Rained again in the night. Stopped by morning. What a brilliant arrangement ! Kismee stayed in the garage today as there is an excellent, very frequent, tram service right into the city centre from just outside the campsite. We managed to buy some tickets in a machine at the tram station and took the no. 2 to Commerce and then no. 1 to the bridge for Les Machines de L’Ile. All very easy. I found a description for Les Machines de L’Ile as “an artistic, cultural and touristic project”. All of that and more. A set of animatronic amazing and fantastically imaginative machines. First we rode the Giant Elephant. We were really lucky in our timing all day. Arrived at 10:45, bought a ticket, took a ride at 11:00. Absolutely brilliant – riding out of the ... read more

Bob had very carefully chosen our route from Le Crotoy to Chartres taking special care in working out how to get across the Seine river which is never terribly straightforward. Rouen is the obvious route across but we hate Rouen, for a couple of reasons after problems there on previous trips, so do our very best to avoid it. Today’s route was absolutely excellent. The weather was drop dead blue sky gorgeous, the roads almost empty of traffic being a Sunday on a holiday weekend. The Tandy was in excellent spirits and so were we after a good long and obviously much needed sleep. Our route took us almost due south, edging quite close to Paris and nowhere near to Rouen crossing the Seine at Mantes la Jolie. A route we’ve not been before and there ... read more

Writing this a little retrospectively as now back home in the UK. Didn’t manage to finish this while we were away, just too busy. Not quite as early a start today though 8.30am is quite early enough when you’re on holiday. We really have been quite hectic this trip, good thing we have had the two relaxing days at the beach. As yesterday our little coach collected us from the hotel reception and we set off for a 90 minute trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We were heading for Ben Dinh which is quite close to the Cambodian border and also the Saigon river. The 75 miles of very narrow tunnels allowed movement between the two countries and also had exits to the river. They were used extensively by the Viet Cong during the Vietnamese ... read more

A day in the city, exploring, as next two days are reserved for trips out and about. We had intended first of all to visit the Reunification Palace which is in the park a little way up from the hotel. A check of the guide book showed it was closed 11am to 1pm and our timing was out so we decided to leave it for another day. A little odd when we headed out in that direction, right along the park where the map showed it to be, we couldn’t see it. The invisible palace. Our first stop was the Cathedral, very French in design of course as it was built during the French colonial period and the same for the magnificent Post Office building, built and decorated in an altogether grand style. A popular tourist ... read more

Though we were having 2 lazy beach days we still wanted to see a little of the town so we set off along the promenade, checking out the wonderful long, pristinely clean sandy beach all the way, heading for the river estuary. Here the fishing boats are moored but we were at the wrong time of day to watch any boats coming and going. There were plenty bobbing about in the water with their round woven traditional coracles, which they use for getting ashore and between the boats, fastened between them. A colourful scene. We walked to the next bridge along and then turned left back towards the town. This was a very busy road with lots of interesting things to see, as always in this country. Everyone is very friendly with lots of smiles and ... read more