The thin blue line

By the time you see this we will be back in England but it gives you a rough idea where we've been.

Thanks for following us.

B&R x

I have to stay calm and get the day into perspective. OK, let's start at the beginning. We slept in and didn't hit the road until nearly 10am, which is a record for us. After encountering the usual French 'deviation', that's a road sign not a person, we ended up at a couple of supermarkets and bought about 21 litres of wine at a suitably cheap price. From there we visited numerous sites of The Great War around Albert, presumably pronounced Al-bare. A surprising fact of this town, it is twinned with Ulverston would you believe?! After a few hours in this very sobering area we headed to an aire for the night, Rachel wasn't happy so we moved onto the next aire, Brian wasn't happy, so we moved to the next aire, now we are BOTH unhappy :-( not because of the aire, it is brilliant, but because of what happened en route. Now I have nothing against the French, 'one of my best friends is French' ;-) , however they DO have a liking for gravelling their roads. No big problem with that, until some ........... shall we say less mature motorist drives the other way at 60mph. Crazy gentleman, a blind man could see what was going to happen, yes, we need a new windscreen. It hasn't shattered but there's rather a nasty chip or 2 in it:-/


Photos 1 & 2: Thiepval Memorial - Largest British War Memorial in the world where 73,000 men who have no known grave are commemorated.

Photo 3: Lochnagar Crater - A huge mine crater, the remains of a series of explosions on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

I think we've maybe been on the road too long

Dear oh dear, signs that you have maybe been on the road too long.

The routine when we arrive at an aire with leccy is for Bri to plug into it and Rachel runs the check in the van. We arrived at this free aire about 3.30pm and went through the usual routine, we were first here so had 4 sockets to choose from. No, no, no and no electricity from any of them but a suspicion that it may come on at 10pm when the street lights come on. So, 10pm rolls up, no power :-( then Bri notices a faint glow from the street lights "YES" shouts Rachel "WE HAVE POWER"! Result. Time to head home I think.

England-bound

Last night we made the decision to return to England on Friday, so just a few days to fill in on our slow amble north to Calais. First stop was Le Cateau-Cambresis, as you will know the birthplace of the artist Henri Matisse. The '7 minute walk into town' from the aire was.............grotty, fortunately the centre was a little better. His museum was closed but in the adjoining school we saw the huge stained glass window of his. After that we basically meandered in a generally westerly direction and will spend the night just south of Cambrai. 

6-7pm Tuesday 24th June - it rained, only about the third time in 2 months, the sun is back out now though.

The battlefields of the Somme - in fact, largely fought over its tributary, the Ancre, is where we head tomorrow.

Some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over..... it is now!

Yes, finally completed campsite assessment number 44. We will celebrate tonight and tomorrow head in a mainly northerly direction.

Photos

1: The drive up

2: A peaceful Givet (Rapi on left bank)

3: View from Rapi

It's not as if we were in Belgium!

After a lovely drive north along the banks of The Meuse to Givet we had a very enjoyable time in the French Ardennes country. That was until the football started, the quiet picturesque town was turned into the noisiest place in France, but it was Belgium who were playing! Being only 2 miles from the border it seemed the every Belgian within driving distance had descended on the town to prove that they could sound their car horn more times than anybody else. Thankfully it only lasted until midnight.

We departed a very peaceful Givet at 9am and headed into Belgium to an Aldi at Philippville, the only place Rachel could get her much sort after sauce mixes. Success, and if that wasn't good enough there was a C&A next door. Being the ever dutiful husband Brian says "Would you like to have a look around as we are here my dear"? Shopping doesn't get much better than this! Now it isn't a big shop, but she's been in there so long now I am starting to fear she is suffering from the disease known as Claire and Mopsy Hodgsonitis!

Change of Plan

We are enjoying ourselves too much here to move on, so will stay another night and work will just have to wait. We have a prime spot on the banks of The Meuse, the weather is perfect, there is a brilliant cycle path next to us which follows the river, there is an abundance of wildlife and the scenery is right up our street, all in all not a bad combination.

Friday

Today we just ambled 10 miles north following The Meuse to a photo-bomb proof aire. We had 2 short, but steep, walks (photos) plus a cycle ride along a perfect cycle path to the next village along the river. Tomorrow we will continue to follow the meandering river and just see what turns up.

Photo-bombed by a Burstner Ixeo!

Dear Neil Ross, this happened and we thought of you :-) Yes,  we were parked in a free aire with a lovely view of the marina when along came Herget (so named as he was from Belgium) and parked for the evening and night in a 'no parking' zone. Rachel managed to restrain Brian from his youthful exuberance of going to discuss with Herget the finer points of aire etiquette so we resorted to the Mr Ross' approach of 'what the heck' and poured another glass of wine.

A Breath of Fresh 'Aire'

After visiting 43 campsites, and staying on 29 of them, it's a refreshing change to go back to the 'randomness' of aires. The great thing about a motorhome/motorcaravan/camper/camping car or what a friend of ours amusingly calls a motability home, is that it is totally self sufficient and it's that freedom we so enjoy. Go anywhere, stop anywhere (within reason).

We left Verdun this morning and took a meandering route to our next aire. A few miles away we came across this French military cemetery.

We are now on the banks of The Meuse, with leccy hook up, toilets, shower and wifi all for 7€, that's if they come and collect! 

Day Off

On our day off we drove 40 miles over to Verdun, en route came across a German war cemetery, a rarity on allied soil. As you see the crosses are black and each one bore the name of 2 soldiers. Being deep in First World War territory we are learning a little more about it. Tonight we stay in a car park in Verdun, we've checked it out with the tourist office and it's fine to stay overnight here. Tomorrow we will follow The Meuse River north to an 'official' aire, yes another day off!

We set off yesterday morning with low expectations of campsite number 42 and they were met, enough said. Onto number 43 in the cosmopolitan city of Metz, pretty straight forward this one, so we can now relax with chilli and red wine knowing that we will amble north over the next couple of days to our final site.

You know you're getting old when.........

You know you're getting old when you think the hand dryer in the toilets isn't working and on your next 'visit' discover it's a paper towel dispenser!

Last night was a late one, bed at 2am after the match,  we didn't hit the road until 11am. We stopped for our usual morning coffee with French bread and jam at 12 noon at an aire in Vaucouleurs. For those of you with an outstanding knowledge of French history this is of Joan of Arc fame (photo). 

The brochure says this campsite is on the west side of a medieval village on the banks of The Moselle. Factually correct, but if you've painted a pretty picture from that description you've made a big mistake!

We are now 45 miles northeast of our last site and back in the Champagne region, the nearest place of note is the appropriately named St Dizier. We are both feeling a bit whacked and this morning it was a sleepy drive along winding country roads to this pretty 5 star site. Brian feels like he's driven on every road in France, and Rachel just wants to get these last 5 sites done so we can have a holiday. It's going to be a very late night, England v Italy kicks off at midnight and it's live in the bar!

The Future's Bright, The Future's Orange

Our new hosts couldn't be more welcoming, a lovely young couple who took over this site in November. So after our first 'working' night, we are staying for a non work night. After last night's free beer we insist on paying for tonight's stay, and look forward to Spain v Holland on the big screen outside the bar. We are the only English here, all the other campers are Dutch so it looks like being an orange night. For those of you who DON'T follow football Holland play in orange.

After a leisurely morning (run, swim) we departed Mike and Pascaline's place just before noon. They very kindly gave us our 2nd night free as well, so we had 'a little extra' to spend in the supermarket. Shocking that food should account for €32 out of a €50 spend, we really need to cut down on the food bill! Having rattled one site off in the early afternoon we are now at a very pleasant one just outside Vittel, of water fame, maybe we should detox?

Photo: Leaving the clouds and storm behind

We Are Here.........The Germans are Here, Here and Here

With every town ending in 'wihr', 'helm', 'heim' and 'berg' you could easily be mistaken for thinking you were in Germany. As we headed north west a little deeper into France we stopped for coffee at an aire in Chatenois, a beautiful little town (photo) but the butchers was called Adolfe, we thought it odd that a shop selling food should be promoting bad taste. We are back in the Haut Rhin/Vosges/Alsace region(s), very densely forested and big French Resistance territory during the war, don't mention the war.

The sun was still beating down on us so much that unless the aircon was on full belt it was just getting too hot in the van. We knocked one site off in the morning then arrived here (Corcieux) in the early afternoon. It wasn't long before the sun gave way to an almighty thunderstorm with white frozen peas covering the place! The sun returned later in the day though :-) The very welcoming family made our minds up that we would take today off and so we stay here again tonight. They treated us to some local Alsace wine and we really enjoyed their company. Oh, Mike is from Holmfirth!

Sleepless in a Kettle

It was 30c in the van when we retired at 11pm last night, that meant every window and roof vent wide open. The last time we had so little sleep at night was when Amy and Sarah were babies, we had one of France's busiest motorways to keep us company! We had hoped to close everything as it became daylight but the coolest it got was 23c. The forecasted thunderstorm hasn't arrived yet, the sun is shining again at 6am.

On a good note, no seismic activity last night, Brian is back to normal, not necessarily a good thing. 

Seismic Activity

We are now in Horbourg-Wihr, Colmar about 5 miles from the border with Germany. Brian is still in the process of overcoming his lack of fettle, so it is maybe appropriate the we are camped on the river ill, or to be more precise L'ill, maybe just a small river? (Cumbrian speak). Also, if he holds up this afternoon it's curry on the menu tonight, the rice should help. There are notices around the campsite warning of seismic activity because Horbourg-Wihr is, quote 'listed as a zone with a risk of seismic activity', mmmm......... he hopes not!

Rapi is feeling the effects of all this mountain passes so it's a visit to the local Fiat dealer tomorrow to make sure the noise from the rear wheel isn't something serious.

Weather: Hot!

Grand Designs

Congratulations to Rapido for putting the toilet and sink next to each other, ideal when you're not in good fettle. With Brian being somewhat 'pre-occupied' Rachel has been doing all the work (as usual) and due to circs beyond our control we did 4 sites yesterday! We thought it was going to have to be FIVE sites when we rolled up, it didn't look good we arrived in the middle of a wedding! We think the overworked receptionist just wanted to get rid of us as quickly as possible, so we picked our pitch and were entertained until 4am with music and drunks. 

Today thankfully, we have managed to get a shaded pitch on our first site, so we stay here and catch up on yesterday's paperwork.

Part of Saturday's trip included a drive over the Ballon d'Alsace, of Tour de France fame. Not only is it a mecca for cyclist but also the motorised version. Not all of the 'bikers' had grasped the concept that when you go around a left hand bend in the centre of the road at speed you head is on the other side. That may be fine but not when an 8'6" wide motorhome is coming the other way! Fortunately we escaped the race track without making any of the horsemen headless. Motorcyclists, I dunno, I must be getting old!

Photos: Rachel taking time out on a 1300 metre long zipwire over today's campsite

Phew, it's a bit toasty!

As we sit under the awning at an unpronounceable place it is a tad warm for us northern types. However, work we must, thankfully Amy's laptop has a long enough lead that we can do our work outside, refreshing ourselves with the occasional cold beer.

The campsite yesterday was by a lake so Brian donned his wetsuit, despite the water being 19c, and headed off for a couple of hundred metres. It was a shorter swim than planned for the following 2 reasons:

1: The water was clear but the goose poo floating on the surface was not.

2: The problem with clear water is you can see TOO much. When you swim solo in open water you are never alone! Ok, the lake creatures were more scared of Brian than he was of them but it was a close run thing.

Hopefully the attached photos will be:

1. en route to work this morning showing the lake of many creatures.

2. Rachel working (not too) hard.

France - Switzerland - France

After a day off, with no driving, we were back on he road again heading for work. Just 50 miles of Rapi sounding like a milk float, not mechanical problem, just the remaining beer bottles rolling around in the wine cellar. We drove along the lakeside into Geneva and out of the other side passing a hotel where we had stayed in 1985, Rachel couldn't resist saying "That's when you had hair........and a moustache"! Maybe best not to get into a discussion of what we had (or didn't have) 30 years ago ;-) . We have arrived at work at a campsite which boasts stunning views of Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc, maybe so, but not when it's raining persistently! Forecast is good though.

Photos this morning in Geneva: One of a very expensive vehicle, the other of a Bugatti

Italy, Switzerland, France

Italy's barkiest dog decided to welcome us to his country, at 6am! After a 15 minute barking spell he lay down in the middle of the road so we could all get back to sleep for an hour or so. On the road at 9am for an 'interesting' drive up the scenic road of the GREAT San Bernadino Pass! No namby pamby tunnels for us hardened alpine pass travellers. Unfortunately you won't see what could have been some very impressive photographs, due to Rachel's insistence that Brian keeps BOTH hands on the steering wheel as she sinks her nails into anything she can keep a grip on. To be fair it was a little 'hairy' near the top, fortunately we met the oncoming coach on a safer part of the road. It was a 2nd gear descent into Switzerland but once below 6,000' we could let it run again as the roads widened and straightened. This part of the country wasn't anything to write home about, oh we ARE doing, so it was across the border back into France to chill at a campsite overlooking Lac Leman.

The Kinsella's Create an Aire....................in Italy!

Woohoo, result! You know you've arrived in the camping car world when you're the first to park up and others follow your lead. Not only has another camper parked with us, it's an Italian, a bit like selling snow to the eskimos. 

3rd photo - The Kinsella Aire, Morgex, Italy

Yes, we are now in Italy. After this morning's banter of "I dunno,where do you wanna go","I dunno just wherever you wanna go", we finally ended up in Morgex, never heard of it? Neither had we. From Annecy it was south Albertville and Moutiers then northeast through Bourg-St-Maurice over the 7,200' Col du Petit St Bernard into Italy. From La Thuile the satnav took us on an unclassified road, well BRIAN took us on the unclassified road as he failed to check the route suggested by the world's worst satnav. Despite it being a 2nd gear climb and a 1st gear descent (due to burning brakes) we saw the most magnificent views of Mont Blanc's backside, I mean Italian side.

As the sun sets over Mont Blanc and turns the snow on the distant Alps to a pale orange, we will finish off the remnants of the Chardonay and have an early night, so we are refreshed for tomorrow morning's trip over the border into Switzerland.