Shorts in Champagne

Friday 14 June 2019

Nido’s parked up on another free aire, this time in Mareuil-sur-Ay, deep in Champagne country.  This was the first proper Aire we ever stayed on back in 2013 on our first French motorhome trip.  It’s next to a lovely river with some large houseboats.  The village is home to several small, family Champagne houses.  After a rainy start this morning, the weather has definitely warmed up - it’s shorts time!

On our way down we stopped off at the town of Laon.  This walled town with several medieval gates, sits on on the spine of a high, narrow ridge, overlooking the plains of Champagne and Picardy.  It has a large gothic cathedral, built in the second half of the twelfth-century.  We parked up alongside the city walls and enjoyed a lunch looking out over the plains.  It was only a short walk into town and the display of coloured umbrellas above the main street leading to the cathedral gave it a festive atmosphere.  Just south of the cathedral on Rue George Ermant is the little octagonal Chapelle des Templiers - the Knights Templar - set in a secluded garden.  Built in 1140, it’s now showing its age, with several large cracks in the wall and entrance to the chapel closed to the public.  Still, it was lovely to sit in the quiet garden and imagine it in its heyday - and it fed my fascination with the Knights Templar.  I hope to come across more evidence of their existence in France over the coming weeks.

There were a few spaces available on the aire at Mareuil-sur-Ay, so we took one under the shade of the trees.  After a cup of tea sat outside on the grass, we walked a circular route along the riverbank and across bridges, followed by a quick wander around the small, quiet village, peering into the courtyards of some of the Champagne houses.  It’s now still and very warm outside as it starts to get dark. Our neighbours were listening to what sounded like the French equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent (not!) on TV, but they’ve now closed up so now only birdsong - and in particular the lovely call of swifts - breaks the silence.

Laon walls

Chapelle des Templiers

There's Nido in the middle!

Grenay and all the things for free!

Thursday 13 June 2019

Nido’s parked up on a free aire in the village of Grenay, with space for three vans; we bagged the last spot.  The Council clearly decided they wanted to pull in the motorhome punters as, not only is it free to stay, but the fresh water and loo emptying is also free.  If that wasn’t enough, they also provide free unlimited electricity and free wifi!  Most of our gadgets are already charged up as we’ve only just left home, but we’re making the most of the wiggly juice to keep everything topped up.  To access the fresh water we need a ‘jeton’ (token), which can be picked up in many of the shops in the town displaying a sign to let you know they have them.  In our case, we stopped off at the boucherie and bought a few local sausages and asked for a jeton, which was happily passed over by the butcher.  So it’s win, win all round.  This is why we love travelling around France in our camper van.  There are literally thousands of places like this, not all are free though and not many provide all the facilities for free, but nevertheless it’s a very cheap way to travel.

The village is also home to the Maroc British War Cemetery.  We're in the middle of a region ravaged by World War 1 - Vimy Ridge and Arras are close by.  As with them all, this cemetery is immaculately maintained and a constant reminder of what happened here just over 100 years ago.  All of the gravestones around the outside boundary of the cemetery where soldiers of the City of London Rifles, all killed on 25 September 2015, the first day of the Battle of Loos.

We left Anglesey at about 1000 yesterday in squally rain, which worsened as we travelled south.  We stopped a couple of times to eat and have a stretch, finally arriving in Ashford some ten hours later.  By now the sun was out and we parked up in a Tesco car park, just ten minutes drive from the Eurotunnel Terminal.  We had an hour to kill, so topped up with diesel and had something to eat.  We arrived at the  Terminal two hours before our allotted departure time but, on this occasion, no earlier crossing was offered, so we caught the 2250 and reached Calais at 0025 French time.  A quick drive to the motorhome parking at Cite Europe and we were soon tucked up and snoring after a long day.

More rain this morning (this was a common theme on our three-month trip to France, Spain and Portugal last year!), but it was only a very short walk to the Carrefour supermarket to buy a few French provisions and grab some Euros from the ATM.  Then we were on our way.  I only intended a short drive today after a long journey yesterday, hence the stopover here in Grenay, only a couple of hours from Calais.  So today we’re just chilling out, getting ourselves sorted and into the campervan ways of life again.  We’ve been refreshing our French using the Michel Thomas course (it surprised me how much I remembered), interspersed with the odd Welsh word or phrase (we need to keep practicing that too!).  So at the moment we’re sat in as the wind and rain batters the van, with occasional warm sunny spells.  We’ll make the most of the free electricity and water for showers and topping up the gadgets before heading off tomorrow.

We’re away for two months on this trip, spending the whole time in France.  We have a loose plan of where we’d like to head for, based on some amazing wild swimming spots in the Wild Swimming France book. So the idea is to head for the Jura area first, then work our way south towards Provence, the Ardeche, the Carmague and Languedoc region, before eventually meandering back north.  But it’s a very loose plan and we’ll follow our noses…..and the sun!  In the past I’ve made the mistake of trying to cover too much ground, especially on a two week holiday when we were working.  So this time we’re going to take it easy and, if we find a nice region, just hang around for a while and get to know it.  Cathy’s looking forward to finding some of the local plant and insect life, while I’m hoping to enjoy some good bike rides.

Large pitches, each with electric hook up

Clean and well designed service point

Just look out for this sign in the village shops to obtain a jeton for the drinking water

Maroc War Cemetery

All killed on the same day - all around the perimeter of the cemetery

Too young

Lived together, laughed together, died together, forever together

Visiting some of the Knights Templar sites in Scotland

I’ve long been fascinated by the lives and history of the Knights Templar, not for any religious or masonic reasons, but just because I think it’s a very interesting period of history.  Their influence spread far and wide and I suppose my interest was first piqued when travelling around southern France and coming across some of their walled villages, towns and castles.  We plan to use the Templar sites as a basis for a future France tour in our campervan, probably dipping into northern Spain too.

Before our recent trip to Scotland, we popped into our local library in Llangefni, to pick some books to take with us; it’s September in Scotland, it’s bound to rain and so we’ll need something to read when sat in the van (it did and we did!).  My eye caught the title of a book written by Robert Ferguson - The Knights Templar and Scotland (ISBN 978-0-7524-5183-1).  A quick flick through showed they may gave spent some time in Argyll, where we were heading on our trip, so I took out the book and read it before we travelled, renewing it to take with us.  It proved to be an invaluable source and helped shape our trip, although I should add there is no hard evidence and much of what is written is speculative.  I’ve summarised the history below, although if you want to learn more please do get hold of a copy of the book and make up your own mind.

On 14 September 1307 King Philip IV of France signed an order for the arrest of all Knights Templar for heresy, as well as seizing all their lands and wealth.  The order to dissolve the Knights Templar was approved by Pope Clement V.  The order took effect on Friday 13 October 1307 and any Knights were rounded up without warning, imprisoned, badly tortured and then killed, mainly through burning at the stake.  Although many (including the Grand Master - Jacques de Molay) were arrested that night, many escaped, with evidence that they were tipped off a few weeks beforehand. This gave them time to gather much of their wealth and move it to the port of La Rochelle (where the Templars kept their fleet), where it was loaded on to ships and sailed, with a large number of Knights to Portugal and Argyll, Scotland.  Their escape to Portugal is well documented, but the trip to Scotland less so.

The alleged route they took to Scotland is not documented, but is known is that they probably sailed up the sound of Jura to Argyll.  It's possible to support this by the Templar gravestones in the churchyards at Kilmartin and Kilmory.  The theory is that they probably landed at Castle Sween, which is located on Loch Sween between Kilmartin and Kilmory and is said to be the oldest castle on the Scottish mainland.   There is much more to the history of the Knights Templar in Scotland, including their lands and settlements in eastern Scotland, south of Edinburgh and their alleged support of Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn.  But, given we were travelling the west coast and Argyll in particular, I was focusing my visits on Castle Sween, Kilmartin and Kilmory.  Our tour of Scotland took us along the Kintyre peninsula after visiting the Isle of Mull.  This area is one of the most important historic sites in Scotland, with evidence from the prehistoric, neolithic, iron and bronze ages.  It’s also this area that is purported to have strong links to the Knights Templar.

During our visit to Kilmartin to view the neolithic, bronze and iron age sites, I was also keen to check out the alleged Templar links to this village. Two of the old stone circles are enclosed within Temple Wood, an area that was planted up much later than the circles, so may have a link to the Templars, given its name (there is also a village in eastern Scotland called Temple that has confirmed links to the Knights Templar).  But it was Kilmartin church that provides the clearest possible link to the Knights Templar.  There are a number of grave slabs either in the display house or in the graveyard that would suggest strong links. One grave slab shows a sword with a scallop shell shape as the pummel (at the top of the hilt).  The scallop shell is the symbol of the Christian pilgrims, then and now seen carried by those pilgrims completing the Camino de Santiago Compostela.  The Knights Templar were originally formed as a warrior group of monks, tasked with protecting pilgrims heading to Jerusalem.  There were other grave slabs depicting religious knights and swords, although the link to Knights Templar remains tenuous and unproved.

I had planned to also visit Castle Sween and Kilmory the next day, but unfortunately Storm Ali was inbound and due to hit the area we were in, so we decided to cut short our trip and head for home ahead of the bad weather.  But we'll definitely return to this part of Scotland.  If you’re interested in the Knights Templar and are visiting Scotland, these areas are well worth a visit. On another trip I also hope to visit their settlements in the village of Temple and Rosslyn Abbey in eastern Scotland.

Grave slab in Kilmartin cemetery

Scallop shell pommel

The historic Kilmartin Glen

Monday 17 September 2018

Nido’s parked up on the Ardfern Motorhome Park.  We’re ‘billy-no-mates’ again - just us here on a 10 pitch site next to Loch Craignash.  I’d booked this on pitch.com, but we could have just turned up, as there’s an honesty box for payment.  It comes with electric and a decent wifi signal (hence a flurry of blog posts going out tonight).  Another wet and windy night!

We slept well in the total quietness of the wild camping spot and after breakfast reversed our route to rejoin the A816 for a mile to stop in the village of Kilmartin.  Kilmartin Glen is the most important prehistoric site in Scotland.  In particular, it’s linear cemetery, where several cairns are aligned for more than two miles to the south of the village were well worth the visit. They date back as far as 3000 BC and are thought to represent the successive burials of a ruling family or chieftains.  Our first stop was the Kilmartin Museum, next to the village church.  We paid to learn a little more about the history of Kilmartin Glen before following the well marked path to visit each of the cairns.  Close to the south cairn, there’s Temple Wood which is the site for two stone circles.  I was interested in the name of the wood, given the areas possible links with the Knights Templar in this area, but I’m going to save that for a separate post.  It warmed considerably as we walked to and from the cairns, before we visited Kilmartin church and cemetery, with links to Knights Templar again.

We continued south in the van, missing out one area of interest as the car park was too small for us, but parking up with plenty of space at the foot of Dunadd fort.  This ruined iron age fort occupies a distinctive 176 foot high rocky knoll, once surrounded by sea but currently stranded beside the winding River Add. It was here that Fergus, the first king of Dalriada, established his royal seat.  The stone carvings near the top (the originals are now covered by a concrete replica) show inscriptions in Ogham (an ancient alphabet of Irish origin), the faint outline of a boar, a hollowed-out footprint and a small basin.  It’s thought the footprint was used as part of the royal coronation rituals.  It’s also thought that the Stone of Destiny was used at Dunadd before being moved to Scone Palace.  The recently arrived wind and rain made it quite a difficult and slippery climb to the top but despite this the views were amazing and the site atmospheric.  

Back at the van, we dried off and enjoyed a hot brew before driving back north for a few miles to Ardfern.  On electricity, we’ve been able to ‘charge all the things’ and watch a bit of a TV series.  It also means hot showers tomorrow and toast for breakfast! 

Friendly natives!

Kilmartin Museum and Church

River Add and car park from Dunadd Fort

Footprint in stone

Washing up shack with a view

The Isle of Seil and the Bridge over the Atlantic

Sunday 16 September 2018

Nido’s wild camping just off a minor forest road, high up overlooking Loch Awe.  It’s peaceful and quiet and no doubt will be very dark tonight.  We’d just about given up on this road when a Wild Camping symbol popped up on the Sat Nav.  There’s easily room for several vans, but we’re on our own and I suspect it’ll stay that way.  Cathy’s preparing an alternative chicken dinner - a hot cooked chicken from Tesco, with potatoes and veg. 

Last night was very wet and windy at Crannich Farm, but there was enough respite in the morning for me to jump out to unhook the EHU and empty the loo before we set off.  The crossing to Oban was smooth and I was soon pushing a trolley around Tesco to top up with a few bits and pieces, before topping up with diesel and heading south onto the Kintyre peninsula.  It didn’t take us long to reach the Slate Islands, which at their peak in the mid-nineteenth century quarried over nine million slates per year.  The most northerly is the Isle of Seil, which was our destination.  It’s separated from the mainland by the thinnest of sea channels, which is spanned by the narrow, single-arched Clachan Bridge, built in 1793 and popularly known as the “Bridge over the Atlantic”.  We drove to the end of the road and the village of Ellanabeich.  It’s a small hamlet with two rows of small, stone, white-washed terraced cottages crouching below the black cliffs on the western tip of the island.  This land was once separated from the mainland by a slim sea channel until the intensive slate quarrying silted it up and become solid enough over time to build on.  The small island of Easdale is reached by a tiny ferry from Ellanabeich.  It has a Folk Museum, but is more famously known for hosting the World Stone Skimming Championships on the last Sunday of September; we were two weeks too early!  Just so you know, a legal ’skim’ qualifies as a stone that bounces at least twice and the championships are open to all comers.

We parked in a free car park right by the sea.  It had a sign say no overnight camping, although several large motorhomes look set for the night.  However, we prefer to respect the signs and local’s wishes, so our plan to stay there had to be changed.  We had a walk along the two small roads with the cottages either side, past the Oyster Bar and Restaurant and down to the harbour.  After a quick snack and a brew in the van, we were off again, south down the A816.  It took a while, but eventually we ended up at this lovely spot above Loch Awe, although the rain is sheeting across the water once more - that’s Scotland for you!

Ellanabeich cottages

Ferry to Easdale island 

Bridge over the Atlantic

The Atlantic!

 

Wild camping overlooking Loch Awe