02/2003 - Across La Manche
14th December 2003
Well, here we are across the other side of La Manche having completed our first week of campsites Francais. In many ways it already feels like we have been travelling for months (for the best reasons!). We're learning fast, this being our first foray across the water with VeeJay The Van, and glad we'd had lots of opportunities to spend time on our wheels in the UK since April as it's stood us in good stead for this trip.
Our first stop was quite close to Calais as we were both still feeling the effects of our coughs and colds, so stayed two nights on a site about 30 miles away from the port. Had a bit of fun trying to find the way out of Calais as the signs seem to run out at the most critical points, but we made it in the end (after just a couple of circuits of the town) thanks to the navigational skills of trucker-woman who had agreed to ride shotgun for the duration.
It was very much 'off season' for that first stop, where about 75% of the main part of the site was occupied by fixed caravans, many lovingly tended with little garden plots, verandahs etc. These get used by holidaying French people in the warmer weather. We got pitched up nearby on an area of hardstanding which evidently doubled and trebled as an emergency petanque terrain and basketball court. Jeni's command of caravan-technical terms in French was immediately put to the test negotiating with our helpful, rotund French proprieter, who soon set about switching on the electric and water for us. We were later joined by a Dutch couple in a VW camper van and, as the 'old hands' on the site (!), we were able to point them at the various facilities.
We had no qualms about being softies and hitching up to the electrics so we could run our small heater - the temperature plunged and although we had a couple of beautiful bright days, the frost and ice never melted in areas out of the sun. We even found blade-of-grass ice-lollies! We realised we should have swapped at least one of our gas bottles from butane to propane as a tiny flame from the small amount of unfrozen gas did its best to boil the kettle for the morning tea. Yes, yes, you LPG afficianados will smirk at our naivety for forgetting that propane has a lower freezing temperature than butane. We live and learn (nearly the hard way!)
There was a lovely village just ten minutes walk down the road from our park-up, where most lamp-posts and telegraph poles were be-decked with great branches of fir, decorated with crackers, foil ribbons and bows, Christmas tree style. A truly ancient stone bridge was incongruously topped with a Pere Noel and sleigh in fairy lights.
A couple of early nights with Lemsips (who needs hard drugs?!) and catching up on our back issues of the Caravan Club Monthly soon put us back on track healthwise - we certainly know how to live!
Since then we have made a steady course southwards through an amazing variety of countryside, covering almost 1000 miles since we left Sussex. We circled West of Paris, finding a wonderful setting for an overnight stop to which we plan to return in Spring. It's near Monet's house and gardens which we are told are beautiful in the early months of the year. Then we motored on down nearly as far as Poitiers for a couple of nights (where the bicycle/tricycle came out for a jaunt around the local village - a great way to see the area) and then on to a tiny hamlet outside Figeac. Here we were disturbed only by a donkey and some geese, and were lulled to sleep by an owl at night. They'd had quite a lot of rain earlier in the autumn around there in the Dordogne/Lot region so the ground was very soft - lots of fun trying to level up the van as the chocks sank slowly into the rich red mud and the wheels span! Yes, that one was truly rural!
And so on south beyond Carcassonne from where we hope to send the next episode.
We've only once managed to find the World Service on the radio since we lost Radio 2 and Terry Wogan not far south of our first stop. So, apart from the odd bits Jeni can glean from French radio news, we're pretty much in ignorance of world events. This feels quite odd. We don't miss Eastenders at all (!) and are not even twitching at other missed TV programmes. It is good having the facility to play DVDs in the lap-top though and we have a goodly store of films to watch this way. We've already done a book and DVD-swap with a couple we met on one site. Best of all we are honing our board game skills! These last several evenings the tension has been palpable as the nightly Boggle Challenge commences. It's a close run thing, but Jeni has edged ahead 4-3 (with finding words like 'arse' and 'minge' you can see why!).
Hope this finds you well, happy and un-stressed.
More soon.
Love and hugs to all,
Jeni and Dave
xxxox
p.s. Thanks so much to those of you who have sent electronic Christmas cards. The drawback is, they either take so long to download, or we have to be on line for quite a while to make the link. As we're connecting to the internet via our mobiles, it's not really practical (or is prohibitively expensive!) to pick up these cards. Sorry to sound Old Scrooge-ish, but thought it better to let you know! Thanks for the thoughts though, we really do appreciate you thinking of us. xx