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Published: January 3rd 2010
Both cranky with colds, we had booked ourselves onto our favourite campsite which was not far across the Dutch border from where we had been staying in Germany. We spent a couple of weeks relaxing at De Zanding in the Hoge Veluwe national park near Arnhem and caught up with chores, the increasing pile of washing and getting over our colds. Finally ready for a change of scene, we headed towards Maastricht, zigzagging across the nominal Dutch, Belgian and German borders in this area. Finding somewhere nearby to leave the van for the day, we headed into Maastricht and spent the day wandering around the old parts of the city.
Leaving Maastricht, we headed back into Belgium for a couple of days, before crossing back into Germany and then back into France following the north east wine routes into the Alsace region. The autumnal colours of the vines made for spectacular landscapes with field upon field planted in an array of reds, oranges and yellows and we spend our first night back in France at Kaysersberg, a small medieval walled village.
We dropped down fairly quickly through France, our next destination being Hauterives, a small village with one notable
draw - the Palais Ideal du Facteur Cheval. Built single-handedly by the local Postman over 33 years, this small “palace” is a backyard folly incorporating many different architectural influences from around the world. Derided at the time and unlikely to get planning permission today, this one-off personal achievement was put together with pebbles and shells that he collected during his rounds.
With a final must-see sight in France, we headed across the Ardeche valley in freezing temperatures towards Millau to see the Norman Foster Bridge. Spanning the Valley, it’s an impressive site but after a few pictures, we left to find somewhere to park up for the night. Heading down a small country lane, we pulled up in the village of St.Jean and St.Paul to find the camperstop located next to the cemetery. With the view from our bedroom window over the gravestones, we spent a “deathly” quiet night and headed back towards the living the next morning. We spent the next couple of days at Leucate, a large artificial lake area hoping to take the kayaks out, but due to high winds, we contented ourselves with watching the windsurfers and kitesurfers braving the weather.
Next destination was
Narbonne, but as we were on our way there, we got a puncture in one of the front tyres, luckily happening with enough room to pull off the slip road to change the tyre. With howling winds and rain, we dug the jack out from its buried location at the back of one of the lockers and an hour and a half later, we were back on the road and arrived shortly at Gruissan to stay at the Aire des four Ventes - which managed to well and truly live up to its name. After being battered with non-stop winds and more rain we left to get the tyre repaired in Narbonne before heading back out to the coast where we stopped for a couple of nights, taking the opportunity to change the tyre again and put the repaired one back on.
Hugging the coast, our final stop in France was at Port-Vendres. A lovely harbour town, unfortunately it was now tainted in our minds due to reversing into a tree with low branches, cracking the spoiler that runs across the Van’s roof. Sick as a parrot, we’d managed to drive nearly 60,000 kilometres in the Van without any
damage and what with the recent puncture and now this we are both left feeling a little despondent. With the damage temporarily taped up, we crossed into Spain the next morning and both hoped for no more adventures for a while.
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Jane Churchman
non-member comment
Lyndsay, I love getting all your news, sound as if you have gone through it on this last one, hopefully though it is still nicer to change a tyre abroad than changing it in miserable old England. Not many people at work today so I am tucking into the left over chocolates :-) Happy New Year to you and Christian xxx