A trip to France

We are staying with my mother for a few days while my sister is away, and, when we were planning our visit, I suggested we went to France for the day. My mother leapt at the idea, and so it was arranged.

We set off at 07:00 as we wanted to take plenty of time on the journey. We tried to stop at Clackett Lane services, but the petrol station, which my sister had said was the easiest place to go to the loo, but this was a bust as it was closed due to occupation by Extinction Rebellion or Insulate Britain, or one of those, so we had to stop at Maidstone Services, instead.  This was irritating because for some reason they don't let you go  back on to the motorway southbound from there, but you have to go back up to J7 and turn round there. Quite why, when there are several hundred meters after the exit before Operation Brock begins and you are directed on to the contraflow. This wasn't too bad, although we were limited to 50 mph for about 11 miles. There were very few lorries in their area then, although it was a lot fuller on the way back.

We got to the terminal in time to get a crossing 30 minutes earlier than booked, but also time to pay a quick visit to the terminal, which I haven't done for ages. Don't usually bother when we are in the motor home, but as the SW wanted coffee and was tempted by a bacon roll, as was I, and I got some orange juice, too, it was a good idea. The crossing was uneventful, although it felt odd to have nothing to do but read (I'd brought my Kindle, but the other two had nothing to read and were bored), as we are used to unpacking or packing or even getting ready for bed during the crossing when we are in the motor home.

In France, we went straight to Cité Europe. As we had my mother with us, we could park in the disabled bays near the entrance, and she and I wandered round Carrefour - she had her walker and I had the trolley. The Swan Whisperer, meanwhile, swept out the car, which he should have done before we left but hadn't, and then he cleverly reprogrammed my car  key fob, which had stopped  working. And went to look at the restaurants to see where we could have lunch. He decreed that we should eat tartes flambées, so we walked the entire length of the shopping centre to get to the restaurant he had chosen.

The tartes were delicious, but very filling, and neither my mother nor I could finish ours, but we scraped off the toppings and ate then - and, of course, we tasted each other's!  Mum had a glass of wine, I had fizzy water (I so wanted beer, but I'm on strong antibiotics and can't) and the SW had Coke.

We had about 45 minutes before we had to head back, so drove into Calais and visited the Burghers,

and then back to the terminal via Coquelles. We discovered that at Calais there is a special disabled lane (if there is one at Folkestone we didn't see it) which meant we got to board first! Sadly, this was not to be for awhile, as there was a disruption of some kind (not unusual) so we were half an hour later than planned.

The drive home was non-stop and uneventful. I think both Mum and I slept most of the way until we came off the motorway!

A long way to go to visit a supermarket, but worth it! A most enjoyable day. 

"Why come ye not to court?"

 You don't go on the river for three years, and then two cruises come along at once!  This one was very different from our afternoon tea cruise.  This one was a short cruise between Kingston and Hampton Court, on board the Yarmouth Belle, which, built in 1892 is the oldest surviving passenger vessel on the Thames.  

We started off, however, by going up to Vauxhall to meet the Boys, and then up to Vauxhall Station, where we had just missed a train to Kingston, but they are every 10-15 minutes, so we didn't have long to wait.  The journey to Kingston takes about 30 minutes; the train said it was going to Strawberry Hill, as, indeed, it was, but it then looped round to come back via Hampton and Richmond, so the destination signs on the train said Waterloo, very confusing!  

The Boys had both said they weren't feeling very well, but soon cheered up at the thought of lunch at Five Guys, a favourite of theirs (and given the amount they ate, there can't be much wrong with either of them).  The Swan Whisperer and I had never been to this particular chain, but our expert grandsons showed us the ropes!  I chose a grilled veggie sandwich with cheese,

and very good it was, too, if rather difficult to eat!  The Boys both had burgers - one with bacon and cheese and the other with just cheese - and the most revolting-looking milkshakes topped with whipped cream, which they seemed to enjoy.  The Swan Whisperer ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with onions, and then we ordered a large chips to share between the four of us, which was just a nice amount.  

When we had finished eating, and topping up our water bottles with the free ice cubes provided, it was time to walk down to the river - not the loveliest walk in the world - and await our ship.  I had booked in advance, but in fact, hadn't really needed to, as there were only two other families on the boat with us.  

It is not a long distance between Kingston and Hampton Court, but long enough to be enjoyable.  The weather was rather irritating, as it was too hot with a coat on and not quite warm enough with it off!  The Boys spent some of their time in the interior, and went down the spiral staircase into the lounge - "Very old-fashioned," they told me.  I didn't go down, it looked rather steep for coming up again.  The Swan Whisperer spent all his time on deck, and I spent most of mine, as there was so much to see, from swans to be whispered at, 

St Raphael's Catholic church

Hampton Court park

and, of course, Hampton Court Palace itself.

"Why come ye not to court? To which court? The King's Court, or Hampton Court?"

The Boys were rather tired - I think they may have overdone it playing football the previous day - and so was I, so we didn't linger; we walked across the bridge to Hampton Court station (thus, for the Boys, and later for the Swan Whisperer, who took them home, meaning that they had gone under the river, on the river and over the river all on the same day!) and so a train to Clapham Junction and back to ours for a most welcome cup of tea.  

There are more photos on Facebook, if you are interested.

Tea on the River

Today, 31 March 2022, was our 43rd wedding anniversary.  For Christmas, my mother and sister gave the Swan Whisperer a voucher for an afternoon tea river cruise, and what better day to use it?  The Swan Whisperer added an upgrade package which meant that we would have a guaranteed window seat, a glass of champagne and a bottle of sparkling water.  

The cruise departed from Tower Pier, so we went by Tube to Tower Hill station, rather alarmed by announcements that the District Line "Was operating with severe delays"; however, we decided that we would go to the platform and see, and if there really was a problem, there are always taxis.  Anyway, when we got there a Circle Line train was due, so that was all right.  I hate changing at Victoria nowadays; back in the day it was just up an escalator and then up a flight of steps; they've stopped you going that way now and you have to walk miles and then up two flights of steps!  There is, I believe, a lift, but we didn't see it - and I seem to remember searching for it ages ago and it was an even longer walk!  Victoria station is now stair-free, if you need that, but very far from step-free!  

Anyway, we got there at last, and then although we did take a lift at Tower Hill, in fact I think it was a mistake as the first thing we had to do was to go down a lot of stairs and into a subway (very wide, well-lit and not smelling of pee!) to get across the road.  The pier was well-signposted, although I think it took a bit longer to walk than the 5 minutes Citymapper suggested it would (but then, I do walk rather slowly these days).  We were greeted by someone who said that if we were on the afternoon tea package, they would start checking you in at about 10 past 3, and it was then about 3, so we wandered round the Tower of London gift shop for a few minutes, and then checked in.  It was very easy, we just gave our names and they found us on the list, no need to show barcodes or anything.  We were shown to our table, and they poured out our champagne and water, and the boat set off at 15:30.  

The tea was as you would expect - sandwiches, little cakes, scones with cream and jam - and very good it was, too! 

They were able to bring me lemon for my tea, which is always a plus, and later they bought us a little cake to celebrate our anniversary - they got the digits the wrong way round, and put 34 instead of 43, but hey, who cares?  It was very nice of them, anyway.

The cruise itself was terrific, if a bit rough - the tide and the wind were fighting each other and downstream got very choppy and made the boat squeak.  The boat went up to almost the Houses of Parliament, then turned round with the tide to go downstream as far as Canary Wharf, and back up to the Tower, taking about 90 minutes, all told.  Such lovely views of London!  Last time we went on the river, it was on Christmas Day a few years ago, and without its buses, London had looked very grey, but this time the sun was out most of the time (it did keep trying to snow and the sky kept looking rather ominous, but mostly we were in sunshine) and it looked quite different.  We both took lots of photos of London, old,

 new,

and in between

(more photos on my Facebook page).

When we disembarked, we decided that as it was going to be too late for the Swan Whisperer to go to dance club, we would walk along the river to London Bridge and get a bus home from there.  This was good, but a very long way up to the bridge roadway, although I made it at last!  Then a 133 bus arrived, so we got on that and changed in Brixton, and I popped into Lidl for a couple of things, and then home, whereupon I flaked out on the sofa for a couple of hours!  It was a lovely trip.

In search of spring, 10 March 2022

And so we are home.  This morning didn't quite go as planned, as after the Swan Whisperer had had his shower, we found we were totally out of water.  He had to go and find a tap to fill a bucket to tip into the tank so that I could have mine.  This threw me, and I got into a bit of a state - starting packing things and not quite winning, the sort of state I normally only get into when I'm going away, not coming home!  Then, once we had finished breakfast, we set off to the Carrefour in Cité Europe, only to find that nobody had opened up the motor home parking so we were stymied, and had to go back to Auchan, which I dislike as I don't know the shop so well, and it is much slower as it doesn't have scan'n'shop the way Carrefour does.  Still, I got most of my shopping - I should probably have bought cream, and I should probably have bought some tinned peas, but still.  I got the things I'd put on my list!

After which, things went fairly smoothly until we got to Clackett Lane services, where we stopped for lunch, when the fridge beeped pitifully at us, and we found we were totally out of gas!  Talk of perfect timing - there was still enough hot water to do the washing-up, thankfully, and we had bananas for pudding instead of the ice-cream we had planned.. 

But the rest of the day went smoothly - we got down to Sussex, packed up the crates (non-perishaable foodstuffs, which I always take too much of!) and the Swan Whisperer loaded the car, and cleaned the machine, then he emptied the fridge (we had put the machine on electricity, so the fridge was working), and put it back in its garage, and we came sadly back to London after a wonderful holiday.   

And did we find the spring?  Absolutely!

In search of spring, 9 March 2022

More trees in the skylight this morning, which was nice.

The SW went for a short walk and got croissants for breakfast and a lovely fresh baguette, still warm. After breakfast and using the services, we had hoped to go to a museum, but I was very tired, for some reason, so we didn't. Instead, we drive to the nearest Lidl, where I did some shopping (I had some coupons, as the Lidl plus app works in France and Germany, among other countries, as well as in the UK).

Then it was a long drive through lovely big sky country,

past Laon,

until we got to Riquelles, where we stopped for lunch. 

After which, I regret to say, I went sound asleep and didn't wake until we were almost at Cité Europe, where we checked the (horribly expensive) price of diesel before coming up here to Sangatte for the last night. 

In search of spring, 8 March 2022

Lovely to wake up this morning and see trees against the sky in the bedroom skylight!

After breakfast we drove into the town of Laignes and parked up by the Mairie, and and then had a wonderful walk round the town (more photos on Facebook). 

Our first stop on today's route was a very quick pause at the village of Les Riceys to admire its lovely old church,

and then Bar-sur-Seine, which also had a lovely church,

but our main reason for stopping was to visit an Intermarché for the day's shopping (I bought some Crémant de Bourgoyne - well, we were in the area, it would have been rude not to, really!). 

It was getting near lunchtime, but we saw signs for a picnic area some 23 km ahead, and decided to stop there. The drive took us through "big sky country"

and a glimpse of the church at Arcis-sur-Aube,

and which was just before we got there. There was a food truck selling seriously delicious chips, so I bought a large portion for us to share,

plus two sausages, for the princely sum of €5!

We spent awhile at the truck stop - which is basically what it was - filling in and uploading our passenger locator forms for the crossing on Thursday. Everything went very smoothly compared with last time, no need for manual checks or anything.

When we finally got under way (should that be "under weigh", as in weighing the anchor?) again, we went on the motorway to cut half an hour off our journey. We were afraid the aire in Reims would be full, but there was only one other van there (more have since arrived) so that was all right. And tomorrow is the last full day of the holiday, which is Very Sad Indeed, especially as the weather has been so lovely (if cold!). 

In search of spring, 7 March 2022

As we had a long drive today, we didn't linger in Villefranche-sur-Saone, apart from visiting a Géant Casino (supermarket) which really was huge! It had load of concessions in it, which I ha not seen before. However, it managed to sell me what I needed! 

We went on the motorway as far as Chalons-sur-Saone and then set the satnav to take us cross country, stopping for lunch in a picnic area overlooking Saint-Pierre-en-Vaux

and on to the village of Vertault which was supposed to have a Roman village. However, if there was a village, it had been buried again, and all that remained was a bit of the defensive ditch and wall.

And it wasn't really a suitable place to spend the night. 

So we came away and retraced our steps to the very pretty little village of Laignes which we had driven through earlier. The aire is just outside the village but by a river with ducks busily upending themselves in the way ducks do!

Tomorrow we hope to explore, unless there are any more frost-related disasters. 

In search of spring, 6 March 2022

Oh dear, oh dear, what a difference a day makes! Yesterday morning we wandered round the old town of Ruom in our shirt sleeves, but last night we were at altitude - about 750 metres - somewhere near Lyon (I had chosen the place, not realising it was at altitude) and, although it was lovely, it was also bitterly cold. To the point that the water in the van emptied itself to avoid freezing! And the gas valve froze, too, so we couldn't turn the heating on for ages. I flushed the loo with the contents of my hot-water-bottle, and had to have a "possible wash" from the kettle (we did have  drinking water). There were services, but when the SW checked, the tap there was frozen, but he was able to refill the kettle at the basin in the public lavatory on site.

But the sun was out, and I opened the shutters over the windscreen and the van soon warmed up, and by after breakfast the tap at the services had thawed, so we were able to refill. We decided not to go too far today and are at yet another Camping-Car park in Villefranche-sur-Saone, which  we got to just after 12, having stopped at a random Super-U en route where I got a baguette that was still warm (among other things)!

We managed to see most of our church service, and after lunch the Swan Whisperer went for a walk which turned out to be far longer than he meant as he said the maps lied and he couldn't come back the way he had hoped. 

We are on electricity tonight so hope to be able to set the heating to 7 or 8 C to avoid a recurrence. It shouldn't be quite so cold, either. 

I haver taken any photos today, so here is one of the cat from yesterday. 

In search of spring, 5 March 2022

Last night, on our way to the campsite, I saw a sign pointing to the mediaeval village in the heart of Ruom. I sent the Swan Whisperer to explore, but it was not until he went to the bakery for our breakfast croissants that he found where it was.

So after breakfast we drove a short distance into the town and had a really lovely walk round  the compact old centre,

including the Roman church of St Peter,

and this ginger monster (who tripped me up as we tried to leave the area - I hope I didn't accidentally kick it too hard!

We drove through some pretty little villages and stopped on the outskirts of a town to shop and have lunch, and then spent the afternoon driving, mostly on horribly narrow roads with hairpin bends - not pleasant. But we are now parked up near a lake which will make a nice walk in the morning. 

In search of spring, 4 March 2022

As soon as I stepped out of the motor home this morning to empty the hot-water-bottles, I grew I could be nowhere else but the South of France! I don't know if it was the light, or the air, or the rosemary hedges that marked out the camping bays... But it was glorious!

As was the rest of the morning. We visited the Pont du Gard,

first calling in at the visitor centre where there was a museum. I thought at first that it would be underwhelming, but in fact it was much bigger than it appeared with a terrific overview of Roman civilisation, especially plumbing! They had really sophisticated pipes, taps, etc. There was also a brilliant fly-over of the whole route of the aqueduct, of which the Pont de Gard is only a tiny bit.

After that, we walked down to the bridge itself, and half way across it,

taking loads of photos, before coming back and having coffee in the visitor centre. 

Our next destination, not counting a supermarket, was Orange, where the Swan Whisperer had found the ideal car park, he thought, nice and near the Arc de Triomphe there.

It would have been nice, but it was full to overflowing! Fortunately there was a Lidl a few hundred metres down the road, so we pulled in there and ate lunch in its car park (I popped in and bought some bananas, which I had a coupon for). We found we could drive  round the arch, so did so before saying a sad farewell to the South and heading north, via a very pretty town called  Bourg-Saint-Andéol,

and going via the Gorges de l'Ardèche

and the Pont d'Arc

to this town which is called Ruoms. The aire is overlooking the Ardèche.

As always, more photos on Facebook. 

In search of spring, 3 March 2022

The sun is out again, and we are still in the South of France!

A delightful drive this morning, although parts of the area are very industrialised. We saw ships (behind the groyne) ,

factories

and goods trains

before arriving in Avignon. We had hoped to go into the town, but sadly, the Park&Ride didn't allow motorhomes, and although I'm sure we could have found a paying car park nearer the historic centre, the free one we found that did take motor homes was just that much too far. But we had great views of the eponymous bridge

and the Papal Palace, shrouded in scaffolding 

and it's not as if we haven't been here before - a winter holiday that was not a success as I had flu, the hotel was horrible, the euro, at that time, was practically at parity with the pound so everything was expensive and it snowed! But the sun was out today!

After lunch we drove on to this aire near the Pont de Gard, which is very nice with electricity and services included, although a very nice woman warned us on the way in that the water pressure is very low so it takes ages to fill the tank!

The Swan Whisperer has been for a long walk, and I have had a quiet afternoon, mostly snoozing. Tomorrow we hope to be able to visit the aqueduct and the associated museum. 

In search of spring, 2 March 2022

Carro, Martigues

Today is Ash Wednesday. It didn't start very well, although the Swan Whisperer bought croissants and the most heavenly warm-from-the-oven baguette for breakfast, but when we tried to get to the nearest Super U for today's shopping, we went the wrong way and it took about three times as long to get there as it should have done. 

However, we got there in the end, and I shopped while the SW got diesel and had his coffee. He has now taken over the route planning for the rest of this trip and is, I think, beginning to realise quite what a job it is! However, neither of us wants to go north just yet, so we are rethinking our plans. 

It has been overcast and cloudy all day, and a bit of rain this morning, so we basically just drove around the Camargue, crossing the Rhone on the Bac du Barcarin

(which we have done before) and heading down to this aire at Carro, where we stayed a few years ago.

There is the local fish market in the morning, which I shall definitely look at, but probably not buy anything as fish guts and a motorhome really don't mix, especially as we don't have any newspaper to wrap them in. 

For tonight's supper I have bought something called tielles Sétoises;

I think they are octopus and/or squid in a tomato and garlic sauce, encased in some sort of pastry. They sound nice, but who knows?