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  France 2006 - North to the Ferry

 

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France - North to the Ferry

Leaving Hauterives we started our journey homewards following signs for many miles to hypermarkets along the busy RN5 and eventually ending up at an E Leclerc on the northern side of Valence. Then after finding a way on back roads across the Rhône to Tournon and a very winding road through the Gorges du Doux, following the route of a narrow gauge train touristique to Lamastre where there was a large street market on the Tuesday and the camping-car aire and borne closed on Monday nights so we wild camped in a picnic lay-by we had passed a few miles back.


Our route took us across the pleasant wooded and undulating countryside of the Parc Regional Livradois Forez through St Agreve, Tence (where there was a new unlisted service borne in a carpark), crossing the river Loire at Retournac, the delightfully named town of Craponne-s-Arzon and to Ambert where we looked for an internet cafe. It was closed on Tuesdays so we called into the library which had a "Mediatheque". Much like in Britain there were lots of computers but " sorry you had to be an adherent (member) to use them"! so we drove on to a pleasant overnight stop at an aire beside a large lake at Aubusson d'Auvergne near Courpière, with a beach, boats for hire and a nature trail around the lake. Judging by the size of the car park (500 places) it must be a very popular base de loisir at weekends. A French camping-car family turned up at teatime, parked two metres away and proceeded to play football next to us so we relocated across the other side of the huge empty parking area. In the morning there was more activity as a huge artic arrived and parked in the adjacent field where it disgorged various tractors and specialised farm equipment for the local farmers to try out. After a pleasant two mile stroll around the lake we called in to the bureau to pay our overnight fee of €5 before setting off northwards.    
                           


Base de Loisirs at Aubusson

Base de Loisirs at Aubusson

Aire de parking Aubusson d'Auvergne
Aire de parking Aubusson d'Auvergne


On our travels through France we noticed how different the styles of gravestones were typically with sun shade structures near Aubusson and an elaborate one with many plaques sometimes with photographs and masses of artificial flowers at Hauterives. These must have been for important families in the town.
                Cemetery near Aubusson
                      Cemetery near Aubusson
Gravestone at Hauterives
Gravestone at Hauterives

From there we continued north west through more wooded hills passing Thiers with its knife shops and on to Lapalisse which we had visited the previous year, and a neat small camping municipal complete with swimming pool in a tiny village of Bert, a few miles north-east. The site had about six static vans, a Dutch touring  caravan and a lone backpacker - the village is on the GR3 long distance footpath.

                     Camping Municipal at Bert
                       Camping Municipal at Bert



Bert near Lapalisse
Bert near Lapalisse


Heading further north to Moulins where we called in to a caravan dealers just out of interest. Many accessories were a lot dearer than in the UK and we had a quick look at a large Adria coachbult for €40,000 but decided that we preferred our Autosleeper! We bypassed the town on the almost empty ring road and drove through farmland to the region known as the Puisaye famous for the many potteries and artisan industries centred around St Amand-en-Puisaye, St Savoir-en-Puisaye and St Fargeau where they hold an evening spectacular at the large chateau during the summer (starting the day after we were there of course!). After spending a couple of hours beside another Base de Loisirs at the Reservoir du Bourdon we found a small municipal campsite at Saints-en- Puisaye, a small village where there was a sign for a theatre which turned out to be a dubious night club judging by the posters outside (admission single men €60, single ladies free!) so we gave that a miss! The next morning after watching three hoopoe birds a couple a yards from the van (we had only seen them in southern Spain previously - a sign of global warming??) we put our camping fee of €4.64 (the cheapest of the holiday) through the letterbox of the Mairie. After driving to Toucy where there was another "train touristique", only at weekends at this time of year, the weather had turned grey and overcast so we decided to travel more rapidly north toward the ferry at Dunkerque, stopping overnight at a dearer (€13.20) 2 star campsite in the busy town of la Ferté-s/s-Jouarre, an industrial and commuter town for Paris, after discovering that a motorhome aire listed in a nearby village of St Cyr-s-Morin was closed due to vandalism.


Saints-en Puisaye church
Saints-en-Puisaye church

Saints campsite
Saints campsite


The last day of travelling through France was uneventful apart from one incident of having to take evasive action as a car overtook a lorry coming towards us on a bend, the only time in over 5000 miles that this had happened. We decided to call in to a large hypermarket at the Centre Commercial at Compeigne for a final topup, a mistake on a Saturday morning and we got hopelessly lost on leaving, ending up in the back streets of the town. Once beyond the villages of the Somme the towns tended to merge together so it was a slow drive back to the ferry port where we managed to change our booking for the 6am Sunday sailing. 
   


Floral mural at Gravelines
Floral mural at Gravelines

With several hours to kill we drove along to Gravelines for tea and a stroll on the beach. Since we were there two months ago a new public toilet had been installed in the car park where motorhomes parked (but no water tap or drain!) We returned to the ferry port late evening to sleep overnight in the queuing lanes together with many cars and other motorhomes. Although there were no sailings during the night the ferries have their engines running continuously but we managed a reasonable amount of sleep before the channel crossing and the long drive back home.

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