The French Adventure

Cal · August 31

Tomorrow we set off on our latest voyage with Milo the motorhome and are heading across, well more correctly under, the channel and into France.

I think pretty much every stop that we have on our very rough and ready (and subject to change on a daily basis) route is by water so may be of interest to some, if not all of you.

Tonight after work we will finish off loading up the van ready for a steady day tomorrow driving down to St Margaret's Bay where we have an overnight stop booked in at The Coastguard ready for a morning train on Saturday.

Now just to get the last afternoon of work over and done with. Roll on 4.45pm :default_rolleyes:

kpnut · August 31

Very much looking forward to reading about your trip.

CambridgeCabby · August 31

Very much looking forward to following your travels as well , thank you

Cal · August 31

We are all packed up, the van is all packed up and we are ready to set off in the morning.

Just need to fill the water up before we go, can't do it with the van parked in the drive as the filler is up against the house wall.

The dog is overly excited. He will be a nuisance tonight. 🙄

kpnut · August 31

2 hours ago, Cal said:

The dog is overly excited. He will be a nuisance tonight. 🙄

They always know, don’t they. You get no peace till they’re stowed and you’re off.

ChrisB · September 1

Have a wonderful trip. I am green with envy!

Continental motoring was my late wife's and my greatest pleasure. More so, even, than sailing as Judith was never as keen on the sea as me.

We started camping, then when the boys came, a caravan, and latterly Hotels, Routiers and Ferme Auberge.

This 1974 picture of Judith preparing lunch, sat on a bench by the river in Montauban is one of my favourites. The back seat was removed from the Dyane to accommodate all our camping gear. We were on our way back from our second trip in that car to Andalusia, crossing the Pyrenees via the Col de Puymorens. No tunnel back then!

The year after it was a Europa caravan towed by a Daimler Sovereign because what we did not know was Judith was coming home pregnant with our eldest son.

Hard to come to terms that that picture was taken 49 years ago, with a Russian SLR Zenit camera.

Cal · September 1

8 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

Have a wonderful trip. I am green with envy!

Continental motoring was my late wife's and my greatest pleasure. More so, even, than sailing as Judith was never as keen on the sea as me.

We started camping, then when the boys came, a caravan, and latterly Hotels, Routiers and Ferme Auberge.

This 1974 picture of Judith preparing lunch, sat on a bench by the river in Montauban is one of my favourites. The back seat was removed from the Dyane to accommodate all our camping gear. We were on our way back from our second trip in that car to Andalusia, crossing the Pyrenees via the Col de Puymorens. No tunnel back then!

The year after it was a Europa caravan towed by a Daimler Sovereign because what we did not know was Judith was coming home pregnant with our eldest son.

Hard to come to terms that that picture was taken 49 years ago, with a Russian SLR Zenit camera.

Such amazing memories 💖 ❤️

ChrisB · September 1

It was always lunch-time when we got to Montauban. 17 years later , 1991 returning from what was to be our last family holiday in Banyuls-sur-Mer.

By the river, maybe even the same bench! The steed was Judith's Rover 216VP. We crammed into it as my Peugeot 405 lacked air-con.

Our youngest son must have taken the picture.

Anyway must not hi-jack your thread. I look forward very much to following your adventure.

Cal · September 1

12 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

It was always lunch-time when we got to Montauban. 17 years later , 1991 returning from what was to be our last family holiday in Banyuls-sur-Mer.

By the river, maybe even the same bench! The steed was Judith's Rover 216VP. We crammed into it as my Peugeot 405 lacked air-con.

Our youngest son must have taken the picture.

Anyway must not hi-jack your thread. I look forward very much to following your adventure.

Please hi jack all you like. Loving your little snippets and memories. Loving the cars as well 👌

Sadly our modern euro box of a van is lacking the character of vehicles gone by. Would love to do the trip in our Sierra at some point though.

Cal · September 1

8 hours ago, kpnut said:

They always know, don’t they. You get no peace till they’re stowed and you’re off.

No chance of a lie in around here on a Friday.

The dog woke us up at 6am, the time we get up for work. Then the bin men were round at 6.15am. Then people setting off for work.

We have just accepted it's time to get up.

Vaughan · September 1

20 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

I look forward very much to following your adventure.

So do I!

kpnut · September 1

1 hour ago, ChrisB said:

what we did not know was Judith was coming home pregnant with our eldest son.

Sounds very like my daughter’s last trip to France. A passionate Francophile. Camping near Bergerac last summer and coming home ‘plus one’. Littl’un is now 3 months old and has even been given a French name, Elodie, As I write, she is winging her way, with mum and dad, down to the Ardèche, via a stop over in Trois last night. Lucky them.

Our first trip as a family was in 1988, to a friend’s sheep farm/ferme auberge near Castelnaudary in the Pyrenees. Our daughter was 13 months. And she’s been to France every year since.
We too started with camping, then static caravans, then moving on to ferme auberge, with cheap formula 1 type stopovers where necessary.

Your trip sounds so enticing, it might lure me away from the boat for a holiday next season!!!! Maybe I can tag along with granddaughter as a babysitter?

ChrisB · September 1

Our "Out of Nessesity" overnighters were normally Campaniles. Because you were always assured of a good breakfast, a sort of trans-European mixture of cereal, bread, cheese eggs cold meats catering for all nationalities.

kpnut · September 1

1 hour ago, ChrisB said:

3 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

kpnut · September 1

4 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

Because you were always assured of a good breakfast, a sort of trans-European mixture of cereal, bread, cheese eggs cold meats catering for all nationalities.

Sorry about the above. Couldn’t get rid of it!

Yes, we’ve been in them too. Our favourites were called B+B or something similar, I can’t quite remember now. A big improvement on a formula 1.
Scrambled egg and bacon that were in a plastic bag to warm up in the microwave 🫤

Cal · September 1

I think it was a Formula 1 we stayed in on our way to pick a hire boat up in Brittany a few years back now.

Basic but it did the job for a quick one night stopover.

Not much to report so far on our trip. A drizzly damp run down the A1. Quick coffee stop then we will be on the road again.

Mouldy · September 1

We spent several holidays using Eurocamp sites in France and once at Lake Maggiore, Italy. We also used Campaniles for overnight stopovers, but later discovered a new (at the time) hotel chain called Ace, which became our chain of choice. In the main, we stayed inland, visiting the Ardeche, Gorges du Verdon, Gorges du Tarn and the Dordogne, but did venture as far as Argèles sur Mer once.

We crossed the Viaduc du Millau, visited, Monaco, Rocamador, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and returning from Italy went over the magnificent Sustenpass. Memorable times.

Maybe, in time, we’ll go again, but since Brexit, taking our dog with us has become much more expensive and more involved than when the Pet Passport was in operation. We’ll see.