Christmas Markets trip., 16 December 2019

Today was the last full day of our holiday, and the weather has been spectacularly vile, peeing it down most of the day. 

We left our hosts of the previous night at about 10:00, and our first port of call was an Intermarché in Guise for diesel and gas; I popped into the supermarket and spent all of €2. 10 on half a baguette and some reduced-for-quick-sale apple tarts. 

We drove on to the far side of Lille before stopping for lunch  - we had thought to stop in Landrecies, where we have parked up before, but it was too early for lunch and the Swan Whisperer had had his coffee, so we headed on.  

Got to Coquelles mid-afternoon, and I did a massive shop for last-minute Christmas goodies, and also coffee and the nice tea that I like as we are unlikely to be back  here before next May. 

After a cup of the aforementioned tea, we drove up to the new aire at Sangatte, near the cemetery there, and rather stupidly settled down for the evening - had we thought, we could have driven round Calais and seen their Christmas lights, which are always spectacular.  But we didn't, and spent the evening reading and playing games or listening to music on our various devices. 

Christmas Markets trip, 15 December

Today is the Swan Whisperer's 69th birthday, and it was pouring with rain for a lot of it.  He went for a run when he got up, and while he was doing that, I got his presents out from their hiding place and later got breakfast while he was showering and dressing. 

I was quite tired today after two fairly strenuous days in Strasbourg and Kehl, and the weather was not conducive to doing much.  The Swan Whisperer went for a walk before lunch, and then we went to use the services, forgetting that we were still attached to the electricity!  Oops!  Fortunately no harm done except it reset the circuit breaker in the aire, but we suspect that can be easily fixed.  The head came off our cable, but the SW was able to get it back on and it is working, so that's all right. 

After lunch, we set off and drove to this place not too far from Laon where we are spending the night.  It is a farm, and I expect they will want to sell us some of their produce in the morning, but that's okay!  It's a France Passion place, and they seem very nice and welcoming. 

We have just had a nice cup of tea, and it will be sausages and mash for supper as we didn't have them yesterday. 

Christmas Markets trip, 14 December

We really got up at a reasonable hour this morning and caught the bus into town to wander up the main shopping drag, calling at DM, Muller and Woolworth's on the way. Then we went into what's called the City Centre shopping mall to go to Edeka and a German grocery shop, including, but not limited to, red cabbage for our Christmas dinner (which will be magret de canard), coloured hard-boiled eggs, sausages for tomorrow night, and a pineapple!

We had had trouble finding the mall, and when we came out we headed towards what we thought would be a tram stop, but then found we were at the Town Hall already! And there was our bus - they are only one an hour on Saturdays - about to go, so we had to run for it. I was delighted to find I recovered very quickly!

Once back at the van, we had coffee and then got ready to head on. We had already decided to get diesel in Germany, as it is a good 20 cents a litre cheaper than in France, and were very amused to find that this is obviously what the French do on Saturdays, as there were huge queues (and at the Esso garage on the other side of the road).

However, we got our diesel at long last and headed on back to Toul for the night. Google have is a lot more restaurant options once we were here, and the one we have chosen is all of 5 minutes away from the aire! 

The Swan Whisperer is eating tartiflette with local sausage, and I have ham hock! Both very delicious! 

Christmas Markets trip, 13 December

It was a horrible morning, cold, wet and dreary  Even the Swan Whisperer didn't want t go for a run!  So we didn't hurry and it was late morning before we set off for Strasbourg and the Christmas markets.  

The bus arrived on time and met the tram at the Rathaus, as scheduled, and it was a quick and easy run into Strasbourg and the stop for the Christmas markets. 

I bought various presents for various people and we had lunch in our favourite restaurant in the place Broglié.  

The drink is a "bière de Noël", which was lovely, with a very faint hint of gluehwein spices.  The Swan Whisperer had more red wine than was really wise, but he enjoyed it, too.

We then walked round the rest of the markets, and when we got tired, we went back to the Cathedral and sat down for half an hour, until we were rather chilled, at which point we went to see their huge Nativity display, which was wonderful.  

More photos will be posted on Facebook. By then, we were ready for a drink, so we bought some mulled orange juice which was delicious, and then headed back to the motor home.  

Stupidly, we let the first bus go off without us - we were both sure it had said K5 on the front, not K3 - so instead of standing for 30 minutes in the cold, we took the tram back to the station and walked down the main shopping drag (doing this properly tomorrow when I won't have to rush), and got back to the bus station just in time!  Now back in the motor home and it will be lentil curry for supper as it is quick and easy!

Christmas Markets trip, 12 December

Today has been all driving; we were able to empty our grey water tank at our overnight stop, but the water was locked out of use.  I'm sure they would have opened it for us had we asked, but they were both out when we left. 

We stopped in Chalons-en-Champagne for diesel, and tried to stop at another services for lunch and motorhome services, but couldn't find the place.  And the next stop, we couldn't see the entrance to the car park, and where we did park turned out to be lorries only and a rather officious person tried to move us on.  We ate rather fast!

We finally found services at Toul, near Nancy - the Swan Whisperer had been harping on about them all day, so I kept referring to "Your tool", which made us laugh.

And then I went to sleep, and when I woke up we were on the outskirts of Strasbourg, in the rush hour.  Oh well.  We are now in Kehl, and are hoping that the trams are running to Strasbourg tomorrow (there are strikes in France and I am not sure what the state of play is) as we want to visit the Christmas markets. 

The wine went really well with the choucroute we have just eaten!

Christmas Markets trip, 11 December 2019

It is December and thus time for what has become our annual trip to the Christmas markets, and, because we enjoyed it so much last year, we have decided to go to Strasbourg again. 

We couldn't set off before 10:30 last night, as the Swan Whisperer had a meeting, so we booked on the 01:26 crossing, as we have done in the past.  The M20 was closed not once but twice, and we had to divert via lesser roads.  Fortunately the diversions were all well-signposted, so we didn't get lost, nor even badly delayed, and we were brought back to the motorway on the second one using the new junction they have been building at Ashford.  

We didn't have long to wait for our crossing, and it was uneventful, but when we got to the Cité de l'Europe, we found that they have stopped overnight parking there.  A quick check on Campercontact showed that increasingly during November people were being plagued by would-be migrants trying to hide in their motorhome, and then from 30 November the comments all warned that overnight parking had been stopped.  I suppose it is for the best, but at 03:00, not what you want to find out!

We had seen another motorhome parked up in Lidl's car park (but how long before they put a stop to that?) so went and joined them for what was left of the night. 

By the time we were up and dressed it was 10:30 past, so we didn't have a proper breakfast, just a croissant (from Lidl) and coffee, and then we drove back up to the car park so I could do a shop in Carrefour.  I do love French supermarkets at Christmas, they are full of foie gras and smoked salmon, and wonderful collections of dried fruits in hampers and so on.  However, that sort of shopping can wait until we are on the homeward track, so I just bought a few groceries, and wanted a slightly bigger small handbag (I have a perfectly good large bag but it gets heavy !  Anyway, I found one I liked (the shop had some lovely Desigual ones, but I didn't like the clasp, which felt awkward to use) and bought it. 

And then we set off for a long, long drive across northern France.  Chaméry, where we have stayed several times before, is about half way, but since we have been there so often, and since the availability of services is always  a bit of an issue in the winter, I did a bit of research and found this rather lovely place which is a champagne growers with a dedicated, all-year-round aire.  The owners are out at the moment, but I expect they will offer us a tasting if and when they come in.  And there are services. Tomorrow we head to Strasbourg and Kehl for two nights.  

Kingston Christmas Markets

The Swan Whisperer noticed, earlier in the week, that he was no longer taking one day a week to go for a long walk, or anything similar.  Meanwhile, I ordered something off the Amazon Treasure Truck, and the easiest place for me to pick this up is at Clapham Junction Station.  And a conversation with a Facebook friend reminded me of this article I'd read on Londonist.  So I suggested we took ourselves to the Christmas market in Kingston-upon-Thames. 

At first we weren't quite sure whether we could get there because of the strike on South West Trains, or whatever they call themselves these days (I am VERY not pleased with them, not about the strike, but because I bought my train tickets off their website and now they are making a fuss about refunding them - had I bought them on Southern, I would have had the refund within minutes of knowing the event I'd been going to wasn't happening.  Very unimpressed, and will not be using their site again).  Anyway, keeping an eye on live departures, etc, soon reassured us that trains were running quite happily, and as it was within the limits of our Freedom Pass, we set off at about 14:30 (Christmas markets are always better in the dark!), and arrived at twilight.

The market wasn't as wonderful as the Londonist article makes it sound.  It was in two parts - the Alpine Village in the churchyard,

and then another area in what I think is called the Ancient Market.  The latter was bigger, and a great many food stalls - the big problem about visiting at that time of day is that it isn't a mealtime! We pottered around and bought one or two stocking-fillers, and looked for some others, and then, because neither of us had been in Kingston before, we went to see the Coronation Stone.  This was oddly impressive, I thought. 

From there, it was only a few steps to a bus stop from where we could catch a bus to the very impressive Modernist Surbiton station, and a train back to Clapham Junction came a very few minutes later.

On balance, although the market was nothing like as impressive as the one in Strasbourg we hope to visit next week, it was fun, and a pleasant afternoon out.  And we treated ourselves to a ready-meal from M&S as a reward for not having succumbed to the lure of bratwurst and gluehwein!