Travel Diary 3

Today is 1^st May and we are in Bordeaux. Arrived this afternoon in brilliant sunshine, a few white fluffy clouds and a bloody cold breeze. Needless to say, still wearing jumpers!

Over the last couple of days we have moved down the Coastal strip from Caen, Rouen, called in on Le Mont St Michelle, Nantes, spent last night at a place called Fouras which right on the coast and near La Rochelle.

Caen was where we saw the Rich Man’s house built in the late 1600’s. No one lives there now and it is open for tours inside for a price. The only way to provide income for maintenance and staff wages etc. It is a massive place and complete with a low garden maze and it’s own chapel.

Also visited Bayeaux and Omaha. We had another couple of places to see if we had had the time, but that never eventuated. I cannot believe the sheer number of places in Normandie that would be worth visiting. Simply for historical reasons. I reckon you could stay for a month, visit 2 or 3 places every day and still not see it all. It’s a big region and there is stuff spread all over it. Castles, moats, chateaus, old villages that haven’t changed since Adam was a boy and so on. All worth while viewing and hearing about. Stories we all heard about when at school and made us slip off to sleep all come alive when you are confronted with the reality.

We left Caen around ten in the morning and headed off. Past Renne and onto Le Mont St Michel. It is off the beaten track, but it is a once in a lifetime experience so off the track we went. Drove around until we found the entrance to the car park, except that was for cars. About 1,000 of them. Spaces that is, not cars. But will be cars in summer time!

Then noticed some buses in the distance and behind them camper vans. Wended our way over to this section looking at pictures on the various gates to enter as it costs to park here, saw one with a picture of a camper van and drove in, took the ticket and went through. So far so good.

Until that is, we saw there are only buses in this section, no camper vans. As it was less than 20% full I decided to park around in the last row miles from any buses. Except one that is which was being driven by a guy who didn’t speak English but made it perfectly obvious that we couldn’t park there as that particular spot was saved for another bus. Forget the other 80 odd spot that were vacant. apparently whoever drove in next would want my spot! As if!!

I pleaded ignorance and no french understanding at all. He ignored my protestations, and made sure I did understand! Nothing better to do obviously!! Probably a good Union member.  So I shifted the van towards the exit where I would have to pay to get the arm lift up so I could drive out. I was thinking, been in here for 5 minutes, probably have a minimum charge of one hour at around E17 and then I’ll have to pay in the camper van area again. Mmmmm  ….  Not impressed!

 Fortunately a young gatekeeper in the disguise of an English girl on a bicycle saved the day. She appeared seated on a bicycle and rugged up like an Antarctic explorer. Not that I can blame her. She announced she could speak English and then snuck back inside her jackets and jumpers for a bit of a warm up. When she came out again she cancelled the bus ticket and showed us further down where the entrance to the camper van parks were.

We thanked her for her help and she told us to have a nice holiday and then we drove 4 meters to the next entrance. Just to be in the camper van parking area!

After locking up the van we rugged up for our adventure into the teeth of the Antarctic gale, well there was a breeze coming off the Atlantic Coast! And it was cold! So jumpers, coats, and scarves were called for …. again, or should I say still! Kerrie found some gloves, put them on and away we went. The first thing I noticed was that there was no way I was going to walk the distance to Le Mont. It was miles away. Seriously, it looked at least 5kms as the crows flies. Then I see a cart arrangement pulled by a couple of horses, say to myself, that’s us and make a beeline for it. I fully expected the cart to be full of people by the time we got there about the hundred meters to get to it. Everyone had to be thinking like us!

Funnily enough it was only a third full when we arrive and Kerrie and I piled on. It wasn’t until we set off that I realised why it was part full. As we took off, at horses walking pace, we see a bus with people piling into it and written on the side was “Free bus to Le Mont”.  Not exactly like that and in French, but it had the same effect. Kerrie muttered something about me and my choice of horse and cart … “in the cold” and it would be “quicker to walk” followed by the “bus is free and quicker”. I tried to put a positive spin on it, but after 3 or 4 kms, I had to admit she was right. Needless to say we got the free bus back.

This episode also explains why the photos of Le Mont taken at a distance are not as focused as they could be. The horses wouldn’t stop while I lined up the shots. So try holding a 80-300m still in a cart while the horse keeps moving! Almost impossible. And the bus on the way back was not conducive to picture taking either. Too crowded with people like ourselves who were trying to keep warm. Met a mother and daughter on the bus from Australia. Mum lives in Hobart and the daughter in Wynyard, Tasmania. Kerrie and she chatted and it turns out they both had their respective daughters in the same Hobart hospital in the same year, 1986. Small world indeed!

Once back in the van we made our way to the exit, shove le carte d’blue (credit or ATM card), paid and left.

We have discovered that Simon makes better choices if we program him once we are on a road as opposed to a driveway or in a shopping centre car park. The latter confuses him with all the turns one has to make exiting from a car park and he just ends up announcing “Recalculating, Recalculating” until we actually get onto a road. While he eventually gets it right, we fell better for not having to listen to him being so repetitive. So, once on the road, we pulled over, programed him for La Rochelle and headed off.

Nothing much to say about the trip except I got tired and Kerrie insisted we play “I spy with my little eye” to keep me awake. Kind of worked! Better still is stopping every hour or so in one of the dozens of what we in Australia would call a truck stop and what in France they call Aries. These are like truck stops except much cleaner and nicer. Places for trucks to park. Other places for cars and still others for camper vans. Always a toilet facilities and tables and seats for outdoor lunches or just sitting. Some of the others have showers and camper van waste disposal dumps. And every 30 or 40 kms there are the real flash ones with petrol stations, massive car parks, outdoor seating everywhere and shops with fantastic food, drinks, and thousands of touristy nick knacks for sale. Some sell wine or cider just in case one is going to stay the night. Which one can do if one so chooses. It surprises how much these Aries are used. Much more than in Australia. We’ve never passed one without a large number of trucks, cars and vans parked in them.

At the one we stopped in, we met a French couple who were going on holiday to the S/E of France around Toulouse and then onto Montpelier and Sete. I asked about the area and he spent about 45 minutes showing me books and discussing what to see and do. Even included a history lesson about why all the castles in the S/E are so ruined. Apparently, back in the middle ages, the Catholic Church had allowed its priests and bishops etc to marry, have children and generally behave like non religious figures. The rules got changed. Personally I suspect the Church realised the futility of keeping men and women separate, chaste and celibate. So they turned a blind eye to the goings on. However, a section of the Northern part of France took exception to this interpretation and decided to “straighten” the backsliders out. Which meant attacking the Churches and the citadels that supported this behaviour. Basically, the married priests, bishops and their ruling supporters lost the battles. Their castles got burned and wrecked and they were forced to mend their ways. Or just be more discreet about things.

What it did do was leave many hilltop towns and castles in ruins and available to modern tourists to wander about in. We decided to visit one such castle town about 45 minutes off the highway from Nabonne on our way to Montpelier in a few weeks. So more about that later.

I should mention that we never got to La Rochelle. Instead we stopped off at a small village that had a large Supermarket and did some shopping. Just the usual essentials. More wine, bread, a variety of cheeses and some other stuff. About E108.00 worth. Should be enough for a couple of weeks … one would think!

Prices of food are pretty much in line with what we pay in Australia. Wine is much cheaper. Petrol is about the same or cheaper. Diesel, which the van takes, has ranged from E1.01 to E1.25/litre. Unleaded is about E1.28/litre. My research shows the price will vary from country to country with Poland, for example, having diesel at about E0.90/litre. Looking forward to that!

Bought some Jack Daniels which cost me E12.00 – around A$19.00 for 750mls. That’s a good price. Good red wine one can pay around 3 or 4 Euros per bottle. The taste and quality is equivalent to an Australian red costing A$15 to AS20/bottle. So that’s a fair bit cheaper. Most other items we’ve checked out or bought are similar in price to what we’d expect to pay in Australia. But here’s the interesting thing. France is considered to be the most expensive country in Europe. We did notice when in Aachen, Germany things were cheaper. 

After the shopping expedition, we reprogrammed Simon to a little fishing village called Fouras situated 32kms south of La Rochelle. We arrived after the Office at the Camp ground had closed and were rescued by a local lady who phoned the manager to come down and let us in.

The Manager was very good about it all and within 10 mins were setup for E18 giving us access to a site, electricity, free WiFi, toilets, showers and waste dumps. Very nice! The Bar and restaurant at the front of the camp ground was tempting but we had a bit to do and a long day so Kerrie rustled up some dinner and after a couple of drinks, turned in for the night. There’s always tomorrow!

I got up early and went for a walk towards the town along the foreshore. The tide was out and out a long way. Probably close to ¾ km and almost no sand, just mud flats. Loads of fishing boats lying on their sides or propt up with pieces of timber were scattered about the bay and about 30 odd large black floats sat in the mud waiting for high tide and returning boats before getting useful again. Across the bay, about 800m away is a small peninsular jutting out. Lots of buildings on it from what I could see and a jetty catering for a vehicular ferry ran out 100m from the land. I figured this was the place where one could go out to Ile d’Aix, a little island just off the coast.

Ile d’Aix lays claim to the fact that Napoleon stayed here on a couple of occasions. Once in between his wars when he wasn’t very popular for a while and once before he went St Helens when France really got sick and tired of him. From what I could see, it is small and has a fort on it. From what I read, it has a couple of Museums, the ex-residence of Napoleon one can wander through and say “ohh look, that’s’ the bed he slept in!” or there’s his old kitchen etc. I contemplated going over and had made enquiries earlier about timetables etc only to be told the earliest one leaves at 10.00am and the earliest return was at 4.15pm with a one way trip taking 45minutes. We couldn’t really afford that amount of time so, in the end, we just drove up the peninsula which only had buildings on the bay side. The other being grass, a bit if bush, road and smallish fields.

In the end we just stopped for a couple of photos of the Ile and I got out my 150-500mm lens plus tripod to try them out. Kerrie found a chicken with 9 baby chicks about 10 days old running around looking for food. So she obliged them by chucking them bits off a slice of bread which they seemed to enjoy. She had hardly started throwing them out when the rooster put in a rushed appearance and wanted some as well! Typical of roosters I thought. Always wanting to get in on the act.

Then it was back in the van, reprogramme Simon and off to Bordeaux. I had searched for a campsite here close to the city the previous evening and had not had much luck. Only one and I couldn’t see if it actually had van sites on the website. It showed up in Google Earth, with not much info and it doesn't appear in the Aries on the phone app, but it does make an appearance in one of the Camp Site books. So, we decided to just go there and see what happens. If no good, then perhaps they could recommend somewhere.