Stratford upon Avon
An OK site, not a lot of facilities. Good for Stratford and lots of NT places around.
Kendal Caravan Club site
A good site, set amid trees in an old gunpowder factory. Handy for the Lake District.
Wednesday 18th.
A very pleasant (and fast) trip up the Autoroute des Anglais to Calais. We found a very nice lunch spot and watched a deer ambling through a nearby field.
Of course we arrived early but are on an early train so will get to Black Horse in time for a relaxing evening.
Boarding.....
We are now settled on our pitch near Folkestone.
We can't help noticing that there are grey skies and that it feels cold. Welcome to Great Britain.
Tuesday 17th.
Safely on our pitch at Croix d'Arles. We travelled up the Rhone valley, as far as Lyon, avoiding the toll roads. Isn't the Rhone wide? And the Rhone valley produces some brilliant wines. We passed all my favourite wine producers....... Lidl, ASDA and Tesco but sadly no Waitrose.
We had lunch in a very attractive spot.... near Lyon. Funny how all the best stopping places are on the other side of the road.
We then joined the Peage. Well, in truth, we tried to join the Peage but didn't like the look of the ticket machine that wanted to take money off of us rather than give us a ticket - somebody ought to write a book about using the Peage. We reversed out and did a three point turn and nobody hooted us or seemed at all surprised. We went back onto the road and joined the Peage later when it had learned its lesson and gave us a ticket without any trouble. We then drove about 180 miles ( I don't work in kilometres) and it cost use €30 which seemed quite reasonable until you think about it, then you think 'why are we being charged to drive on a motorway? We should charge them when they come to England'.
So we got to our pitch at about six and now Kate is cooking sausages.
Another Peage day tomorrow all the way to Callais.
Monday 16th.
What a lovely last day to our holiday, before we start our three day journey home.
And a coypu
But NO ICE CREAM!
We had found a leaflet in Arles about a nature reserve about twelve miles away so we plotted a cycle route ( good old Google with its cycle route planner ). It took us down some farm tracks, unmade roads and a few puddles but kept us off the busy main roads.
But it was hot; yesterday had been cooler and it even rained last night when we were asleep but today it was back into the 30s.
Lovely views on the way....
And some very good birds....
And a turtle.
So tomorrow 300 plus miles to Croix d'Arles, next day 300 plus miles to Calais for evening tunnel then back home after an overnight in the place where the tunnel comes up! We may not get to block again till we are home.
Sunday 15th
We had a ride in a Mercedes Benz today! OK, it was a bus but it still....
Wonderful service. It picked us up outside the site, had a display screen to tell us which stop we were at and there were plenty of seats. I could get use to public transport if it was always like this.
We went to the amphitheatre first. It has been mucked about with a lot since the Romans left it to the nation. At one point it was full of houses and had towers for defence. Now it has a modern seating grandstand inside and is used for large events.
We did a lot of wandering through the back streets....
and found a nice 10....
and we visited the convent where Vincent Van Gogh spent some time.
And now for the the younger viewers....
We also treated ourselves to ice creams...
Kate had raspberry and I had lemon meringue, melon and Parma violet!!!!
We were nearly attacked by wild animals.....
And the trees must have been feeling cold because someone had wrapped them up with wooly jumpers....
Saturday 14th. Supplemental.
The Robertson effect. We have just checked the weather forecast for Arles for tomorrow.......
Saturday 14th.
A pleasant journey from Agay avoiding tolls but using some free motorways, yay. Some coast road and some hilly bits, called Les Alpilles, apparently, halfway between an Alp and a hill. We drove through the back of Marseille so we stocked up on drugs, very cheap. There are French flags flying everywhere, can't imagine why!
We arrived on site in time for lunch and then found our pitch, nicely marked with our name and with shade on both sides. Free wifi on our pitch too.
The kindly man on reception (who only speaks French ) told us about the buses to Arles and printed out a timetable for us, so that is the plan for tomorrow.
Friday 13th.
We've been lucky so far, fingers crossed.
We have been getting desperate to see more orchids, well, any orchids in fact. We are beginning to think they have flowered early; these seed heads would seem to conform that - I am fairly sure these are orchid not asphodel, which is also around, flowers all gone and shrivelled.
We plan to spend the afternoon with our books somewhere shady with a sea view.
A resting day. We took a walk along the coast path for a while, then Kate stayed in the woods to birdwatch while I carried on along a rocky path around the headland.
The more astute amongst you will notice the green rocks in the foreground and the red rocks on the island. Very interesting.
We had been hearing peregrines calling and I was able to get a shot of two young waiting for food.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)