Long journey from Clermont Ferrand to Caen - 28th Oct ‘19

Very few pictures on today’s blog because frankly, there is nothing to show you!

Up early and on the road by 7.30am. Arrived at Port of Caen at 5pm - 390 miles later.

- Volvo went superbly.

- Brunnehilda behaved herself.

- Toll roads good albeit expensive (I reckon tolls have been £200 each way!)

- 3 Aire stops- one horrible croissant and one half decent fish and chips

- The Co-pilot was excellent - apart from losing a toll ticket but I don’t think that cost us anymore than it should have done? Mentioning lost things ... I’ll update you on the glasses mystery later.

Seriously on the last point ... people said that putting up an awning together was “divorce in a bag” but I was never too concerned - as it turns out correctly. But Kim and I were both a little wary about 8 hours a day driving together. We really shouldn’t have worried - we worked well as a team on all the hazards (and by jingo, there were a lot) that were thrown at us and also had lots of fun.

Eventually after a wrong turn by me we found the easier back route out to the motorway from Camping Huttopia Royat - the secret was to go through a village called Ceyrat and pick up a main road lower down. Within 30 mins we had cruise control on and heading north on the motorway.

The campsite here at Caen - Riva Bella - is all you would want and need for a one night stay. It’s within 5 mins drive of the ferry terminal, adequate toilets and a load of restaurants handy. Although the huge Carrefour did shut at 8pm!! I finished off the holiday with moule creme while Kim had oeuf  et frites. It was ok. It was very sad to see a small migrant camp (about 20 guys huddled around a fire) just at the entrance to the campsite- the poor sods, what an existence. If that’s better than where they’ve come from, just imagine where they’ve come from!?

So, as we approach the finish of our first foreign trip with Brunnehilda, here a few random reflections:

Biggest disappointment:

- Food - especially breakfasts and especially in France

- Some of the weather 

Biggest surprise - bad:

- The cost of motorway tolls

- The scary roads - especially in Italy

- Sone opening hours of restaurants and shops

Biggest surprise - good:

- How relaxed and tolerant the French and Italians are behind the wheel

- The superb flushing capacity of F&I toilets - literally nothing gets left behind ... if you know what I mean?

- Quality of sites - especially the Italian one

Lowlights:

- The infamous mountain road and nearly getting wedged in!

- The mud in the first 2 French sites!

Highlights:

- Swimming in the Med with my number 2 son - in all sorts of weather!

- Sitting in an Italian restaurant in the pouring rain watching couples scampering by with their brollies up - like a scene from a movie

- Having a coffee in a deserted coffee shop in an ancient medieval hill village

- Having a laugh together at all the crazy things we said, saw and did

Finally, we were struck by how nice all the folks we met we’re. The French, The Italians and the holidaying Germans. I can’t think of one person that wasn’t friendly / helpful or both. We’re all the same really with a few differences that make it fun and interesting so why on earth do 17 million Brits want to:

- vilify them

- blame them

- despise them

- criticise them 

- disassociate themselves from them 

- remove themselves from them

- find differences between themselves and them

- fear them 

Very very sad.

Breaking News:

My missing glasses turned up! Turns out it wasn’t a black hole at all. They had just managed to squeeze themselves down a gap between the wall and the mattress. I could hardly get my fingers down the gap so how the glasses got there I don’t know. Kim suggested it might be something to do with the weight distribution on my side of the bed??

Time to sleep - ferry at 8.30 am tomorrow morning.

Journey Home, Avignon to Clermont Ferrand - 27th Oct ‘19

A funny sort of a day - mostly travelling with the normal Sat Nav caused stress (when will we lever learn?) and a bit of a mystery to finish with.

Considering we were parked up in an Aire outside Avignon (yes, the place with the “pont”!), we slept remarkable well - and the clocks gave us an extra hour! We were breakfasted in the nice little cafe in the modern service area and on the road by 9.45am. We read many internet warnings about overnight stops at Aires but I have to say it really worked for us. There was a separate parking area for motor homes and caravans - Brunnehilda was the only one there last night!

No filter on the camera - just morning mist 

More good news - our faith in French bread has been restored - we had a gorgeous croissant and baguette which set us up up well for the morning drive. Unlike the 17.4 million, I’m big enough to know when I’ve called something wrong. Vive le pans!

The motorways are so easy to drive on - compared to what we’ve been used to down south. And as there are no lorries on French roads on a Sunday, I just put her in cruise control at 55 and we travelled for miles and miles without any effort at all. Because we broke the back of this journey last night, we only had about 240 miles left to do.

That said, we did hit our second French motorway traffic jam as we turned “left” at Lyon. We passed around St Ettiene, which looked a bit like Birmingham from the M6, and found somewhere to lunch as soon as we were back heading north. More culinary French Aire success and even time to read our books for a bit - although we had to park up with the HGVs!

The afternoon drive was amazing. We travelled about 60 kms through the most fabulous wooded mountain area - around a town called Thiers. Kim later impressively informed me that it was The Massif Central, the 3rd biggest mountain range in France with the largest peak 1,500 feet taller than Ben Nevis. I suspect the suspiciously long time lapse between the drive and the forthcoming information suggested it maybe Wikipedia to be more impressed with than Mrs Pitts!?

Copyright Wikipedia

We arrived about 5 miles from the campsite at Clermont-Ferrand at about 4pm - which is when disaster struck... again. I hadn’t checked Percy and once again he had chosen a crazy route - right through the middle of the city! Luckily it was a Sunday afternoon and not too bad - but for Kim’s eagle eye spotting a street that had a no caravan sign showing, I think we would have gotten ourselves deeper into the mire though!? So we had to make our own route to the site / taking about 45 mins to do those last 5 miles!

The site (Camping Huttopia at Royat) is really nice - as with most of the French sites it is due to shut down at the end of the month so it’s only about 1/10th full and lots of facilities are shut - pool and restaurant. The French lady host was amazingly nice and helpful. To be fair we haven’t come across a rotten French or Italian on all our trip!

After the stressful arrival we went out to fill up with fuel (that lesson has been hard learnt!) and check out the better route to the motorway that the site lady suggested. Most local restaurants seem to shut on a Sunday night but we didn’t try too hard as we were happy to have a snack and get to bed! We have the longest journey yet tomorrow- nearly 400 miles.

Now to the mystery- I couldn’t find my glasses when I woke up and i instantly knew they were lost for good! Both of us have turned the caravan upside down to find them but to no avail. And we are only talking a small caravan here not a 4 bedroom house! The current Mrs Pitts pointed out that I normally have some sort or eye disaster on holiday - who can forget the fish in Georgia who ended up with a very expensive pair of my specs after I stupidly dived into the sea forgetting I had them on! But this different - they’ve truly gone and there is no explanation- but one. I suspect there are tiny areas all over our universe that are trapdoors to another dimension / parallel universe. I think I just put them down somewhere and they slid into some sort of worm hole. That theory might also explain why so many single socks going missing and NEVER turn up.

Anyway, onto the promised pros and cons for Villaggio dei Fiori ...
Pros:
1) The position and view, yards away from the ocean.
2) A convenient and peaceful walkway into town
3) Access to the beach / sea
4) The most modern and cleanest toilet facilities ever! And so many of them!
5) The incredibly friendly and helpful staff
6) The pizza in the restaurant was sublime
7) Although, not used by us, the pool looked great
Cons:
1) It was difficult to put up an awning
2) There wasn’t enough space really for a van, a full size awning and a car - the pitches were best suited for motorhones
3) The fab pizza was only available on Fri, Sat & Sun

Overall, I would say this is by some distance the best site we have stayed at!
Ben fatto Italia!!