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.