Update - Monday 14 to Thursday 24 September

This update concludes our blog for this holiday ending when we arrived home on 24th September. As well as covering the last 11 days of travel it finishes with a summary (The Last Post) that includes some statistics, some recommendations and also points related to towing a car with a motorhome.

At Obernai (Alsace)

The last stage of the journey home (Northern France and England)

Monday 14 September 2009

Today we moved on from Colmar to Obernai, a mere 36 miles northwards. This was an easy drive using the A35 autoroute for the most part. Initially the autoroute follows the west bank of the Ill and the campsite we had just left was close by just across the river on the opposite bank - this is the section of motorway you can hear from the site. R was delighted to see a stork flying above the river as M had seen a few days ago from the campsite. The stork was in view for over half a minute before it dipped below the trees.

There is only one autoroute "aire" between junction 25 where we joined the A35 and junction 12 where we had to leave it. As we didn't want to arrive at the Obernai campsite during their lunchtime closure (12.30 - 14.00) the plan was to stop here for our picnic lunch. But thanks to another example of terrible signposting at this "aire" we soon found ourselves back on the motorway having been unable to stop! Fortunately soon after turning off at Junction 12 we just managed to get off the road and fit into an "unofficial" lay-by - really just an area of gravel beside the D422 to Obernai. So we stopped here for over an hour and had our "picnic" lunch inside the motorhome. The directions to Camping Le Vallon de 'Ehn at Obernai in the Caravan Club Guide are very good and the site is clearly signposted from the roundabout on the southern outskirts of the town where the D422 intersects the D426. The site is entered via a short residential cul-de-sac leading to the entry barrier; when we arrived things were very busy - the site had just re-opened after lunch. Motorhomes and towed caravans were queued along the road and the parking area before the barrier was full. We joined the queue. We had phoned that morning at about 9.30 to reserve a space and were pleased we had done so as it was obvious that the site was going to fill up very rapidly. Indeed, while we were booking-in, a motorhome was turned away as the site was now full. They had kept a large pitch for us knowing that we had a trailer and Smart car and although it took about an hour to get in, we were soon established with the electricity connected:



We explored the facilities - this is a superb site and we are not surprised at its level of occupancy. It is a Municipal but has three stars, a rating that is well-deserved. The large sanitation blocks are heated (!) - the capacity of facilities is ample for the 200 pitches; there are no static dwellings. There is shade on most pitches. Separate areas are designated for motorhomes, caravans and tents. The organisation is very good and the welcome friendly. The lady at reception seemed to speak any language she encountered!

Autumn has definitely arrived here! Today there were storms over the Vosges, the cloud often obscuring most of the hills. We are glad we did our higher-level drive yesterday. We experienced our first significant rain in daylight hours today for 11 weeks as the storms in the hills created several heavy showers in the late morning. The cloud lifted a little in the afternoon with short spells of weak sunshine. It remained cool at 12 - 15C.

The town of Obernai is about a 1 mile (20 minute) walk away from the campsite - a pleasant route accessed via a small turnstile in one corner of the site and then taking you through a park to the town, passing this handsome small chapel:



Obernai is another pretty place in the Alsatian style with lots of restaurants, cafes and "Winstubs". There are many interesting old buildings:



Obernai is an excellent base for visiting Strasbourg with a regular bus service there (7 euros return per person). It is also well placed for touring the more northern parts of Alsace.

We walked into the town, thought about eating out but bought food in the "Match" supermarket and took it back to make our own meal. We plan to try one or two of Obernai's eating places later in the week as we are here for 5 nights. The site is very tranquil and it was nice to go to bed without the sound of motorway traffic in the background.

Tuesday 15 September 2009

We decided to visit Strasbourg today as the weather started cloudy and cool. The Vosges mountains to the West were visible but misty. We had breakfast earlier than usual (this means sometime before 10am!) so that we could catch the 9.56 bus. The Strasbourg buses leave from a stop just by Obernai's outdoor swimming pool (closed for the winter) about half a mile along the walk into the town. We were in good time and arrived at the main bus station at Strasbourg just after 11am. This is right next to a large modern shopping centre at Les Halles, presumably the previous site of the main market. It is a short walk over a bridge across the Ill to the old part of the city; only about ten minutes to the Cathedral which was our first objective:



We made several mistakes here, all of them understandable, we think, as aspects of the organisation of visits to this famous church left a lot to be desired. This was not just our opinion but also that of several people we spoke to, both English and French visitors. You would think that it would just be a matter of going in, looking round (with the aid of an information sheet or guide book) and coming out. But our first mistake was our failure to realise that the building shuts for lunch between 12 noon and 2pm. It's a Cathedral but it shuts for lunch! Our second and bigger mistake was to see a sign pointing the way around the corner of the building, taking you from the impressive western facade to the southern side, for a paid visit to the famous Astronomical Clock in the Cathedral. The clock only "goes" (at least it only goes in a complete sense) once a day. We made two assumptions at this point, both of them wrong. The first was that the clock was somehow separated from the main interior of the building and the second was that the only way of seeing it would be to pay. Around the corner was a moderate queue behind a locked entrance gate next to which a notice announced that this was the entrance for the clock visit and that the "caisse" (cash desk) was 20 metres to the right. As this notice was on the wall right next to the gate we assumed (again wrongly) that the "caisse" was 20m to the right once you had gone in. In fact it was 20m to the right along the exterior of the building, but lay back so was out of sight to us. We joined that first queue at 11.20 and stood in it for 20 minutes waiting for the gate to open at 11.45 as the notice promised. The queue was lengthening steadily and we congratulated ourselves on arriving so early! Then we suddenly noticed that most people in the queue had little booklets in their hands. We asked a French lady why this was and finally understood that - horror - we had been 20 minutes in the wrong queue. The correct procedure was to queue further along at the "caisse", buy tickets (2 euros each), receive little booklets of discount vouchers for other city attractions and only then queue at the entrance gate. We left the "gate" queue to find the "caisse" queue further along the building - it was even longer than the queue we had left! Several others had made the same mistake and found out only when we did - they were understandably annoyed.

It gets worse! We joined the "caisse" queue which was also growing by the minute. This entire queue had been out of our sight when standing in the "gate" queue so we think our mistake was very understandable. After five minutes or so, with the "caisse" queue moving along slowly, we detected signs of consternation among our fellow-queuers and much angry debate in voluble French. A notice had been spotted by the "caisse" (just a small hole in the wall, by the way, where a large brick had been removed!) - the notice, in French, said that because of the "works" ("a cause des travaux") visitor numbers would be limited; it had dawned on this French party that their queuing might be for nothing. Ours too, of course, and we had queued twice!

And so it proved! As we neared the hole in the wall, an invisible hand on the other side slid a cover across and closed the "caisse" disappointing all subsequent would-be visitors. We felt especially sorry for the man and his family next in line who had got their money out ready to pay only to see a hatch close in front of them. The first warning you saw of this limitation was right by the little hole (now blocked) - there was no other indication anywhere. The next opportunity to see the clock working would be tomorrow ("demain" as the disappointed French were muttering to themselves).

As for us we had wasted about 45 minutes standing in two queues for nothing. It wasn't much consolation that you can see the static clock, though not its operation, free-of-charge from inside the Cathedral. There was also a notice inside (when we eventually got there, because after our fruitless queuing, the building had shut for the two-hour lunch period) - this said that the paid-for presentation of the clock featured a film on a screen specially erected in front of the clock the better to show its functioning. We have no idea whether this meant the "travaux" prevented the clock operating at all and the film was a substitute, or whether the film supplemented the real thing! But we didn't have a chance to find out. The signage and organisation of this "clock presentation" was shameful and made for a bad initial experience in Strasbourg.

The "travaux", by the way, were to restore and refurbish the 13th century stained glass windows in the southern wall - a very worthwhile enterprise, though the hammering and drilling destroyed the tranquillity inside when we eventually got there (see below). As we now had to wait two hours for that visit we decided to book a boat excursion on the river:



The next boat, a typical tour craft with glass roof left at 1pm and we filled in the time having consoling tea and apple cake in a nice cafe nearby.

The boat trip was excellent and very good value at 8 euros each. It lasts for 70 minutes. There is an audio commentary (headphones for each seat) synchronised with the boat's location and available in numerous languages - you choose from a little keypad by your seat. This commentary was very informative and it was amusing for us that the English version was delivered by an Irishman with a most pleasant brogue! The tour takes in many of the "sights" of the city including buildings that are spectacular, pretty or historical or a mixture of all three:



The boat passes through the picturesque district known as "La Petite France":



and by the famous covered bridges:



The tour even takes you up-river to the European parliament, the administration campus and the Court of Human Rights - you get good views of all of these:



We strongly recommend this boat trip at Strasbourg.

The witching hour of 2pm having passed, the Cathedral had re-opened and we were able to visit. Happily there was no charge for entry. The Cathedral is as magnificent as its reputation suggests:



But the work on the windows is unfortunately anything but peaceful and we would certainly delay any return visit we might make until it has been completed.

We saw the Astronomical Clock:



and found it slightly underwhelming, but then, we didn't see it going!

We then explored further on foot, visiting the Protestant chuch of St.Thomas on the way to "La Petite France". St.Thomas' is, as expected, much simpler than the Cathedral both inside and out, but it is a large church and in its own way as magnificent as the Catholic Cathedral. Indeed it is in effect the Lutheran Protestant "Cathedral" of the city. When we visited we were fortunate enough to hear the organ which is very splendid. Like many church organs in this part of the world the original was designed and built by Silbermann (in 1741) and has had two modern refurbishments and restorations - the first in the 1970s and the second very recently; this last exercise has only just been finished and was for the purpose of repairing damage from the passage of time (drying-out of wood frames, for example) rather than adding new stops. The organ is remarkable in several ways; notably because, in spite of 19th and 20th century alteration, it retains so much of the original instrument. Many of the other "Silbermanns" (there are 13 others in Strasbourg) have lost far more of their original features. The preservation of the St. Thomas' organ is largely due to the vigilance of Albert Schweitzer who first played here in 1909. The 1970s work by Kern amounted to a major restoration and also increased the stops from 29 to 38, but this was done with enormous sympathy for Silberman's original design. The sound of the result is stunning and preserves the amazing ability of Silbermann organs to produce bright and clear tones which cover a range from exceedingly soft and sweet to demonstrative and harsh. We were very lucky to hear it live - probably just a practice session - and we bought a CD so we can hear more of this superb instrument.

A second interesting aspect we found at St.Thomas' relates to the bells. There were originally five of these but four were removed during the French Revolution, leaving only the Great Bell, weighing 3625 kilos. A second bell, weighing just 435 kilos (a mere titch, really!) was added in 1810. Four new bells ranging between just over 2 tons and just over 700 kilos, have just been cast and are being exhibited in the church. They will be hung in time for a ceremonial ringing in early October and will bring the church's complement to six bells. The new bells are named Faith, Hope, Love and Joint Witness. Here are Hope and Joint Witness:



The church itself was comprehensively and sympathetically restored between 1987 and 1989 and we found it at least as rewarding to visit as the Cathedral. And St.Thomas' doesn't close for lunch!

We strolled around the "Petite France" district:



and across the covered bridges. There is a great deal more to see in Strasbourg but it was time to head for the bus station and return to Obernai; other attractions in the city must await a further visit.

Wednesday 16 September 2009

After quite a tiring day yesterday we just relaxed at the campsite today, reading and catching up on writing this blog! In the evening we walked into Obernai and had dinner in a traditional Alsatian restaurant - La Halle aux Bles (the building was originally the Corn Exchange). We wanted to eat in the style of the region so having started with an onion tart (M) and snails in Riesling (R), for our main courses we both chose a traditional dish of Alsace called Backeofe. This is a rich stew of beef, lamb and pork with potatoes, garlic, leeks, onions, other herbs and seasoning and a generous addition of dry Alsatian wine (usually Riesling or Sylvaner). This was very good indeed, as was the whole meal. It was also a challenge to finish - portions in these parts are generous and not for the faint-hearted. But we both ate every last scrap and even found room to share one helping of traditional pastry tart of "myrtilles" with cream! With our meal we drank a bottle of very fruity (and chilled!) Alsace Pinot Noir - a very different experience from drinking Burgundy or "New World" Pinot Noir. And we had a glass each of decent Gewurtztraminer with the pudding. We recommend La Halle aux Bles at Obernai - it is simple, good and (we thought) good value for money (our three courses and all the wine cost 80 euros for the two of us). The service was friendly and efficient.

We staggered back to the campsite with our torches, the staggering being more to do with the weight of food we had eaten than the alcohol we had drunk.

Thursday 17 September 2009

In the morning we walked into Obernai again, this time to stroll around the market which is held every Thursday morning. We bought fruit and cheese. In the afternoon we had quite a long drive in the Smart to explore the more northerly parts of Alsace, visiting Hagenau, Bouxwiller, Saverne and Molsheim before returning to Obernai. Saverne is a particularly interesting old town situated on a navigable canal (The Canal du Marne linking the Marne and the Rhine). It has an impressive Chateau in the centre of the town and nearby there is a large marina full of boats. There are fascinating narrow streets and lovely old buildings.

The towns and villages are the strongest feature of the largely flat Alsatian plain between the Vosges and the Rhine; the vine covered slopes at the foot of the Vosges are lovely but elsewhere the countryside is uninteresting, mainly covered in swathes of corn-on-the-cob and cabbages. The monotony of this landscape is broken occasionally by woodland but the many villages and towns provide compensation with their floral displays, boldly-painted half-timbered buildings and spire-topped churches.

We "ate-in" this evening - literally as we dined inside the motorhome for the first time in nearly three months! Today the weather has been grey, cool and damp with spells of drizzle and even some proper rain. We ate well, but in more modest quantities than last night.

Friday 18 September 2009

We drove in the Smart to the Convent at Mont St.Odile in the wooded hills above Obernai:



The Convent was founded in the 7th century by Odile, the daughter of an unpleasant chap called Eticho (also known as Aldaric). He was a duke and the acknowledged "sovereign" of Alsace at the time and was given to murdering anyone who opposed him. Odile was born blind and so was rejected by her father and had to be smuggled away to prevent Eticho killing her. But when Odile was baptised at the age of 12 (her mother was a fervent Christian) her sight was miraculously restored. When her brother tried to bring her home and effect a reconciliation with their father, Eticho hit him over the head and killed him. Apparently he (Eticho) was seized with remorse at having murdered his own son, and founded the abbey as recompense. Odile constructed her Convent there over a period of some ten years, subsequently living the rest of her life there in a simple fashion. Odile was canonised in the eleventh century. The Convent functioned until it was largely destroyed by fire in the 16th century but it continued to attract pilgrims; the portico and church were built in the 17th century:



The convent buildings have been sympathetically rebuilt:



The result is that the present-day Mont St.Odile is a place of serious Christian pilgrimage. It is also a major tourist attraction and a commercial enterprise that includes a fairly swanky restaurant and hotel! These contrasting roles sit awkwardly alongside each other although the commercial parts of the extensive buildings are fortunately situated in a different wing from the more ancient places for religious worship and contemplation. There are various chapels and a church, all of them open to visiting tourists. We enjoyed walking around Mont St.Odile with its fine views over the wooded hills to the plain, but the information that people with sight impairment featured frequently among the pilgrims discomfited us more than the strange juxtaposition of religion and commerce ever could.

We returned to Obernai by a round-about route, taking in the villages of Barr, Andlau and Gertwiller and countless acres of vines. In the evening we walked into Obernai for the last time and dined at the Winstub La Dime. This meal too was excellent - about the same price as our dinner at La Halle aux Bles but perhaps with even better food though our main courses were not traditional Alsatian dishes this time. M thought R's onion tart here was slightly better than hers at La Halle while her Quiche Lorraine was scrumptious. Basically we can recommend both establishments!

Saturday 19 September 2009

We bade goodbye to Camping Municipal Le Vallon de l'Ehn with a tinge of sadness as this is such a good campsite; indeed it's probably the best site of our holiday with the exception of the Domaine de Belezy (which is a special case). There can be few municipal sites this good! A friendly welcome, good size pitches, excellent sanitation and laundry facilities with plenty of loos and showers and all very clean. Free wi-fi that worked was the icing on the cake.

But it was time to move on and we headed North and then East via Saverne and the Autoroute de l'Est to a France Passion location just South of Verdun, in the valley of the Meuse, between Lacroix-sur-Meuse and the hamlet of Seuzey. The place was called the Auberge de la Peche a la Truite - this was our second FP trout farm. It is also a restaurant and a small hotel (a Logis de France with 7 rooms). We had phoned them yesterday to check that they could accommodate us for dinner this evening.

We were unimpressed with the Autoroute de l'Est in comparison with the motorways we used further south. It has a poor surface in many places and many of the "aires" are tatty. Several of the smaller ones, usually better for a picnic stop, were closed for repair and refurbishment. We were unable to find a smaller "aire" that we liked enough for a picnic stop and as a result of being fussy we ended up at a large "aire" that even compared unfavourably with many British motorway service areas, eating our picnic inside the motorhome, sandwiched between two enormous waggons in the lorry park!

The fish farm and its fishing visitors was doing good business when we arrived at about 4pm. A large grass area had been set aside for France Passion visitors and their motorhomes:



Many folk with rods stood around the main lake which was evidently well-stocked. It seemed you could buy fish without having to catch them, or of course you could fish for them yourself. We strolled around the various ponds in which there were several different types (and colours) of trout and had ice creams on a terrace at the side of the hotel:



There are also play areas for kids and plenty of things to interest them including ducks, hens, swans, a peacock and several horses. We think the horses were the subject of a large notice on a gate saying "Je Mord" (I bite) but we're not sure what lay behind the gate!

The meal in the small indoor restaurant was very good, but the experience was made rather strange by the fact that we were the only diners and the chef / waiter (the husband in the couple who run the place) was by then the only other person there. The fishing activity finishes at 6pm and we had arranged to start dinner at 7. So the fishermen had gone home and indeed everyone seemed to have disappeared except the three of us! The man, the proprietor, tried to explain why he was working on his own but it was difficult to understand everything he said - we think he was telling us that his wife was away attending a wedding. Soon after we started the meal she arrived on the scene, also with their 16 month old baby daughter who was quite delightful. The delayed wife pitched in straight away to help with serving us - it would seem that her husband is the chef and she looks after the diners. Matters were made more mysterious, if anything, by the arrival of two quite large parties of people asking for rooms - they were all duly accommodated but none of them had dinner. Had they already eaten? (we wondered). Was the restaurant in fact closed? But if so, why had we been able to book? The occupants of a French "camping-car" didn't eat there either - they catered for themselves. Why was there no other restaurant trade at all on a Saturday evening? It was all very curious.

We never got to the bottom of it. But it didn't matter - the meal was good - simple food cooked well. And good value at 67 euros including aperitif drinks, three courses, a bottle of very good Gewurtztraminer (no we're not in Alsace any more but recent habits stick) and coffees. The young couple who evidently run the place are most friendly and clearly very nice people. It would probably be a good place to stay and the rooms are not expensive. It is a tranquil spot in pretty countryside:



The charm of the countryside belies the history of this area. In the killing fields of 1914-1918 it ranks with the Somme in its contribution to wiping out a great part of an entire generation of young European men. You are surrounded by war cemeteries of all the nationalities who participated in that particular folly. You are close to the great memorials, many with the same inscription - "Lest We Forget". Verdun is nearby, its memorial ceremonies still faithfully executed. For the many still to be convinced of the importance of European integration, the Somme and the Meuse are apt destinations.

Sunday 20 September 2009

Today's journey was 225 miles to the small town of Forges-les-Eaux in the south-eastern corner of Normandy. Our friends, who moved from England to France, live in a small hamlet about 12 miles from there and we are due to visit them tomorrow and Tuesday, before heading for Dunkerque and the ferry to Dover on Wednesday. Today's distance would have been greater had our TomTom SatNav had its way; it has clearly got used to the fact that we like autoroutes (in fact it simply defaults to using them unless you tell it not to) and it would have taken us almost all the way there using them. But we decided to take the autoroute as far as Reims and then the N31 via Soissons, Compiegne and Beauvais, heading towards Rouen, before turning onto the D915 from Gournay-en-Bray north-west to Forges-les-Eaux. In comparison with continuing on the autoroute this saved about 25 miles (a gallon of diesel) and a higher autoroute toll (probably about 10 euros). But when we realised how abysmal the road surface was on much of the N31, we're not sure this was a good decision.

Compiegne is an interesting place, being the site of the signing of the armistice in 1918 which ended the First World War. The deed was done in a railway carriage which we believe is still in place and able to be visited; R remembers being taken there by his parents when he was about 17. The town is also surrounded by forests containing many war memorials with signed footpaths to visit these various sites. This stretch of the N31, approaching. passing and leaving Compiegne, is very pretty.

TomTom got seriously lost at Beauvais because he was unaware of the new road that has been built around the south of the town. This is shown on our 2007 Michelin Road Atlas of France as "under construction". Well, the eastern end of it linking to the N31 is still being built, but the rest of this new road is very much in place. Fortunately we took no notice of TomTom (we rarely do when in the motorhome) and just followed signs to Rouen. Poor TomTom, who would have taken us through the centre of Beauvais, nearly had a brainstorm as he found himself tracking across what he believed to be fields and even lakes!

We stopped for the usual picnic lunch between Beauvais and Gournay at the only "aire" with picnic tables that we saw anywhere on the N31. It was OK but very litter-strewn with overflowing rubbish bins - these places seem generally far more tatty than we remember them from visits to France 10 years or so ago.

Forges-les-Eaux was not the destination we had originally planned - that would have been a France Passion site at the hamlet of Seronville near Songeons. But M pointed out that we had no bread for tomorrow's breakfast and the FP site sounded as if it would have been a long way from a shop. So we changed the plan and headed for Camping Municipal La Miniere on the outskirts of Forges; our guide promised a ten minute walk into the town. The campsite has an "aire-de-service" immediately opposite that has electric hook-ups and is free for the first night - this was of interest but when we arrived it looked quite full (even though it is large) and we thought we might be considered anti-social with our trailer if we tried to get in. So we approached the campsite warden who was standing at the site entrance, and who also looks after the "aire"; he offered us any campsite pitch we wanted among many vacant ones for 7.80 euros including electric so we opted for a night on a nice, large pitch there:



However we strolled round the "aire" later and found, too late, that there would have been plenty of room - we would recommend it as it is free for the first night and 6 euros per night thereafter. But the campsite was just fine and hardly expensive. It's a simple Municipal with limited but clean facilities and lots of static units, many of them tatty - fine out of season but probably over-stretched in the summer holidays when the "aire" would be a better choice if you could get in.

The sun had come out and the late afternoon temperature was 22C so we had what will probably be our last barbecue in France on this holiday.

Monday 21 September 2009

We walked into Forges-les-Eaux (we reckon 15 minutes rather than 10) to buy that bread along with two croissants for breakfast. R also bought a paper - he is keeping all of these to read again at home to try to improve his French vocabulary and knowledge of phrases. We saw the small hotel (Hotel La Paix) where we used to stay in the 80s - it hasn't changed much externally but has more rooms now and its restaurant is certainly more expensive, judging from the menus outside:



Back at the campsite we ate breakfast outside in spite of a grey, misty and quite cold start to the day. The campsite warden was very relaxed about our leaving time saying we could stay on into the afternoon if we wished; by lunchtime the sun was shining and our picnic outside was a much warmer experience than breakfast.

Mid-afternoon we found our way to our friends' house in a remote and rural hamlet near the small town of Buchy, east of Rouen. They have lived there for 5 years and worked very hard restoring, renovating and improving a large house that is over 100 years old and needed a lot doing when they bought it. The house itself, several outbuildings and 8 acres of land all required plenty of attention. Our friends have made it very nice indeed but the project is still ongoing and there is still more to do - it's the sort of place which will always present opportunities to do more of that kind of thing. Much of the garden is also lovely now and they grow loads of their own fruit and veg. It's all very hard work but they clearly enjoy it, and it must be hugely satisfying to see the improvements come about and to benefit from them:



There was loads of room to turn and park the MH plus trailer with Smart without unhitching, and they even plugged in electricity so we didn't have to unpack the fridge or use the gas.

We had afternoon tea, a walk around the "estate" (actually it's a bit like that), an excellent supper and a comfortable night in a house rather than a motorhome for a change!

Tuesday 22 September 2009

The weather has been lovely since we arrived in Normandy and today this fine spell continued. After a relaxing morning at our friends' home the four of us went off in their car to visit two local attractions. The first was a fascinating museum of the French "Sapeurs Pompiers" (firemen) at Montville. This features a huge collection of fire engines, pumps of various types and other fire-fighting equipment as well as historical information, displays of uniforms, helmets, hoses and much more:



The exhibits date from as far back as 1750:



It is a fascinating and unusual visit and we strongly recommend it to anyone in the area with a couple of hours to spare. The exhibits are well documented with good information panels - there are some English translations as well and the guide leaflet you are given can be in English too.

Our second visit was not far away at the "Musée Industriel de la Corderie Vallois Notre Dame de Bondeville". This was once a working "corderie" or rope factory but is now a fascinating museum showing the entire process from the twisting of cotton fibres to the inter-twining of these twisted "strings" into ropes. The machines, driven by belts that transmit the power of a water wheel, are in working order although the mill does not function as a factory of course. The machines are ingenious and absolutely fascinating to watch. The tour is guided - in French only - and the guide (in our case a very knowledgeable and pleasant man) used an audio device transmitting his speech to headphones worn by us so that he could be heard above the loud mechanical clatter of the machinery. The commentary is necessarily quite technical and so hard to follow at times even if your French is fairly good - however we all understood enough to get the basic idea of the processes and of the interesting history of this industry in these parts. This is another visit we can recommend.

Then it was back to our friends home for another good supper and another good night's sleep before an early start tomorrow to the ferry.

Wednesday 23 September 2009

We had set our alarm for 6.30. Our friends had heroically got up early to give us breakfast and we left at 7.45, our ferry departure time from Dunkerque being 12 noon. The initial road from our friends' house is narrow for a mile or so and we drove it in fear of meeting one of the many tractors plying the lanes in these parts - the chances would be that any tractor would be towing something too! But all was well, the wider road was reached without fuss and we were soon on the autoroute towards Abbeville, and passing Boulogne and Calais to Dunkerque. We were charged a category 2 toll as we had been at all times. We reached the Dunkerque ferry port at 11am and boarded 50 minutes later; the ferry sailed 10 minutes late. Again we were impressed with Norfolk line - we had paid our £8 for the VIP lounge and had a very nice lunch there which was also good value for money. Disembarking was quick and painless.

The wine-laden Smart, bouncing around on the trailer, clinked its way through the customs shed. The passport check was made during embarcation at Calais with no further interest in us after that; we sped through Dover docks unimpeded. By 1.30pm we were on the M20 heading for the dreaded M25; it felt strange driving on the left, even on a motorway! We worked out how far we wanted to go today (not all the way home, that was certain) and called the Camping and Caravanning Club site at St.Neots, booking a pitch for tonight. Thank goodness it's out of season or they wouldn't have had us for less than two nights!

Apart from the usual queues for the Dartford crossing the journey was smooth and the traffic flow equally so - even on the M25. We used the M11 to the western outskirts of Cambridge where we turned onto the A428 (used to be the A45 as we recall) which passes right by St. Neots. The C&CC's directions in their book were good and we used them rather than listening to the TomTom which yet again tried to take us along narrow short-cuts. We arrived at the site just before 6pm. and were given a big hardstanding pitch - the site office was so friendly and helpful that they found us a pitch we could access without uncoupling the trailer, knowing that we were staying only one night:



St. Neots C&CC site is very nice indeed, although the access is through a big unattractive housing estate with a number of dubious looking characters hanging around the corners. The site also floods fairly regularly and often rather seriously as it's next to the River Ouse; fortunately it was perfectly dry on this occasion! But the site itself is well up to the best the C&CC can offer (which is very good indeed) with spotless and ample facilities. It is visually attractive and we were made extremely welcome - this was a happy choice that extraordinarily turned out to be exactly halfway along our route between our friends' home near Rouen and our home in Cumbria (each leg was 288 miles). Our lunch on the ferry had been so big that we settled for a light tea and probably our earliest night of the entire holiday:




Thursday 24 September 2009

The very last lap to our home in Cumbria! There is little to relate about today. We had a pretty smooth journey using the A1, A14, M1, A50 and M6, this route avoiding the dreaded and over-priced M6 Toll. As is our custom we refilled with diesel and LPG at the Rheged Centre service station on the outskirts of Penrith and arrived home just after 5pm. Thankfully we found no problems there at all and there was a nice note from our friends who had stayed for a few days during our absence. We went out for a good meal at a local restaurant that evening to preserve the holiday feeling as long as possible! Just before getting home we collected a "mountain" of post from the local post office, most of which will be junk. Anyway, that's tomorrow's world.

The Last Post!

Some statistics:

We were away for 88 days.

The MH covered 3433 miles with average diesel consumption of 24.1mpg.

We did 2205 miles in the Smart.

Average campsite nightly cost was £20.84


Campsites we would particularly recommend:

Camping Municipal, Blere (Loire)
Camping de Cognac
Camping Le Lac de Bonnefon, Naucelle (Aveyron)
Camping Le Val de l'Arre, Le Vigan (Gard)
Camping Les Truffieres, Grignan (Provence - Drome)
Domaine de Belezy (note: naturist site) (Provence - Ventoux)
Camping Le Vallon, Bonnieux (Provence - Luberon)
Camping Le Vallon de l'Ehn, Obernai (Alsace)

Our star awards for campsites go to Belezy (if you are happy with the naturist bit) and Le Vallon de l'Ehn at Obernai (excellent in all ways and very good value).


France Passion Sites - all strongly recommended:

Ferme-Auberge La Dranvillaise, Flamets-Fretils (Normandy)
Moulin le Rouge, La Puisaye (trout farm)
Les Closeaux, near Vallieres-les-Grands (restaurant)
Pressoir a Cales, Bouille-Loretz (vineyard - Anjou)
Cave St.Cyr, near Anse (vineyard - Beaujolais)
Chateau de Premeaux, Premeaux Prissey (wine "cave" - Burgundy)
Auberge de la Peche a la Truite, Lacroix-sur-Meuse (trout farm with restaurant)

Star awards go to Pressoir a Cales and Cave St.Cyr.

Supermarkets:

Best French supermarket: Leclerc
Runner-up: Carrefour
Worst: Super-U (especially the smaller ones)


Finally, about towing:

Towing a Smart car on a small braked trailer behind our motorhome worked brilliantly for us. It completely confirmed our view that for this type of holiday at least, having an independent means of motorised transport is a major advantage. In fact for us we'd say it's essential. Our motorhome is too big to use for the kind of local exploration we want to do. But we have met people who disagree and it's worth looking at the points they make:


"If you're going to do that, why not tow a caravan with a car?" This is often asked by those who themselves tow caravans. Our main answer is that to tow a caravan with the accommodation of our 7 metre coachbuilt motorhome you would need a large tow-car, probably a 4x4. We have no need of such a vehicle when not on holiday and it is still a lot bigger than a Smart to take exploring mountain roads or parking in tight spots, whereas we find the Smart brilliant to use for shopping runs at home and to use on holiday. But there are only two of us - this would obviously be different for a family. Also the trailer with Smart is narrower than the MH so you don't have to tow something wider than the vehicle you're driving.

"Surely it's a pain towing and removes a big advantage of a motorhome." As long as we take care to balance our trailer properly (see below) we hardly know we're towing it. We have found that towing increases diesel consumption by between 2 and 4 mpg depending on terrain. It also can present challenging situations on narrower roads often encountered when accessing campsites and, especially, France Passion locations. We have mastered reversing in a straight line or around gentle curves, and very slowly.

"You can't use "aires de service" and "stellplatz." This is basically true - at least your ability to use them is much curtailed. If you know a location has lots of capacity and it's not high season, you might be OK, but in most circumstances you will not be made welcome by your fellow aire-users as you'll be taking up two places! This is hearsay for us as we didn't use any aires having been advised by others. With France Passion locations it's worth taking care to choose ones likely to have more space (farms, vineyards) and take note of any access restrictions in the guide-book. We didn't have a problem anywhere. We also thought that some campsites would baulk at taking us but again we had no problems anywhere. We always phoned ahead and explained the situation - a few campsite staff blinked a bit when we arrived but no-one refused us or charged us any extra for the trailer and Smart. People tended to look at us when everything was still coupled-up and then over-estimated our space needs so we would get a really large pitch. As we proved when only smaller pitches were available, all three items - MH, trailer and (unloaded) Smart will fit into a surprisingly small space. Only the Domaine de Belezy asked us to leave the trailer and Smart in their secure parking, even though there was masses of room for both on our very big pitch there, but it was high season when they don't allow cars to be kept on pitches anyway.

"Why not use a motorbike, scooter or even pedal-bikes?" Pedal bikes are a great idea and we love them (we're both keen cyclists) - they're good exercise too, but they're simply not practical for the extent of exploration we want to do, even if you're very fit. As for two-wheeled motorisation, M hates the idea so it's not an option for us, but it seems a good alternative for many. It may still involve towing on a small trailer of course but potentially offers the options of mounting the bike on a platform or having a "garage" big enough to house it in the MH. This imposes payload and MH layout criteria that restrict the choice of MH.

"It just isn't done, old chap!" Well, we certainly got a lot of "looks" in France. The French usually stared for a bit and then shrugged their shoulders. The Dutch and Germans seemed rather more fascinated and often couldn't stop looking - many came up and asked us questions about it. We saw other MHs towing (with varieties of two- and four-wheeled vehicles on a trailer) but it was quite unusual - a very small minority in fact. We saw more cars on trailers than on A-frames.

But some folk have more rooted objections to towing with a motorhome! In their otherwise excellent book "Go Motorhoming in Europe", the authors declare that "Towing a car is in complete contradiction to the spirit of motorhoming". We profoundly disagree with this view (as you might imagine we would!). They say they don't make the statement lightly and quote an "example" in which "The car did not outweigh the inconvenience of towing and extra cost of insurance, tax, fuel, tolls, ferries and campsite charges." We found little or no inconvenience in towing; the trailer is a tiny proportion of our MH insurance premium; the Smart is a car we use all year round at home and is cheap to insure; there is no additional tax cost; the extra diesel used is small; we paid category 2 on autoroutes as we would have done without a trailer; the ferry cost £100 return for the whole outfit; we paid no additional campsite charges for having the trailer and Smart. But we think the clue here is in the authors' first phrase! What exactly is "the spirit of motorhoming". To us "motorhoming" is not a religion. We love our E560 - it has been our home for the last 3 months; we live and sleep there for about a third of the year. Yet essentially our motorhome is a tool to enable us to travel and to do other things we enjoy (walking, swimming, visiting interesting places etc.) at a cost we can afford and with a lifestyle we love because of its sociability and "outdoor" nature. Having a Smart on a trailer neither destroys nor depreciates any of this. We don't understand the comment and we regret its appearance in a book that with this exception gives so much valuable advice.


We have learned some vital things about towing behind a motorhome:

Of course it's important to ensure the trailer is not overloaded and that the MH Gross Train Weight and recommended maximum towing weight are not exceeded. Balancing the trailer is important and the front/back positioning of the car on it is very critical - we put marks on the trailer bed to align with the wheel centres as a guide but also use a noseweight gauge to measure the loading on the towbar hitch - this is an essential item and the measurement must be done on level ground. We found 25Kg (as advised by our towbar fitters) worked well. Of course it's important to accommodate this hitch addition within the MH payload and permitted rear axle loading.

We found it useful to accommodate items in the Smart during travel, with suitable care not to overload the trailer. You also have to take account of the fuel state of the car and know the remaining trailer payload if the car is full of fuel. There was scope to place some of the wine we had bought on the Smart's seats during travel; this was almost immediately over the trailer axle. But you should use the noseweight gauge on flat ground every time you make a significant change to the items in the car. This takes only a few minutes and is well worth it for the convenience of having the Smart.

We use good quality retaining straps and ratchets and check them after about 5 - 10 minutes driving and then about every hour. On the first two checks they will usually take one notch of tightening each time and then remain fully tight.

It's important to have flexible "edge indicators" at the rear corners of the trailer that can be seen in the mirrors of the MH when the trailer in in line, together with a reversing camera. With these, and with plenty of practice, reversing slowly either straight or in gentle curves is absolutely feasible even with a short distance between tow hitch and trailer axle.

We chose to tow a trailer rather than an A-frame for four reasons: the uncertain legal position in some countries, the wear on car running gear using an A-frame, the need to modify the Smart to fit the frame and the impossibility of reversing with an A-frame. We have no safety objections to braked A-frames. We also chose a trailer (Brian James Micro-Max) with pull-out ramps that are less hassle and less stealable than bolt-on ramps (hydraulic tilt-beds are good but expensive and generally heavier).


So our final word on towing:

Our holiday would have been very different had we not towed the Smart. In essence we would have missed out on some of the best experiences it gave us. And that's our final word on the blog too. We congratulate anyone who has been following it on their stamina, but we hope too that you have enjoyed it and found some of the words and pictures interesting and enjoyable.