NCC Pertisau Holiday, 16 July 2025

Reims, Grand-Est

A rather dull day.  We could have arrived here in Reims really quite early, but there really wasn't much else to do ,so we decided to go non-toll, which was going to take longer.  By the time we had had breakfast (the Swan Whisperer went out to get croissants and then, as I wasn't quite ready, went to look at where other motor homes that we could see had been parked up - basically the nearest P&R!  But they seemed happy enough to let people stay overnight, so we might do that on the way back.  We'll see.

Anyway, by the time he came back and we had had breakfast, cleared up, and used the services, it was gone 10:00 by the time we set off.  We stopped near Lens for the Swan Whisperer to have coffee and I meant to just nip in to the Carrefour, but the whole shopping centre was so vast that it took longer than I intended.  All I really needed were some new pool sliders to replace mine that demised this morning (they were ancient), and the SW was low on milk, so I got some of that, and some chicken thighs to make a casserole for supper.  Which was very good, although perhaps would have been nicer with some mushrooms in it?  And the pool sliders were only €3.99!  

Anyway, we then headed on, and had planned to stop somewhere near St-Quentin for lunch, but it got later and later, so eventually we stopped in a random layby somewhere.  We then decided, since it was going to take 45 minutes less to get here if we went on the toll motorway than if we didn't, that we would remove the SatNav's prohibition on going on toll motorways, and arrived in Reims about 16:00.  This isn't where we usually stop, but another random aire I found.  No services, but plenty of room.  The only snag is that there is a funfair the other side of the car park, and we fear it may render the night hideous!  Still, it can't go on all night (can it?), and tomorrow is another rather dull driving day.

NCC Pertisau Holiday, 15 July 2025

Calais, Hauts-de-France

This holiday is basically why we couldn't go to Oberstdorf this year, as either we would have had to have set off again within a couple of days of arriving home, or we would have had to have had a six-week holiday in the motor home - which, while do-able and probably very enjoyable, wouldn't quite do as we both have responsibilities we couldn't have left for so long.

So yesterday we spent the morning packing, and in the afternoon we visited the Inspirations exhibition celebrating 200 years of passenger rail services; it was most enjoyable, despite being mostly aimed and children and despite our arriving rather later than the time stated on our tickets, due to my having failed to check where the exhibition actially was!  We then had a quick drink with the Daughter, who was just leaving work, before we headed off home again to finish packing.

This morning we got up early and had a quick breakfast before filling the car and doing all the last bits.  We left London shortly after 09:00, and despite having to stop to check the tyre pressures, arrived at the motor home at about 11:00 or shortly after.  We transferred the stuff from the car to the WoMo (getting stung by nettles in the process; at least, I did!), and then drove down to No 6 and got as much sorted out as we could before and early lunch with my mother, my sister and her partner.  Which was cold roast venison with salad and new potatoes, followed by fruit salad and cake, and cheese and biscuits if anybody wanted, which we didn't.  They had had a dinner party a couple of days earlier, so we got the leftovers - and a boxful of cold venison to have for lunch over the next few days.  Lush!

But we couldn't linger, especially as the others wanted to go fishing, and after finishing the tidying-up that needed to be done before we could set off (things in the fridge; groceries put away), we set off about 14:00 and, after a very smooth journey (I slept through most of it) arrived at Folkestone at 15:45, hoping to be offered a crossing earlier than our booked 17:16.  Unfortunately I think there had been some disruption earlier, and our booked crossing was the only option offered.  So we parked up and did things like unpacking and making the bed, and I nipped into the AA Shop to buy a new pair of seabands (why are new ones always so tight?) as one of mine had demised as we set off.  I was delighted to find they were about half what they cost in Boots!

The crossing was as straightforward as ever, except that we were delayed getting off by a couple of cars that wouldn't start and had to be towed, but once we were off we went straight to Cité Europe where I bought some money (we will probably need cash in Austria) and did some shopping, and then drove to the Camping-Car Park where we usually stay - there seems to be a rival facility across the road, which may need investigating - and had supper.  Having not slept well last night, I don't think I'll be late to bed this evening, despite having slept en route!

Going out out, 20 June 2025

We do not often go "out out"; usually evening expeditions, if any, are to various meetings of one kind or another. The last time I went out "on pleasure bent" was to see a film screening at Brixton Library with my tai chi friends, and I don't remember when the last time the Swan Whisperer and I went to the theatre together - it was at The Landor theatre and was on black plastic ice (friends of ours were skating in it).  But how long ago was that? Also the ABBA experience a few years ago, but nothing since! 

However, this evening we went all the way to Chelsea to see a production of "Swallows and Armenians" at the Chelsea Theatre.  I had bought the tickets some weeks ago, but was not very sure what to expect.  Actually, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The play - it's more of a musical, really - details the relationship between Arthur Ransome and the Altounyan family, on whom he based the original "Swallows" when he wrote Swallows and Amazons.  It didn't end well, with the relationship between Ernest Altounyan and Arthur Ransome going totally pear-shaped (not helped by the fact that he would have liked to have married Altounyan's wife, back in the day), and the children left wondering whether their school friends really wanted to know them for themselves, or as their characters in the books.  My main criticism was that the music was a bit overwhelming in a small space, but I took out my hearing aids for the second half, and that was much better!  The musicians were brilliant, although they occasionally missed the note when they sang.  But the range of instruments they all played was amazing.

After the performance, we could have joined in a circle dance in the square outside, but can you see the Swan Whisperer doing that?  No, me neither!  Had it been on ice.... But it was on concrete, so we came away to find a restaurant, and ended up in a very nice Persian one called Abib.  I ordered lamb chops

(I did not expect five of them - that would have done the Swan Whisperer and me at least twice at home!), and the Swan Whisperer ordered a chicken and lamb skewer.  The waitress strongly suggested we had a starter, as the main dishes would take at least twenty minutes, so we had hummus with garlic bread, and very good it was, too.  I ordered my lamb with garlic bread - the choices were that, or saffron rice or chips, but I find rice difficult to eat when I'm out as it gets under my false teeth!  So I ordered the bread, and then fell free to leave it, but I did, greedily, eat all the meat and salad! 

When we had finished, we found we could go home a different way - we had come on a 317 bus, changing at Sloane Square to an 11, but going home we took a 345 from Beaufort Street, changing at Clapham Common on to a 37. 

All in all, a most enjoyable date night!

Early summer holiday, 13 June 2025

Brixton, London, UK

I was too tired to blog last night, so to catch up on the final day of our holiday: we were able to heat water for our showers using electricity, although cups of tea made with it were disgusting! Once we were both showered and dressed, we made our way over to Auchan, where we knew we could buy gas, only to find that it wasn't yet open - sales are between 09:00 and 13:00.  Fortunately by then it was 08:55, and by the time we had bought diesel, the kiosk operator was there.

So we drove to the car-park of the main superstore and had breakfast, and, once I had finished I did a Last Shop in France, and then we drove over to the Shuttle terminus, where we got on a train half an hour earlier than our booking, which was good.  We stopped at Clackett Lane Services to eat our lunch, including belated Pentecost cheesecake/last day patisseries

and then went straight to No 6, where my mother was pleased to see us.

It is baby-pigeon season, and the results were all too obvious on our car, so the Swan Whisperer had to wash it before he did anything else! We eventually got it loaded and headed back to London about 18:00, getting home just on 20:00.  I'd bought a ready-meal for supper which we had as soon as we'd unloaded the fridge stuff, and then it was a matter of unpacking the basics, plus making overnight oats for the family, who were coming next morning to parkrun and then coming here to shower, breakfast and celebrate my birthday! It was lovely to see them.  And so ends another trip; we will be off again in about a month!

Early Summer Holiday, 12 June 2025

Blériot-Plage, Calais, France

Today has very much been what Anne Shirley would call a "Jonah Day".

It started off all right - the Swan Whisperer went into the town to buy bread and pains aux raisins, and came back saying that it was a lovely little town and we should go for a walk round it. So after breakfast we set off. Just as we got to the town centre - which is indeed lovely, there are photos

- the sky darkened, there was a flash of lightning and a huge peal of thunder, and the heavens opened! I did have my sweaty mac with me, which I put on, but it turned out to be as much use as a chocolate teapot, and I think I was even wetter than the Swan Whisperer by the time we got back to the WoMo and had to change out of the short and t-shirts we had been wearing! Of course, by the time we had done that and the SW had had his coffee, the sun had come out again and the weather has been lovely all day.

We had a pretty uneventful drive up to Calais - village names of the day: Pacy, Miserey and Mercey - and stopped for lunch in Vernon, where we stopped the last time we had spent the night in La-Madeleine-de-Nonancourt, what time it also thundered! Anyway, it has a chateau and an old mill across the stream, so the SW went to have a look at them while I got lunch ready.

Quite a lot of our drive after lunch was cross-country, and we joined the motorway a bit south of Neufchatel-en-Bray. We had intended to head straight to the Cité Europe along the motorways, but failed to notice a contraflow and were dumped off just past Boulogne. We don't mind going non-motorway on that route - it is very scenic - but it delayed us quite badly. We wanted to do a load of laundry in the new facilities outside the Cité Europe, but they were somehow disconnected from the Internet, and it couldn't accept our credit cards, and there is no way to pay cash. So that was a bust, and we will be doing our usual thing of endless washings when we get home. I suppose we might just have finished by Wednesday, time to go all over again. Sigh.

I nipped into Carrefour to get some fresh milk for the SW, and then we headed up here. The fridge started beeping and wouldn't light on gas, although it was fine on electricity and while driving.

For some reason the Swan Whisperer thought the gas needed to be reset, as it must have done an emergency switch-off, but he couldn't find out how to do this. And then he realised - we are utterly and totally out of gas! And there is nowhere local to get the right kind from a 24-hour automat, so although we might be able to have hot water in the morning, no way will it be hot enough for tea, and we won't be able to cook our breakfast. We drove all round Calais wishing we had realised what was wrong half an hour earlier, when we could still just have found somewhere open.

Fortunately, there was enough hot water in the thermos for a rather tepid cup of tea each, but tomorrow will be most unpleasant until the nearest garage opens at 08:30! If the SW thinks I'm going to get washed and dressed without a cup of tea inside me (it's bad enough having to wait 30 minutes after my thyroid tablet!), he has another think coming. Fortunately he is not saying that as we are going home tomorrow it's not worth it - but he had been convinced that we had enough gas to do us - as, indeed, we nearly did! 

Early summer holiday, Wednesday 11 June 2025

La-Madeleine-de-Nonancourt, Normandy, France

Felt much better this morning, thankfully, although not quite 100%, but quite well enough to go for a most enjoyable walk round Loches, which has ramparts and so on - quite steep, but steady.

More photos on Facebook, of course. The weekly market was also on, lots of cheap clothes and (ahem!) I might have been seduced by a couple of blouses.... We stopped for coffee en route, and I asked for a café allongé (American), but what I got was a double espresso! Oh well, no harm done!

Back at the WoMo, we got ready to leave and went to find the services, which weren't where we thought they were, but a very kind man told us where they were, which was rather out of our way, so we decided to leave it, and set off on the rather long drive to here, stopping for lunch and diesel in a random supermarket car park, which is an aire we have been to before, free everything (even electricity, although it seems to have gone off now, but I expect the Swan Whisperer can fix it when he gets back from his walk). It is near Dreux and Evreux, and probably about half-way between Loches and Calais, where we must be tomorrow. Last time we were here, there was a massive thunderstorm, really fabulous, and then an extremely loud and unpleasant noise going on first thing in the morning! The SW has gone for a leg--stretch, but I'm all right for now. I suppose I ought to go and do tai chi, but I'm too hot! It is hot! 

Early summer holiday, 10 June 2025

Loches, Centre-Val-de-Loire, France

We weren't supposed to be here tonight, but at a goat farm another two hours up the road, but this looked like a nice place to visit en route. Sadly, I have had a migraine all day - not bad, but debilitating - so we are staying here so we can have a proper look round in the morning, and have rejigged our tomorrow night's stop to match.

It's actually rather lovely here, by a river (the Indre?) with a robin, chaffinch, blackbird, doves and frogs battling it out!