France

20 articles

A Magical Island – Mont Saint-Michel

May 8, 2018Lorraine Stokes4 min read

06/05/18 – 08/05/18 – Mont St Michael, Normandy This was our first night of paid camping at Aire de Camping Car  (GPS 48.5902365,-1.5151345,16.25)- Beauvoir – Mont St Michael about 3 Km away from the monument.  It is still an Aire but you get your own outside space and use of the services for €12.50. Good job as we were low on water and the toilet needed emptying…yes one of the joys of motor-homing! We enjoyed this place so much we stayed 2 nights. In the morning we rode along the river to where we had to dismount and either walk or get the free bus to see Mont Saint Michael. We chose to walk. Amazingly Marley is now so different in his bike carrier, a massive contrast to the start, and its reassuring as it gives us so much more freedom. The sight itself was well worth the trip and is very impressive as you approach it. Its origins date back to the 8th century and it was a famous pilgrimage site across Europe. Today, it’s a Unesco world heritage site. The...

Clifftop Camping – Longues Sur Mere

May 6, 2018Dan1 min read

05/05/18 – 06/05/18 – Longues Sur Mer, Normandy This was our first night of ‘wild camping’ (no facilities) in France. (GPS 49.3452648,-0.6955442,16) The site was perched on the clifftop, overlooking the sea and consisted of about 6 hardstanding spaces, with the rest on the adjacent grass. It was a busy little strip with campers and cars coming and going up until around 9pm. We took a walk down the steep road to the pebbled beach and sat for about half an hour in the sun before heading back for the evening Before long,  a local farmer knocked our the door selling his cidre – 3 for 10 euros …..rude not to really….even if (as Lorraine put it), it tasted like a manure….did the trick though. The next morning we explored the WW2 battery’s and took Marley along the clifftop in the basket on the back of the bike. I think he is starting to tolerate it! It’s probably due to him realising the benefits of not walking in the heat (see...

A little Paris? Caen

May 5, 2018Lorraine Stokes1 min read

05/05/18 – Caen, Normandy
Arriving in Caen, we parked for free using one of the Moho carparks approx 2 KM outside of the town centre at the Memorial de Caen. We did try and take a look around the park Colline aux Oiseaux, however, they didn’t let dogs in, so we and made our way into town in the sunshine.
Caen reminded me of Paris in certain parts with the wide tree-lined boulevards and grand state buildings, but also the narrow cobbled street lined with bars and cafes with everyone squeezing into the sunshine not in the shadow of the adjacent buildings. I’m sure one could spend a long time exploring the many boutiques and independent shops, but as shopping isn’t really our thing, we opted to sit outside the Hotel de Ville and watch people arriving for what look like a very grand wedding.
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A Restful Stop – Hérouvillette

May 5, 2018Lorraine Stokes1 min read

05/05/18 – Hérouvillette, Normandy
We stopped here for a free overnight (yes this is becoming boring) en-route to Caen after the disappointment of Cabourg.
Herouvillette is a pretty village with a tiny approx population of 1000. The aire is next to a duck pond with horses in the fields behind enough for about 8 Mohos – 4 on the hardstanding and 4 on the grass pitches. (GPS 49.2199571,-0.2447687,172)
Its a sleepy little village with not too much to see or do, the most interesting thing was an old communal laundry station on the other side of the road to the aire, so we had a quiet night both in terms of activity but also surrounding noise levels.
Feeling rested the next morning before leaving, we managed a bike ride  along the river with a much more chilled Marley…
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Musical Moho’s

May 4, 2018Dan2 min read

04/05/18 Cabourg, Normandy We arrived at Dives Sur Mer Aire de Camping around lunchtime after spending about half an hour trying to find it given they had shut the road leading to it (at least the road google maps was trying to take us down!). It was chocca around the perimeter, leaving only spaces in a strip in the middle of the aire. Being British, of course, we parked our van as far away as we could from the only other camper using the middle strip, only for them to move alongside us within about 5 minutes…..is this the way to do things we thought?….it seemed strange behaviour, but sure enough as the next van pulled in, it too parked right next to that one.. We had ran out of water, so decided to pay the €5 Charge to top-up and empty our waste water which of course meant moving the van, so we did our business only to find the guy that followed us had moved into where we parked….rather than re-park at the opposite end, we parked as close to him as we could without...

Beach Stop

May 4, 2018Lorraine Stokes1 min read

03/05/18 – 04/05/18 – Merville-Franceville, Normandy Another free overnight spot big enough for 6 vans and very close to the beach, just 2 minute walk though the dunes.(GPS 49.2847479,-0.2106921,18) The beach itself was gorgeous (although you’ll have to take our word for it as we didnt get round to taking any photos), a very long strip of sand stretching as far as you could see  – only spoilt facing west and seeing the Ferry boats docking into Caen (Or so we thought at least) The beach was pretty breezy, so after about 10 minutes of sitting there in our jumpers feeling somewhat chilly, we decided call it a day and to walk along the coast path in to town. I went for a run here and Dan rode his bike with Marley in the basket, as well as him (Marley) sometimes running alongside – he’s still barking mad, but he’s gradually getting used to it. So far we’re very impressed with French cycle tracks and free overnight stops making it very easy to...

Pretty Medieval Town – Honfleur

May 3, 2018Dan1 min read

03/05/18 – Honfleur, Normandy

 onfleur is a pretty medieval port which was about 30 minutes walk from our aire. When we eventually arrived (See previous post about Marley and his bike basket) we spent just under a couple of hours walking quite slowly, circling the main tourist part of town around the harbour. The majority of streets all lead back to the port where there are numerous options to eat, catering for most tastes and budgets. I’m sure this place would be a beautiful in the evening for a meal or to have a few drinks.

There are lots of boutique shops and galleries alongside the regular touristy ones to explore if you are looking for something to buy. Given we aren’t the biggest of shoppers at the best of times, it’s probably why we felt we made it around the town so quickly.

Lorraine also found  €20 on the floor – enough to pay for lunch somewhere 🙂

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Will Marley ever take to his Basket?

May 3, 2018Dan2 min read

02/05/18 – 03/05/18 – La Rivière-Saint-Sauveur,  Normandy Our second free nights accommodation was to be in the pretty little town of La Rivière-Saint-Sauveur (GPS 49.4082236,0.2652922,17), approximately 30 minutes brisk walk to Honfleur. From what we saw the town really consisted of a few shops, town hall and police station off the main road and that was about it. The aire itself had enough room for about 10 Moho’s all on semi-hardstanding/grass pitches, divided by low hedges. We arrived around 4 pm and there were plenty of spaces, but with in a couple of hours, they were all full. There is a lovely park on the other side of the bridge – a great place to walk your dog, with picnic tables to eat at should the 2 on the site be occupied.  We brought our bikes with us, and a bike basket for Marley which we had tried hard to get him used to before we left England, but he wasn’t so keen after the initial ride, so we took this as a first opportunity to slowly...

Our 1st French Town

May 2, 2018Lorraine Stokes1 min read

02/05/18 – Rouen, Normandy
We stopped at Rouen on route to Honfleur for a couple of hours. We parked for free using the searchforsites app to find us a location suitable for the Moho which was about  20 minute walk along the river.
We wondered around the town centre for about an hours or so –  the best part, in our opinion of course, is around the cathedral in the historic centre, where the majority of buildings are medieval with pretty and cobbled streets.
On our way out, we popped into Intermarche for our first wine and baguette shop, and a few groceries of course. We were surprised by how expensive fruit and veg is, and wondered if we could survive on just alcohol.
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Bonjour Francais

May 1, 2018Dan2 min read

01/05/18 – 02/05/18 – Stella Plage, Cucq, Hauts-de-France We decided to take the Euro tunnel given that Marley hadn’t been on a ferry before and being the overprotective parents we are, we didn’t want to leave him alone in the van for the 1.5 hour crossing. It was a little more expensive (£120) one-way. However, with half an hour of boarding the train, we were pulling out of the Calais port and on our way to our first overnight stop. About an hour south of Calais we experienced our first French Aire (Specific overnight stop for Moho’s) in town called Cucq. This place consisted of about 20 spaces between the sand dunes adjacent to the Stella Plage which was a 100m or so over the dunes (GPS 50.4721676,1.5784545,16.71). We arrived around 20:30 giving us just enough time to make our way over to the beach, which as far as we could tell was dog friendly – well at least we didnt encounter anyone telling us we couldn’t go on there with Marley. He...

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