To Spain, Sunday 8 January

We didn't hurry away this morning after a very windy night. The Mistral was blowing like anything. I never really mind wind in the machine, but it does creak!

Bought 6 bottles of the wonderful Muscat they do here, and then headed off to Spain. Made a nonsense at the frontier, as we wanted diesel, but ended up coming straight off the motorway and were charged nearly a Euro in péage!  Our télépéage  dongle doesn't work in Spain, alas. So we got diesel at a local garage, and also bought some milk in a ginormous shopping centre which was rammed, mostly with French shoppers looking for bargains.  We drove on down a motorway which kept smelling of ham, and finally arrived here in what is basically a secure car park, not very glamorous and quite expensive. But good transport links into town, and nice loos, less nice showers, and a sitting-room with free WiFi.

We ate lunch and then went straight to the Sagrada Familia, and I regret to say we hated it! Not to our taste at all. 

And when we finally found the ticket office, we found it was €18 each to go in, so we said no, and caught various buses to the edge of the Old Town and wandered round until dark, and then caught a bus back to the machine. Citymapper works here, and is invaluable as always.

Supper in the van, and really enjoying the mild weather - it was about 18°C, such a change from two days ago. No bedsocks or extra rug tonight!

To Spain, Saturday 7 January

I quite thought, when I got up this morning, that I would be telling you tonight that we were sadly on our way home.  There was a very sharp frost indeed overnight, and although we were snug and warm in bed, when I got up it was to find no running water!  The Swan Whisperer investigated, and it became clear that the pump was still working, but the water in the pipes underneath had frozen!  Luckily there was a public loo (the Turkish kind) just across the car which was clean, warm and had paper! Sadly it didn't have hot water, so washing was done with a kettle of drinking water and/or wipes. 

Then the heating didn't seem to want to work properly, either, so we looked and saw there was a motor home place over Limoges way, which might be able to help, (and from there we could either go on or go home) but it was closed until 14:00, and by the time we had done a bit of shopping, everything was fine, and the pipes hadn't burst. So we headed on, another interminable drive, and now we are out of the frost zone, and only a couple of hours from Barcelona. It is windy, but much warmer than last night.

Such a beautiful sunset en route. I tried to take photos, but they are too yellow. The reality was much redder.

We are at Mas Alart, where we have stayed before, blissfully quiet and we can buy some of the white wine we like so much!  Such a friendly family, they remembered us.

To Spain, Friday 6 January

We crossed last night, as is our wont these days, and despite a lazy start, we were away by 10:30, to drive half-way across France on our way to Northern Spain.

All went well at first. I didn't feel I'd had quite enough sleep, so dozed off while the Swan Whisperer drove down the A16 until he was ready for a break. This was not quite lunch time, so we decided to go on for a bit.

Alas, as we went round Paris on an outer ring, catching glimpses of the Sacré-Coeur and the Eiffel tower, it all went pear-shaped, as we got to a place where suddenly there was a height restriction, and could we make the sat-nav, either one, take us around it? You guess!  We must have wasted two hours trying to get round it and then getting lost - lunch was eventually eaten on the go, with me making sandwiches in the back, in a traffic jam.

However, after that, when we were finally back on the right route, the sat-nav told us there was a massive traffic jam up ahead, and would we like to go a different way to save us well over an hour. So we said yes please, and it took us down the old road to Orleans, and I was delighted to see the track where they had conducted their experiments with monorails back in the 1970s - I'd last seen it over 40 years ago in a company that included the present Bishop of Rochester!

We got here eventually - an aire about half-way to the Pyrenees, only to find that the restaurant advertised has closed down. Don't know if the Mairie is open on Saturday mornings, hope so, as we need a jeton for the services.  Anyway, we found a restaurant not far away and had dinner, and now are heading to bed as it is bitterly cold, well below freezing!  Bed, one hopes, we'll be warm!

South Bank Christmas Markets

Don't bother, is all I can say!

We picked up Boy Two from Senate House shortly after 10:00 am and got a bus down to Waterloo Bridge, and then walked down the steps to the South Bank - but not a Christmas Market hut in sight.  Frantic Googling not only ate most of my phone's battery but also discovered that there were markets on the Queen's Walk (near the Eye) and at Bankside.  As we were near the Queen's Walk, we went there first - but despite the fact that it was 11:00 nothing was open, and there were only about five stalls anyway.  Huge disappointment.

So we decided we'd try Bankside.  Since it was the Swan Whisperer's birthday, we thought we'd be extravagant and get a river bus down there, but of course we just missed one!  Still, we had the tickets, so we wandered about the Eye.  Boy Two asked if we could go on it, but we explained that it was very expensive and the kind of thing we reserved for a birthday treat - we did actually wonder about treating the SW, but he thought not.  We said we might take him next birthday.... Anyway, we wandered round the souvenir shop, with the caveat that "We're not buying anything today" (the boys have been brought up to respect that, and don't nag, which is wonderful); both Boy Two and I fell in love with stuffed Corgis with Union flag coats on, but resisted temptation!

After which, it was time to go back to the pier, and we duly caught our riverbus to Bankside.  We nipped into Tate Modern to use the loos there, and then explored its Christmas market.  Also disappointing, although the stalls were open.  We had the obligatory mulled wine - a non-alcoholic punch for Boy Two - and the SW and I both had a Bratwurst in a roll.  Boy Two said he would prefer a hamburger, so we got him one - the biggest you ever did see, but he ate almost all of it, most of the onions and half the bun before admitting to being "a bit full up now"!   So we mopped up and then walked to London Bridge for a bus back to Walthamstow so that he could have a nap if he needed to, which he did.  So, I may say, did the Swan Whisperer! 

All in all I was very unimpressed with the Christmas markets this year.  Time was, they would stretch down between Waterloo and Westminster bridges, practically, and were splendid with gingerbread and other stalls, but not this year..  I believe there is a third around More London, but we didn't go there, and I don't intend to. 

Brittany, 7 December

Not doing that again!  Dieppe, I mean.  It was an expensive aire, and, because we were right by where the ferries come in and out, we were woken several times during the night by them doing just that.  And then the one that was due in at 4:00 am came in, and KEPT ITS ENGINE ON until it went out again at 6:00.  So not much sleep for us!

However, we got up at 7:00, as planned (in fact, I got up a little earlier and turned the hot water on, but then went back to bed again), and were away by 08:30.  Before sunrise, although not before dawn..... we drove across country to Tréport/Eu enjoying the sunrise over the "big sky", and then up to Abbeville and so to the motorway.  We reached Cité Europe about 11 and did an enormous, mostly Christmas, shop, and then were lucky enough to get a berth on the Shuttle going an hour earlier than the one we'd booked.  We spent the crossing eating lunch, and only realised afterwards that by UK time it was actually only 12:15.... oh well.

A swift and easy drive home, where we arrived by 2:00, and then an hour's hard work and we got everything put away.  Although as we are using the van as an extension of No 6 over Christmas, we have just put a bedspread on the bed and left the towels in the bathroom.  Now just the laundry to do, and to take the motor home down to Sussex on Friday, and that is it for this year.  Next trip early in the New Year..... Barcelona, perhaps?

Brittany, 6 December

The Swan Whisperer went for a run this morning, but the downside of going for a run before dawn in a strange place is that you don't realise that the town has carefully laid out a 3k course for you to run!  I found it later when I went for a walk to stretch my legs before a long day's drive.  I didn't do the whole 3k, but about half that round a very pretty lake.  I should have taken my trekking poles to have a proper workout, but didn't think until too late.

Most of the day was spent driving - on the motorway as far as Caen, then via Deauville (where we had lunch) and Honfleur to the Pont de Normandie, and then via Fécamp (where we got lost!) to Dieppe.  Then a cup of tea and we got rather cold waiting for it to be time to go out to dinner. We found a very nice restaurant that was slightly more expensive than we usually go for, but there food was delicious and the waitress made us giggle by looking exactly like Julie Walters in that sketch, only efficient and didn't spill things.

And so back to the van for the final night of the trip, although as we'll be sleeping in it over Christmas, we won't unmake the bed or bring the towels in. 

Brittany, 5 December

I made the huge mistake last night of failing to put on my bedsocks.  This meant I could simply not get my feet warm, and thus could not sleep.  I finally gave in and put then on - I do hate wearing them and one always comes off and gets lost - and of course, transformation. It wasn't even that cold, which is what is so annoying!

This morning we drove down to Pointe du Raz, which is about as far west as you can get in France. I should have liked to have stopped at the supermarket that said it was the "last supermarket before America", but we didn't. We thought might if we came back that way, but then we didn't.

The Pointe du Raz is obviously, in season, a huge tourist trap, with paying parking and a huge crescent of shops and a museum - all closed! We were reminded of Land's End, rather.   You could still park, but the barriers had been lifted and there were no attendants. We walked out along the path to the first viewpoint, which was lovely - sea all around, a lighthouse at the end, and plenty of rocks with lighthouses on them, too.

We walked back to the van and drove a little way north, past some wonderfully-situated hotels, to the Pointe du Van. This part of Finisterre is known as. Cornouaille, and the French for Cornwall is Cornouailles, so there is some connection.  The local languages are mutually intelligible with both Welsh and Cornish, I understand.

But it was time to turn eastwards, so we drove on, past Quimper (bypassing it, this time) and L'Orient, and turning south to Quiberon, which turned out to be a seaside resort at the end of a really long peninsula.

We stopped there for lunch, and then drive back through Carnac. This, however, proved to be a failure as there were roadworks and we were diverted hither and yon to the extent that I didn't realise we had been there until we were no longer there!  We did, however, see a field of menhirs (so that's what they did with all the ones Obélix carved!), so we felt honour was satisfied.

Then we drove on along the main road - Brittany doesn't have the toll motorways that are ubiquitous in the rest of France, but has some very good dual carriageways instead - to Rennes, and this pleasant aire in the suburb of Cesson-Sévigné.  It is the first aire that has been even remotely full this holiday, but we have a place by the river Vilaine, and very nice too.

There is so much more of Brittany to see, but it will have to wait for another time. And not in the summer - I imagine it would be heaving with tourists and no fun at all!