In search of spring, 23 February 2022

Merlimont, France. 

So another adventure begins; we are heading back to the South of France to see if it is beginning to be spring there! 

Normally, we would be parked up at Sangatte for the first night, but our batteries were a bit flat, so we thought we would go to a Camping-Car Park place just south of Le Touquet where there would be electricity.

Unfortunately, I misunderstood what the ap was telling me and it was full when we got there, so we are parked up with no electricity in the station car park.  At least we are an hour down the road for tomorrow's trip! 

We will be going to bed very soon to save the battery; if we have to drive for 20 miles tomorrow morning before we can have a shower, so be it! 

I have just given myself a fright because I couldn't find my medications for the morning, but they were there, just not where I thught they were!  Phew!

A Valentine's Day Excursion

 Actually,  Valentine's Day had really nothing to do with it - I just couldn't think what to call it.

Over the past few days, I'd read posts from Ian Visits and Londonist about a new electric bus that is being introduced on to route 63, with various experimental features that may or may not be included if and when they get funds to renew their fleet.  So I wanted to go on it, of course, and the Swan Whisperer was, if not keen, willing to accompany me.

The sensible thing was to go to King's Cross by Tube and catch it at the start of its route.  Getting to King's Cross was fine,

but we took a long time to find the correct bus stop, crossing the Euston Road several times and eventually ending up almost beside the Tube exit we'd come out of!  Then, of course, the next two 63s that came were the old buses - I gather the entire fleet will have been replaced by "spring", but at the moment less than half has.  However, eventually a new bus came along, and we got on.

I didn't really get a chance to look round the inside, but upstairs was very grand!  

There is a skylight, which I gather is tinted to stop it being too hot in summer, and, as you can see, there are windows that can be opened, although the bus is air-conditioned.  

We started off sitting right in the front, but then the Swan Whisperer's phone needed charged, so we moved back a seat to get access to the charging points and phone holders: 

The actual route was new to us, too - from King's Cross the bus goes down Clerkenwell Road, past Farringdon Station and under Holborn Viaduct (such lovely lamp-standards):

We crossed over Blackfriars Bridge, and so on to St George's Circus and the Elephant.  I suggested leaving the bus there, and getting a 35 home, but the Swan Whisperer said that we would stay on until the end.  However, after it stopped for about 15 minutes in the middle of nowhere (somewhere near Burgess Park) "to regulate the service", and then again at Peckham Bus Garage to change drivers, I firmly said I had had enough and would go to Morrison's and then get a 37 home.  So that's what we did - I wanted fresh pasta for supper.  

It was a fun outing, covering a large triangle of London.  Rather pointless, really, but I'm glad to have experienced these new buses.  We both liked the "wooden" flooring but I regret to say I didn't notice the modern passenger information screens - I have a feeling that our one wasn't working.  They have them on the P5, though - as, indeed, they have power sockets - so I have seen them.  I do hope TfL gets proper funding so it can roll out these buses, or very similar ones, over the whole network.  

In search of Sevilles

I have spent the past few days looking for the Seville oranges that are in season at this time of year and bring brightness to dull January days.  However, Lidl never sells them, Sainsbury's in Clapham didn't have any and nor did Tesco in Brixton or in Streatham (the Swan Whisperer very kindly looked after skating).  I had thought of going to Tulse Hill Sainsbury's, but they probably wouldn't have had them.  

I thought that, if anywhere would have them, it would be the massive Sainsbury's in Nine Elms, but it is a serious trek to get there.  However, one could make a proper Expotition of it.  I thought at first I'd go up there on the 196, then take the Tube from Nine Elms Station to Battersea Power Station Station and the P5 home, but it is rather minor roads between Battersea Power Station Station and the P5 terminus, and it would be dark by the time I got there (I'd been watching the Men's Short at the Europeans, so hadn't been out earlier).  So I thought I'd postpone the excursion to tomorrow, and just pop out to Lidl for today's necessities.  But just as I got to the bus stop, there was a P5, so I thought I'd do the trip the other way round.  

So first I got the P5 to Thessaly Road, and walked under the eponymous bridge (which calls itself Thessaly Road Bridge, but as it is patently a railway bridge, that is a bit of a misnomer) to Battersea Power Station Station.

The trains aren't very frequent from there, so I had to wait 6 minutes, but of course the train was in the station so I could sit down, very comfortable.  It is only a couple of minutes to Nine Elms, which I'd been through before, but never got in or out at.  I love the inside-out "Underground" logo that you see as you approach the exit:

Sainsbury's is just next door

and I was delighted to find they did have the Sevilles in stock, so from that point of view it was a most successful Expotition.  

On the way back, I decided to change buses at Stockwell Bus Garage, catching a 196 from opposite Sainsbury's and changing to a P5.  Big mistake - normally, when I do that, both buses arrive at the stop within seconds of each other, but this time I must have just missed the P5 and had to wait for a quarter of an hour for the next one - which was just in front of the next 196!  Ah well, I got home at last, in time for a much-needed cup of tea - as I hadn't expected to be out for more than a few minutes, I hadn't bothered to bring my water with me, and missed it rather badly!

Early Winter, Saturday 4 December 2021

Because Sangatte is so near the UK, but an hour ahead, it didn't even begin to try to get light until nearly 08:30, at which point the Swan Whisperer decided to go for a run.  No sooner had he set foot out of doors than it began to rain, and by the time he got back, he was soaked to the skin.  Nothing that a hot shower couldn't help, but unfortunately one of the seat cushions has got very wet from where he put his wet clothes, and I am sure that it will be covered in sooty mould when next we see it.  He says it will dry, and so it will, but will it dry before the sooty mould sets in?

Meanwhile, I'd done a bit of packing and got breakfast ready, and after breakfast we drove over to Cité Europe where I did a final last shopping in Carrefour (I didn't take any photos today, so this is the second photo of the display of dried fruits - which I bought one of - that I took ten days ago). 

I also bought marrons glacés and chocolate orange peel for Christmas.  And one or two other things, like a chicken for tomorrow and some liver (the Swan Whisperer adores it, and it is so much more easily bought in France than here) for later in the week.

Then it was time to head for the Eurotunnel terminal, so we went through - again, they wanted the card I had booked the crossing with, despite my having cancelled it with them.  The very nice man who came to rescue us said it was a known bug in their programming, and he had had to help several people in the exact same situation.  But I had succeeded (with much swearing) in uploading all our documentation this time, so we didn't have to drone round the houses, and, apart from a minor contretemps with French passport control because their counterparts at Folkestone hadn't stamped our passports with the date of entry into France, we got through very quickly and ended up on the noon crossing, rather than the 12:20 on which we were booked.

But setting our watches to UK time didn't mean resetting our stomachs, so we stopped at Clackett Lane Services to eat our lunch (thus taking the final meal of the holiday in the same place as we had the first one), and arrived in our village just as the wedding party was leaving - we had been uninvited, or should I say disinvited, when the new restrictions came in.  So we had a brief word with our daughter and family, and then stopped again to greet the bride and groom and congratulate them in passing.  And, indeed, for a brief word with my mother and sister, and with my other nephew and his partner, who were staying.  My sister had kindly brought our unwanted wedding garments downstairs so we could load them on top of everything else.  I am quite sure that dress is jinxed - every time I want to wear it to a wedding, something happens and I can't go!

They all went off to the reception, and we transferred everything to the car, and made sure we had everything from the motor home.  And the Swan Whisperer washed it, and we turned off the fridge and the electricity (and he had to run back to turn off the gas) and emptied the loo and what was left of the grey water and the clean water..... and so back to London and mammoth unpacking and much swearing when there was no room in the cupboards for things!  Some of my purchases have had to stay in their crate.  I must go and finish unpacking the clothes I didn't wear, and the washing kit, etc..... am very tired tonight, but as we now have to isolate until we can get our PCR tests back, I won't need to do anything much tomorrow.

We're now planning to hibernate, more or less, until the end of February or the beginning of March; we will check up on the motor home when we go down at Christmas, though, and there may be one or two Expotitions between now and then.  Which will be reported on!

Early Winter, Friday 3 December 2021

The last full day of the holiday, so of course I have to feel rotten - aching, exhausted, and really not up to par. And still coughing nicely, although less than before. As I said, if I were at home, I'd take a test, and probably will when I get home tomorrow, although as I have to self-isolate anyway until the results of our day 2 PCR tests come through, not much point, really.

The Swan Whisperer went for a walk in the morning, having been out first thing to find a boulangerie for croissants, while I read and dozed and researched a new smartphone (mine is giving notice to quit). Then I finally got dressed and we had lunch, and then drove up to Sangatte in the rain. We stopped at Auchan and I did about half of the necessary shopping, and then I made us a mushroom omelette for supper. And now I am snuggled up in bed with a hot water bottle! I feel quite a lot better this evening, so hope it was only a 24-hour bug. 

Early winter, Thursday 2 December 2021

The Swan Whisperer went for a run this morning, and came back not only with croissants for breakfast (yum), but also with the information that the tram stop into Reims was only a few metres away. 

So, after a hiatus when we couldn't find my woolly hat (it had been put away, but its matching scarf had not, hence the confusion), we set off. Tram tickets, like bus tickets in the UK, are valid for an hour, and we made full use of our hour, as when we got to the Cathedral, we found there was a Christmas Market.  One of the best ones we have been to, actually.  We had to wear a mask and show our vaccine certificates to get in (I accidentally showed the photo I had taken of my Bratwurst supper, which made us all laugh - I had opened the right picture, but must have clicked on "next" or something.  Oh well, no harm done! 

The market was much bigger than we first thought, and it was a great pity that we were neither hungry enough to make the most of the proffered samples of all kinds of goodies, from cheese to prunes and boiled sweets and everything in between, nor was it the right sort of time of day for glühwein (and the SW was driving, anyway), but we bought gingerbread for the boys (a Father Christmas and a St Nicholas, which will, of course, be for Boy 2), and ended up with a mug of mulled orange juice, which had slightly too  much cinnamon for my taste, but was otherwise very good. 

We got back on the tram with about 2 minutes to spare on our tickets and, once back at the motor home, used the services and then headed off. 

We stopped for lunch at a lovely aire in a village called Corbeny, which was by an artificial lake or pond of some kind.

It would have been a lovely place to spend the night, but there were no services of any kind, and anyway, it was only lunch time.  So we drove on to this aire, taking our time and going cross-country. This is the municipal aire of Marcoing, just outside Cambrai.  It is okay; the fresh water is out of use for the winter, and there is nowhere to empty the loo, but they provide free electricity while the street lamps are on.  I gather they go off at midnight, but I expect they come on again in the morning.  It is not particularly attractive; it is by a canal lock, but you can't see it.  Still, once  you are indoors with all the shutters closed you can't see out anyway! 

Early winter, Wednesday 1 December 2021

Another horribly wet day, and I have developed a really bad cough, which is annoying and tiring. If I were at home I'd do a test, but not sure how to get them here.

We went to a Lidl this morning, which was a bust as they didn't have any fresh milk, and I got loo paper instead of kitchen paper by mistake, but they changed it for me. So we then programmed an E Leclerc in St Dizier into the SatNav, but when we got there there were barriers all round the car park, so we went to Intermarché instead, which didn't, and I got milk and a couple of other things, including "rognons sauce madère", which we both love, but haven't seen for ages - I thought they had stopped making them. We then had lunch, and then it rained and rained

while we drove to Reims to use the services there, and there was space in the motor home park here. It's ok, but a lot of traffic noise. We nearly went back to Chaméry, but didn't. 

We didn't eat the rognons, either, but i made a big vegetable stew, which I hoped would do twice, but it didn't! Oh well. And the rain has stopped, for now, at least.