Last night in France - Wed 2nd Nov

Drove on up through France past Chartres, Rouen and on to a campsite near Abbeville. It is situated in the grounds of an old deserted house with lots of trees and Nissan huts. Three children were busy sweeping up the Autumn leaves when we arrived and they swiftly called “Maman” on the intercom. A couple more Brits arrived as we were having a walk around the place – probably all making their way up to the ferries. It is much cooler now; we’ve been in long trousers for a few days but today, for the first time, trainers have replaced sandals. I don’t like to think how cold it might be up in the north of England.

Cooked ourselves a couple of nice steaks with onions and fried potatoes in the evening – our last night in France and in the van.

The last lap

1st November

We said our goodbyes to Jackie and Richard and set off once more. The adventure is nearly over now and we are back on familiar roads just making our way back up to Calais.

Tonight we are staying at a campsite in Cloyes sur Le Loir. It has grown dark while I have been updating the diary and I think we shall be having a meal and then an early night. David has tried his Sat dish to see if we can pick up a TV signal but we are surrounded by trees and he couldn’t find anything. Looks like we may be watching an episode of the Bill again tonight – it’s been weeks since we watched either TV or a DVD!

We have hardly seen any news but we do know that Gadaffi has been shot,and Jackie gave us an update on "Strictly Come Dancing"!

Richard and Jackie

After saying our farewells to Richard and Cheryl in Duras, David and I set off for St. Foy la Grande, once again reminiscing about our camping trip to Baillou and the invite to Dave Beattie’s 60^th birthday in the nearby villa that once belonged to Sinead O’Connor. We had planned to buy an artisanal “tarte de pommes” in the little baker’s we knew of next to the supermarket in St. Foy to take to Richard and Jackie’s [Richard being my former head at Barkerend] but had forgotten that everything shuts down in France on a Monday! Panic set in but we did manage to find a flower shop on the journey towards Angouleme, and a supermarket that was open.

We had more sat nav problems finding Richard and Jackie’s and found ourselves on some tiny lanes in the middle of the French countryside once again. Very scenic but also very time consuming. However, we found their house eventually and spent a lovely evening there. Jackie had prepared a chicken casserole which was very tasty, and after pineau, pernod, wine, brandy and cheese, we found ourselves still all chatting away at midnight.  We didn’t even stop talking enough to have a tour of the house – that took place the next morning.

The next morning, we had breakfast in our van, then went into Richard and Jackie’s where we all sat round the table in their kitchen once again. Richard showed us a book of recollections from the Polish community he grew up with in Hereford after the war. There were photos of him and his family as well. Times were hard for families who had lost everything they had in Poland and were having to make a fresh start in a foreign country. I noticed that, keeping to the old ways, the community grew a lot of their own food and had a communal cabbage slicer for chopping cabbage before pickling it. All very interesting stuff.

They then showed us around their house. It is very spacious, especially since they have converted the barn at the side and made it into an almost self-contained apartment. It had a beautiful curving wooden staircase leading to the upstairs. Our van [and even our house back at home] is going to feel very small again!

Parting of the ways

When we woke up the next morning, we found that the campsite in daylight was, in fact, very pretty with good facilities and made all the better by the good weather - this could be our last breakfast outside!

If you are wondering who took the photo of all four of us together when we were alone on the site - a lady turned up at 11am to collect our fees!

Once packed up, we went up to Duras for a coffee before the final parting of the ways. The sun was shining, the market was on and the little town was as interesting and lively as ever.

However, the time came to say “goodbye”once again and I think we were all really sorry that this time we would be unlikely to bump into each other again – Richard and Cheryl are heading for Caen and we go to Angouleme to see Richard and Jackie, and then on up to Calais. It’s so strange that we should bump into them like that at Camp Gavin – they were the first couple we got chatting to on the Morocco trip and although we all mixed with everyone else on the trip, the four of us got on really well and will miss each other’s company.

Duras in the Dark!

Our problems were not over, yet. Mabel had done a great job of finding the campsite for us once we had reached Duras but it was all in darkness and there was no-one there! What should we do? We didn’t know of any other campsites in the area and it was now completely dark 

Out came the torches and we found a notice saying the owners were away for the week – great! We walked down onto the camping field, found where the pitches were and decided we would stay the night even if there was no-one else about. Safety in numbers, we thought. As it turned out, we were able to connect to the electricity, there was water on each pitch and the loo block was all clean and in working order. 

We set to and in no time at all had our respective meals ready, glasses of wine poured and were sitting cosy in Richard and Cheryl’s van. Another good day!

Lost in France with Mabel and Gladys

We had decided to all head for a campsite just outside Duras which the book said was still open [many have closed down now for the winter season]. David and I took the lead and negotiated us safely down the Pyrenees and through Pau. We were well on our way across Les Landes when it all started to go wrong. The navigator wasn’t concentrating and even though Mabel [the Sat Nav lady] told us quite clearly to take a right we managed to miss the turning. It’s not easy turning round a motorhome and a caravan so we decided to carry on because there were other options. 

However, when we did eventually turn right Mabel didn’t like it at all [admittedly, we were now on some very minor roads] and our map wasn’t on a large enough scale to show us all these smaller roads. We stopped a couple of times to consult with Richard and Cheryl who have a different make of Sat Nav [they call her Gladys]. Curiously enough, Gladys was giving different instructions from Mabel so we were in quite a pickle and the light was fading fast. Somehow, with a mixture of instinct and guesswork, we managed to make our way across country to Marmande and then up to Duras. By now, it was pitch black...

Sorry, no photos - concentrating too hard on the map and Mabel -and  the navigator is in enough trouble today!

Crossing the Pyrenees

Drove past Biescas and up to the crossing point at Portalet. The cafes and shops were all very busy and the sight of the old border control reminded me of driving over with Dad more than twenty years ago when he hid all his gin from the customs men by pouring it into bottles of orange Fanta [gin and orange had been a popular drink in his day]. That was all very well until we reached the outskirts of London; I woke up after dozing, went round to the back of the car for a drink, saw what I thought was a nice refreshing Fanta, and took a big swig from one of the bottles – and it was only 9.00am. Dad had known exactly what I was about to do and when I staggered back into the car was sitting there with the most wicked grin on his face!

We parked up with Richard and Cheryl and sat outside one of the cafes with coffees and a large plate of chips. It was lovely to sit there on top of the Pyrenees basking in the Autumn sunshine!