First trip of the year

 Fairbourne and Bodilan Fach Farm - 16 - 19 April 2023

We'd been itching to get away in the van, but the weather's been rubbish over the past few weeks. We planned on taking this trip a week ago, but wind, rain (and snow!) meant it was sensible to postpone.  But the weather forecast improved - at least the rain and strong winds had stopped - so we decided to take a chance.

After an expensive diesel fill-up, we drove one and a half hours south from Anglesey to the village of Fairbourne.  It's situated right by the beach at the southern end of the Mawddach estuary, just across rom the town of Barmouth.  Fairbourne is right down at close to sea level and is protected from the sea by a series of flood barriers. But it's been decided by the Welsh Government that maintaining them is too expensive and the village can't be saved if sea levels rise (and they will) so it's likely the place will eventually be abandoned and surrendered to the sea over the coming decades.  Given that, the occupants are finding it almost impossible to sell their houses and anyone who wants to buy here has to pay cash.  So the area is starting to look a little run-down, although reading the various noticeboards, there does appear to be a strong 'all in it together' community spirit.  The village seems to mainly be English retirees and holiday homes, handed down the generations. However, there did appear to be an active and noisy primary school, so perhaps not all is lost.....for now.

The beach is mainly large round pebbles up by the defences, with a long sandy stretch when the tide's out.  Behind the village are mountains and across the sea, to the left of Barmouth, is a view of the Llyn Peninsula.

Our first stopover was on something like a French aire.  It's actually the private car park of a closed hotel, but the owner's made use of the space and allows overnight stopovers, at a very reasonable cost of £5 for 24 hours, paid via the 'Pay by Phone' app.  He's also installed a motorhome service point, with black waste disposal and fresh water.  This is available to all but there is an honesty payment of £5, paid online via a QR code.  When we arrived, there were still a few Sunday trippers parked in their cars, but still plenty of room for us to pull in on what is a very level, tarmac parking area.  We were soon joined by a couple of other vans.  After some lunch we walked along the raised promenade heading north.  The middle section of the beach is no dogs from 1 April - 30 September, but dogs are allowed on the beach on either side of this.  The tide was out and we hobbled across the large round pebbles to walk on the wet sand.  There is a small ferry that sometimes runs at the end of this spit of land for the short crossing to Barmouth and it's the only way to get there from this point, unless you walk the 45 minutes back to the wooden train bridge which spans the estuary, or drive quite a few miles around.  At the end of the spit there's a cafe that services walkers and those using the small steam railway that runs from the station just by the aire.

The weather wasn't great - very grey and cloudy - but at least it wasn't raining or windy.  Back at the van, we chilled out before eating, then later took a walk in the other direction towards the main road and the mountains.  I had a chat with the owner of one of the vans. He and his wife had been away touring the UK for about 3 weeks and were planning on continuing until the end of May. We talked about the difficulty of finding places such as this to stay overnight, without the hassle of pre-booking a campsite and wished for many more of them. Although next to a road, the aire was very quiet and we slept well.

Good service point

Salty watching the little steam train from the aire

The next morning dawned still cloudy but at least a little brighter and warmer.  After breakfast we drove just a few hundred metres up the no-through road running alongside the beach to the car park at Fairbourne Golf Club.  They allow overnight parking for £10.  The parking area's hardcore with some muddy puddles, but we still found a dry, level spot, with lovely views towards Barmouth and the mountains.  The payment can be made in cash when the clubhouse is open, or via an honesty box at the entrance to the small golf course.  We spent our day walking the coastal path, which took us zig-zagging up the hillside to about 270m above sea level, with great views over the bay towards the Llyn peninsula and the mountains; Snowdonia would be visible on a clear day.  It was quite mild with no wind and we enjoyed the sporadic hits of sunshine.  On the way up we visited the Blue Lake, formed from the slate quarrying.  It's dark blue in colour, clear and about 15m deep.  It's no longer possible to get down to the small lake, but the views from above were lovely.  Carrying on the coastal path heading south, we made it to a group of standing stones, where we sat to have our snack and a cup of tea.  Leading down towards the coast from this point, we visited the clearly visible hut circles and the old enclosure at the high point.  Back on the path, we retraced our steps back to Fairbourne.  The ice cream parlour was open so we all enjoyed a well-earned ice cream, including Salty who loved his 'doggy' ice cream, chasing the tub around the floor with his tongue!  Back at the van, it was time for a cup of tea overlooking the views, then a bit of a snooze before eating.  We'd hoped to try one of the two takeaways in the village, but they're only open at the weekend.  There is a small bar that does food by the ice-cream parlour, but we didn't really fancy that.  So Cathy cooked up a risotto, using some sausages, onion, pepper, garlic and fresh kale from a friend's garden.  I popped in to the clubhouse to let them know I'd left money in the honesty box and thank them for allowing us to stay overnight.  They were very friendly and welcoming and explained the toilets at the back remained open all night.  The bar was warm and inviting with a good range of beers, so perhaps next time we might pop in for a nightcap.  We finished off the evening with a gentle stroll along the prom to loosen off our aching legs from the long walk.  Another quiet night.

View down towards Fairbourne and Barmouth

Blue lake

Golf club stopover

The next morning it was clear blue skies and bright sunshine, but the strong, north-easterly wind was wickedly chilly.  I took Salty out for his morning constitution and we returned to the van with cold tears in our eyes!  Our final stopover for this trip was at the CL on Bodilan Fach Farm, nestled in the Dysynni valley between mountains in the Snowdonia National Park.  It only took about 20 minutes to drive there, following the coastal road before cutting inland , following ever-smaller roads and lanes into a dead-end valley.  What a beautiful spot.  The CL is a grass area just past the farm, next to a fast flowing river.  It's pretty basic - fresh water tap and black waste dump - but that's all we needed and only £10 for the night.  There's also absolutely no phone signal here, which won't suit lots of people, but is perfect for us. I'd emailed the owners a few days before and had a very welcoming reply; I tried a couple of times at the house to say hello and pay the fee, but no doubt they were busy on the mainly sheep rearing farm.

We pitched up with our side door facing south to benefit from the strong sunshine, then made up a flask, grabbed some snacks and headed out for a walk.  We wandered up the lane before turning right and doubling back on ourselves along the footpath on the opposite side of the river.  The route followed the line of one of the many dry-stone walls that reminded us so much of Yorkshire.  Reaching a road, we stopped to read the monument at the derelict house of Mary Jones. A few minutes on, we reached St Michael's Church, which has a small exhibition dedicated to Mary Jones and her family. The story of Mary Jones and her Bible inspired the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Mary Jones (16 December 1784 – 28 December 1864) was a Welsh girl who, at the age of fifteen, walked twenty-six miles barefoot across the countryside to buy a copy of the Welsh Bible from Thomas Charles because she did not have one. Thomas Charles then used her story in proposing to the Religious Tract Society that it set up a new organisation to supply Wales with Bibles. Together with the Welsh hymn writer Ann Griffiths (1776–1805), Mary Jones had become a national icon by the end of the nineteenth century, and was a significant figure in Welsh nonconformism.

We continued to follow the narrow lane heading south, soon arriving at the base of Castell y Bere.  The remains of the castle stand on a large rocky outcrop in the middle of an otherwise flat and featureless valley, with high mountains on either side.  Constructed by Llywelyn the Great in the 1220s, the stone castle was intended to maintain his authority over the local people and to defend the south-west part of the princedom of Gwynedd. In 1282, war with Edward I of England resulted in the death of Llywelyn's grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and Castell y Bere fell to English forces. Edward I expanded the castle further and established a small town beside it. In 1294 the Welsh leader Madog ap Llywelyn mounted a major revolt and the castle was besieged and apparently burnt. Edward did not repair it and it became ruined. It was cleared of undergrowth and the first archaeological dig completed in the 1850s.

We had a very enjoyable hour exploring the castle, finding a sunny spot out of the wind to enjoy our tea and snacks.  The last leg of our return journey continued along the lane we'd driven down earlier and back to the van, for a well-earned cup of tea sat in the sunshine, with Salty sleeping contendedly by our feet.  I made tonight's dinner - a simple salad with sausage and cheese toasties made in the Ridge Monkey. The sun had disappeared behind the mountain by 6pm, so after washing up we walked up the bridleway to see the sun on the distant mountains and he looked down the valley towards the sea.  The path continued on, traversing the hillside and promises further great walks when we return here....and we will. Tired from a couple of days of hilly walks, we read our books before falling asleep to the sound of the river rushing behind us.

The next morning was clear and sunny again, but still with that cool wind blowing.  We popped in to thank the owners and pay the fee, before heading north for home.  I needed to stop off in Llanberis to collect some climbing helmets from an outdoor shop for the search and rescue team I'm a member of.  V12 Outdoor are strong supporters of the various search and rescue teams in North Wales and provide us with a good discount on the various outdoor and rope safety equipment we need.  Their shop is well stocked and they're very knowledgeable - give them a try if you're in the town.  As we were in Llanberis, we took the opportunity to park up and have a walk around Llyn Padarn, a large lake surrounded by mountains, with Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) towering over them all.  After a quick panad back in the van, we made the short journey back home to Anglesey.

This was just a short trip, not too far from home.  But we enjoyed the change of scenery and it was good to get back in the van.  We'd forgotten how to do 'van life' after a long winter break and our 'To Do' list filled up with things we forgot to buy or need to do.  But we'll get back into the swing of it during a visit to the Lake District (and possibly Scotland) next month.  Until then...

That's It Folks!

Saturday 1 October 2022

Nido's parked up at Wissant, our last aire of this six week trip to France.  The alarm is set for 0400 tomorrow morning ready for our 0750 Shuttle and, so long as Salty's EU Pet Passport passes muster again and assuming no train or UK road delays (bound to happen now!), we'll be back in our home on Ynys Môn (Isle of Anglesey) by this time tomorrow. 

We've had a walk along the seafront and on to a noisy and busy beach with Salty; the over-stimulation set him off barking so he came back to the van for some 'quiet time' and we went back for another walk.  Although there was a strong onshore wind, it was warm and sunny.  Consequently we were in t-shirts and shorts; everyone else was wrapped up in fleeces, scarves and quilted jackets.  I'm not sure who was out of sync, but we felt very comfortable!  We're now hunkered down in the van, something to eat then an early night.

The main effort yesterday was two fold: a trip to the vet for Salty to take his worming tablet and have a 3-year rabies vaccine booster and meet up with a friend and his dogs, also travelling in France in his motorhome and also visiting the vet ready to return to the UK.  Both accomplished.

We met up with Nigel in his A Class Rapido motorhome, with his two dogs onboard - Judy (who is an elderly lady now and prefers to stay in the van) and Matt (who is much younger and Salty's walking buddy).  We met at the aire in Buchy at around midday and spent an hour or so stood outside in the sunshine, catching up on our respective trips.  We left first for Salty's 2pm vet appointment, with a plan to all meet up at another aire later that afternoon.

The vets in Buchy was very good.  I booked his appointment via their website before we left home.  The practice is on a small industrial estate just outside the town and is clean and modern with five vets in the practice.  We were soon chatting to the vet who spoke excellent English.  After Salty had taken his worming tablet (which I sneakily wrapped in ham!), the vet gave him is rabies booster.  Although Salty's rabies booster runs until October next year, there's no guarantee we'll be back in Europe then. UK vets can no longer register rabies jab in an EU Pet Passport, so if it had lapsed, his pet passport would have become invalid.  Now he's covered until 30 September 2025.

Nigel's dogs weren't booked in until 3pm, so we continued to the aire at Mesnières-en-Bray to make sure there was room for both vans to stay the night; otherwise we had a couple of reserves.  Luckily there was plenty of space, so we parked up and had a spot of lunch and a cup of tea until Nigel arrived about an hour later.  We took our dogs for a walk while Cathy had a bit of peace of quiet - not really, she spent the whole time giving the inside of our van a really good clean!  One of the reasons we picked this aire (apart from  being free) was that the village had a pizza machine!  It was just opposite the entrance to the aire, so later we bought three and spent an enjoyable hour or so (with a bottle of red) in Nigel's van catching up.  His ferry's booked for this evening so he left early this morning to make his way to Calais.  We followed on a bit later, topping up with diesel close to tonight's stop.

We've had a blast on this trip, extending our summer by several weeks and even having to head north early due to the extreme hot weather in the Dordogne.  This is our first long van trip after a three year break due to the Covid pandemic; it was eagerly awaited and we've enjoyed the journey. But we're ready to return home and pick up our retired lives. The garden will be a jungle, so will need taming and Cathy has lots of plans to move plants around, plant new ones and add some structural changes.  I have a busy period coming up with Môn SAR as a bunch of new recruits start their six-month training programme on Wednesday, I have a couple of watches booked in with the National Coastwatch Station at Rhoscolyn and it'll be back to the tools on Friday, working on improving and maintaining the footpaths and coastal path somewhere on Anglesey.

Like most countries around the world, France has been impacted greatly by the financial crash of 2008 and the Covid lockdowns.  In our early trips to France, before we had the van, we used to eat at many of the small, family-run bistros and restaurants dotted around France.  Similarly, nearly every village had a Bar/Resto or Tabac and a boulangerie.  Sadly, the financial crash wiped out most of the former and the lockdowns took out many of the latter.  Sadly, many French villages are a shadow of their former selves, with no bar, boulangerie, boucherie or shop to act as the community hub.  Combined with many young people moving away from the countryside and into the cities, lots of these French village and hamlets are slowly dying and it's sad to think they could be empty and forgotten in a few years.  France isn't unique of course, many other countries including the UK have suffered a similar fate.  But it's particularly sad as it's these institutions that make France special and, in a selfish way, we miss them.

So we head back to the autumn and coming winter, hoping the fuel bills are affordable and, probably like many others, thinking where we can make savings to survive the cost of living crisis.  It's going to be a very difficult 12 months for many.  Because of this, we're uncertain if we'll be travelling into Europe next year. We'll need to wait and see how the finances stack up.  But we have some plans for exploring more of the UK in 2023.  We're planning on a fortnight in the Lake District in the Spring, meeting up with some of my old Navy friends for some walking and reminiscing.  Then before the main summer holidays we're looking at two weeks in the Highlands of Scotland, spanning my 60th birthday in July (only seems a short while since I was 18 and partying all night!).  Then perhaps a trip to either the Yorkshire Dales and east coast, or the south coast, covering Dorset, Devon and Cornwall into the autumn.  These are all loose plans and subject to change - aren't they all.  But it'll give me something to do on the dark winter nights, planning where to stay and researching places to visit.

I hope you've enjoyed my very amateur blog posts and thanks for staying the course.  If you've read them all - you deserve a medal!  I started the blog as a reminder of all the places we've visited in motorhomes over the years, otherwise I'd soon forget! Looking back, we've had a great time and hope to continue them for many years to come.

That's it Folks!  See you back in Blighty!

Wissant

Mesnières-en-Bray

Getting ready to return home

 Thursday 29 September 2022

Nido's parked up on the aire at Forges-les-Eaux, which is run by the campsite opposite - Camping de la Miniere. Although €9, which includes EHU, it made sense to come here as it's mid-way between last night's stop and the vets in Buchy, where Salty has an appointment tomorrow for his pre-UK worming tablet.  It's a calm, peaceful evening with a nice sunset; probably set to turn quite chilly tonight.  We've stopped here a couple of times before, first in 2013 on our first ever trip to France in a motorhome and again in March 2018, on the first day of our  three-month trip to France, Spain and Portugal.

After leaving Honfleur we had a fairly long drive to Saint Romain de Colsbosc to service the van for free (the aire also had free electricity), before stopping off at the nearby Hyper-U to do some food shopping.  We both went around as we had a list of items we wanted to take home - all foodie stuff.  We don't bother taking alcohol back as we don't drink much and it takes up too much room in the van.  Our stop for the night was a wild-camp by the beach at Saint Jouin Bruneval.  The approach is down a steep series of hairpins from the top of the high cliffs, dropping down to quite a rough parking area, backing on to trees at the base of the cliff.  There were already a few vans parked up, including some surfing dudes as the waves here are quite wild; it must get very busy in the summer.  The area between the cliffs and the high-tide mark was large pebbles and other types of rocks, with a sandy base as the tide receded.  There's a restaurant (closed which was a shame as we could have enjoyed some moules-frites!), a cafe, lifeguard station with first aid post and toilets. All except the toilets were closed.  On the other side was a very large supertanker jetty with oil or gas storage tanks.  We took a good long walk along the beach, with Salty enjoying the opportunity to have a good run-around.  It was very windy although quite sheltered back at the van as we were tucked behind a raised levee which protected us from the onshore wind.  It was a quiet evening.

The next morning we left to head for a park-up I'd seen in some woods on Google Maps, not for an overnight stay, but for somewhere to stop for lunch then head out for a walk in the forest.  Long walks this far north have been few and far between.  The stop turned out to be one of over 140 World War 2 sites where the Germans prepared and then launched V1 rockets towards London - at a place called Val Ygot.  Most of the concrete bunkers had been blown apart in a number of allied air raids and there were plenty of huge bomb craters still around the site and trees. But enough remained to provide a feel for what it would have been like and there was a mock V1 rocket on rails, looking ready to launch.

Our stop last night was a Camping Car Park site in the town of Formerie.  It's only small with six pitches on tarmac.  It's very new and the facilities were immaculate and well designed.  The included wifi signal was also good, so we were able to catch up on some YouTube videos.  It also allowed Cathy to use it for her weekly online Welsh course lesson, while Salty and I had a wander around the lanes and town in warm sunshine.

Van serviced, we drove the 30 minutes to Forges-les-Eaux, parked up, EHU plugged in and a quick lunch before taking Salty out for a walk.  I had some charity work and accounts to do, so made use of the data remaining on our MiFi, before we closed up the van for the evening for dinner and a bit more YouTube.

Tomorrow we'll head for Buchy for Salty to take his worming tablet and get it recorded in his EU Pet Passport, which is a requirement for returning to the UK.  We'll also be meeting up with a friend who lives in the next village to us (also a member of Mon SAR), who's been in France for two weeks in his A Class motorhome and his two dogs.  They're both also booked into the vets, then we plan to find an aire to stop at together tomorrow night, hopefully with a pizza machine, so we can have a lazy dinner with a glass of wine!

We've brought our Shuttle crossing forward by a couple of days.  We've done all we wanted so we'd only be hanging around for the remaining days just to kill time.  So we'll be heading towards Calais on Saturday, finding a park-up for the night close enough to allow a short drive to the Eurotunnel Terminal very early on Sunday morning.

Beach at Saint Jouin Bruneval

Salty looking longingly at the sea - he's missed it!

Camping Car Park - Formerie

Forges-les-Eaux aire

Autumn arrives in Honfleur

Monday 26 September 2022

Nido's parked up on the very large aire in the fishing port of Honfleur.  There's probably over 100 motorhomes here.  It costs €12 for 24 hours which includes electricity.  It wasn't that busy when we arrived, so were able to grab a pitch in the front row with a view of the marina.  It was raining hard on the way here and when we arrived, but it brightened up into the afternoon although now, as the light starts to fade, the clouds still look threatening with the chance of more rain.  We can't complain; apart from this, we've only had a couple of days rain in five weeks away.

After leaving Écouché yesterday morning, we broke our journey with a stop at a basic aire by a road in Saint Julien le Faucon, which had a free service point, so we were able to fill and empty the tanks again.  This service point had one of the water fittings that, as soon as you attach a male connector, it starts gushing water at a huge rate of knots. I've been caught out by this on an aire in a previous trip, when my trousers and shoes took a right soaking!  On that occasion I stopped off at a Leroy Merlin (French equivalent of B&Q) to buy a double-male fitting with an on/off switch.  This meant next time I could plug into one of these weird fittings with the connector in the off position and not get soaked.  So this came in handy for this trip and we stayed dry!  This aire, although by the side of busy road, did have one redeeming feature - another pizza machine!  

Moving on, I had a small aire plugged in at Merville-Franceville plage which was right by a large sandy beach.  However, it being Sunday and as we were a bit late in the day, it was rammed, so instead I found a place a few minutes away at Sallenelles.  There were only two spaces available and one was already taken, so we bagged the other and had lunch looking out at the estuary.  The sun was shining and it felt warm so we all went for a walk around the estuary, which was now showing muddy sides as the tide receded.  We saw plenty of birdlife and listened to the curlews.  Although the aire was fairly quiet, it wasn't really a decent night stop, so we back-tracked about 17km and pulled into the aire in Beuvron-en-Auge, another 'beautiful village' of France.  We almost stayed here before in 2014, lunching in the lovely Creperie in the village square before moving on as we couldn't buy a token to pay for the aire.  This time a man came around later to collect the money.

We left Salty in the van and had a short walk around the old part of the village, buying a 'chicken roti', turning and cooking outside the boulangerie.  With this Cathy made a delicious Sunday chicken dinner, with boiled new potatoes, carrots, green beans and gravy - something we've been craving!  Salty had a good pile of chicken too and was soon fast asleep on the bed with a belly larger than it was about half an hour before!  Well fed and watered, I took him for a walk as the sun was setting.

The wind outside increased during the night and by morning we had the first spots of rain which became torrential as we drove towards Honfleur.  This is the first proper rain we've seen in months.  We stopped off at Deauville so I could do some shopping at the Le Clerc supermarket and Cathy could get online to do her Welsh language course homework.

Once settled at Honfleur, we took Salty for a walk along the quieter end of the harbour before dropping him off back at the van and wandering into the town, which is only about 10 minutes walk from the aire.  It hadn't changed all that much since our last visit (why would it - most of the buildings are hundreds of years old!), but it was certainly busier, with many more cars driving around and loads more people.  The vast majority of them were off a cruise ship berthed nearby (maybe Le Havre?) and almost all were English or Scottish.  After weeks of being the only UK van in most of the aires and campsites, it was very strange to be able to clearly understand what was being said; I had to be careful what I was saying too!  We mooched in and out of the tat shops just for something to do and looked at the menus of the various restaurants as we had hoped to have some moules-frites.  But the prices were much higher than some places we'd seen elsewhere and the crowds kind of put us off.  So we returned to the van to relax and people watch as the motorhome owners walked past the front of our van on the way into and back from town.  Our licence plate had the old GB and EU stars on the left-hand side and we've replaced with the the Welsh flag and the words 'CYMRU'.  All through France this has really confused people and they've struggled to understand where our van is from.  Honfleur was no different; nearly all the passers-by stopped and stared hard at our licence plate then up at the van, taking no notice of us sat in the cab seats looking right back at them!  

Tomorrow we're going to try and find a beach park-up for the day so Salty can have a well-needed run-out; we could do with a walk too after our massive chicken dinner yesterday!

Top tip - get one of these to avoid wet shoes!

PIZZAAAAA!

Beuvron-en-Auge

We had lunch in this Creperie in October 2014

Beuvron-en-Auge aire

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

This is what a little dog full of chicken looks like!

View at Honfleur

Still a working fishing port

Pizza Night!

Saturday 24 September 2022

Nido's parked up on a free aire in the village of Écouché.  Now if you've paid attention or have been sad enough to read all of my blogs, you'll know that we've stayed on the Écouché aire already this trip.  The thing is, I didn't know - I'd forgotten!  I picked this aire because it said there's a great pizza van with a wood oven that's in the village on a Saturday night.  I'd completely forgotten that this is the village where we found the 'pizza from the hole in the wall' machine.  It wasn't until we started to pull in to the aire this afternoon that I realised where we were - old age and poor short-term memory is really hitting home right now!  Still, it's a lovely spot and we liked it last time in the hot sunshine; it's not so bad today even in heavy rain.

When I last blogged we were staying in the small village of Le Guédeniau. We liked it so much the decision was made to stop for a little longer, before moving on.  So yesterday morning, I went off for a bike ride whilst Cathy had a bit of a lie-in and a relaxed breakfast before giving the van a really good internal clean, repacking the bench storage and cupboards, ready for a bit of shopping before we return home.

I had no real plan for my bike ride, apart from perhaps an 18-20 mile loop, hopefully with a café stop on the way.  All started well, although the café I wanted to use was inaccessible due to market day and I didn't find another.  About an hour or so into the ride I consulted Google Maps and started on my route back to the van, or so I thought.  After another half an hour I started to suspect I wasn't heading in the right direction; I'd been cycling through thick forest for some time and the road signs weren't what I expected. So I consulted Google Maps again, clicked on the aire and found I had been heading in completely the wrong direction.  I was about 1.5 hours cycling from the van.  There wasn't much I could do about it apart from turn around and follow the Google Maps voice on the phone.  On the return trip I came across a very large field of what looked like cannabis, but was no doubt hemp (I've no idea how to tell them apart though!). With about 10km to go, I was starting to bonk - I hadn't eaten since breakfast and only had a bottle of water, so the cycle back to the van was a bit slow!  In the end I cycled for just over 3 hours, covering 40 miles.  Still, I enjoyed the spin and saw some lovely places in the countryside.  Cathy had some lunch waiting for me and we sat outside enjoying the warm sunshine.  Bike stowed, me washed and changed, we headed off - albeit later in the day then usual - to our next stop.

This brought us to the town of Noyen-sur-Sarthe and a free park-up at 'Le Port' essentially a small marina on the river Sarthe, just below a railway bridge carrying the fast SCNF trains.  On the way in we spied a pizza shop, so at the allotted opening time I walked up to order.  We've not eaten out at all so far on this trip - not even a bag of chips.  So it was with a sad heart that I walked back to let Cathy know the pizza joint was closed until the end of the month!  Junk food will have to wait for another day.

This morning it was overcast with spit-spots of rain but still quite warm.  The 122km journey to Écouché went quickly enough, including a stop at a Total fuel station that was actually open; they've had a sale on fuel for a couple of weeks, pricing 20c per litre lower than other garages, but have been sold out and closed, so haven't sold any fuel at a all!  But this one was open so even though I had just over half a tank of diesel, I brimmed it up with cheap fuel.

We parked up in the aire at one end with our door facing the grass and were soon joined by a couple of other vans.  Later three huge French motorhomes turned up, all getting out to - one at a time - try and direct each other into the remaining spaces - lots of handwaving and arm spinning to the poor unfortunate driver! One A class (double our length) parked so close to us that they couldn't open their habitation door!  I had a little room to my left so I shuffled my van over as much as I could (ie not by much!), still they were grateful and smiles all around. 

The rain continued and I didn't fancy a wet walk out along the main road to find a pizza van that might not be there. So it was time to try out the pizza in the wall machine.  There were eighteen different types.  I chose two from the touchscreen, paid with a contactless card and three minutes later they popped out of the 'letter' pizza box!  To celebrate I bought a bottle of red wine from the boucherie (a butcher that sells wine - winner!) and enjoyed my first glass for about two months.  The pizzas were actually very good - hot and tasty - and we enjoyed our takeaway treat as the rain continued to fall.  There's warning of heavy rain on the north French coast tonight.  We have a couple of days until we arrive there, but I suspect our extended summer is done...but the shorts are staying on!

I was only supposed to do 18 miles!

Cannabis or hemp....?

Le Port at Noyen-sur-Sarthe

This was after I moved left 4 feet!

Les pizzas sont arrivées!