Abacist
LIFE MEMBER
This trip has been delayed since June as my wife wasn't well but it gave me time to fit a load of extras to the van pretty much as listed in the signature to this post. Decided to take a leisurely drive to Spain down through France and left GB on Wednesday on the 6:50 am Chunnel crossing. No trouble at all in Calais and took to the motorway to Abbeville which is a short Peage section then free.
For the uninitiated and if you don't have Tag box I chose to pay by credit card. You won't need a pin! The machine gobbles your credit card and spits it back out in a flash. Make sure you choose your lane carefully as you might not find you have a machine to put your card into if it's a Tag only lane - usually with a 30 speed limit in a circle about the lane. I had to reverse out of one of these with hazards flashing! Luckily nobody had pulled in behind me!
Stopped at a nice aire first night between Evreux and Chartres which was free and the water and black waste was also free. One free EHU but we declined as had fully charged batteries. Town called Nonancourt which evidently we Brits razed to the ground in the 15th century - Wooops!
Next day Chartres cathedral loomed high on the flat horizon but we decided against a stop and ploughed on. The thought of fighting into town, finding parking and the hassle put us off. Anyway we had plans for a little detour later on to visit Chateau Chambord in the Loire valley, if not the greatest of France's Renaissance Chateaux. There is a car park/aire at the chateau so we took a ticket and parked up. The chateau was just a short walk away and looked magnificent even though there was some scaffolding up on one of the circular wings/towers and the grounds are being dug up to reinstate as they were in the 18th century.
You can get to the top floor so the views are great but I took my DSLR and can't download the photos until I get home. The price to get in was 11 euros each which we thought was cheap compared to minor attractions in Devon costing much more! The shock came when we decided not to stay the night which was 20 euros with just parking facilities so we decided to leave. Put the ticket in the machine which gobbled up 11 euros for under 3 hours parking which was dear enough for me to query with a member of staff who just gave me the Gallic shrug and said that's what it is!
We headed for another nice little aire about half an hour away which was the time it took to get away from all the hunting forests of Chambord. Nice spot by a little river with only 3 other vans there and free again! Village church bells woke the wife up but I slept like a log! Vernou-en-Solonge was the name of the place.
Weather forecast not good for the next day and wife declared the countryside flat and boring so we decided to take to the Peage to get to the Med coast. 7 hours on the Sat Nav to get half the remaining way down turned into 9 hours to get to Le Cap d'Adge where we have stayed before at the aire attached to Camping La Clape! 2 nights here with the morning at the market at the afternoon on the beach saw us ready to leave for Spain on Sunday morning after parting with 20 euros for our 2 nights stay.
When we started the trip we stayed at the Canterbury aire and met a couple heading for Benicasim so thought we'd give it a whirl but too far for one day so we have stopped at Camping Clara near Tarragona on the beach but the railway line is between us and the beach and there are a lot of trains. Beach access is easy and we had our first swim this afternoon and now sitting outside after dinner at 10:30pm nearly ready for bed. By the way if you arrive at Canterbury you can't pay until after midnight otherwise the machine thinks you are a park and ride customer. Pay £4 in the morning and the you are OK!
More in due course if I haven't bored the pants off you all!
For the uninitiated and if you don't have Tag box I chose to pay by credit card. You won't need a pin! The machine gobbles your credit card and spits it back out in a flash. Make sure you choose your lane carefully as you might not find you have a machine to put your card into if it's a Tag only lane - usually with a 30 speed limit in a circle about the lane. I had to reverse out of one of these with hazards flashing! Luckily nobody had pulled in behind me!
Stopped at a nice aire first night between Evreux and Chartres which was free and the water and black waste was also free. One free EHU but we declined as had fully charged batteries. Town called Nonancourt which evidently we Brits razed to the ground in the 15th century - Wooops!
Next day Chartres cathedral loomed high on the flat horizon but we decided against a stop and ploughed on. The thought of fighting into town, finding parking and the hassle put us off. Anyway we had plans for a little detour later on to visit Chateau Chambord in the Loire valley, if not the greatest of France's Renaissance Chateaux. There is a car park/aire at the chateau so we took a ticket and parked up. The chateau was just a short walk away and looked magnificent even though there was some scaffolding up on one of the circular wings/towers and the grounds are being dug up to reinstate as they were in the 18th century.
You can get to the top floor so the views are great but I took my DSLR and can't download the photos until I get home. The price to get in was 11 euros each which we thought was cheap compared to minor attractions in Devon costing much more! The shock came when we decided not to stay the night which was 20 euros with just parking facilities so we decided to leave. Put the ticket in the machine which gobbled up 11 euros for under 3 hours parking which was dear enough for me to query with a member of staff who just gave me the Gallic shrug and said that's what it is!
We headed for another nice little aire about half an hour away which was the time it took to get away from all the hunting forests of Chambord. Nice spot by a little river with only 3 other vans there and free again! Village church bells woke the wife up but I slept like a log! Vernou-en-Solonge was the name of the place.
Weather forecast not good for the next day and wife declared the countryside flat and boring so we decided to take to the Peage to get to the Med coast. 7 hours on the Sat Nav to get half the remaining way down turned into 9 hours to get to Le Cap d'Adge where we have stayed before at the aire attached to Camping La Clape! 2 nights here with the morning at the market at the afternoon on the beach saw us ready to leave for Spain on Sunday morning after parting with 20 euros for our 2 nights stay.
When we started the trip we stayed at the Canterbury aire and met a couple heading for Benicasim so thought we'd give it a whirl but too far for one day so we have stopped at Camping Clara near Tarragona on the beach but the railway line is between us and the beach and there are a lot of trains. Beach access is easy and we had our first swim this afternoon and now sitting outside after dinner at 10:30pm nearly ready for bed. By the way if you arrive at Canterbury you can't pay until after midnight otherwise the machine thinks you are a park and ride customer. Pay £4 in the morning and the you are OK!
More in due course if I haven't bored the pants off you all!