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Published: December 13th 2012
On the way to Avignon
I can see it's going to be colder here...On Friday 7/12 we drove from Sitges in Spain to Avignon in France, and as we drove we could see the distant snowy mountains, we started to steel ourselves for the steady decline in temperature….
The plan we had in mind was to go to Avignon, stay in the van on Friday night and the next morning take the TGV to Geneva, then stay overnight on Sat 8/12 in Geneva in a hotel, returning to Avignon on Sunday evening and staying in Avignon that night in the van, then on Mon 10/12 go on to Lyon.
However, we went to the Avignon TGV station on the Friday night to check the trains and get tickets. We had arrived at Avignon France from Sitges Spain at around 4pm. We left the van at the campsite and cycled to the station - it was dark and it was bitterly cold.
We found that we could get tickets to Geneva OK, but the only return tickets available on the Sunday were 1
st class fares, and we weren’t prepared to pay that amount. We decided that we would drive on to Lyon the next day and go to Geneva from Lyon. So,
Leaving Lyon
Early start on route to St. Hilaire-sous-Romilly, snow on the ground Saturday morning we set off for our chosen camp site in Lyon.
On Saturday 8/12 we arrived at the site in Lyon, only to find it was full up! We never expected that, but we weren’t the only ones – in a car park next to the site were ten other camper vans similarly caught out.
The car park was very well lit and there weren’t any parking restrictions, so we decided to rough it and spend the night in the car park with the other vans. There was an Ibis hotel next door, and a garage at the top of the car park, so we weren’t concerned about safety. But, between midnight and 5am in the morning some darling youths thought it was fun to drive round every hour or so honking their car horns and singing loudly – I’d have thought it was too cold for such antics, but they obviously had nothing better to do. We didn’t particularly feel intimidated, as they didn’t seem to leave their cars or stay long at a time, but it didn’t make for a peaceful nights sleep. So by 6.30am we were wide awake and decided to drive on
Bresles
Nice place, and nearly home and skip the Geneva trip this time.
On Sunday 9/12 we arrived at our next stop, St Hilaire-sous-Romilly. And here, we ran out of gas! Quite sensibly French shops aren't open on Sunday afternoons, so no gas, no heating. It just gets better and better!
We did have a small electic fan heater which did keep the temperature up, so we left St Hilaire early on 10/12 Monday morning, and stopped to get gas on route. Naturally, we hadn’t brought British gas bottles with us, we had two German ones. So now we also have a French one! But we do have heating!
On 10/12 Monday night we stayed at Bresles. It was a nice campsite, and our spirits were buoyant again – being warm makes us happy!
On Tuesday 11/12 we headed for Calais. We got the 4pm sailing with Myferrylink – a new company that has taken over the Sea France ferries. We felt like the only people on board, it was very quiet.
Arrived back home UK time around 6pm only to find our house heating wasn't working, can you believe it! So after booking an appointment for British Gas to come
Bresles
Liked Bresles out the next day, we spent Tuesday night in the van on our drive!
Wednesday, 12/12, heating fixed, back in the house and the last six months starting to feel like a vague memory already...
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