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When we travelled years ago and stayed in gites I often wrote about the gite, the people who owned it and the weather over the holiday . As we moved to motorhoming the blogs usually ended with facts. How many days we had travelled ? What the weather was like ? How many days of sunshine ? How many inclement days or thunderstorms ? The cost of camp sites, the mileage travelled. We tried to rate campsites based on facilities . A swimming pool , clean and refreshing to swim in gained bonus points . A restaurant was a must and the meal was scored on the quality, the price and the service . The reception was noted and the staff commented upon . The price of fuel was written down and a miles per gallon was produced . We talked about what went well . We discussed what could have gone better . What we would have done differently. And made notes for future reference .
As we travelled more we stopped staying on campsites and made just cursery comments on the quality and location of aires . We stopped counting the days away and stopped adding up the
petrol . None of it seemed important anymore . Our priorities had changed over time .
This holiday though we seemed to have returned to figures and facts . It took us three long days to drive from home to Cogolin. The trip to the tunnel had been fine . The same could not be said for the return trip where the motorway was clogged up with lanes closed for roadworks and because of accidents . The hotels were rated . The Hotel du Golf was average and we probably would not use it again . The restaurant poor . The Ibis at Chalon better but the restaurant to be avoided . Would the driver drive so far again? Probably not . The automatic helped and the cruise control was a godsend but we were used to stopping places along the way rather than running headlong from the north of France to the south . We filled up before we boarded the train . Our second fill was near to Chalon and our third just outside Cogolin . We were buying petrol rather than diesel and petrol seemed to be more expensive than diesel . The opposite to back
home . Filling was always at automatic service stations which gobbled the card up . We stopped thinking how much we paid apart from the high costs of petrol on the motorways where 2 euros a litre were common. The car with no name was doing over 40 mpg which is extremely good compared to Gabbys 28mpg.
We spent 11 days away . A lot less than we would normally spend travelling in the van and less than we had intended had we decided on Lake Como. We had wall to wall sunshine with the temperatures in the high 20's. Warm but not hot . The pool was tempting but once I put my fingers in I changed my mind . We had two days of rain . One at the beginning of the trip and the other at the end . We never managed to see as much as we hoped due to the dreadful traffic around the Cote d'Azur . A trip to the roman monument Le Turbie failed due to lack of parking . A trip to the exotic gardens at Eze failed again due to inadequate parking . We never managed a good restaurant meal in the evening . Best bits of the trip - a massive Le Clerc in Cogolin . Always a delight to shop in . St Tropez once we got there . The maritime museum was one of the best we have seen and the roman amphitheatre at Frejus was fascinating and again one of the better ones . I would perhaps have liked to have been bloodthirsty and watched a bull fight there . Perhaps once I had seen one I would never want to see one again .
The journey home started on the Sunday lunchtime . A three hour drive to near Beaune and a stay in a Campanile . The usual chain that is probably similar to our Travelodge or Premier Inn. A cut below the Ibis but adequate . The restuarant was undergoing refurbishment so we ate outside in the garden . We had the choice of a starter and a plat or a plat and a dessert . We chose the Mixed grill followed by a cherry tart made the classic french way in batter . Washed down with a perfectly acceptable burgundian wine . The Mixed grill left a lot to be desired comprising of an undercooked lamb chop which had barely seen the sides of the grill and two sausages . Glenn ate my sausages and I ate his lamb chop which to be fair was almost raw . Not the best of french cooking . Breakfast was served in our rooms or in room number 1 . A bedroom converted to a small area for meals . A few tables dotted around.
We headed for Troyes for another Campanile but then the idea came . Why not change the tunnel - yes it was the second change and go home early ? . We had no internet . That had been a problem all holiday on the move . The dongle did not work something to do with an incorrect password . We had to ring Eurotunnel who changed the booking for another £43 . 10 pounds of which was an admin fee as we should have been able with secure internet access to be able to change it on line . We raced to Calais boarded the train and spent our last night in the Travelodge at Ashford. Dinner was chicken with chips and veg for Glenn and pie peas and mash for me . A good nights sleep was had and it is fair to say the full English breakfast Glenn had was excellent . My continental style was not bad at all either . The journey home was awful .
We were left with some memories of the holiday, a few magnets to remind us of visits , two wonderful cakes bought in the local boulangerie Le Tarte Tropezienne. I now know that in 1955 a local baker made the tarte tropezienne to sell in his bakery . It would have cost 22 euros to buy this tart which seemed to be some kind of custard cold in the middle and lots of sugar on top . It may be copied but apparently you cannot equal those made in and around St Tropez . So facts facts and a lot of facts missing that is the holiday for this year over .
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Adapting to car travel...
We only used our car to travel around Europe when we lived there for 18 years. We stayed at the same hotel chains you did. But for week long stays we stayed at Pierre et Vacance resorts which are like Club Med with all the activities, but without meals, and therefore much less expensive. They have resorts all over Europe. You might check out their website.