La Mailleraye sur Seine. Tigers?

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Peter and Nia — 1 Comment

After an early(ish) walk along the cycle track we set off for La Mailleraye sur Seine, a delightful aire on the south bank of the Seine, between Rouen and Le Havre.

Pont de Brotonne, over the Seine

This is the aire, only for motorhomes with good brakes. €5 per night. Great for boat anoraks…… all sorts of craft chug up and down in front of you.

If Keith is to be believed there are tigers a few hundred yards east of here, in a compound, we are heading off shortly for a look and hopefully some photographic evidence. But I’m getting ahead…

Lunch at La Mailleraye

Sellotape supply boat heading up river to replenish stocks

Cycling west, there is a good view over the Seine to Caudebec en Caux, maybe familiar to any Boudin followers out there.

Cycling inland, there are many lovely old French thatched cottages,

And even some thatched walls (???)

16th Century Manor House

Barn dated 1750…that’s before the revolution..

We headed back to La Mailleraye via a roadside bar that Keith spotted …cue emergency stop stop and pile in for vin blanc and une presion de biere.

In the evening we feasted in the local restaurant on pate, cold sausage and pork in a caper sauce……cosmique.

Tagged with: border terriers, cycling, la mailleraye sur seine, mailleraye, Mavis, motorhome
Posted in - France, 2013 Autumn, La Mailleraye-sur-Seine, Upper Normandy

Neufchatel…Two Hens in a Hole

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Peter and Nia — 3 Comments

On Sunday we drove to Neufchatel en bray, a small town about 30 km SE of Dieppe. We stayed at Camping Ste Claire, a well kept and friendly site, popular with migrating Brits.

10 yards from the site entrance is the avenue verte, a cycleway stretching from the coast at Dieppe to Forges les Eaux. Sunday afternoon was spent peddling/running towards Dieppe. We went about 10 miles then turned back as the first black clouds appeared. We got back just as the heavens opened and watched the lightning from the safety of the cab.

The bike ride was great, a gentle cruise through the French countryside. Generally the dogs run ahead of us, clearing our path of any other pedestrians or cyclistes, but every few km or so they get a rest in the dogcart.

Watermill by the track

Fellow Travellers

We asked one of the walkers whether it was a pilgrimage and she told us it was a ‘Walk with Donkeys’. Obvious really.

The cycleway is on the course of an old railway and this is the old station at Mesnieres en Bray.

There is a Chateau here….now a school.

A picture frame has been provided to help the photographic beginners.

Gloucester Old Spot?

Two Hens in a Hole

Pretty French Maison en route.

Eglise

Nia deep in discussion with friendly French guy at Mesnieres. Can anyone lipread? What was he saying? Suggestions please.

A bit wet when we got back.

Tagged with: border terriers, Colin, cycles, cycling, Mavis, motorhome, neufchael en Bray, voie verte
Posted in - France, 2013 Autumn, Neufchâtel-en-Bray, Upper Normandy

Guided Tour of the New Mavis

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Peter and Nia — 2 Comments

Kate has requested some pics of the inside of the new Mavis, so here is a guided tour.

This is the lounge with Keith and Jane, our friends from Dalston, who have joined us at Neufchâtal en Bray.
The toast was “Vive La France” – naturally.

A dramatic thunderstorm raged overhead and hail was bouncing on Mavis II’s head.

Kitchen

This is what sold the motorhome to me (Nia) a fancy coffee machine.

Looking back towards the bedroom

Shower

Bedroom.

We are really enjoying this glamping … and loving the new Mavis.

Posted in 2013 Spring

Les Galets de La Molliere. Pebbles, not cakes.

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Peter and Nia — 2 Comments

Nous somme in the Somme. After a quiet crossing of the channel….embark at 8, full English breakfast, token trawl of the not very duty free shop, drive off at 11am…we headed South and spent the first night in Les Galets de la Molliere, a campsite near Cayeux on the South side of the Somme Estuary, in Picardy.

We cycled out to the northwest tip of the bay on the first night, after a bit of casting about to find the cycle track. Not to be confused with galettes (cakes), galets are pebbles and there are a zillion or two lying about here on the beach at Le Hourdel, which is a small cluster of houses and bars next to the lighthouse on the point.

The Lighthouse at Le Hourdel.

The next morning we moved to the Aire just outside the campsite.

Mavis looking out over the Sand Dunes in the Aire

Looking out from Mavis.

A friendly french Kestrel kindly put on a flying display for us whilst breakfasting just outside our window on voles, frogs, insects and the like. The Kestrel that is, not us.

It was another scorching day…Nia got a sunburnt nose sitting in a deckchair stripping Colin. We spent the morning cycling along the void verte. The voies vertes are brilliant french cycleways…non motorised traffic only…which wind for miles through the French countryside. This one extends from Le Hourdel to Abbeville. We biked as far as St Valery sur Mer, where the voie was closed for roadworks. We are leaving the eastern section, which accompanies the canal de la Somme, for another day.

The Voie Verte

We had another flying display in the evening. This time by a motorised paraglider doing steep turns at zero feet above the dunes.

Penny doing an impression of a doormat.

Posted in - France, 2013 Spring, Les Galets de la Mollière, Picardie

On the Road Again

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Peter and Nia — 10 Comments

We have traded Mavis 1 in for Mavis 2! The early hours of Sunday morning were spent camping on the doorstep of Southdown Motorhomes in Portsmouth; Monday was spent learning about our new motorhome and transferring 4 years or so’s worth of assorted possessions to the new leviathan (actually only marginally bigger than Mavis, but better designed and bigger inside. Like a Tardis.)

We moved on to Fishery Creek, a campsite on Hayling Island, and settled in a good pitch overlooking the creek. Alyson and Rod, two of the very helpful staff from Southdown motorhomes, dropped in to check all was OK and we sealed the transaction with a glass or two of bubbly.

Breakfast for three at Fishery creek.
Yes…there are now three border terriers on tour. For those who don’t know, Nicky our eldest child, has decamped to the States and entrusted Max to the care of Penny and Colin for the next 8 months or so. So he’s going travelling.

Tuesday was spent packing and organising the new Mavis. Now I’m not much good at that sort of stuff, and would only have got in the way, so I biked to Portsmouth, via the Hayling Island foot ferry and spent the day exploring.

First stop the dockyard to see HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar , which is on permanent display in a dry dock, currently without top masts whilst they are being refurbished.

Next door to Victory is the amazing Mary Rose, pulled up from the Solent mud about 30 years ago. She was Henry 8ths prized battleship, capsized and sunk in 1545 en route to see off some pesky putative invaders. Most of the starboard hull and a treasure trove of Tudor relics were retrieved. There is a large number of longbows, tools, state of the art bronze cannons and all the bowls, jewellery and other artefacts of the day.

The inside of the hull. Of interest to turners, the white stuff is polyethylene glycol, being used to replace the water within the oak, to preserve it. The black tubes are hot air pipes; the timber is now at the drying out stage.

Some of the 130 or so longbows pulled out of the mud.

A surprisingly well preserved Tudor cannon.

HMS Warrior, the mid 19th century sailing/steam warship was closed; outside views only.

This is the spinnaker tower, iconic Portsmouth waterside landmark, worth a visit for aerial views of the historic dockyard, and to walk on the glass floor a few hundred feet up.

HMS Warrior from the air

We are heading off to France now….the blog will continue when decent wifi is located…

Tagged with: Hayling Island, Mavis, Portsmouth
Posted in 2013 Autumn

Honfleur. In the footsteps of Henri Vth

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Peter and Nia — 2 Comments

Friday November 23rd. We are at the Aire in Honfleur; Henry V spent some time here in 1415, (not at the Aire…… he was besieging the city) en route to Agincourt, but we were still made welcome and had a slap up meal on the quayside….moules frites, crepes, creme brûlée, crevettes…

Quayside sculpture.

The Aire is by the yacht basin. 10€ a night with electricity and water. Good dog walks.

View of the Pont de Normandie from the Aire.
We are heading to Calais today, and catch the train sous la Manche to the UK at the weekend, so this will probably be the last post of the trip, unless anything dramatic happens in the last few hundred miles.

Over and out. Thanks for looking!!

Posted in 2013 Spring

Château Chante L’Oiseau

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Peter and Nia — Leave a comment

The new part for our essuie-glaces was delayed, so we diverted to a French Passion to the South of Bordeaux…..one of the vinyards where you can park up amongst the vines for free, as long as you taste some of their wines. So not exactly free, unless you are very hard nosed.

We walked around the local town of La Brede..home to a famous French philosopher ..Montesquieu…apparently.

Park in La Brede.

The vines.

There was a great dog walk around the woods behind the vineyard, and we found this abandoned assault course/parcourt thingy, which I had to try out.

Mavis half hidden in the vines.

The wipers were fixed yesterday, Wednesday, and we drove up to spend the night near Angers. Today, Thursday, we are heading for the Aire at Honfleur, where we will spend the night, then move on towards our train crossing through the chunnel on Sunday morning.

Posted in 2013 Spring

Bordeaux….Les Girondins

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Peter and Nia — Leave a comment

We set off from Capbreton, aiming to stay at an aire on the Gironde, but diverted to Camping Beau Soleil in Bordeaux when the windscreens wipers (essuie-glaces as I now know them to be) packed in, and we needed a Fiat garage. The requisite bit needing to be ordered, we took a bus and tram into Bordeaux city centre for the day.

First stop; the Monument aux Girondins. The Girondins were prominent politicians from the region, initially supportive of the revolution but not hardline enough for Robespierre, who had them guillotined. They had been denounced by Marat, who was subsequently stabbed in his bath by 24 year old Charlotte Corday in retribution. Possibly better to keep out of politics at that time.

There is a fantastic collection of metal figures in fountains around the base of the monument.Due to be melted down for arms in the last war, they were saved by being hidden in a barn in the Medoc by the resistance, who dismantled and removed them the night before they were going to be purloined by the Nazis.

There is a good network of trams and buses covering Bordeaux, €1-40 gives you an hours travel anywhere on the network. Dogs go free.

Colin does not like trams….noisy and scary….and has to be carried.

The river running through Bordeaux is the Garonne. This is the Pont de Pierre, from the Quai Louis XVIII.

This is the Miroir d’Eau, on the Garonne waterfront.

The water runs in and out of the mirror every 10 minutes or so, through 101 small plug holes. Ingenious.

Nia in front of the Aquitaine arch, in the Place de la Victoire.

Large bronze tortoise munching grapes in the Place de la Victoire…..apparently a good meeting point for locals…like the Carlisle Otters.

Tagged with: Beau Soleil, Bordeaux, charlotte corday, Corday, Garonne, Marat, place de la victoire, Robespierre
Posted in 2012 Autumn

Capbreton

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Peter and Nia — Leave a comment

Saturday 17th November. We set off early (ish) from the Hendaye aire and had breakfast and a walk on this cliff top about 5 miles up the road. It is a leisurely drive of about 30 miles then, through Biarritz, Bayonne and Anglet to the aire at Capbreton. We avoided the peage.
The Capbreton aire had its electricity disconnected, and water turned off, on November 15th so you have to make do on battery power. Anyone know when it all opens up again?

We walked along the plage to Capbreton, and met Elsa and Jean-Luc, a delightful couple from the Cote d’Azur, who had driven the 10 hour round trip journey to bring their son to surf school here. They have a company servicing superyachts in Cannes…we have the contact details if anyone needs their diesel centrifuged. (Trix….might this help Dyl with his little difficulties?)

After a slap up 3 course plat de jour at a restaurant overlooking the harbour, we set off for a bike ride. Capbreton has a bike track extending round the harbour and north to Hossegor.

The cycle path heading out of Capbreton.

Hossegor.

Farewell dinner for Bob and Mirv. They are staying in the fleshpots of Capbreton for a day or two longer.

Tagged with: capbreton
Posted in 2012 Autumn

Colin’s Blog – In the Doghouse

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Colin — 3 Comments

I have been a bit poorly, I have had a bad tummy and was feeling very sorry for myself. I was lying on my back with my feet in the air doing my best to look ‘hangdog’, when I heard my humans talking about me. I thought they might be saying something like “Poor Colin is really, really sick, what he needs to make him better is a packet of sausages, pan au chocolat or a juicy chunk of that smelly French cheese he likes”. BUT what they were actually saying was “Colin is in the doghouse, he has eaten something disgusting and made himself sick, he needs to starve for 24 hours till his tummy settles down”. That’s not right! … well … it is right that I did a bit of foraging. I was being enterprising and supplementing my meagre rations. I refuse to say what I ate, no one will ever know but it smelt wonderful, really strong and pongy, just how I like it.

Please send all flowers, cards and food parcels to Colin the Dog c/o Mavis the Motorhome, France – on second thoughts don’t bother with the flowers, just send lots of food.

Colin x

Tagged with: Colin, Mavis
Posted in 2012 Autumn