French Tour Video and Conclusion

Here is the whole trip summed up in a short video for your viewing pleasure

Update on Sick Herman

This week I think I found the cause of Herman's electrically short. In the rear bumper there is a wire that goes from the left hand light to the right. The left is connected but in the right the wire is exposed and must of been touching somewhere where it shouldn't. We're happy now.

I think I might just leave the wing mirror as it is. It seems solid enough to last a while.

Driving in France

I found driving in France very easy and the other road users, unlike in the UK, are courteous and know how to use the indicator. The highways are generally smooth, especially the toll roads. The highways are normally 2-lane and there doesn't seem to much traffic on them, unlike in the UK.

Speeds limits in France are similar to the UK. The highways are 80mph (130kph, 110kph in wet) but we stuck to 70mph just because that is what we are used to.

Campsites

We found all the campsites very pleasant to stay at. At this time of year they were half full. We used an ACSI card which can get you huge discounts in the low season. I pre-booked a couple of the campsites but on the most part we had a campsite in mind and just turned up. In France a lot of the campsites tend to charge a booking fee. One (International Maisons Laffitte I think) wanted €30 (discounted!) to pre-book 3 nights.

Here is a list of the campsites we went to:

Black Horse Farm Caravan Club Site, Dover

International Maisons Laffitte, Paris

Huttopia Rille, near Tours

Campsite le Perpetuum, in the Dordogne

Campsite Le Moulin Fort, near Chateau Chenonceaux

Campsite Château des Tilleuls, in the Somme Valley

Bay of the Somme

It's the last day of our tour of France. Tomorrow we head back home. There are lots of well marked out circular bicycle routes on tarmac paths here but we didn't want to do anything to strenuous.

Instead, we decided to have a drive around and do some exploring. We visited St. Valery-sur-Somme which is on the south side of the Somme Bay and is a very pretty town which has a stop for the local stream train. Here, the engine is rotated on a turn-table to head back up the track. You can walk on the track and it's amazing the amount of people standing in the way completely oblivious to the hissing, spitting train heading towards them. We also watched as a woman fell off her bike while riding over the track. Lucky the train wasn't around.

We then went to the other side of the bay to Le Crotoy. Easy to get to but we completely missed the signs to the aire de camping car (the motorhome car park) twice, which isn't good because Le Crotoy it made up of narrow, one-way streets.

Idea for a new new kids book; Where's Herman

Eventually, we found the aire de camping car. It is massive with hundreds of campers. I'm amazed how we could have missed it, it's the largest camper park I've ever seen. You can see it from space!

We spent our time in Le Crotoy walking around, eating ice-cream and sitting on the lovely beach. The weather was bright and hot and so much so that Zoe managed to catch too much sun. She was very pink but she hasn't burnt thank goodness.

To the Valley of the Somme

You couldn't guess what woke me up this morning at around 6:30. It was the gentle rising of a graceful hot air balloon. What woke me was the sound of the burner. It sounded quite close so I had to jump out of bed to have a look. It was very close, about as large as my fist at arms length.

Today we travel further north towards Calais. I wanted to avoid Paris and stop off in the Somme but it seemed a bit of a drive. The sat-nav took us through the west side of Paris. It looked good on a map, motorways and dual-carriage ways but Paris is a massive nightmare to drive through. My advise is to avoid it even if it adds 30 miles to your journey. I thought London was bad. Paris is like driving in India but with more motorbikes and scooters and less elephants. Zoe drove the Paris section (again) and she kept really calm even when the sat-nav was too slow, sending us in the wrong direction and almost causing two accidents.

We made it to the Valley of the Somme in one piece. We had our evening meal outside; sun, heat, wine and salmon, where we were paid a visit by a wasp. Now this wasp was the biggest f***ing thing I've ever seen and it freaked me out. It must have been the length and width of my middle finger from the tip to the second knuckle (4cm?). It made the low buzzing sound like distant thunder and had the yellow and black markings like a zebra crossing and as it hovered there, over my wine glass, I could see the pilot! That last bit I made up.

Leonardo da Vinci

No, really, it was too hot today to do anything. I fancied relaxing or going on a short cycle ride but instead we went to Chateau Clos Lucé in Amboise. This is where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last few years.

da Vinci's bedroom

The chateau has some great models showing da Vinci's inventions and the gardens have working full sizes variations that kids can play on. Loads of information and history to be soaked in.




On the way back we came across another wine cave. This time it was a farm house with a proper cave. It was such a relief to escape the heat and enter the coolness of the cave. We tasted a few of the wines which were a lot better than those from the other cave and ended up buying twelve bottles! Four each of côt red, sauvignon white and rose. Herman is getting a bit full of wine.

This evening we had a marvellous BBQ overlooking the river with chilled white wine and cuckoos off in the distance and where at one point a thundercloud rumbled slowly past heading for Paris.

Chateau Chenonceau

Chenonceau is famous for it amazing chateau, one of the grandest in France. The campsite is about 15 minutes from the chateau so we decided to walk there in the blistering heat.

The gardens and the buildings are spectacular and the rooms are well kept with tapestries, paintings and renaissance furnishings. There are so many bedrooms I started to get bored of them. Don't get me wrong, they are all decorated differently, it's just there were a lot of them.

Later in the afternoon I cycled to the local wine cave which is basically a building where the local wine is sold by the bottle or by the litre. I sampled their white, rose and two reds. The white was very nice. I cycled back with a few bottles in the rucksack.

As we settled down to have another BBQ a flock of air balloons sailed over. A very pretty sight without a cloud in the sky. The campsite is busy and everyone seems friendly with the weather being very warm and the insect are very hungry. I've got 15 bites on my legs and Zoe's ankle is swollen with them.

Back to Loire Valley

After we said goodbye to Ken and his party of Yorkshire men we headed back north to the Loire Valley. We arrived at a lovely campsite in Chenonceaux near Amboise with a pitch right next to the River Cher. The weather was hot and sunny with no clouds.

Domme

We planned to do very little today. The weather is getting hotter and we are getting lazy. Today is our last day in the Dordogne and I don't really want to go. It's a very pretty location, the people are very nice and the campsite is great. It's lunchtime when we decided to go out and we headed to an ancient walled town called Domme which is up on the tallest location just a stones throw from the campsite.

The view from Domme is spectacular and it looks over the whole valley. We could see La Roche Gageac, the restaurant we ate at last night, where we cycled, the campsite and the river as it twists and turns in and out of view.

One week to go and we run out of bog paper

Later on we do some grocery shopping at a local supermarket which is really good fun as we try to work out what the products are, attempt a little French lingo (Execuse moi s'il vous plaît. Avez-vous un lait frais?) and got to try what the French eat.

Apparently, Ken and Philip are members of a group of Yorkshire men free-masons who are meeting up at our campsite. That evening we were invited round to have a drink and some nibbles. It was good fun and everyone was very friendly.

Rocs and Holes

Wow, it's getting hot here.

The river is still high and so we head to Rocamadour which is a town built into the side of a tall rocky hill. It has a few churches, a chateau and many shops and restaurants. We had a wonderful cassoulet maison (direct translation; home made casserole with three types of sausage and a duck drumstick) in one of the restaurants over looking the valley.

Ad with his cassoulet and new t-shirt from Super-U

After a stroll and soaking in the sights we headed to Gouffre de Padirac (Chasm of Padirac) which happens to be a massive hole in the ground followed by an underground river and many wonderful, large stalactites and stalagmites that looked like stacks of plates.

The driving today was away from all the fast motorways that we've done so far. Instead, it was twisty country lanes and up and down the valleys. However, on the way back the sat-nav decided to take us on a "fast", as-the-crow-flies, direct route down narrow slow roads which added an extra 45 minutes to our journey.

Being tired and a little fed up we decided to eat in a local restaurant and postponed our BBQ for another day.

La Roche Gageac

This morning we woke up feeling the effects of the alcohol and I could still taste the Leffe.

After yesterday we had to get out and start enjoying the holiday again. So instead of driving, we went for a bicycle ride and ended up in La Roche Gageac which is a beautiful village on the Dordogne river where some of the houses are built into the rock that is looming above.

We wanted to take a boat trip to see the sights along the river but the water level was too high for safe passage. It must have been due to all the rain they've recently had. We stopped off at a patisserie for lunch. For some reason we didn't take our cameras but later on that afternoon we went back in Herman and took some good shots.

Sick Herman

Well, the blown side light was not blown at all. Half the driving lights were out and the fuse kept blowing. I called the breakdown service (getting my moneys worth) and we had to take Herman to a garage who managed to bypass the short circuit. We'll have to get that sorted properly when we are back in the UK. Sorting that out took most of the day and we didn't do anything. The rain had stopped and the sun shone down on us a few times but we basically lost a day's holiday. I think we still have a mouse on board and it's chewed through some wiring. It's a good job we took out the breakdown cover. Although, I still had to pay the garage €87. I can claim for it back but that's not the point.

In the evening we sat down in the campsite bar with Ken and Phil (father and son). They are nice chaps and helped us out with a few things while I was attending Herman's short. Ken has lots of stories, about camping and when he was a boy in the war. He's getting on a bit too. After a few pints of Leffe beer and a very large Bowlands whiskey it was around 1am. It was a good night and David the campsite owner joined us too. He's very funny. He kept getting told off by his wife for being too loud.

To Dordogne

Today we headed to the Dordogne region. It was a long drive (about 5.5 hours) and it rained all day.

When we arrived at the campsite we had to pitch on a short side road between the pitches otherwise we would have got stuck on the sodden grass.

While looking for a pitch I noticed that one of Hermans side lights had blown. That's something I'll have to do in the morning.

Le Perpetulum campsite is situated right on the Dordogne river which is currently fast flowing. We've been on holiday for a we
ek now and it was a good opportunity to do some clothes washing.

Chateau de Saumur

Since we drove past this chateau on our way to Brézé yesterday we decided to take a look round today. The Samur Chateau situated on top of a hill overlooking the Loire River and looks very impressive. There isn't much left of the original furnishings since it was all removed many years ago when they turned it into a prison. Instead, it contains a museum of antiquities that have been donated over the years.

We'd noticed Herman's wing mirror has got worse so I had another look at it. I managed to correctly removed it so that the four screws that hold the mirror on to the body could be seen. The top two just spin when they are tightened which means that only two are holding it onto the body! I managed to fix it temporarily by wrapping a strip of paper around the screws and then tightening them. It'll probably fall off the next time it rains but for the moment the job's a good'n.

The rain has been trying today but it's mainly been a sunny and overcast day.

Chateau de Brézé

On a suggestion from the Huttopia Rille campsite reception, we visited Chateau de Brézé. This Chateau has been built upon an old underground village. You can walk around its dry moat, which is very deep, and from here caves have been dug out to house a bakery, wine distillery, an ice house (aka as a massive fridge) and accommodation. Some of the Chateau is also open which contains a some history about the place.

Finding the place was a bit difficult. We drove past it twice and the co-ordinates on the leaflet were wrong. The massive car park full of campers gave the location away.

Weather has been OK but a bit mixed. Sunny, overcast, a little rain and a bit cold.

To Tours and the Loire Valley

We left Paris and headed to Tours and the Loire Valley. But just before we left the campsite Zoe noticed that we had a flat tyre! No problem, I thought, I've changed wheels many times before. I had the tyre, the jack and the tyre iron but it was probably the wrong time to discover that the jack didn't have a handle! We managed to get the spare one on with the help of one of the attendants at the campsite. I also called the breakdown service which we paid £190 before we left to see what they could do. They are currently locating a spare tyre and a garage that could fit it.

The journey to the next campsite was uneventful but the weather was the best it's been; hot and sunny. A shame we spent most of it on the road.

Another disaster, but not so tragic was that today I realised that I hadn't packed any T-shirts. So, as soon as we arrived and checked in we headed back out to the nearest supermarket for booze and T-shirts.

Paris: Louvre

We decided to visit the Louvre. That's the famous museum at the end of the De Vinci Code with the huge glass pyramids.

It took a while to get in and then get our tickets. We decided to rent the audio guide which are the Nintendo 3DS. They are pretty clever and they can tell where you are and give you the commentary on what you are looking at.

Zoe and Mona

We must have walked a marathon but we didn't see a fifth of the exhibits. We did manage to see the Mona Lisa and some of the Egyptian collection including a real mummy. I did wonder where all the sarcophaguses came from. I assume they must have come from ancient Egyptian tombs which have been ransacked in the past.

The weather has been really nice today. No rain. This morning it was over-cast but this evening has been warm and sunny.

Paris: Walking the Sights

Today we travelled to Paris by train and Metro. We didn't have much of a plan only to first see the Eiffel Tower. We then followed the River Seine to other sites including the Champs Elysees and Concorde Plaza followed by a walk through the Tuileries Gardens to the Royal Palace of the Louvre. We then crossed the Seine by the Pont du Carrousel bridge where all along the sides of the bridge are thousands of padlocks. The lock is a symbol of your undying love for each other and your supposed to attach the lock to the bridge and throw the key into the river.

At the time we didn't know about this bridge and its lock tradition. For us it was a way to cross the river. As we walked towards the bridge for a while we couldn't figure out why street sellers were selling padlocks. Not a ideal business idea. I mean no-one is going to have a need to lock their luggage in the middle of a city. These guys should be hanging around airports.





 
Our last destination was Notre-Dame Cathedral which is free to enter but by this time our feet just wanted to take us back to Herman.

This evening I had a look at Herman's radiator, the part where it has come loose. It appears to simply slot in at the bottom. I don't think there is anything to worry about.

The weather was pretty good today. The only time it rained was while we were walking through the Tuileries Gardens.

To Paris

We caught the ferry and arrived in France at 2:30pm.

We were making good progress until we hit the Paris ring road. With 10 miles left to go before we arrived at the campsite we were stuck in traffic for 20 minutes before we decided to take our chances and find another route. Zoe was driving and the roads were pot-holed, narrow and stop-start with traffic lights and roundabouts. The sat-nav didn't help much, trying to route us back on the main roads so we navigated by map.

We arrived at 19.15 at the campsite (La Maisons Laffitte) and instead of cooking we went and had a pizza at the on-site restaurant. This is when I noticed something hanging from underneath the front of Herman. A quick inspection showed that it was part of the radiator but it doesn't appear to be leaking - fingers crossed.

Weather: It's been raining for most of the day.

Start of Tour de France, 2013 : To Dover

This is the start of our tour of France in Herman.

We travelled down to Dover this evening. Arrived late (8.30) because of traffic in Bracknell and noticed a squeaking which we've not heard before. Herman has many squeaks. Then discovered that the passenger side wing mirror (huge, heavy mirrors on Herman) coming loose from the body. That's the mirror we'll be using most of the time in France rather the driver's side so I want that falling off! Let's hope it lasts until we get home.

Had our lovely home-made chilli for dinner. Yum, yum.