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.