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Published: August 10th 2007
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4th August 2007
Bonjour Bo & Dud,
We’re here then - after all the planning, settled for the time being at a place just to the north of Saumur; called Vernoil.
We left Sutton Scarsdale on Sunday 29th and had an excellent journey to Kent where we spent 2 nights at our usual pre-departure site in Appledore. We spent our first evening watching hot air balloons in the distance and a barn owl patrolling the field in front of us looking for his dinner.
Monday started as an ‘admin’ day, phone calls to make and emails to send off. Howard was delighted when he spoke to Vodaphone, we now have 200 mb per month, which is double what we initially expected. Let’s just hope it all works well when we are over ‘the pond’. It was a lovely sunny day and so we had fish & chips from our favourite shop, sitting on the sea front at Hythe. We relaxed for the rest of the day - this is starting to feel like a holiday.
Howard spent Tuesday morning loading updated route maps onto Emily (our sat nav) and by 1 p.m. we were off to
the Shuttle. We were booked onto the 4.30 crossing and thought that we would have to wait. We used to be able to persuade the attendants at the toll booth that we would appreciate an earlier crossing but since the system has been automated, we’ve been unable to appeal to the better nature of a machine. However, he must have pressed all the right buttons because we were put on the 2.50 p.m. crossing and by 4.30 (French time) we had abandoned the idea to overnight in Licques and were on our way to Rouen.
Don’t know if you’ve ever done Rouen - it’s our nemesis!! In the past, before the dual carriageway came into being, we spent many a happy hour round by the cathedral, down by the docks, not exactly the best route to take when towing a caravan, and on one occasion as we were parked up by some traffic lights, map book between us, a French van pulled up alongside and there was a knock on my window, “where’re you trying to get to love”, I was asked in best Yorkshire accent. I explained that we were heading south, “follow me”, and so we were escorted through Rouen. Imagine then my horror when Howard (encouraged by Emily) decided to take an alternative route through the City.
When I said I was looking for adventure this holiday, I didn’t realise it would arrive on day 1 - Rouen consists of traffic lights and roundabouts and very little else in my opinion. The new route also consists of an UNDERPASS!!! As we started down the road of no return, Howard said “Oh merde”, in front of us was the roof at 2.6 mtrs our caravan is 2.54 mtrs. We moved very slowly to the obvious delighted the French drivers around us (they kept giving signals of encouragement. Once through, Howard beamed at me and explained how it’s always useful to know the height of your caravan. Once I opened my eyes, my mouth soon followed …………
We arrived at Camping Municipal La Vallee, Brionne at about 8 p.m. The French really know how to do village sites. It’s attached to the sports facility and beautifully kept - car, caravan, 2 persons, electricity for 1 night - €11.40, talk about value for money. Next morning we wandered into the village for croissant and baguette before setting off.
We had an uneventful, calm and paced day travelling to Saumur. We know this area quite well and decided to stay to the north of the river this time. We’re staying on a small C.L. type site (only takes 5 caravans maximum) owned Ann and David (won’t forget these names). We are about 1 ½ miles out of the village, a the end of a track, surrounded on 3 sides by woods and it is bliss
We’ve done a BIG shop and intend to settle down now for a few days of nothingness. I’m off now to get reacquainted with Harry.
A’bientot
H & H x
P.S. If you're looking at the route map, we didn't overshoot at the end and have to back track. It's the map making page that stuck the detour to Tour in.
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