Winter trip to Spain

[Ingwe]

Our night at Olite passed ok although it dropped down to 0°. We were warm enough in the van though and when we had morning coffee at 9:00 am, the sun was streaming against the side of the van. We lay in bed drinking coffee while the sun warmed the van.

Our private shower and toilet facilities were, however, a disappointment as the stream of luke warm water was a mere trickle. I opted to use the main shower block instead, a long walk up the camp site but as well as having a better shower, I discovered that the chemical toilet was not as shown on the site map as being at the grey water grid, but clearly marked in the toilet section of the sanitary block. I was relieved (no pun intended) as I hadn’t fancied emptying the toilet cassette into the grey drain. The small café was open and we could have breakfasted there but instead opted to finish the remains of baguette with Marmite and honey (not together). The Marmite is fortunately holding up well and will easily last till we get home to York in about 10 days time.

The two hour drive from Olite to here was pretty straightforward. As you approach the French border, the number of trucks multiplies significantly and the last half hour or so before you enter France was less relaxing as these huge trucks thunder up to you, pull put and buffer you sideways in their bow-waves.


Biarritz is one of those places on my bucket list. All those years ago, I listened to Francoise Hardy LPs and dreamed of ambling along the beach at Biarritz, a Citane casually dangling from my lips while I occasionally flicked back my hair from my forehead all the while discussing philosophy or New Wave cinema with Francoise. I often wondered how her brother Oliver could be such a blimp!

Anyway, today I realised my dream and parked up at one of the two remaining spaces at the Milady, Biarritz, CCP sites. It was sunny and warm and we angled nicely into a spot that would get the sun all day until 17:45 or so. We’d booked two nights here but only after a struggle. If you want to reserve space using the CCP website, you get all the way there until it’s time to pay and then it refuses your card. So you telephone and their very efficient phone customer service tells you that it can see you’ve been trying to book and that they will complete the transaction for you. Except that, as it was after 12 noon, we were too late to book for Wednesday (this was on Monday afternoon) but we could book for Thursday and could book for Wednesday after midnight on Tuesday. So we booked Thursday then and this morning tried to book for later today. Same thing, all steps up to payment. Then nothing. So back on the phone where we were able to book one of the last two spaces for today. When we asked why we couldn’t do this on-line, he said that they sometimes had problems with payments. It reminded me of the Trans-Pennine Express rail announcements on my daily York to Leeds travels. “We apologise for the late running of this this train, it was late leaving the station”.As a description of events that was fine, but it wasn’t an explanation for being late.

We saw van after van arriving including a Brit van who parked next to us who hadn’t booked at all. So it seems there must be some real-time booking system or there will be some disappointed late arrivers with places booked who may be disappointed. Anyway, not our problem.

The site is beautifully placed almost on the beach, where there is a chic-looking beach café. We hope to have lunch there tomorrow assuming the beautiful people frequenting the beach haven’t booked every table every day. Even the small aircraft which fly over every few minutes ooze class. No noisy whining of their engines just a muffled purring. Engines are probably padded with €1000 notes.

It is a lovely place. The hotels look like something from an Agatha Christie novel and one wouldn’t be surprised to see Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings strutting along the promenade while taking their constitutional.

After parking up and the required cup of tea and biscuits, which we had sat out in the warm, wind-free sun, we set off the uphill trip into Biarritz itself. When we got to the top of the hill, the views of the Bay of Biscay are spectacular and we decided that the trip into town should be saved till tomorrow when we cycle in. So we bought two delicious looking apple slices and a baguette and returned to the van where we enjoyed some late afternoon sun and a shandy. Amazing how cheering a warm sunny day can be!

Milady, Biarritz CCP site

Milady Beach Café, Biarritz

View from Biarritz

Biarritz

Milady Beach, Biarritz

 

[G-RMPS]

Thank you for saying my plane oozes class. Flew in there a few years ago. No €1000 padding necessary in my whisperjet!

 

[Riverbankannie]

we’re both left with horrendous catarrh

If you are still suffering, try steaming with your head under a towel over a bowl of boiling water.

 

[Ingwe]

If you are still suffering, try steaming with your head under a towel over a bowl of boiling water.

So that’s what Mrs Ingwe means when she tells me to go boil my head!

 

[Ingwe]

We decided against cycling into the centre of Biarritz as we always feel quite constrained when cycling into large towns because we worry about where to park the bikes securely. We’ve done it in Millau and other large towns/cities but feel anxious about the bikes being stolen. So instead, we jumped on the bus. The stop was just around the corner from Milady camping and the fare for the seven stop ride into the town centre was €1.20 each. We used our French debit cards so didn’t need change. If you’re going to use the bus more often, you can get a daily ticket with unlimited use for only €3.60. The buses are frequent and clean.

Biarritz lived up to its reputation of being a playground for the rich with a feeling of laid-back affluence. The buildings included many art deco examples and the huge casino looks like something out of the early 1920s. In fact, it seems fairly down-market now at least from what we could see. Rather than black-tie gamblers at roulette tables, we could see rows of one armed jackpot machines although it could, of course, be very different inside.

There is a good indoor market with lovely looking food. We contemplated buying a jar of honey as a gift for a neighbour but the prices were nearly double those we saw for exotic honeys in Spain. We’d only bought one jar then and now regretted not buying more. Still, we’ve other places to stop at en-route to Cherbourg for our ferry on the 14th.

As Biarritz is so well-heeled, we were expecting to be gouged for a restaurant meal. We decided to eat near the market after our good experiences of eating near the market in Millau. It was a pleasant surprise then to find that we could eat well for not very much. We settled for a café that was in the sun and although it was only 11:45, there were already people dining. We had menu of the day for €14 which was onglet and potato dauphinoise. For another €3 we could have had a dessert of mouse au chocolat or apple tart. But neither of us wanted a dessert so we settled for a tea and coffee, plus two Oranginas which came in at @ total of €44.80. We don’t think this is bad and I must say, the food was yummy. Writing this, I could eat it again.

After lunch we ambled about and it was so warm and sunny, I decided to have an ice-cream. Right on the sea-front, I though this is where I’ll pay through the nose. But no, two large scoops of delicious caramel and pistachio ice-cream in a crunchy cone was only €4. We pay more than that from a ‘Mr Whippy’ van outside Museum Gardens in York! We walked off the lunch returning to the campsite and enjoyed the walk which on the return run, is mostly all downhill.

We leave here tomorrow for Camping Beau Solei near Bordeaux for the night. We stayed there on the way down to Spain after a torrid journey with deviations and farmer protests but this time, we hope that the Polish van with his noisy heater all night is well on his way to Katowice.

Beach front

Biarritz street

Indoor market

Onglet de boeuf avec pomme dauphinoise pour €14

If you go down to Biarritz today……………

The Casino

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[Riverbankannie]

I had to check back to see when you were going south past Bordeaux as I remember the noisy Polish van. I cannot believe it was 6 weeks ago doesn’t time fly?

 

[Ingwe]

I had to check back to see when you were going south past Bordeaux as I remember the noisy Polish van. I cannot believe it was 6 weeks ago doesn’t time fly?

Time is strange. Parts of the trip seem like only yesterday (like the Polish van). Other events seem to have occurred a lifetime ago!

Have enjoyed this winter trip but will also be pleased to be home.

 

[Boldly]

Sorry to hijack the thread but not really worth starting another. Does anyone know the current availability of places at los narejos camper park or lo monte acsi site?

 

[oilrag]

Have you tried contacting the site by email or phone?

 

[Ingwe]

Sorry to hijack the thread but not really worth starting another. Does anyone know the current availability of places at los narejos camper park or lo monte acsi site?

As oilrag suggests, best way is to email or ring. We’ve found both methods were effective in getting us spaces.,

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[Ingwe]

From the lovely Biarritz, we had a fairly lengthy drive up the A63 to Gradignan, just outside Bordeaux. We stayed again at Camping Soleil (yes, of the noisy Polish van). It was all a little subdued despite it being Friday night. It was drizzling, cool and windy. There were a lot more motorhomes this time, mostly people heading south towards the sun but there were a few Brits also, like us, heading home.

I doubt that, even if the noisy Polish van was still there, it would have prevented me from sleeping. But, when I got up for one of my several nightly toilet breaks (), there was a loud chorus of frogs all seeking their mates. It was quite something. There is nothing much of any interest at Beau Soleil so only one photo.

From there on Saturday morning we made the most of the quiet roads to park up at an aire in Niort. The aire is pretty central to the town and there were a few vans there but about five spare spaces. There is ECU available and we understood that the €12 charge also allows access to fresh water, black and grey waste. As it happens, the man who supposedly comes round at 18:00 to collect the charge, apparently doesn’t work weekends so we ended up spending the night for free.

One sour note. We parked up on one of the free spaces and then looked at the plan of the site. It seemed that we’d parked so that we were taking up two spaces so we decided to move and turn the van around. That left space for a longer van (than ours) to park at a right angle to us. No sooner had we parked, then a French guy arrived remonstrating and saying we were taking up two spaces and wanted us to revert to the original position. His manner was fairly aggressive so the navigator explained politely what the map showed which clearly reflected how we’d parked. He got even more outraged at this and was, by now, shouting and repeatedly pointing his finger at us, and threatening to call the police. Now, there are two things that move me from calm to fighting anger, in a nano-second; one is aggressive pointing and the other is spitting at me. I was well on the way to boiling point but luckily, Mrs Ingwe, much more restrained than I, told him, in French, to ring the police and that he was a very rude man. At that point, he started banging on about “les anglais, les reglements, brexit, ros bifs etc”and headed off to his van, which as it happened, was behind our van. No police, a storm in a bidet. But the mood had been ruined and we moved to another space where we spent an uneventful night and slept well.

On Sunday, we drove to Hèric where we’d booked into a campsite for night so that we could shower, fill up with water and empty our toilet. This campsite was fairly run down and there were two other vans there but many empty chalets in various conditions, almost all empty. We were allocated a space on what looked like a water-meadow. We were assured that, underneath the very wet-looking grass, was gravel and we wouldn’t get stuck. So we parked, used the admittedly very clean sanitaires and had supper. That night it rained and rained at times so heavily that the noise on the van’s roof woke us. In the morning, the water meadow had become a rice-paddy but we were able to reverse safely off the pitch noticing two deep gouges, now water filled, where a previous van had obviously been bogged down. Little of interest so no photos.

Vire in Normandy is about 78 miles from Hèric and boasts a free parking area specifically for motorhomes in the 600 space Champ du Foire car park. There was one other van there, a French couple from Amiens heading to Spain for some sun. We wondered into the town which is a lovely small town with a huge clock tower in pride of place. It also has a huge church that reminded me of Ripon Cathedral in terms of the interior. Churched out, we headed to a busy little café for a coffee and tea. Having just ordered from the waitress, the owner came up to me in a purposeful manner and I feared the worst, that she was going to say “meals only” or tell me that I was sitting in a table for four and there were only two of us. But no. She bent down and gave me gentle peck on my cheek. Seeing this unexpected bonus had somewhat startled me, she suddenly sprang back when she realised that I wasn’t her cousin. She explained that I was her cousin’s doppelgänger! She was embarrassed but seeing that we had found it funny, she too was soon laughing at her simple error. Blushes all round but absolutely no harm done. When we paid, she asked where we were from and where we were going.

Again it rained all night and after a peaceful night, we awoke to find the huge car park almost completely full. Trucks and buses can also park up there at night but there was only one truck. We didn’t avail ourselves of the free black waste dump or fresh water as the water tap was a little too close to the toilet dump. We had plenty of water in any event so left the short trip to Barfleur. Thank you Hèric municipality for providing such a pleasant free park site.

A breezy and grey day as we arrived at Camping Blanche Nef at Hornfleur. Lovely little site with great sea views as well as the picturesque little fishing port of Barfleur. Before you reach the site, there are about a dozen free parking spaces immediately behind the sea wall. There were about six vans parked there and we thought that, in the future, if we don’t want showers etc, this would make a really good free spot to enjoy a few days. It’s close to the middle of the town which has a number of cafés and restaurants. There is also a lifeboat station that, on closer inspection, turned out to be no longer active but a free little museum. There was no one there so we walked around and it was quite interesting. There was a chart listing all the call outs, the names of the vessels and the number of souls saved. There were small piles of fund-raising merchandise such as t-shirts, baseball caps, fridge magnets all left out with the prices but no one to pay. Very trusting. We may return tomorrow and buy a cap badge for our nearly four year old grandson. We intend to eat at one of the brasseries selling moules frites and fish and chips a la maison, this evening. We popped into a boulanger and bought some cakes to have back in the van.

Tomorrow we end our trip at Cherbourg where we intend to stay in the free aire in the port overnight before the ferry at 18:00 on Thursday.

Camping Beau Soleil, Bordeaux

Vire, Normandy

Vire, Normandy

Barfleur

Barfleur free parking

Barfleur

Barfleur lifeboat museum

Fish docks, Barfleur

Barfleur

Free parking in Vire (out of sequence for some reason).

 

[G-RMPS]

From the lovely Biarritz, we had a fairly lengthy drive up the A63 to Gradignan, just outside Bordeaux. We stayed again at Camping Soleil (yes, of the noisy Polish van). It was all a little subdued despite it being Friday night. It was drizzling, cool and windy. There were a lot more motorhomes this time, mostly people heading south towards the sun but there were a few Brits also, like us, heading home.

I doubt that, even if the noisy Polish van was still there, it would have prevented me from sleeping. But, when I got up for one of my several nightly toilet breaks (), there was a loud chorus of frogs all seeking their mates. It was quite something. There is nothing much of any interest at Beau Soleil so only one photo.

From there on Saturday morning we made the most of the quiet roads to park up at an aire in Niort. The aire is pretty central to the town and there were a few vans there but about five spare spaces. There is ECU available and we understood that the €12 charge also allows access to fresh water, black and grey waste. As it happens, the man who supposedly comes round at 18:00 to collect the charge, apparently doesn’t work weekends so we ended up spending the night for free.

One sour note. We parked up on one of the free spaces and then looked at the plan of the site. It seemed that we’d parked so that we were taking up two spaces so we decided to move and turn the van around. That left space for a longer van (than ours) to park at a right angle to us. No sooner had we parked, then a French guy arrived remonstrating and saying we were taking up two spaces and wanted us to revert to the original position. His manner was fairly aggressive so the navigator explained politely what the map showed which clearly reflected how we’d parked. He got even more outraged at this and was, by now, shouting and repeatedly pointing his finger at us, and threatening to call the police. Now, there are two things that move me from calm to fighting anger, in a nano-second; one is aggressive pointing and the other is spitting at me. I was well on the way to boiling point but luckily, Mrs Ingwe, much more restrained than I, told him, in French, to ring the police and that he was a very rude man. At that point, he started banging on about “les anglais, les reglements, brexit, ros bifs etc”and headed off to his van, which as it happened, was behind our van. No police, a storm in a bidet. But the mood had been ruined and we moved to another space where we spent an uneventful night and slept well.

On Sunday, we drove to Hèric where we’d booked into a campsite for night so that we could shower, fill up with water and empty our toilet. This campsite was fairly run down and there were two other vans there but many empty chalets in various conditions, almost all empty. We were allocated a space on what looked like a water-meadow. We were assured that, underneath the very wet-looking grass, was gravel and we wouldn’t get stuck. So we parked, used the admittedly very clean sanitaires and had supper. That night it rained and rained at times so heavily that the noise on the van’s roof woke us. In the morning, the water meadow had become a rice-paddy but we were able to reverse safely off the pitch noticing two deep gouges, now water filled, where a previous van had obviously been bogged down. Little of interest so no photos.

Vire in Normandy is about 78 miles from Hèric and boasts a free parking area specifically for motorhomes in the 600 space Champ du Foire car park. There was one other van there, a French couple from Amiens heading to Spain for some sun. We wondered into the town which is a lovely small town with a huge clock tower in pride of place. It also has a huge church that reminded me of Ripon Cathedral in terms of the interior. Churched out, we headed to a busy little café for a coffee and tea. Having just ordered from the waitress, the owner came up to me in a purposeful manner and I feared the worst, that she was going to say “meals only” or tell me that I was sitting in a table for four and there were only two of us. But no. She bent down and gave me gentle peck on my cheek. Seeing this unexpected bonus had somewhat startled me, she suddenly sprang back when she realised that I wasn’t her cousin. She explained that I was her cousin’s doppelgänger! She was embarrassed but seeing that we had found it funny, she too was soon laughing at her simple error. Blushes all round but absolutely no harm done. When we paid, she asked where we were from and where we were going.

Again it rained all night and after a peaceful night, we awoke to find the huge car park almost completely full. Trucks and buses can also park up there at night but there was only one truck. We didn’t avail ourselves of the free black waste dump or fresh water as the water tap was a little too close to the toilet dump. We had plenty of water in any event so left the short trip to Barfleur. Thank you Hèric municipality for providing such a pleasant free park site.

A breezy and grey day as we arrived at Camping Blanche Nef at Hornfleur. Lovely little site with great sea views as well as the picturesque little fishing port of Barfleur. Before you reach the site, there are about a dozen free parking spaces immediately behind the sea wall. There were about six vans parked there and we thought that, in the future, if we don’t want showers etc, this would make a really good free spot to enjoy a few days. It’s close to the middle of the town which has a number of cafés and restaurants. There is also a lifeboat station that, on closer inspection, turned out to be no longer active but a free little museum. There was no one there so we walked around and it was quite interesting. There was a chart listing all the call outs, the names of the vessels and the number of souls saved. There were small piles of fund-raising merchandise such as t-shirts, baseball caps, fridge magnets all left out with the prices but no one to pay. Very trusting. We may return tomorrow and buy a cap badge for our nearly four year old grandson. We intend to eat at one of the brasseries selling moules frites and fish and chips a la maison, this evening. We popped into a boulanger and bought some cakes to have back in the van.

Tomorrow we end our trip at Cherbourg where we intend to stay in the free aire in the port overnight before the ferry at 18:00 on Thursday.

Camping Beau Soleil, Bordeaux

View attachment 874515

Vire, Normandy

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Vire, Normandy

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Barfleur

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Barfleur free parking

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Barfleur

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Barfleur lifeboat museum

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Fish docks, Barfleur

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Barfleur

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Free parking in Vire (out of sequence for some reason).

View attachment 874533

We stayed at that aire in Niort, too. No problem for us with the neighbours, fortunately.

 

[boldhamster]

Well, today was start day. The weather forecast warned of strong winds, dying down by noon. As it happens we didn’t get to leave York until 12:30 and by then, there were still some string winds. Usual 20 minute delay around Doncaster and we took it slowly.

Horrible tram-limes on the M11 made us drive even slower and we eventually arrived at the Dog House at Smeeth, in the dark, at about 19.30.

We knew their restaurant was closed on Wednesdays but we had a nice pint and a half with the usual friendly and welcoming staff. However, they told us that we had to be away by 8a.m. This seems to be a new requirement and, while I except it isn’t the Dog House’s rule (apparently) this means that, for people like us with a tunnel crossing for 12:00, it is no longer very helpful.

There was one other van here, a couple on their first trip to Spain via France. They are having to get up at 4:45 for their crossing so the new diktat won’t really affect them. It’s difficult to see what, in the winter, the rationale is for getting vans who’ve spent the night, spent some money and intending to have breakfast in the Dog House, to leave by 8a.m.

So another possible stopping place, scratched off the list. I’m tired, admittedly, but such pettifogging rules really p**es me off.

More tomorrow when we cross into France.

I used to work at Evegate (location of The Dog House). The rule during the week will be because of cars arriving for work etc - the car park gets very full. Enjoy your trip.

 

[ronboyracer]

After a reasonable night’s sleep at the Dog House, we were up and ready to leave at 8a.m. At 7:55 there was a gentle tap on the driver’s door and I got out of the habitation door expecting to see a man-mountain security guard. Instead there was tiny guy in a raincoat with ‘Security‘ on the back who politely said that we should be gone by 8.I said we would be and he gave a thumbs-up and scuttled off back to a warm dry hut somewhere. We drove to, and parked at, the nearby Tesco where we had cheese toasties and coffees at Costa next door.

The drive to the tunnel was shrouded in fog and when we got there (more than 2 hours before our scheduled train) we weren’t offered an earlier train. There is a lot of building work going on at the terminal which means that the car park was a fraction of the usual size and we parked up prepared to wait the 2.5 hours till our train. Five minutes later, an official tapped on the window and asked us to prepare to entrain. So we boarded a train more than 2 hours early. We think that the shortage of parking space was the reason for sending us out.

A pretty uneventful trip to our first night which was at an aire at Neufchatel-on-Bray. Aire Sainte Claire is €14 per night with 10amp electric hook-up. There were about six vans there, all Brits. The pitch was a neat hard standing with a little waterlogged patch of grass on one side. The facilities include a full laundry, one shower, two flush toilets, one wash-hand basin. There is also a black water dump, grey water drain, fresh water taps and waste bins. 100 yards away is a humungous E Le Clerk supermarket with fuel garage.
It rained all night but by the time I’d showered, recharged the toilet, filled up with fresh water to 50%, the sun was shining and it was mild (13°). We drove 188 miles to Ecommoy using the A28 mostly avoiding Rouen and it was a much more pleasant trip than navigating through Rouen.
Our destination was an organic cheese farm run by a Dutch family. At one point we were ordered off the motorway due to farmers’ protests and it was a 20 minute diversion before we rejoined but otherwise it was pretty uneventful trip.

We were warmly greeted by the Dutch owner and she connected us to a 16amp extension cable, before showing us the cheese shop. The charge is €12. The parking for motorhomes is a small income supplement but is adequate. The pitch is level on gravel over normal farm-yard mud. We bought a couple of cheeses; garlic and a little hard dark thing that tastes wonderful despite appearances!

So tomorrow, another fairly long drive to south of Bordeaux, exact destination not yet finalised. Anyway, here are some photos of the tunnel parking, the foggy aire just near Boulogne and then the cheese farm. The navigator, first office and chef is preparing cheese omelettes, with a green salad and I’m sipping a Famous Grouse on the rocks as I type this. Well it is Friday!

Tunnel terminal car parkView attachment 858910

View attachment 858914
Cheese Farm, EccomoyView attachment 858921

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Love the pictures, Rouen can be a pain especially with the new regulations, which I have yet to experience, in the early days it was a doddle, have you been to Biarritz, its worth a stop, aire av Milady, just an underpass walk and your straight onto a fantastic beach there, the Atlantic breakers are amazing fantastic for surfers. Good luck ronboyracer.

 

[MGDavid]

Love the pictures, Rouen can be a pain especially with the new regulations, which I have yet to experience, in the early days it was a doddle, have you been to Biarritz, its worth a stop, aire av Milady, just an underpass walk and your straight onto a fantastic beach there, the Atlantic breakers are amazing fantastic for surfers. Good luck ronboyracer.

see post #121

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[Riverbankannie]

Thanks for taking us along on your trip. Be careful at the aire at the port in Cherbourg, not sure what the current situation is there re immigrants but every port probably has a problem. Wishing you a safe crossing and onward journey home.

 

[Boy]

I would recommend stopping at Parentis en Born in the Landes south of Bordeaux easy drive on the RN10 which i as good as any UK motorway.

Been there many time lovely little town well worth a visit

 

[stevel]

After emptying the toilet, filling with 50 litres of water and a quick breakfast of muesli, we set off the whole 45 miles or so to Morella. Virtually empty roads but still quite windy and we parked at the splendidly sited car park at the top of the impressive hill-top city. You can stay the night there in the off-season and there was one other van there when we arrived.

We explored the narrow streets but decided against visiting the castle perched right at the top of the hill on two grounds; neither of us fancied the steep climb against the wind and also the €3 each entry charge. There is one narrow main shopping street with a number of bars, restaurants and shops selling local delicacies. The latter really are enticing but we were spared expense by them being closed for lunch, not opening again until 4p.m.

The church looks standard (for the region) but inside it is spectacular. As someone who gets quickly bored looking at churches, I was quite impressed with this church in terms of the over the top splendour. The churches I attended in SA were Dutch Reformed and, to describe them as dour and boring, would be understating matters. These Catholic churches are the antithesis of the Gereformeerde Kerke I snoozed in as a lad before being prodded awake by the deacon with a stern demeanour with his shepherd’s crook.

In the narrow streets, cars are improbably parked and there are stacks of firewood outside houses. The plastic bottles of water one sees outside some house are apparently there so people walking their dogs can wash down the front doors after the dogs have peed on them! Maybe when I get home to York, I’ll try leaving a toilet roll outside our house in the hope that the nocturnal dog walker who’s mutt frequently leaves a pile of sh1t on the pavement takes the hint!

By the time we’d exhausted the delights of Morella and returned to the van, we were the only people parking there. It was windy and we felt a trifle vulnerable so decided to drive the 2-3km to the free aire provided by the municipality. There were a half a dozen vans already parked there but there was plenty of space so we selected a level pitch and parked up. There is black and grey waste facilities here as well as fresh water. A lovely view of the city which, we are advised, is lit up at night. So after a coffee, a couple of empallidillas (one pisto, one pollo) we set the fridge onto gas and are whiling away the afternoon planning our much longer drive tomorrow towards Olite (3 hours, fifty minutes) thereby avoiding Zaragoza and possibly Pamplona.

I heartily recommend visiting Morella.


Morella hill top parking


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View from Morella

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Morella

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Local delicacies

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Firewood

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Statue of a local who was something big in local textiles (my poor Spanish translation)

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The understated church interior

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Morella motorhome free aire with view of the city

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Stayed at Morella last month. Lovely campsite and beautiful village. The Porta de Sant Miquel is awesome. Also bought 4 1kg jars of local honey for something like 9 euros each, costs nearly 3 times that back in UK.

 

[Momac]

Thankyou,thankyou,thankyou!! I have just spent a wonderful hour ironing, whilst Mr Momac read out your beautifully written, informative, and amusing post. We were reduced to tears of laughter at your 'close encounter' with the waitress in Vire!

We have done similar trips ourselves and plan to repeat part of the journey in September, using a different route and mixing up familiar and new stopovers, so your information and experiences will be invaluable.

I will now have to read it all again making notes as I go, but this won't be a hardship I'm sure.

Thankyou again.....happy camping!

 

[Ingwe]

We ate at the bistro in the earlier Barfleur photos. Mrs Ingwe had moules, I had fish and chips. That, a kir, Ricard, demi-pichet of Chardonnay, two scoops of ice cream to follow came to €53. So not bad.

Slept well and this morning drove the 25k to Cherbourg. Parked at the site at Cité de Mer. Although we only sail tomorrow, we arrived early in the hope that our flexi ticket would permit an earlier sailing for a £20 fee. But no such luck! Protesting workers have caused some disruption to sailings. Not ours (yet) but the parking was full of mostly French registered vans, There is a more modern Bailey than ours parked behind us. Not seen anyone about.

So we had a lot of hanging about and, as it was sunny and mild, we decided to explore Cherbourg. We were conscious of Riverbankannie ’s considered advice as regards would-be immigrants but locked up, set the alarm and walked the short distance into the town centre.

We’ve been here several times before. I once went to the very interesting submarine museum at the Cité where you get a tour of a decommissioned French nuclear sub. Mrs Ingwe had researched the Lonely Planet guide and we sought out the Emmanuel Liais gardens plumb centre of the town. They are currently carrying out a lot of pedestrianisation of Cherbourg so care needs to be taken negotiating diggers, drillers and silent battery scooters.

We found the gardens and what a little gem! A lovely haven in what was a botanist’s home and gardens. His particular interests were South American and Asian flora and there are stunning examples of Japanese azalia. Lots of rhododendrons, some even beginning to bloom. There is a large modern greenhouse absolutely crammed with exotic plants. The gardens were almost empty and we wandered into the greenhouse. The ferns and other plants were huge and it was like being on the set of Jurassic Park. The temperature and humidity was high. After 10 minutes, we stepped outside just in time as the greenhouse closes at 16:30.

We returned to the van after checking out restaurants on the dockside for lunching tomorrow. We had contemplated eating out again tonight but decided it was a little profligate having eaten out last night. So we’ll have lunch tomorrow and hopefully board the ferry for our 18:00 sailing. But watch this space……
Apologies for how the photos have displayed. Using my phone and they have appeared out of order and some at the start of the post. Also, unwanted duplication and deleting is difficult with the phone.

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[Riverbankannie]

The gardens look amazing and so does the fish and chips but I would have to leave it because of the chopped chives on top. That reminds me must print out a card in Spanish and Portugese, No onion, garlic, leek or chives. Mind you, they probably won’t think that little bit on top counts

 

[Ingwe]

The gardens look amazing and so does the fish and chips but I would have to leave it because of the chopped chives on top. That reminds me must print out a card in Spanish and Portugese, No onion, garlic, leek or chives. Mind you, they probably won’t think that little bit on top counts

Thanks. Do you not eat chives, onion and garlic out of taste issues or are you allergic to these items? If an allergy, what a shame! I love all of those goodies.

 

[Ingwe]

Thankyou,thankyou,thankyou!! I have just spent a wonderful hour ironing, whilst Mr Momac read out your beautifully written, informative, and amusing post. We were reduced to tears of laughter at your 'close encounter' with the waitress in Vire!

We have done similar trips ourselves and plan to repeat part of the journey in September, using a different route and mixing up familiar and new stopovers, so your information and experiences will be invaluable.

I will now have to read it all again making notes as I go, but this won't be a hardship I'm sure.

Thankyou again.....happy camping!

Have a great time. A lot of fun is in the planning. Enjoy

 

[Peavy]

A lot of fun is in the planning.

I hate that part

 

[Riverbankannie]

Thanks. Do you not eat chives, onion and garlic out of taste issues or are you allergic to these items? If an allergy, what a shame! I love all of those goodies.

I am allergic to allium (which those things are the family of). Being vegetarian doesn’t help either.

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[Wanders from Glos]

I didn’t know that was a thing. I have just found out I am lactose intolerant, hopefully temporary. I know an allergy is worse with the dangers of anaphylaxis but its still a nuisance.

Ingwe the gardens look fabulous, who knew such a place was in Cherbourg. Great find.

 

[Ingwe]

I didn’t know that was a thing. I have just found out I am lactose intolerant, hopefully temporary. I know an allergy is worse with the dangers of anaphylaxis but its still a nuisance.

Ingwe the gardens look fabulous, who knew such a place was in Cherbourg. Great find.

Sorry to read about your hopefully temporary, lactose intolerance. The Liaise gardens are a lovely surprise.

 

[Ukbandit]

After a reasonable night’s sleep at the Dog House, we were up and ready to leave at 8a.m. At 7:55 there was a gentle tap on the driver’s door and I got out of the habitation door expecting to see a man-mountain security guard. Instead there was tiny guy in a raincoat with ‘Security‘ on the back who politely said that we should be gone by 8.I said we would be and he gave a thumbs-up and scuttled off back to a warm dry hut somewhere. We drove to, and parked at, the nearby Tesco where we had cheese toasties and coffees at Costa next door.

The drive to the tunnel was shrouded in fog and when we got there (more than 2 hours before our scheduled train) we weren’t offered an earlier train. There is a lot of building work going on at the terminal which means that the car park was a fraction of the usual size and we parked up prepared to wait the 2.5 hours till our train. Five minutes later, an official tapped on the window and asked us to prepare to entrain. So we boarded a train more than 2 hours early. We think that the shortage of parking space was the reason for sending us out.

A pretty uneventful trip to our first night which was at an aire at Neufchatel-on-Bray. Aire Sainte Claire is €14 per night with 10amp electric hook-up. There were about six vans there, all Brits. The pitch was a neat hard standing with a little waterlogged patch of grass on one side. The facilities include a full laundry, one shower, two flush toilets, one wash-hand basin. There is also a black water dump, grey water drain, fresh water taps and waste bins. 100 yards away is a humungous E Le Clerk supermarket with fuel garage.
It rained all night but by the time I’d showered, recharged the toilet, filled up with fresh water to 50%, the sun was shining and it was mild (13°). We drove 188 miles to Ecommoy using the A28 mostly avoiding Rouen and it was a much more pleasant trip than navigating through Rouen.
Our destination was an organic cheese farm run by a Dutch family. At one point we were ordered off the motorway due to farmers’ protests and it was a 20 minute diversion before we rejoined but otherwise it was pretty uneventful trip.

We were warmly greeted by the Dutch owner and she connected us to a 16amp extension cable, before showing us the cheese shop. The charge is €12. The parking for motorhomes is a small income supplement but is adequate. The pitch is level on gravel over normal farm-yard mud. We bought a couple of cheeses; garlic and a little hard dark thing that tastes wonderful despite appearances!

So tomorrow, another fairly long drive to south of Bordeaux, exact destination not yet finalised. Anyway, here are some photos of the tunnel parking, the foggy aire just near Boulogne and then the cheese farm. The navigator, first office and chef is preparing cheese omelettes, with a green salad and I’m sipping a Famous Grouse on the rocks as I type this. Well it is Friday!

Tunnel terminal car parkView attachment 858910

View attachment 858914
Cheese Farm, EccomoyView attachment 858921

View attachment 858916View attachment 858918

How did you avoid Rouen using the A28? Which route did you take to avoid it?

 

[Ukbandit]

I dont understand drivers going into Rouen to head south. I use the D6015 east of the river from the A28.

Abbeville to Rte de Paris

www.google.co.uk

I’ve done both ways no benefit either way, depending on time of day, we use D6015 if we are staying overnight at the Aire at Ponte Arche

 

[Ukbandit]

I would recommend stopping at Parentis en Born in the Landes south of Bordeaux easy drive on the RN10 which i as good as any UK motorway.

Hi Leith just been trying to find the road you mention to Parentis the RN10 can’t find it on any of my maps.

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