The lady who owns the camping ground told us about a nice bike ride along an ex-railway line to Lambley Viaduct, only about 3 miles (never sounds as far in miles) so decided to try that. It was far more impressive than either of us expected; a huge, quite beautiful series of arches towering over the river. It seems a shame that it was only used for about 120 years from 1853 to 1976. You could just see the blood and sweat (maybe no tears) that would have gone into building it. There are so many of these tracks all through the country that have been decommissioned and turned into cycle/walkways. Great for us but seems such a terrible waste! It seems somebody didn’t see a great future for railways – I hope they don’t regret that decision. A lot of the British people speak with disgust about the man whose decision it was at the time, can’t remember his name though...
Next stop was York. We parked at a ‘Park & Ride’; we’re getting old hands at these. They have them outside a lot of the cities, especially the ones that are hard to park or drive in. You get free parking and then a cheap/subsidised bus into the city centre. As I was studying the sign, to see whether we could camp overnight in the carpark, a man approached me and said “Do you speak French”. I said, “Not really”, because I could tell that his English was better than my French and we’d get further in English! He wanted to know if they could stay the night to, so I shared my newly acquired knowledge that you had to be out by 8pm or risk a 50 pound fine. He then wanted to know if I knew of a camp nearby, so I explained that we’re from NZ and probably know less than him! He was delighted about that for some reason, went on to explain that France is much cheaper for camping and diesel than England, so that’s good news. We saw him and his wife in York again, she was too scared to talk to us at all, not even a hello, obviously has no English. I even tried a ‘Bonjour’ but my accent’s probably so bad she didn’t realise it was supposed to be French! Will be interesting when the situation is reversed in a few days.
York was interesting, a beautiful cathedral called Yorkminster, it was far too big to do justice to with our camera. York is a walled city, lots of beautiful old buildings, most of the central streets are pedestrian only, and were very busy when were there. Most of the city dates from around the 14th century but there is also a ‘new’ area, built in the Victorian era. In the ‘old’ part, some of the buildings look as though they’re going to fall right into the street at any minute, fortunate that they don’t get earthquakes here! We casually caught the right bus back to the Park & Ride, something that would have terrified us a few weeks ago, and went on to a camping ground at Haltwhistle. We’re back in the Peak District! I’m hoping to see the ‘Well Dressings’ in Tissington tomorrow, we were a bit early last time we were in the area.
In the morning drove into Ashbourne, and found the Tissington trail – paid for parking for 2 hours (good excuse to keep the bike ride short). This is another disused railway, has a long tunnel just next to where we parked the van. The tunnel even had sound effects every now and then so that it sounded like a steam train was coming through. Made Gus look! (I’d already read the sign, so had a giggle at his face).
The rest of the trail was quite lovely, overhung with trees. Very busy on a Sunday morning, these trails are certainly well used. Unfortunately the ‘well dressings’ had been taken down already. This is an ancient custom, peculiar to the Peak District, of decorating the wells with flowers etc, some of the pictures look amazing, but we haven’t been able to get our timing right. Tissington was still a lovely little village though, and the ride was beautiful too, so not too disappointed.
Then decided to drive onto Colchester, this is where Barry’s family comes from. Apparently the Simmons had dockyards at Colchester in generations past so we’ll see what we can find tomorrow. The camp we’ve found tonight is really cute – it’s a farm, we’re the only campervan tonight (possibly the only one this week... or month!). There’s a 7 arch viaduct right next to the farm, we can see it from the campervan. The trains are electric though, so pretty quiet, just as well. Unfortunately, the motorway is also quite close but we’re getting used to ignoring such things. We’re camped in a paddock with an electric hook-up; a toilet in a portacom; and a hose for water – the least facilities we’ve had in a camp. It really doesn’t matter though because The Enterprise is fully self contained, so is a lovely spot, complete with sheep in the paddock with us (don’t tell though because she was going to shift them – apparently you’re not allowed livestock in a camp – we said we wouldn’t tell if she didn’t!). Makes us feel quite at home.
Colchester is a busy city – bigger than we expected so bit of an act finding anything. It’s the oldest recorded town in Britain. Lots of seriously ancient looking buildings. It’s not a tourist town though, so some of the old buildings are quite run down and some have been done up to be used – feels more genuine than some of the tourist towns; some of them feel a bit like they’ve been built just for the tourists (even though we know they haven’t). Colchester has a priory ruin, a castle in the park, and the remains of a roman wall – those Romans really liked their walls!
There are also more squirrels in the park than we’ve seen in the rest of the UK put together, they’re everywhere! Unfortunately, although very bold and cheeky, they weren’t very good at staying still long enough for a photo.
Eventually, after several false attempts, we found the remains of the dockyards. They have mostly been replaced by new housing, quite flash apartments overlooking the river. Some of the land is also owned by the university. There is a line of boats permanently moored there; all but one is no longer seaworthy. Postman Pat (all mail delivery vans here are exactly like Postman Pat’s!!) was putting mail into mailboxes next to the boats when we were there – very domesticated. The river wasn’t a thing of beauty when we were there, but it’s heavily tidal, so probably nicer when it’s full tide. We took lots of photos, will send some to you Barry...
Have broken a window on the side of the van – we don’t need to go into how it happened, sufficient to say that it was left open when we were driving. So now we are waiting a couple of days for the new one to arrive and for that to get fixed, kicking our heels waiting to cross over to France... Still having amazing weather – hope it lasts until window is repaired. We’re back at the first campground we stayed in, Canterbury, so have done full circle in 3494 miles!! Can hear a woodpecker in the tree, first one we’ve heard, sounds like a tiny jackhammer – no maniacal laugh though (we grew up with Woody Woodpecker cartoons). Today we’re going to see the Battle of Britain Museum, can’t wait :-).
The museum was even better than I thought! In fact it was so exciting we went to not one, but two Battle of Britain museums (the 2nd one was free and small!). Ok, so it was really boring (Gus enjoyed it) – lots of broken engines and bits of plane they’d found in various fields around Kent. Some of the personal stories were really good though. I think I’ve only ever heard about the effect of the war on London, and not the rest of England. Now that we’ve been to a lot of the places they were talking about, it really brings it home to me how ordinary peoples’ lives were so turned upside down. In NZ, it must have been terrible to send the men off (or to be the men going off!), but in England (and Europe) they were living with the bombs falling; children having to be sent off or taken in; blackouts; heavy rationing. I know you all know this, but it seems more real now I’ve been here – so I guess I did get something from it, and Gus liked seeing this Spitfire. Oh nearly forgot, we booked the ferry to France for 31st (2 days time). Our window has arrived in and should be able to be repaired tomorrow. We were going to take the Chunnel, but with the Queen’s Jubilee weekend there are a lot of people taking advantage of the extra long weekend, so it was very expensive. The ferry should be fun anyway, much better views! We’ll have to come home on the Chunnel though so that we can tell you all about it Tony.
Went to get window repaired, they put it in, but one of the catches was in the wrong place. It was a faulty part, a malfunction with the mould at the factory – there are probably hundreds of them been made. He couldn’t get a replacement until the next day and we already had ferry booked, so decided to put plastic over it, and gave us a website for all the Chausson dealers in France, there are lots. So I’ve been practising ‘Nous avons un fenetre defecteaux’ – ‘We have a broken window’, but I’m sure pointing will do the same thing!
Woke up nice and early – our ferry sails at 7.35, last reporting in time is 7.05, so of course we must be there at 6.30am! Both of us woke up early anyway, me excited to be off to France; and Gus just making sure we weren’t late. We made the crossing without much incident; the sea was very well behaved and stayed flat. Gus drove off the ferry and then had to remember to STAY RIGHT. It was absolutely terrifying going around the first few roundabouts, especially as I’m where the driver should be (our van is right-hand drive) so the trucks etc were flying towards me at what felt like great speeds! Gradually we’re getting used to that, I only reminded Gus once, much later in the day when he pulled back onto a quiet road on the wrong side... We are now at our first ‘free camp’.
We joined a scheme, before we left NZ, called French Passion – I know it had Gus worried too... It isn’t what you’re thinking though... For the price of a guide book, about $30, you get a book and a sticker for the camper windscreen so that, as long as you’re in a self-contained motor home, you can stay at various farms, vineyards etc around France for no charge. Some provide water or rubbish facilities, but otherwise it’s just a place to stay. Most have a shop of some sort, but there is no obligation to buy, so it should save us a lot of money! I’ve already had 3 opportunities to practice my French (such as it is). In a supermarket, I asked the girl at the checkout if she had any bags – she had a small smile on her face when she answered that made me think my accent may not have been quite perfect! Next, we got diesel at a service station, didn’t need much language there. And last, but most satisfactorily, I asked directions to this camp from a man on a tractor in the village. We had already driven past him once and he’d seen us come around again and looked friendly (or was laughing at us, hard to tell). I told him I was looking for this place (in French), pointing to the book... I found with great excitement that I could understand every word of his answer – mind you I think he only said ‘Turn right, along a little, then right again at the sign’. (And there were lots of hand gestures to help). As we pulled out Gus gave him the thumbs up sign, then we hoped it meant the same thing here – and not something much ruder!!
If you've got this far well done! I've been keeping a diary each night and haven't had internet available for a while to publish, so that's why it's so long!!
Tried unsuccessfully to park in Amiens, but sometimes the Enterprise just can’t find a place to land. Decided to quit the city and head for the coast. We set a course for Honfleur. When we were nearly here, avoiding toll roads all the way; Shady, Gus and I had a wee misunderstanding – luckily Shady copped the blame. We ended up on a bridge on a motorway instead of going round a roundabout – the bridge had a toll, 3 Euros! Then we had to drive on a few km’s to the next roundabout and return on a different bridge... you guessed it 6 Euros this time!! But it’s a spectacular bridge and we’re laughing about it now - just.
Honfleur is a lovely town; we’ve got a camp just on the edge of town, (right next to a circus) for 10 Euros. It’s actually just a carpark for vans – about 200 campervans here, has all the services including electricity and you just pay the parking machine. We’ve had a walk around town and planning to go back into town for dinner tonight – almost every building in the main centre is a restaurant. We’ve chosen one that has pizzas and pasta as well as seafood, a lot only have seafood, not Gus’ favourite – it even has English under the French on the menu, so that helps too. It’s our anniversary, (where did the 26 years go), so we are going to treat ourselves.
Had a beautiful dinner, ended up at a different restaurant to the one we chose earlier – there are so many it was a difficult decision. The chairs behind us are mainly empty because we haven't got used to the local times - we're eating at 7.30 and all the locals don't go out until at least 9pm I think.
The ‘square’ is centred round a marina, complete with yachts, so with the beautiful buildings, it was very picturesque.
This morning Gus was keen to see one of the museums about the Normandy landings, WWII, so we went to Ouistreham where they had a famous bunker (Le Grand Bunker). The Germans held out in it for a few days after the Allies had taken the surrounding area, it’s been turned into a museum. Afterwards we went and looked at the beach – code name was Sword Beach. It is such a lovely big sandy beach, hard to imagine such things ever happened there. They have soccer nets; volleyball nets; a go-cart circuit; pony rides and a bowls green – except it’s on sand. So different to NZ beaches, that are generally just about the sand and water.
We stopped in at a town that looked interesting, Trouville-Sur-Mer, it had the most amazing fish market. The prawns were something to behold, huge! Down on the wharf there were also stalls set up with the names of the separate fishing trawlers, I guess you could be loyal to your favourite one. We didn’t buy any fish, but we did buy a very tasty pastry from the patisserie for our morning tea.
Tonight we are staying at another ‘Passion France’ place. This one is a lovely spot; we’re the only ones here. A lovely French maison on a small farm. We can hear church bells from the local village – in fact they’re pretty loud, must be time for mass. It’s also starting to rain, first time it’s done that since half way through Scotland! The lady of the house and I managed to communicate very well with my little bit of French and her even smaller bit of English. We managed to talk about where we come from and where else we’re going; what type of farm we have in NZ; how the house is 3rd generation for this family; where there is a walk nearby and a few other bits of small talk – feeling quite proud of myself. We are now close to Mont-St-Michel, so that’s tomorrow’s undertaking.
Mont-St-Michel was truly spectacular. I’d seen many pictures of it but once we got up into the abbey itself it was really amazing.
The walk up to the abbey is amazing too, The Pilgrims Way, although too many tacky souvenir shops – it is quite steep and curves around and around on its way up – apparently the pilgrims used to climb it on their knees. This part was packed with people but once we got into the abbey itself (where you had to pay) it was a lot quieter – so pleased we did, was definitely the highlight. There was a church service going on, the singing just reverberated around the room, very moving even for a cynic like me – we can see the point of these vaulted ceilings now.
There was also a labyrinth of other rooms to see including one that had a huge wheel in it for bringing provisions up from below, it works like a winch. Gus is posing by the wheel and the sled used and he’s taken the photo out the window of the way the provisions were brought up – I saw no need to get that close!
Another room was for entertaining important personages including royalty – a serious fireplace here. There’s also a room of huge pillars – they are the foundations for the abbey above.
Tonight we’re staying at another ‘France Passion’ place. A farmer on a tractor met us; he speaks quite good English so made conversation much easier. As with several French people we’ve met, his face lit up when we said we were from NZ – great to be from a popular place, such luck. This scheme is working out really well for us, nice quiet places to stay and we get to meet some rural locals – the best bit of course is that they’re free!
We’re staying two nights in a very un-free (~27 euro per night) camping ground in the town of Porchefontaine, more or less a suburb of Versailles. The position is amazing though, the train to Paris is only a few blocks away and the palace of Versailles is about 10kms. We stepped out of the train station and walked past a few trees and suddenly there was the Eiffel Tower right in front of us – we’re in Paris!!
Impressions of Paris were in some ways quite different to expectations – some pleasant surprises and some disappointments as well. The architecture and the statues are really stunning. The city is a lot cleaner than either of us expected – no dog poo anywhere, in fact hardly any dogs.
The people generally aren’t generally as elegant as I’d expected (been ready to be a little intimidated by...), although a few were! We didn’t see any artists at work, the area where they had the art set up – along the Seine, was mostly selling 2nd hand books, some souvenirs, and some fairly unoriginal art that may or may not have been prints. Mind you, we visited on a Monday and Tuesday – not highlights we gather in the city week. On Monday, we got a tourist bus for 2 days – very little extra for the second day. This was a hop on/hop off service just like the one we got in London – with a running commentary available in about 6 different languages. We’ve found this a great introduction to both cities, and there isn’t the worry about where to catch buses/trains and where they might be going.
On the Monday we did the complete circuit and went into Notre Dame. This is the most amazing cathedral – and unlike London cathedrals it is free and you are allowed to take photos as long as you don’t use a flash (amazing how some people couldn’t even stick to this). Any Catholics reading this, (and I know you’re out there) and planning a trip, really must see Notre Dame in Paris – it was very moving even to me! The windows are so beautiful and the scenes depicted of Christ’s birth and then on the other side, his resurrection, are really something to behold. The architecture of the building is also stunning.
We had planned to go to La Louvre on the Tuesday but it was shut!! There was a very small sign by the ticket office saying that it is open every day except Tuesday, bugger! We subsequently found out that several other things were shut too – so if you’re planning a trip to Paris, don’t make it a Tuesday... We had fun exploring some of the ritzy areas, including ridiculously overpriced Cartier jewellery and a Peugeot showroom complete with a prototype car – something for everyone.
We also saw a protest going on, there seemed to be rather an overkill of police presence – we were half expecting something exciting to happen, but if it did it was after we left. Those policemen looked a bit unfriendly for my liking.
There are also some quite quirky things, like this bridge covered in padlocks – it is a custom that they’ve borrowed from the Italians apparently. Couples in love put a padlock on the bridge and throw the key into the river, it’s supposed to symbolise their love lasting forever – Gus was the teeniest bit cynical about this one, and came up with several wisecracks which I shan’t repeat (it only encourages him...)
We were both fascinated by the Arc de Triomphe and the roundabout around it – Gus was trying to work out how they know who goes when; and I was just trying to picture Dad driving around it in the little Citroën that Mum & Dad hired in 1954 – you must have had your eyes shut, Mum!!
