The last legs home ...

Saturday 12th May

We very reluctantly said goodbye to Merry-sur-Yonne and our friends David (doing the loos) and Zac (serving breakfasts) and Zac's very ancient Mum (tidying a serviette or two), having sat out in the sunshine for as a long as we could manage.  We did our take-home shopping at a Geant Casino at Auxerre and stopped to eat our picnic at an Aire we'd spotted last year on the N77 at Pontigny.  (NB to motorhoming friends - a lovely one, more like a tiny campsite, small charge.)

We drove north past St. Florentin and onto the autoroute almost to Chalons-en-Champagne, then turned left to a France Passion at Villeneuve Remeville Chevigny at the Champagne vineyard home of Philippe Leclere-Massard.  As we turned at junctions on the way to the village, we were surprised to see Motorhome Aire signs leading the way.  We wondered where this could be as it seemed to be heading in the same direction as we were to the FP.  Yes, on arrival, there were two signs - to the FP area and the Aire.  Never seen this before.  What the owner has done is turn his parking area into an Aire with 4 electric pods for which he charges €5 a night.  FP people would be free, but we chose to take the last pod available.  All was calm with 3 already installed - NL, F & UK (got chatting to them) - when 3 more F turned up together to squeeze into the remaining space available.  It meant that we were extremely hemmed in, so good job we didn't need to leave early in the morning.
(Should have taken a photo.)

Sunday 13th May

Fortunately the 3 late-comers moved off just before we were ready to go.  In our conversations with the UK couple (John and Jacky from the Wirral) - both couples we've made friends with this trip come from the Wirral! - we told them about the lovely campsite not far from Calais, at Licques.  As they were just over in France to buy champagne for their daughter's forthcoming wedding, they were heading that way too today.

We decided to have a walk before leaving the region, so went to Vertus, a nearby village to have a look around and do 3 geocaches.
 
 The latter turned out to be a disaster as all were missing, but the walk was good.
 
Except for the swan .... beside the church was a pond between the buildings and on it was a very lonely swan, who tried his best to fly across towards us, but failed miserably because of lack of space to take off.  He (could have been she) then proceded to bash his head in and out of water in a very wild manner - we think he is going mad in a space he can't get out of and with no mate.....aah

 In the olden days people obviously did lots of washing - we came across 3 lavoirs in the small town.


We eventually arrived at Licques Camping and chose one of our favourite pitches, only to find John and Jacky next door!  After a very dull day, it was now sunny and quite warm, so sat out chatting and discussing the merits of our Chaussons - they have an older, larger one than ours, but are now thinking of changing - that John complained to this John than meeting him is going to cost him a lot of money!

After a swim and our dinner, we spent the rest of the evening hearing about their smallholding and chatting about this and that ... which of course included all our ailments (seems to often come up in conversations at our age!).

Monday 14th May

And so this morning, we are packing up to get to the 12.35 ferry.  We have taken Jacki and Philip's advice and have booked the Club Lounge for the journey - never done that before.  Might be a good idea to have some comfort as it is blowing half a gale this morning!!

If you have stuck with us through this journey, we thank you very much indeed for being our blog-watchers.  This will be our diary to look back on, but do like to feel the closeness of our friends and family during the trip.

To the next time ....

Merry-sur-Yonne

Thursday 10th May

We spent the morning doing a few chores and enjoying being here.  David, the owner actually offered me a job while chatting(!) - he and Zac, the chef, are working their socks off keeping the site beautiful.  The restaurant is so popular with campers and local people, we've seen some turned away if they haven't made a reservation.  Yesterday I said it was one of our favourite sites - it is actually our very favourite site!  NB to other camping friends - we'd quite like to keep it a secret, but we know you would love it too!

Not quite so warm today, so a good day for a walk along the canal and into the lovely countryside.  Found a few geocaches along the way, but one was in a tennis ball way up a tree that we felt far too ancient to climb up to it.

Spent the evening in the restaurant having a very tasty meal....

Friday 11th May

.... and went back again this morning for breakfast.  The best hot chocolate this holiday!  Zac had a little bit of time to talk again, but he is so tired - we almost offered to do the washing up.  This morning his big headache was running out of bread.  They buy the frozen bread dough ready to cook, but last night got through more than they expected and didn't have enough for the baguette orders this morning.  So someone was sent off to various boulangeries (must be quite a way away, we think their little shop is the only one for miles) to get more. 

Today we planned a cycle ride/walk and set off about 11 o'clock, only to come back again a few minutes later because my back tyre went flat!  John spent the next half hour fixing it for me - while I wandered around the campsite taking photos.


 
 

 The River Yonne/Canal du Nivernais is so beautiful.  Today, with clear blue sky, we cycled on the towpath to the next village south, Chatel Censoir,






and then parked up the bikes to walk on a trail through shady trees and crop fields, with distant views of the rocky cliffs at Merry. 

We are now running out of holiday time and need to set off tomorrow morning for the last two days of travelling.  Not sure yet where we shall stay en route, possibly in Champagne somewhere. 

St. Etienne la Varenne - Merry-sur-Yonne

Tuesday 8th May

Last night's storm had gone by bedtime and we woke this morning to clear blue sky again.  We didn't need to leave our pitch till noon, so we spent the morning walking the mile or so into the small town of Vizille and having a good look round.  There was a small market in one of the squares and we went to look for a geocache close by.  We did the usual feeling under the benches(!) - no luck - but the hint "depagne" didn't mean anything to us.  John googled pagne and it came up with "loin-cloth" - that really didn't seem right!  Eventually he found it meant distribution box - and there by the wall was a big box with electric sockets all being used by the stall-holders.  If we'd looked there sooner, we'd have noticed the word "depagne" on the top of the box!  Yes, the cache was there, slid in a groove of the box. 

We knew the chateau wouldn't be open today but we could see the outside and also see various army jeeps and tanks equipped for mountain work - we assumed there for a VE day ceremony later.  (Didn't dare take photos - the army-boys had machine guns!)

Our journey later on, took us around Grenoble and Lyon into Beaujolais country.  This is our first night, this holiday, at a 'France Passion' (vineyards, farms, etc. offering space for motorhomes overnight for free) close to the tiny village of St. Etienne La Varenne.  Ludovic Emmetiere very kindly showed us where we could park on a gravelled patch of his land beside his tractors and we soon made friends with his 2 children and their sheepdog. 

The sun has been very warm today, but we wanted to see the village (uphill) so set off to enjoy the beautiful views of the vineyards and back to our home for the night.


 
 

Spot our van behind the tree!

 While preparing our dinner, the weather took a turn rather like last night ....

...and we ate our meal with all the windows closed while the storm raged for a while.


Wednesday 9th May

A bit more travelling north again today, into Burgundy, and to one of our favourite campsites in France.  This is our third visit and each time we come, the boys have done more work to make the site a real gem.  It's what was the old municipal site in Merry-sur-Yonne by the Canal du Nivernais, south of Auxerre.  Two English chaps took it on after 8 years of neglect.  We are just enjoying being here again, but did walk across the field to the river/canal.

Now we are listening to the birdsong and watching the sun go down.

Chichilianne to Vizille

Monday 7th May

Us by the trees  - Aire at Chichilianne

We had another short walk around this charming village this morning, partly to look for the "l'arbre extraordinaire" that we forgot to look for last night. 

Doesn't look too unusual - but it's dated 15C!

There was meant to be a geocache near it, but we couldn't find that, but had a very interesting 'chat' with an elderly local chap out for his morning constitutional.  We tried our best to understand his French, but then when we tried to communicate back, he told us he was deaf in his left ear and he thrust his right one to receive our snippets of French.  We made his day though - absolutely delighted to meet English people in his village, but then he spoilt it all by muttering something about Br---t!!! He went away a very happy man when we reassured him that we loved France!

Today's journey was very short - just a bit nearer to Grenoble, to a campsite at Vizille.  We've heard that UK weather has caught up with us today and we've certainly had a scorcher too.  At lunchtime the lady in reception here, said that we must go to see the local chateau and gave us a map of the town.  Well, it was so hot, we really couldn't make the effort to walk there, so decided on Plan B: to have showers at 5ish, then walk to the chateau (it was open till 7) then have a meal in the town.  The first part went to plan, but by 5.30 the rumblings in the mountains got a lot more intense.  By 6, the storm was upon us, so by that time we were onto Plan C: cook up an easy dinner and stay in! 

Hope we get to at least see the chateau before we move on tomorrow.

Chichilianne, Rhone-Alpes

 Sunday 6th May

A travelling day today, but with the most amazing scenery and some very interesting roads.

Looking back down to Castellane

We were going to have to get through that tiny hole ....

.... and that one!

We came north over several cols, around Digne-les-Bains (been there before) and past Sisteron (somewhere we must visit some time)

Sisteron

(ignore the black blob)

then over more cols and hairpin bends to a really beautiful little village Aire (free for motorhomes) - with a just-as-lovely name - Chichilianne.  We are high up in the Rhone-Alpes now, about 40k south of Grenoble. 

 

The village oven for baking their bread

 
We have mountains all around us, including a rock like a giant tooth. 

Castellane, Alpes de Haute-Provence

Friday 4th May

Today we started our slow journey north through France, leaving the beautiful Mediterranean.  Coming away from Antibes was easier than when we drove in, and soon we were on the road that quickly climbed up and up to Grasse.  The large town is built on a very steep hillside with no bypass as roads twist and wind around where they can through the buildings.  We managed to take a wrong turning at one point and knew it was wrong because we were going downhill!  When we went round the roundabout with the fountain for the second time, we set off again up and up on the Route Napoleon.

 We stopped at viewpoints along the way, looking down towards the sea, and up at the rocky cliffs above us. 

As we approached Castellane it became a lot greener and after stopping at Casino for some fuel and shopping, we arrived at Camping International to stay for 2 nights.

The sun was shining on the Chapelle Notre Dame du Roc when we were out for our evening stroll.



Saturday 5th May

This morning John spent a while repairing a puncture in my front tyre, then we cycled down into the small town of Castellane.  We wandered around the market, looked in the church and found a geocache. 


Back to the campsite for lunch, then we took the van out to drive up to the nearby Lac de Castillon, a man-made reservoir for an EDF hydro scheme.
 
We were surprised how low the water was for this time of year, but it was beautiful to see the turquoise water and visit the little village of St.-Julien-du-Verdon.



 
 We are enjoying our few days of mountain scenery.