2017 Euro trip no. 2 (1 Viewer)

[cliffanger]

Well Funsters- we are off again, but I have to say it's been very uneventful up to now, unlike @Mousy s trip to The Pert Tanning Parlour!

We left on time yesterday - a miracle in itself - and got to the Chunnel in time to catch the earlier train.

We drove straight to Le Crotoy, and walked to our favourite seafood restaurant for dinner. I have to say it was a tad disappointing. The terrine St Jacques was tasteless as was the filet de poisson. I was almost wishing we'de given Montreuil 'Sur Mer' another go! But hey ho - we got talking to another British motorhoming couple, who were sitting right next to us, so the evening went well.

Then we walked back to the van, had a nightcap and then to bed - but not to sleep....,,, the van was certainly ROCKIN - I can hear the lads shouting 'woohoo'!!! But I have to disappoint - it was the windiest night I've ever spent in the van - notwithstanding the night Clifton drank 8 pints and ate a chicken Jalfrezi.... sleeping in a Hymer drop down bed you really get to experience weather conditions close at hand.

We got through the night with not much sleep and woke to torrential rain.

Moving quickly on we've covered 500kms today, preferring to drive in the rain and ending up at the Aires in Vivonne. It looks a lovely town and we are about to go for a wander as the rain has finally stopped.

Twin Lakes tomorrow, bring on The Fun!!!

I have taken photos of roundabouts while I've been a passenger but I have to say we missed some beauties whilst I was at the wheel - 'im indoors' refuses to take photos - what a sour puss he is ...,


@Jim - I'm on a 3 mifi and I can't upload any photos - help!

You'll have to imagine the usual fantastic photos I take .....

Fun to come tomorrow - @JaG we'se a cummin...

 

[cliffanger]

First mistake - should read 2017 - I obviously don't want to be another year older .....

 

[DBK]

Still not too late to change the title. Look for the "thread tools" button near the top if you edit your first post.

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[cliffanger]

Still not too late to change the title. Look for the "thread tools" button near the top if you edit your first post.

Sussed it out at the very same moment you posted John !

 

[Figaro]

I thought I`d slipped into a time warp

 

[DBK]

Sussed it out at the very same moment you posted John !

Just blame Jim.

But this Thread has started in true Funster style. Looking forward to further instalments.

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[Ali n Tim]

@cliffandger We are a bit north of you but hope to arrive at Twin Lakes tomoz

 

[cliffanger]

@cliffandger We are a bit north of you but hope to arrive at Twin Lakes tomoz

Clifton said to tell you that 'since we've arrived at Vivonne, far south of Poitiers, the sun has been cracking the pavements. We expect this heatwave to continue at Twin Lakes'. (He is on his 4th glass of whisky .....)

 

[hilldweller]

The terrine St Jacques was tasteless as was the filet de poisson.

I must say our fish fingers and Co-op french fries were superb.

She is spoiling me in my old age.

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[Just smiffy]

@cliffandger We are a bit north of you but hope to arrive at Twin Lakes tomoz

Clifton said to tell you that 'since we've arrived at Vivonne, far south of Poitiers, the sun has been cracking the pavements. We expect this heatwave to continue at Twin Lakes'. (He is on his 4th glass of whisky .....)

We are going to be there tomorrow for a couple of nights too....

 

[cliffanger]

We are going to be there tomorrow for a couple of nights too....

Can't wait to meet up - hope you've brought your dog collar, tarty outfits and fishing rod @JaG my a**e !

 

[peterc10]

When does Twin Lakes finish? We may well be down that way by the 20th. Is that too late?

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[cliffanger]

Hi All. Well we set off from Vivonne after a wander around what is a beautiful little town. Lots of open parkland and riverside walks. The church was built in the time of the Crusades, but as we wanted to push onto Twin Lakes I resisted the temptation to open the door and disappear inside for an hour!

We arrived at Twin Lakes in beautiful sunshine to a scene straight out of a George Formby song - Mr Wu's Chinese Laundry Blues! From Lynda's @canopus van, there were washing lines as far as the eye could see! Apparently they've had rain for the last fortnight and yesterday was the first time they could do a machine wash - I'm told they formed an orderly queue and Gary's washing machine was going all day!

We got to the bar in time to watch the shenanigans of the Chinese Auction where the most fought over prizes were a tiny hip flask, and a naked man with a huge corkscrew.

There was also a 'sculpt your own boyfriend' kit which was won by a young girl - I bet most of the ladies would have liked to have grabbed it, but in the true spirit of sisterhood, they allowed her to keep it, so at least her first boyfriend would be perfectly made!

No photos as Internet here is very touch and go, so you will just have to imagine the huge corkscrew!

Looking forward to the @Mousy s arrival, and chilling in the sunshine......

 

[cliffanger]

When does Twin Lakes finish? We may well be down that way by the 20th. Is that too late?

Peter, I think the 20th is the final day of the rally.

 

[Just smiffy]

Lovely blue sky's now but didn't the heavy rain early this morning wake you..? It did us, left my wheelchair outside so will now have a soggy bum for the rest of the day....

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[peterc10]

Thanks Geraldine. It looks like we may be too late. Will be forced to stay at the wine château in Blaye if I am not careful and that will cost me too much in wine!

 

[cliffanger]

Well Funsters we're at St Cyprien - and guess what? It's only raining!

We had adventure no. 1 yesterday when we took 3 attempts to find a site at Collioure. We drove past the turning twice, missing it the first time, and thinking that the narrow, stone filled lane couldn't possibly be the campsite entrance the second time. We drove down it the third time and ended up, as Adge Cutler would say 'Thee's got'n were thee cassn't back'n assn't, ow bis gonna get'n outa ther' ...



We were both well and truly stuck at the bottom of a hill at the entrance to the tiniest campsite I've ever seen.

The looks of bemusement on fellow campers faces would have given us a laugh, but looking at the faces of Martin and Cliff we stifled the giggles and put our superior maneovering skills into action - getting the vans turned around without damage and back up the steep stony gradient in double quick time.

We will be off on the bikes to Argeles today (if it stops raining .....)

 

[cliffanger]

Well Funsters we've had a lovely couple of days at Camping Cala Gogo, but are moving on to Espana and L'Escala tomorrow.

We had a buckshee trip to Collioure yesterday, as reported on by @Mousy in the good morning thread - what a bum clenching start to the day that was!

We cycled to St Cyprien today which I have to say was a tad disappointing. As usual the whole village was shut - with one cafe open.

I was, however, happy to sit down on a hard plastic chair, drinking a minuscule glass of coffee, after an hour in the saddle, riding with only one gear, following Clifton who listens to know instructions, and who follows no road signs, and rides so aggressively he is a modern day Kamikazi cyclist!

After drinking our coffee we decided to cycle back to the site and chill.

The sun was shining and we all dozed, read and chilled all afternoon. I have to say though, this site, and more particularly the @Mousy s pitch, has a view of a constant stream of single men heading in and out of the dunes all day, complete with backpacks/pink towels/Lycra shorts and furtive smiles on their faces.

We've come to accept this (but not necessarily like it) but nothing could have prepared us for what we saw this afternoon...... a fat bloke emerging from the dunes in full Gimp suit, only to stop in full view to take selfies !!!!

We thought it only right to fit Cliff out in his own Gimp Suit and send him into the dunes to find out exactly what was going on .....

He has yet to return ......

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[cliffanger]

Well Funsters what a lovely few days we've had here at Camping Aquarius. A beautiful site with a really friendly atmosphere, close to beach pitches, gorgeous weather and cheap sangria!

We cycled to L'Escala today, and had a delicious meal at a fish restaurant. Mussels for Dawn, Sardines for Martin, Calamares for Cliff and a selection of small fried fish for me - coupled with chunky chips and 'cana' - todo muy bien'. Dawn had spotted a tiny cove on the way there with sun beds and opportunities to try out her daughter Phoebes full face snorkelling mask, so we duly stopped on the way back.

Top notch sunbeds + good book + sun = one happy Ger, no need to go 'a snorkellin' The ever intrepid @Mousy s however wasted no time in assembling the gimp masks, funnel side up and went in search of the local pescatorial wildlife...,

Dawn said they were brilliant - a panoramic view of the subterranean flora ans fauna - I have yet to be convinced - I still have this memory etched on my mind ..,,,

We are spending our last day together on the beach so I will give her gimp mask a go.

As usual we've had a brilliant holiday with the @Mousy s - Dawn has posted updates - I have been terribly remiss in posting, but suffice to say - we've had a blast and hope to have many more!

She had a 'Sangria Panic Incident' today - which involved a 'Marilyn Munroe Moment' in the campsite supermarket ... she'll think twice about going to the showers 'sans undies' ever again. - I'll leave her to tell the tale ....

 

[cliffanger]

Well Funsters - first thing to say - The @Mousy s left this morning and we are REALLY missing our Bezzie Funster Mates! We've had a brilliant time with two of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.

We all returned from a lovely beachy, snorkelling afternoon yesterday to notices stuck on our windscreen - 'please visit reception' ....crikey - what have we done, we thought ..... turns out we said we were going to check out yesterday, and the problem was compounded by the fact that THEY had put our names on the vice versa pitches - but No Problemo! We did a paper exercise - switched pitch numbers - Dawn checked out and we were all sunny and very complementary - saying we'de had a Muy Bien stay and we would be back!

Fast forward to today .... choked, tearful farewell to D and M, cheered up by bacon and egg French stick and a couple of hours sunbathing on the beach.

Upon our return, our neighbour 'Hermann' came marching over and pointed very commandingly at ANOTHER message on our windscreen ... PLEASE COME TO RECEPTION!!!!! 'For Goodness Sake' (or words to that effect) says I 'We sorted this out yesterday'...

Very grumpily we walked down to reception, and were met with 'you should have left - you Coutts - but you are still ERE! ' I have to admit, expressed like that, D and M's surname could have almost been a swear word!

I explained that the lovely Coutts couple had infact checked out yesterday, after paying in full, but the problem (by reception) was that they still had the Coutts as staying on our pitch, which hadn't been vacated.

I had by then sussed that Hermann had mates coming onto our pitch tomorrow, and wanted to make sure that we had vamoozed today - which, being Muses and not Coutts - we adn't!

Enter Hermann - who had followed me down to reception - sounding off to receptionist no 2 - all was fine until I picked off the words in amongst his bluster ' Englisher, and fear, ein, fear = English person on pitch 414 - I was busy sorting what had already been sorted the day before, an admin error - which had been sorted - to hear those words - really made me cross.

If the situation had been reversed and i'de had mates booked onto a pitch the next day, I would have trusted in the management's ability to run the site without my meddling, and If concerned I would have enquired about the 'people/campers/fellow human beings on the pitch, but NEVER The Germans!!!!! I was cross, but in true Englisher passive/aggressive style I came back to the pitch and said, quite loudly 'that's that sorted / we're here till Monday - tee hee hee'!!!

In reality we did what we do best - calmed down, carried on and came back to our pitch - played Radio 2 quite loudly - 50th Anniversay - so playing the sort of music they can only dream of - although my favourite song of all time is Keeping The Dream Alive by Freiheit ..... xx

 

[Mousy]

2 weeks away with you both and you wait for us to leave before cracking out the bacon and eggs?!

Thanks for the lovely write up. I'm still not sure what pitch number I was on but it seems popular...must be that tap.

Safe travels back for you guys. We've gone via decathlon and spent a fortune on Martins retirement wardrobe...roll on next spring xx

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