Blogs from Champagne-Ardenne, France, Europe - page 9

When I left the station at Reims, I turned left and walked through a lovely park and headed towards La Porte de Mars, an old Roman ruin. Mars Gate is the only remaining monumental gate built in the first part of the 3rd century and giving access to the Roman city of Durocortorum. I then headed along the pedestrian street Place Drouet d’ergon which was where their christmas markets were being held. I kept going until I came to Rue de Vesle. I then made my way to the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Reims. It is truly worth the visit. Excavations have shown that the present building occupies roughly the same site as the original cathedral, founded c.400 under the episcopacy of St Nicaise. That church was rebuilt during the Carolingian period and further extended ... read more

Ok, yes, it has been over two weeks since our last update!! Wow, has time flown! First come first, we wanted to back track and tell you about something that happened when we were leaving the Sorrento/Naples area. We had been warned about Naples, so decided not to go and what happened on the autobarn proved our decision correct. Everywhere in Germany/Italy/France has tolls that you have to pay. The locals have cards that they can use to go through the toll booths, however everyone has to pay either cash or credit card. Some tollbooths are manned, but the majority are automated, where you use c/c or pay via coins/notes into the machine. We had no problems throughout our trip, until we got to the Tollbooth outside of Naples. We thought it a little strange that ... read more

Reims, Epernay in Champagne Region France We said goodbye to Paris at around 11.00am, saying goodbye to the owners of our apartment by taxi. We went to the Invalides train station to catch the RER Train to Versailles to pick up our motor home. At the station, Tom and Kerrie walked to the Camping Park where we had left our camping car. Gemma & I stayed at the train station, with the suitcases. Gemma was soooo excited to see the motor home and she kept on asking why “Papa and Mummy were taking so long”.. At last we saw the motor home come around the corner. It is such a delight to see a little person’s absolute excitement over something. We loaded up the suitcases, then headed for Reims, the centre of the Champagne Region. We ... read more

Tuesday 11th June 2013Leave Scawby around 10.15am and spend the night at Ashford in Kent. Next morning we arrive at the Channel Tunnel at 6.50am and we are on our way to France at 7.10am arriving 25minutes later. It really is amazingly quick and efficient.Wednesday 12th JuneWe drive about 230miles with a few stops along the way, it is not cold but there is a thick covering of cloud and we do not see the sun. A bit like home. Very pleasantly surprised when we arrive at our chambres d’hote in St Germain la Ville, it is a charming old farmhouse “Les Perrieres”. The owners Nicole and Denis are very friendly and make us drinks and snacks after showing us to our room. There is a child’s birthday party in progress and it's certainly child-friendly with ... read more

Making an incredibly early start was easy today, having camped in Oliver who was very pleased to see us we didn’t have the best nights rest, some slight alterations to the back seat to allow us to put the front ones down would have made all the difference. On the road by eight we drove through sleepy village after sleepy village, it was easy to see we were in France the houses tending to be browns and creams rather than some of the more vibrant colours we had been seeing elsewhere. By eight thirty we had come to the conclusion that we must have missed the invasion of the body snatchers in the night, there was no a soul to be seen. With nothing open and the need for coffee growing ever urgent we programmed our ... read more