France

20 articles

The Magical Waters of Lake Annecy

August 22, 2018Lorraine Stokes3 min read

21/8/18 – 22/8/18 – Lake Annecy, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region On arrival at Lake Annecy the heavens opened up so there was no way we were going outside until it stopped. Instead we snuggled up inside, watched everyone else getting drenched and enjoyed our view overlooking the town with our fellow moho-ers! (GPS 45.8928362,6.1267976) The rain lasted the whole night! Lots of cars came and went throughout the evening and night, so we could see why we’d read a review saying this spot maybe popular for dogging! Quite amusing seeing so its the church carpark. We did see a few people going in and out of each other’s Moho, and giggled about it perhaps being a moho wife swap spot (not us, thank you very much). Joking aside,this free spot was actually great, we felt safe and it was a 10 minute walk downhill to the historical centre, which is what we did the following morning. Annecy is a stunning little town with lots of canals and bridges adorned with flowers, and surrounded by...

Another Day, Another Lake – Lac des Moines

August 21, 2018Lorraine Stokes3 min read

20/08/18-21/08/18 – Lac des Moines, Auvergne Region We headed to Lac des Moines within the Auvergne Regional Park as it seemed a good place to take a rest from driving given it’s halfway between Lake Vassiviere (our last destination) and our next destination. It turned out to be a great place to stop. We stayed a night right on the waters edge, and had our own little place to sit and have a few beers in the sun. The lake is very pretty and there is a little beach, a few bars and restaurants, and activities such as a swimming pool and pedalos. We’d read that someone would come and collect €5 but that never happened, so that was a bit of a bonus. There were toilets close by too, which is always handy if your own toilet is getting close to its capacity. Eeeew! (GPS 45.8935849,3.5991149) We mostly chilled and strolled around the lake. I went for a run in the morning, which was great for me, however, it wasn’t so much fun for Dan who had to deal with Marley going...

Nature Meets Art – Lake Vassiviere

August 20, 2018Dan3 min read

17/08/12 – 20/08/12 – Lake Vassiviere, Limousin Region There’s something about visiting lakes in France that seems very relaxing to us. They (The French) have a unique way of mixing relaxed tourism with an appreciation for the natural environment that is quite unique. Lake Vassiviere was no exception. Originally created in the 1950’s with the construction of a dam, Lake Vassiviere is one of the largest artificial lakes in France, covering approximately 10 square kilometres. It’s also situated in the Regional Natural Park of Millevaches in the Limousin Region. Our home for the long weekend was on the site of a shut-down aire – basically a lot of parking spaces on the side of a quiet road, meters away from the tiny Pierrefitte beach at the southern end of the lake (GPS 45.7863808,1.8705869). There was no motorhome facilities to speak of, but there was a small beach cafe that sold cold beer, Croque Monsieurs and other snacks along with a lifeguard...

Escape to the Chateau – Saint-Avit

August 18, 2018Dan3 min read

16/08/18 – 18/08/18 – Chateau Bellevue, Saint-Avit After just over three months in the Moho we were both starting to get cabin fever and as Lorraine still owed me a birthday treat, we decided that a couple of days break from our 13m2 home was in order. We found Chateau Bellevue on bookings.com and it looked like the perfect place to enjoy doing not that much, lounge by the pool, spread out and enjoy a little bit of luxury. I think the chateau was ran like a B&B as there were a couple of rooms upstairs for paying guests, a communal breakfast area and swimming pool that we could use, but there was also rooms labelled as private, so I assume these were for the owners only. We also had free roam of the grounds (Apart from the stables area) so had a good area to walk Marley. Our room overlooked the front of the Chateau and felt huge (especially in comparison to the Moho) We had massive bed and sofa in front of a fireplace along with a bathtub – it’s the little...

A Great City Stop – Bordeaux

August 15, 2018Lorraine Stokes4 min read2 comments

14/08/18 – 15/08/18 – Bordeaux, Aquitaine Region Before visiting Bordeaux neither of us had any idea what it would be like, we only really knew about its association with wine production, so we didnt have any expectations of the city. We were very pleasantly surprised by what we found. We stayed approximately 3 miles from the historical centre, at the marina. Not being a big fan of McDonalds, the fast food chain, I was disappointed to see Dan’s slightly restrained excitement on noticing one right next door to us. However, I have to admit that when he bought me an egg McMuffin for breakfast the following day, I was pretty happy. The area we stayed was a bit run down and dirty, but during our stay we felt safe amongst the other motorhomes. It was free and there was a good view of the marina from our window so we certainly didn’t complain. There were no services, but we’re always prepared for that. (GPS. 44.8694306,-0.5641556) Modern Area On our first night...

Bonjour Francais (Part 2), Ondres

August 14, 2018Dan3 min read2 comments

13/08/18 – 14/08/18, Ondres, Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It felt slightly strange coming back to France having spent nearly a couple of months without paying for any overnight accommodation. When we checked this time, it seemed that most of the aires in southern France (At least close to the coast) carried a fee. If we were going to pay for it, we wanted it to be 1. close to the beach, 2. have full facilities 3. allow dogs on the beach and 4. Not be more than a 3 hour drive from where we currently were in Spain.  This pretty much narrowed down to the area surrounding Bairritz & Bayonne. We chose Ondres as it fulfilled all of these. (GPS 43.576248, -1.486290) We arrived mid-afternoon and it was relatively quiet – only about 10 Moho’s in the carpark when there was easily space for 30. We got plugged in, set-up and headed off to the beach – a wide long strip of sand with a fairly choppy Atlantic crashing on the shore. There were a few beach-side restaurants and snack bars along the...

A Lakeside Overnight – Lac de la Cavayère

May 13, 2018Lorraine Stokes1 min read1 comment

12/05/18 – 13/05/18 –  Lac de la Cavayère, Longuedoc-Roussillon After a 7 hour drive with a 30 minute lunch stop, via several small and pretty villages, we arrived at Lac de la Cavayère at 6pm.  We stopped in the free car park overnight where there were only a couple of other motorhomes present. We took Marley for a stroll down to the lake, and had not realised until we were about 3km into it, just how big it was to walk all the way around due to the hidden bays. It was too late to turn back, but it was fab and Marley was in his element.  It turned out to be a 5km walk, which isn’t much but a lot when it was only going to be a short walk. We hadn’t realised the lake was an adventure park with steep slides into the lake and zip wires over it. Looks like a brilliant place to come back with a group of friends! Time for dinner (picky bits including one of our French favourites Remoulade) and a chilled out evening (an episode of West World) before our next drive to...

Run-to-the-Sun – Poitiers

May 12, 2018Dan2 min read

11/05/18 – 12/05/18 – Poitiers (Nieuil-l’Espoir) Nouvelle-Aquitaine Today was the start of our run-to-sun mammoth drive (Or at least compared to date.) We left Monteneuf around 1pm and spent the majority of the afternoon avoiding the toll roads and driving approximately 350km through the rain to arrive at our destination Nieuil-l’Espoir, a pretty free aire just outside of Poitiers. The aire should have accommodated 12 Moho’s but unfortunately due to British motorhomers who parked too far apart from one another, the aire was completely full. Luckily, there was an adjacent carpark where we spent some time thinking do-we-dont-we until some other campers turned up and we decided to stay. It’s a beautiful location to stay, set around a river and lake with giant carp and cat fish  – Lorraine thought there maybe alligators given the big splash they made! We took Marley for a walk and thought we’d see if he’d go down the slide in the park, which he did. I...

Pitstop at Mum n Dad’s – Monteneuf

May 11, 2018Dan2 min read

08/05/18 – 11/05/18 – Le Ville Jehan,  Monteneuf, Brittany Yes, I know we are only a week in to our travels and already running for cover, but the weather in Dinard chilled us to the bone (Over dramatic I know) but it was bitter. What better place to take refuse than mum n dads place about 1.5 hours to the south. No sooner as we’d arrived, the sun was out again and we spent the afternoon in the garden sunbathing. The three of us got a shock when next doors giant dog (at least compared to Marley) turned up in the garden to say hello. Marley was scared and made some unsettling yelps but the owner turned up and took the dog back with him. The next few trips outside, ‘the dog’ kept escaping from garden – desperate to say hello to Marley, what choice did we have but to let him – Of course, he was fine – we were probably more worried than him. We took a couple of cycle tours of the local area. One to Monteneuf where we came across our first...

Dinard or Dinan!

May 8, 2018Lorraine Stokes1 min read

08/05/18 – Dinard, Brittany
We were confused on arrival as we had read about Dinan further inland, which was very different. The town is twinned with Newquay in UK and you could see why when we reached the beach. (Check out the google street view main image and have a look around!)
What started out as a sunny morning, the weather quickly changed. The wind picked up and was bitterly cold, perhaps marring our experience of the town a little. We had a walk around the market and the seafront, shared some frites (fries) and bought a baguette before heading back to the van.
Our original plan was to follow the coast around norther France, heading west and then south, but the forecast appeared gloomy for the foreseeable future, so it seemed a good opportunity to head to Dan’s parents place in Monteneuf, about 1.5 hours drive from where we currently were to take refuge for a few days.
 
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