Day 1 of real life! - Tuesday 21st August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
We got up at 2pm and I finally had a cup of tea. We filled Ben's mum in on our trip, then I came home to surprise my Mum.
All in all we had an amazing time. A trip of a lifetime. We had highs and lows, most of which were on the last day! It was a wonderful adventure which shall not be forgotten. I am looking forward to the slide show to tell everyone what happened.
This is the end of our holiday journal! Au revoir, Auf wiedersehen, Ciao and Goodbye!!
Day 30 - Monday 20th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
Well, our holiday has not ended on a high I am afraid to say! We lounged around in bed until 9:30ish as it was still raining and we knew we didn't have all that far to travel. After getting up and packing our soggy tent away, we were off, only to stop 100m down the main road for Ben to put his rain covers on.
The journey this morning was wet, cold and slow as we were driving cautiously on the slippery roads. We stopped for lunch at a Champion, the inside of which was colder than being outside as they had their air conditioning on full blast!
After eating out sandwiches and some yummy caramel slice things we were on our way again. But not for long; Ben pulled over as his steering felt funny, and we found out he had a flat back tyre! We panicked a bit, not knowing what to do in the middle of nowhere in the drizzle. Then Ben remembered that my Dad kept an emergency tyre kit thingy under sit seat. This pumped foam into the tyre which re-inflated it and glued the hole shut. He definitely had a hole in ...
Day 29 - Sunday 19th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
I'm writing this a day late again, and if this entry has a slightly sour tone it's because of day 30, not day 29!
The day started off raining, which we weren't surprised about. After a moderate amount of lounging (to see if the weather would pass), we decided to just get on with it like we did in Belgium all those weeks ago - after all, it was our last outing so it didn't matter what got wet, and it was to go to Paris!
We set off through the campsite (which had turned into quite a mud bath overnight, being a quarry and all) towards the town. The path wasn't quite as... intact, as we had imagined, a single dirt track through a lot of rocks and overgrown bushes was all, and it seemed to emerge into someone's driveway. We continued through St. Leu, which appeared totally deserted since it was a Sunday, to the train station. This too was devoid of life. There was only a notice (amongst graffiti on a urine-soaked wall) telling us to buy our tickets on the train. Great!
We made a stop at Persan Beaumont (or something ...
Day 28 - Saturday 18th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
Today we managed to pack and leave the lovely campsite by 10am. This was mainly because Ben had left his bags on this bike overnight; they normally take a long time to put on!
We headed North again, towards Paris. The roads were very straight and in good condition with useful signs so we got along very fast. We were half way to the next campsite by lunchtime, where we stopped at a Champion. We both had a sandwich and an apple. We also bought a carbonara sauce for dinner, breakfast food and some sweeties all for €11. We are trying to live cheaply as possible!
After getting some petrol we carried on around the East side of Paris towards Senlis then Chantilly. We found our campsite by 4 pm. It is built on an old stone quarry so is on many layers with many different nooks and crannies.
We did some washing which was desperately needed as we had both run out of underwear, more of an issue for me than Ben it seems! The owner speaks good English and told us all about getting to Paris. He said it is best to drive in, but I think both ...
Day 27 - Friday 17th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
A bright and early start once again today. We had a long way to go, heading from Clermont Ferrand to a spot near Gien. Unfortunately the site was more expensive than the book said it would be - it seems prices have risen by half since last year!
We paid up and left, making our way back through Murol, and St. Nectare, back towards the motorway. I had time to stop and take photos of all the interesting chateauxs and other architecture we missed yesterday evening - this time in splendid sunshine!
At some point we stopped at an Auchan to get a sandwich, It turns out we were more than a little spoilt for choice - it was huge, and you could barely see from one end of the store to the other. They must have had every brand of ham under the sun available, so instead of try to make the perfect-value sandwich like usual, we had pre-made ones, which were pretty average.
Other than that, the trip was pretty unremarkable really- we arrived at a campsite near Gien at about 6. Rather than going to the one in the book (which I'm beginning to distrust...) we headed to one ...
Day 26 - Thursday 16th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
Today has been lots of travelling along scenic roads. We got up quite late as it was drizzling which doesn't inspire you to get out of the tent! We packed up, gave our free grotto tickets to our English next door neighbours and were off! It wasn't too hot today which was nice so the ride was more comfortable which allowed us to appreciate the views more.
First we stopped at a supermarche to buy brekkie, lunch and dinner! We had a do-it-yourself lunch with pain, sausage and emmental - v yummy. Then we continued on through some of the mountains of the Ardeche.
The road was v windy and dual carriageway in places, although only the crazy French drivers were stupid enough to overtake. After we crossed the summit, the roads became very long and straight through never ending farm lands across rolling hills. Very nice travelling conditions. We had several breaks along the way for a bonbon or two and to rest my neck.
We did a small bit of a non toll motorway towards Claremont Ferrand then came off though St Nectare (famous for cheese apparently).
Our campsite is right next to a lake. We got ...
Day 25 - Wednesday 15th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
It ended up being quite a late night, so I'm (yet again) writing this a day late.
We rocketed into action in the morning, and were ready much earlier than usual (i.e. before midday). We headed off on the bikes towards Vallon-Pont D'Arc, the location of the canoe trip company we tried to find the day before. There weren't any signs to it, so we stopped at a random one - Alpha Bateaux - and had a chat with them. They were nice enough I guess, though I get the feeling the 100 or so companies are much the same! We paid up, got our kit and hopped in the minibus which took us to our kayaks at the start point. The man there was very brief - I said I could kayak already and could show Helen the ropes and he said OK and showed us to the water. You wouldn't get that in England - too much lawsuit potential!
I was like a fish to water... well a fish that floats on the water. Like a duck to water, really. Helen got the hang of things very quickly too - much less spinning in circles than I was ...
Day 24 - Tuesday 14th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
This morning, after getting showered and breakfasted and so on, we went and found out about kayaking and canoeing. It turns out there are far more than we had imagined, but we set off for one in particular we had the leaflet of, called Viking Bateaux.
Before that, we had to head off to a nearby L'Eclerc for some engine oil for Helen's bike, which had been overheating a lot recently. We had lunch as well and were on our way.
The journey took us along a lot of winding roads through the upper part of the Ardeche gorge and several lovely looking towns and villages. I stopped to take photos a couple of times - much to the annoyance of Helen, since she was getting very hot and bothered due to the heat!
We got to the small town of Salvalas (?) alongside the Ardeche itself, but didn't see Viking Bateaux anywhere, Apparently I misread the leaflet, and that's only where the canoes leave from! We walked into one of the many other trip-organiser-y places there were in town to see if we could get on their river trips. After a long phone call, the lady in ...
Day 23 - Monday 13th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
Today has been a day of much travelling in the heat again. We had a lie in till 9 as our tent was in the shade of a hedge so we were able to be in it without over-heating. We then got up and packed in record time as Ben's panniers were already strapped onto his bike. We decided to take the toll roads today as we had some mountains to pass. So we set off on the motorways, first pass St. Tropez, then North past Avignon.
We came off the tolls into a small town to buy lunch and tomorrows' brekkie from a supermarche. We found one and just as we were tucking into our apples, it began to pour!
The heat had caused a massive thunderstorm with torrential rain, so we were stuck at the supermarche for an hour or so. The rain bought the temperature down to 28°C for a short while, but once we were back on our way the heat returned. It was so hot it was off the scale of our thermometers. I recon it was mid to high thirties today. Very hot for wearing a helmet and gloves and jacket and ...
Day 22 - Sunday 12th August
Posted by Ben Hymers | Filed under travel
Today (!) was a little crazy to begin with. We woke up, got ready and packed very early, got back on the road and continued to the site we were supposed to have found last night. It's considerably nicer here, but a lot more expensive than our book said it would be. We got the last pitch available, probably why it was so pricey! The staff aren't too friendly though, they refused to charge our radios for us, something even the dingiest of other sites have done.
Anyway, we set up early enough to make a full day of it, so we caught the bus into Cannes (as it is very close, and Tim and Emsy seemed to like it!). We arrived and almost immediately got caught up in a lively market area.
I've been in many a market before, but this particular one was somehow different - a lot more friendly and interesting for a start. We liked it, anyway.
We were quite hungry already, so headed through the narrow streets to the seafront, with its many splendid restaurants. We walked past the splendid ones and found a nice cheap one, offering a three course meal for €9 ...
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