side of La Manche?

 

[DBK]

I forgot to add when mentioning birds we have House Martins flying around too.

 

[nicholsong]

This CCP site is filling up. Only 3 places left out of 33 and one of those is next to us. Is it Charlie keeping them away or the underwear hanging in the windows?


View attachment 606724

I think only one 'A' Class in sight - must be some cheapskate site.

 

[DumfriesDik]

Loving the pup. Have a great time.

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[DBK]

I think only one 'A' Class in sight - must be some cheapskate site.

€11 a night! But we did have a mammoth tag-axle A class in for a few days. Slide-outs on each side. He had downsized from a forty foot US RV as he had struggled to park it anywhere. This 9m or even 10m MH was easier he said.

I lent them my water hose as they had lost theirs.

 

[nicholsong]

€11 a night! But we did have a mammoth tag-axle A class in for a few days. Slide-outs on each side. He had downsized from a forty foot US RV as he had struggled to park it anywhere. This 9m or even 10m MH was easier he said.

I lent them my water hose as they had lost theirs.

The hose must be somewhere in the 9m and slide-outs.

 

[DBK]

I mentioned the "laundry bunting" strung around the 'van yesterday. This is a more presentable example.

The tides are working towards their maximum tomorrow. This shot of the port was taken over two hours after low tide this morning.

Did you notice the curious rock on the left? It's the Darth Vader rock. Entirely natural apparently.

But we have finally had a day clear of sea mist.

Followed by a pleasant evening. A glass of Crémant de Loire is going down very nicely. Another glass will be needed to wash down the remaining slices of dried sausage.

 

[Manic]

Had a problem getting the Teltonika router to connect. The usual turn it on and off trick didn't work so I had to go into the configuration settings and get it to manually scan for operators and connect to Orange France. It hasn't been used outside the UK for over two years so I'll forgive it. But this did get me thinking a MiFi controlled through an app would be a lot easier for most folk. The Teltonika configuration settings you access through a browser are a bit daunting.

Hi, did it take long for the router to scan available networks, I want to change mine but it just seems to search.This what I pressed.

 

[DBK]

Hi, did it take long for the router to scan available networks, I want to change mine but it just seems to search.This what I pressed.
View attachment 607185

Mine scans quite quickly, maybe 30 seconds or so, then lists all the providers. Might be worth disconnecting it from the power supply, reboot it and try again.

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[Tony V]

The ferry must have found a way through all the Channel traffic and we've safely arrived and are now currently sitting in the MH parking area at Roscoff port drinking a cup of tea. We were about the 3rd vehicle off the ship and had no problems at customs. Passports stamped in case we over-stay!

Had a problem getting the Teltonika router to connect. The usual turn it on and off trick didn't work so I had to go into the configuration settings and get it to manually scan for operators and connect to Orange France. It hasn't been used outside the UK for over two years so I'll forgive it. But this did get me thinking a MiFi controlled through an app would be a lot easier for most folk. The Teltonika configuration settings you access through a browser are a bit daunting.

Just back from 3 weeks in Spain, Portugal and France. Came in on Amorique on Monday evening, so you were there and waiting when I drove past. French Customs gave me a real shakedown at Roscoff. Spent over 30 minutes going through everything, and I mean everything [even the laundry bag!] before letting me board. Never pays to be too early! [I think they were bored or had a newbie to train up- all very polite and cordial]
re: router problems My 4g mifi refused to talk to any of my electronics. so I ended up chucking it into a locker and relied on my phone. It was a Smarty set up [which is now cancelled] '3' worked fine.

 

[Trevor Wbm]

Ours does normally but it has been switched off for 6 months so perhaps it forgot some settings? Or EE did something recently which de-railed it?

But all working well now with around 30 Mbps where we are now.

I know that EE handle the allocation of IP address data connections to devices differently to other providers in that, if I understand it correctly, one has to be allocated each time you want to use data, and it only lasts so long. If your device was off until you got to France, when it was turned on, what effectively happens is the device tries to talk to EE via it's preferred roaming network so it can pick up details of it's roaming permissions, data limits etc. If EE said 'nope, not seen that one for a long time' that might explain it. Next time, try turning it on in the UK for an hour before you cross over, then turn it off again.

 

[DBK]

We went for a longer walk today, only about three hours in total so nothing too strenuous. The aim was to find a few geocaches which start at Port Neuf* an hour or so walk east from the aire.

On the way there we spotted a Stand Up Paddleboarder surfing in the waves. We saw him ride a really big wave but by the time we got close enough for photographs the waves were smaller but this short video might give a flavour of what he was doing. We've seen conventional surfers here in the past and the curious thing is there no beach here. It is all rocks. As an experiment I have also uploaded this to TikTok. My first video there but I'm not sure this was wise. It is bombarding me with junk messages so I might uninstall it.



The first geocache was in a tree and was a walnut suspended on fishing line. It was made from the two half shells but the joint between them wasn't waterproof so the log was soaking. A clever idea but lacking detail in execution. The next two were more conventional screw top tubs. I had forgotten one of the geocaches here says you need to bring tweezers. The hints says "Pince à épilée obligatoire" but I hadn't brought one. But it didn't matter as we couldn't find where it was anyway!

We ate our packed lunch sitting on rocks at the Plage de Port Neuf. It had been sunny all morning and I took this short video of Charlie there. My phone has recently upgraded the camera app and a new feature is an easy way to zoom while taking a video. I used it in the surfing video above and also in this clip. Sadly, halfway through lunch the mist returned and it turned slightly chilly.



Port Neuf is a cluster of houses at the top of the creek.

A modern bridge goes over the stream and from it we saw a curious feature.

The stream runs in a channel with long granite slabs laid over it. I can't work out what it means.

*Port Neuf means New Port I think. Mrs DBK was born in Newport - but the one in Gwent, Wales.

 

[nicholsong]

Just back from 3 weeks in Spain, Portugal and France. Came in on Amorique on Monday evening, so you were there and waiting when I drove past. French Customs gave me a real shakedown at Roscoff. Spent over 30 minutes going through everything, and I mean everything [even the laundry bag!] before letting me board. Never pays to be too early! [I think they were bored or had a newbie to train up- all very polite and cordial]
re: router problems My 4g mifi refused to talk to any of my electronics. so I ended up chucking it into a locker and relied on my phone. It was a Smarty set up [which is now cancelled] '3' worked fine.

Why were French Customs so interested when you were leaving their country?

 

[Tony V]

Why were French Customs so interested when you were leaving their country?

Probably thought that an ageing hippy had more aboard than just wine and Brie.

The muttering started when I presented my passport and they asked me where I'd been; when I said I'd been to Portugal as well as Spain and France, that's when the squad was bought over. Perhaps they had been given a tip off, and I just fit the bill.

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