{"id":2390,"date":"2016-04-06T17:43:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T17:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?p=2390"},"modified":"2016-04-06T17:43:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T17:43:19","slug":"france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?p=2390","title":{"rendered":"FRANCE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday 21 Feb<\/p>\n

We head away from Zumaia and drive along the coast road. It is really buzzing and there are heaps of cyclists biking along the coast road and many walking the paths. I guess because it is a beautiful day everyone has come out.\u00a0 The countryside is really lovely here and as usual wish we had more time to stop.\u00a0 There is a small place we could have parked right on the waterfront we pass but you never always know of these places until later.\u00a0 Just before we cross the French border we recognise the roads that we drove on 6 years ago when we drove across the border and back again.\u00a0 The roads are really busy since it is a beautiful day, obviously everyone is out for Sunday.\u00a0 We drive into St Jean de Luz and find a camper stop that is very close by the town.\u00a0 There is one park left for us which is great.\u00a0 There is only water and toilet dump facilities here, no power and it costs a few euro to park here for 24 hours.\u00a0 We park up and walk into the main part of the town.\u00a0 It is absolutely bustling and there are people everywhere.\u00a0 We would like a coffee and a snack but most cafes are full.\u00a0 We walk around the town and along the beach front which is quite crowded with people stretching out in the sun enjoying the day.\u00a0 It\u2019s funny how you think you can remember a place and know the exact streets you went into years before but when you get there you don\u2019t seem to recognise things or things don\u2019t actually face the same way you thought they did.\u00a0 This is how it seemed for me as we walked the streets I struggled to recognise where we parked our car up and walked 6 years ago, but then as I thought we were lost I found the main streets we had walked around and I felt at home again.<\/p>\n

We found a caf\u00e9 away from the water that wasn\u2019t so crowded and went in and had some lunch. After Spain everything now seems very expensive even though it really isn\u2019t that bad. We had a nice lunch and I enjoyed speaking my little bit of French.\u00a0 I get a real thrill out of it when I know they can understand me and I understand them back.\u00a0 We head back around the streets and come across a New Zealand rugby shop which I can\u2019t believe they would have here in France.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine a Frenchman buying any All blacks products.\u00a0 We come across a shop that has a pun on All Blacks, we are in the Basque region and they have a pseudo type silver fern on a t-shirt with All Basques, very clever.\u00a0 We head to the very busy part and decide to have a wine amongst the several hundred people on the most popular part of the town in the sun.\u00a0 There are so many people we are wondering what it will be like tomorrow \u2013 Monday when it\u2019s just a normal day. \u00a0We enjoy a couple of drinks and watch a bit of drama nearby where an ambulance has been called for some reason, then head back to the van.\u00a0 A few vans around us have left \u2013 obviously only here for the weekend. We have a train track right behind us with a busy road in front but thankfully it is all quiet through the night and we don\u2019t even notice this.<\/p>\n

In the morning we head back into the town as I need a French sim so have a shop pegged to go into. Thankfully the lady does speak some English as it can be difficult to make yourself understood as to what type of sim and what plan you need.\u00a0 The lady helps out but has trouble getting it working.\u00a0 She mucks around for about an hour and then says it must take an hour to activate so says come back in an hour if it\u2019s not ok.\u00a0 So off we go and wander around some more but after an hour nothing has changed so we head back to the store.\u00a0 I am not someone she wants to see as I think she is very frustrated and really is not sure why it won\u2019t work.\u00a0 It really shows when she has to phone her own help line and she keeps getting put on hold and then transferred.\u00a0 I am sure she is swearing in French but she has to get it working for me.\u00a0 After another hour she finally gets someone on the line who knows what they are talking about and murphys law it is only one tiny little configuration change that needs to be made \u2013 nothing major.\u00a0 Bingo we are working now and on our way.\u00a0 So we wander around a little more and eventually head back to our van for the night.\u00a0 It has been a lot quieter today than yesterday and a number of shops don\u2019t even open.<\/p>\n

In the morning we head out of St Jean de Luz. Until next time, I am sure we will be back.\u00a0 We have already decided we will drive up to another place we have stayed at before called La Rochelle.\u00a0 We had a nice motel that looked out over the ocean last time we were there but this time we will be on the other side of the town.\u00a0 It is really busy on the road \u2013 a far cry from the roads we have been on in Spain and Portugal.\u00a0 Traffic is everywhere so we need to make sure we know what lane we need to be in so we don\u2019t make a mistake.\u00a0 Thankfully we don\u2019t encounter many tolls in this part of the country which is unusual.\u00a0 It is a rainy windy day \u2013 a far cry from the beautiful day we had on Sunday.\u00a0 It is a long day on the road and late in the afternoon we arrive in La Rochelle.\u00a0 We navigate through peak hour traffic and find the marina that we are allowed to park up at.\u00a0 There are about 20 odd vans there already and it is a big carpark.\u00a0 There is a fun park on the nearby block of land which is playing lively music but there aren\u2019t many people there due to the rainy, cold weather.\u00a0 We park up and go for a walk to see what there is locally.\u00a0 It looks like a number of places are closed up and perhaps only open on the weekend or even in summer.\u00a0 We stop in one of the little bars and have a drink, but it will only be one as it seems rather exorbitant. I don\u2019t recall France being this expensive so I can only think it must just be the south west coast that is this expensive.<\/p>\n

La Rochelle is a fairly wealthy town from what I can recall and I guess the prices here reflect that. We head back to the van and a quiet night before we head out in the morning.\u00a0 We were going to drive to Quiberon but we figured perhaps we try a different place nearby and check it out. We head towards Quiberon recognising a few places from 6 years ago but turn off before you head towards the town. This way is slower so takes a little longer but we are rewarded with quaint villages reflecting the quiet coastal lifestyle. The houses are nicely done up unlike a lot in other rural French areas. We arrive into Port Louis and it is right on the coast and we have two camps to look at and choose which will be better. We pass the first which is overlooking a beach and the ocean.\u00a0 It is a hard stand with only a couple of campers but we decide to check out the second one before making a decision.\u00a0 There are old stone walls and forts in this town and it looks really lovely.\u00a0 We can see a peninsula across from the main road but it appears to be a long drive around to it and we wonder whether you can even drive campervans on the roads there.<\/p>\n

We arrive at the second site and it is mostly a grassy park encompassed within fort type walls which is very quaint, but the grass is very wet and muddy and we decide the hard stand is much better to park on since it is only one night. It is a cold day and after setting up back at the first camperstop we decide we don\u2019t want to walk anywhere as it is a little late and we can\u2019t see many places that are nearby.\u00a0 We try to pay for the park which is only 5euro for the night including power but our card is playing silly buggars and it won\u2019t work and there is nowhere for cash.\u00a0 If anyone comes to check we will just tell them what happened and pay them cash but by morning no one has worried us so we head off to our next destination.<\/p>\n

We have found a little spot that is on the north coast of the large land peninsula of France we are on so we head north and a little to the east. We come across the little town of Saint Cast le Guildo which again looks like a very cute town.\u00a0 The camperstop happens to be a carpark that is right at the end of the town overlooking the marina.\u00a0 We start to drive down towards it but come across a barrier that is only 2.6m which we can\u2019t quite get under so we have to find another way.\u00a0 Google maps tell me the only other road going there is a one way road heading away from the carpark towards where we are trying to drive to it.\u00a0 However in our tripping around the streets to try to find a way, I see other cars heading down this supposed one way road, the wrong way according to Google.\u00a0 So buggar it, we head down it too and find it is ok and not one way and we eventually reach the carpark.\u00a0 I also send Google maps a note to change the road direction to two way.\u00a0 We park up along with a couple of other vans and head down the road towards the marina to see what is around.\u00a0 There is a lovely boardwalk that heads right into the heart of the town and towards the lovely beach they have.\u00a0 Along the boardwalk there are several restaurants but not many are open at this time of the year.<\/p>\n

There are a few people out walking the boardwalk and we join them for a bit and then decide to head back and have a drink at one open restaurant before heading back to the van for the night.\u00a0 The prices aren\u2019t too bad and we sit and plan our next days travel and see where we should stop.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t far from St Malo and as we suss out the map I spy Mont Saint Michel which I have heard of but have never seen.\u00a0 It is where an 11th<\/sup> century Romanesque Abbey has been built and it apparently has the highest tides in Europe.\u00a0 The abbey has been built on a very tiny island off the mainland to which they have now built a road out, however the road can get cut off at high tide and people stupidly try to walk around the outside of the island in the very quicksand like sand and some have been drowned because of the fast rising tide and they can\u2019t get out of the sand.<\/p>\n

25 February 2016<\/p>\n

Anyway we left Saint Cast Le Guildo early the next morning and drive the short distance to Mont Saint Michel and know we really only have about 3 hours to look around and we will then have to leave and drive to a camper stop for the night. The parking for Mont Saint Michel is quite a few kms away and is quite expensive but they have free shuttles out to the island and you don\u2019t have to pay to walk around the whole island village just the Abbey.\u00a0 So we park up and walk to the shuttle which is really well organised.\u00a0 It only takes a few minutes before one arrives and we are off to the island.\u00a0 It really is quite a spectacular sight seeing the Abbey high on the hill of the island in the distance, it really stands out.\u00a0 No wonder it is touted to be the most visited tourist attraction in France even though I am not sure it would beat the Eiffel tower.\u00a0 We get off the shuttle and head into the little island village.\u00a0 It is quaint and quite amazing.\u00a0 It is gated off so if the gates are closed you couldn\u2019t get in as it as high walls around the base of the whole island.\u00a0 We wander and decide to get to the abbey before the main crowds hit here this morning.\u00a0 The abbey is an amazing piece of architecture but inside there are no items at all.\u00a0 I keep saying to Scot that the monks didn\u2019t have things so there wouldn\u2019t have been rugs and paintings and furniture as they lived so frugally but I am not sure if this is the reason it is so stark and empty or someone snavelled all the items during the war or similar.<\/p>\n

We ended up having a coffee at Mont Saint Michel before we left which was the worst most expensive coffee we have had in a while, but it had to be done. Since we are on a time frame we didn\u2019t see everything but it was ok, we really needed to get up closer to where we are taking the ferry back to the UK.\u00a0 So we took the shuttle back to the carpark, paid their expensive fee and headed up north towards Caen.\u00a0 We mainly travelled on the highway as we needed a quick trip.\u00a0 I would love to spend a few months travelling around France, this country has such awesome history and the buildings are amazing.\u00a0 I had thought we would head to Blonville sur Mer where we stayed years ago as it was so amazing, but strangely as I perused the coastline looking for a memory of where we had stayed it didn\u2019t seem right.\u00a0 It turns out that I had in my mind this cute town on the coast that we stayed in a pink painted b&b or hotel where we had a small balcony looking over where ferries came into a tiny port area.\u00a0 Down the road was the centre of the town with cute shops and cafes.\u00a0 But this picture was actually of Quiberon, not Blonville sur Mer so when we actually did visit there I was quite disappointed that we had missed a favourite place that I had remembered even though the name was wrong.<\/p>\n

We ended up in a place called Houlgate which is near Deauville and Blonville sur Mer. The camperstop at this location was at a marina area right on the front of an inlet.\u00a0 At low tide the water went a long way out and you could get across to the other bank easily but the tide came in so fast it was quite frightening watching the speed.\u00a0 We stopped here the night along with several other vans after doing a small shop close by.\u00a0 We spied a laundrette which we will use tomorrow as they are rather few and far between.\u00a0 It was a quiet location until the morning when the fish shed nearby opened early to sell freshly caught seafood.\u00a0 The locals appeared to come in droves to buy their fish and mussels so we had a constant stream of cars coming and going.\u00a0 Scot figured that as the locals like it then it must be fresh so he buys a bag of mussels for tea that night. After getting up we walked along the waterfront into Houlgate town.\u00a0 It was a freezing morning and we had almost all our gear on \u2013 gloves, hats, scarves, warmest jackets etc and we still felt frozen as the wind cut through our clothes like knives.\u00a0 We had to stop in a caf\u00e9 for a coffee just to get out of the wind and have something warm to calm the chill creeping in.<\/p>\n

After coffee we decided to head back to the van and drive back to the laundrette and get our washing done. Its great when there are free machines and you don\u2019t choke on the cost.\u00a0 Washing in and dried whilst reading our books and it was back to the van spot for the night.\u00a0 Unfortunately being a Saturday night a whole lot of other vans had taken most spots as there weren\u2019t many and we thankfully got the final parking spot.\u00a0 I don\u2019t quite know where we would have gone if it hadn\u2019t been free as we weren\u2019t ready to move on.\u00a0 We contemplated going back into town but decided it was really too cold and a night getting warm under covers with a hot water bottle in the van was the order of the evening.<\/p>\n

Sunday 27th<\/sup> Feb<\/p>\n

We wanted to check out Deauville again before leaving so we headed north along the coast. The scenery became familiar and we recognised places we had been years ago.\u00a0 It was a lovely sunny day but still quite cool in the breeze and there were heaps of people around.\u00a0 We drove along the main area and since it was close to lunchtime thought it might be nice if we treated ourselves to a lovely meal out as a farewell to France and our Europe trip.\u00a0 We drove around for a bit and because it was so nice and there were markets on, there were people everywhere.\u00a0 Parking was at a premium.\u00a0 There was a camperstop which I thought we may be able to stop for a couple of hours and even empty our toilet before moving on,\u00a0 but it was full, the vans parked only feet from each other where you could probably hear the conversation going on next door.\u00a0 We did empty our toilet and moved on to a paying carpark where there were spots.<\/p>\n

The markets were just finishing up and people were packing all their stuff into vehicles. Everyone was now sitting in the many restaurants and cafes that dotted along the waterfront leaving not even one spare chair for us.\u00a0 It was packed and eventually daunted by the lack of vacancies(and to some extent the cost) and the likelihood of food taking forever to come we headed back to the van and possibly our own home made lunch.\u00a0 Perhaps that was more of a tribute to our travelling than a caf\u00e9 meal since it represented almost all our lunchtime eating.\u00a0 Walking along past the market stalls we are always horrified at the amount of rubbish that gets left behind.\u00a0 The market being on the waterfront was allowing heaps of plastic rubbish to be blown over into the waterway.\u00a0 We hate seeing this as there is no need for it if everyone takes all their own rubbish from their stall home, but these people don\u2019t care, just like most country markets we have seen over the year.<\/p>\n

Back in the van, we thought maybe we head back to Houlgate and the little coffee shop we had been the day before \u2013 perhaps they make nice food. We head there and find a park which nearly stops the traffic in the street as it is terribly narrow.\u00a0 We make sure a few cars and a bigger van can pass by and we walk down to the main street.\u00a0 The little caf\u00e9 is still open but food is off, buggar, it just isn\u2019t our day for spending money on lunch, so we do have coffee and head back to the van.\u00a0 You know it was about 5 weeks ago and I just can\u2019t remember what we ended up doing, but most likely it was a couple of pieces of fruit as we headed for the camperstop out at the port from Caen which is called Ouistream.\u00a0 We passed a few of the historical war memorials(part of the major invasion area for 1943 D-Day and Pegasus Bridge which he is reading the history of) which Scot wants to go back and spend time at down the track although if we are truthfull, there are so many places we want to go back to and just see a bit more of I think we need another 2 years in the van to see them all for a reasonable amount of time\u2026\u2026anyone want to help fund another adventure for us???<\/p>\n

We arrive at the port camperstop and there are a few vans there and a ferry is just leaving so I race out to take some photos but it is still freezing in the wind here so I don\u2019t stop long. We try to pay for the stop but the machine is broken along with all the facilities.\u00a0 I figure everyone must be getting on the ferry early in the morning being parked up here, but I find out I am wrong as we seem to be the only one who does leave.\u00a0 This is a great place to leave France and get back to England as there are no refugees here and Calais where we came into has the refugee camp being broken up so there is chaos there.\u00a0 We have read that most people are avoiding going via Calais because of the new problems that are now presenting themselves there.\u00a0 Ouistream is small, easy to find your way and still quite cheap to get back.<\/p>\n

Monday 29 Feb 2016<\/p>\n

Up at about 6.30am, it is still dark but I want to be lined up well before we need to leave so there\u00a0 isn\u2019t anyway we can miss the ferry.\u00a0 A quick cup of tea and brekky and we head the short distance to the port.\u00a0 They are really lovely here, no nasty Greek style treatment, although I should think they could justify a search and more checks than they do.\u00a0 Checking in is a breeze and we are lined up ready to leave.\u00a0 Thankfully the wind has eased so the sea won\u2019t be as rough as it has been on some crossings lately.\u00a0 8.30 and we are loaded, plugged into electricity which they go out of their way to help us with, and up on board sadly saying goodbye to France and the last of our European adventure.\u00a0 There are mixed feelings and I am sad that this part has finished, but also excited by the housesits we have managed to get already in England which will see us out of the van for a bit and in a normal bed and house.\u00a0 There is also a part of me that is fully daunted by what we will now have to do and workout as we look to live and work over here for whatever time we wish to stay.\u00a0 Decisions have to be made and once made all the work that goes along with them.<\/p>\n

This ferry is one of the best ones we have been on. The staff are really lovely, the food good, prices acceptable for a ferry and facilities clean.\u00a0 We are impressed after the dreadful experience of Grimaldi line trips in southern Europe.\u00a0 The ferry takes about 6 hours to get back to the UK and we find ourselves backing into port in Portsmouth in no time after passing by the Isle of Wight.\u00a0 Portsmouth looks great and we pass navy ships and base facilities.\u00a0 Back down to the van and we unhook the electricity and prepare to disembark.<\/p>\n