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Published: August 10th 2008
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So we begrudgingly left Portugal a week and a half ago, you might have gathered we could have stayed there forever, but on to pastures new! We left and drove across Portugal and got half way across Spain, about 7 hours driving in 30 degrees (lovely!) and unfortunately just as we left Portugal our indicators stopped working! Sam had a fiddle and managed to get them working for 50% of the journey. Every time we wanted to change lanes we had to fiddle with the relay mounted under the dashboard which as i am sure you can imagine, got a little tiresome and was probably a bit dangerous! Luckily this seemed to work for the time being.
We stopped for 1 night at a campsite in Tordesilla, Spain then drove the remainder of the journey back into France. Apart from our indicators it was actually quite a good drive, we didn't hit any traffic and the Spanish seemed to be off the road. We have found the Spanish to be some of the worst drivers we have ever experienced.
We finally got to our destination which is a small town called Messanges-plage (pronounced MES ONGE), our friends (Lars &
PartyInTheCarPark
Party in the Car Park. Nina) whom we met in Portugal suggested we stop there as it has a really nice place where camping vans can stay for free. Its basically a car park but it is about 500 metres from an amazing surf beach, which also has showers and it meant we didn't have to fork out 30 Euros for a campsite and could spend more on food and booze!
As we pulled up at the camping spot we noticed a bunch of Ozzie lads (Timmy and Woody Everyone is Auz is a ...y or ...ie) who we also met in Portugal. (small world!) These guys are hilarious. They bought and old Ambulance from London and they now have a home made camper. Sort of. They basically stuck a bed and frame in the middle and added a few bits of random furniture, like an arm chair?????!!! See the pics for more details... Turns out they were meeting some of their friends from the UK, so in the end about 10 of us sat around that night, drinking, playing Guitar and generally chatting, it was a really funny night. The next morning Sam got up for a surf with the boys (I slept:-)
FrenchTrafficMile1
French Traffic Mile 1 at around 7am. Sam tells me that the water was like a bath (not like Portugal) and ended up having a really good surf. Then we said our good byes and headed further north to Montalivet-Les-Bains. we arrived about 4pm, chilled out for a bit then had a long bike ride and did a tour of the town (nothing we hadn't seen before, long beaches, small bars and lots of people) we also found a free car park here (in France most town have an area where people can park and camp over night for free, no toilets or showers unfortunately but we had a cold semi naked beach shower again which i found very liberating!).
The next day we only had a short drive before reaching our final destination, (for a week anyway) which is Vannes to stay with Sam's cousin Pete. One of the Ozzie boys suggested that rather than go via Bordeaux we take the coastal roads and take a very short ferry trip. Now just to elaborate, this is a journey that technically should take about 4 hours. Everything was going great until we got about 2kms away from the Ferry Port when we were
FrenchTrafficMile10
French Traffic Mile 10 greeted with the sight of a traffic jam that went the whole 2km to the ferry. ( Oh f**) were my feelings on the matter! After 2.5 hours of sitting in a queue which Betty really hated! We eventually boarded the ferry. To add insult to injury the ferry cost 43 Euros for a 20 minute trip! Lovely....
So we were finally at the other side and on the road again, yay. Or not. We just exited off the toil road near Nantes which is about 80k away from Vannes and hit non moving traffic which seemed to go on for miles. By now it is about 7pm and seeing as we had been on the road about 7 hours at this point we were less than impressed. When we finally arrived at Sam's cousin 10.5 hours after leaving he apologised for not remembering to tell us that there are 3 weekends every year when you shouldn't drive in France an apparently this was one of them. The first weekend in August is when all of the Parisians go on holiday and everyone who lives in Northern France heads south as well as everyone who took holiday in July
FrenchTrafficMile20
French Traffic Mile 20 heads back up North - THANKS PETE!!! OH WELL, good to know for next time:-) As a note it took us longer to drive 400km that it took for us to get from Portugal to Mid Spain! Mind you we saw one jam that stretched about 40km.. see pictures. Sam dubbed the phenomenon the 8th wonder of the world and the French Migration seems comparable to the wildebeest migration in the Serengeti only with traffic jams instead of crocs for the unwary.
However we have had a great week in Vannes ,we have spent most of our days biking riding APART from last Sunday where we had a duvet day which sounds really boring but it was so luxurious after 2.5 months in the Van, we just stayed in bed and watched DVDs and read, the only thing missing was popcorn!
We found a Volkswagen garage too and got our indicator fixed, it just needed a new relay...phew.. only 34 euros!
Yesterday we had a good night out with some of Pete's friends in Carnac (beach town nearby), we found a really cool Moroccan style restaurant and bar, not unlike some of the really cool bars in
FrenchTrafficMile30
French Traffic Mile 30 London, the food was great and it was filled with very beautiful people, including some very glamorous Transvestites!
Tomorrow morning we are heading off to La Torche and then over the next 10 days were are making our way slowly to Calais where we catch the Euro Tunnel back to London before heading off sailing to Greece.
From Sam now. Just a few things to add.. Had a great time here in Vannes it really is a place with a NZ like lifestyle. The cycling around here is pretty sweet with loads of cycle tracks around the bay and some pretty wicked single track out near Pete's drop zone. There is plenty of water sports and the climate is very NZ like.. that is to say it is changeable!! In our time here we surfed some nice 5 foot waves on a local beach break and rode good single track with Pete. We could have also windsurfed, kitesurfed and sailed, but didn't have the gear or money! The locals really have the life here!
We had a solid 10 weeks of sun since leaving Brittany only to return to get rained on the first Sunday but as Deb's
NotGreatOnOurSideEither
French Traffic our side said a duvet day was quite welcome. After re-watching Batman returns that day we can't wait to see the Dark Knight. In the Moroccan restaurant I had a great meal so good that Debs took a photo of me eating rather than the other way around.. there is a send up for the books. All in all a great time in Vannes Thanks Pete!
Sam
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