Two hours from Calais and beyond - First timers abroad (in MH).

daveclare

daveclare

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Florium Wincester
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Europe & USA since April '21
Hi All,
After the first couple of nights in La Mailleraye sur Seine, we spent a couple of nights in Montjean sur Loire. We've now arrived in Tours for a couple of days, to give carglass a chance to catch up and fix the front quarterlight.

Thanks again to all who replied with regard to where to stay and contacting autoglass.

We intend to make our way across to Croatia via Lake Annecy, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. Obviously we're mindful of the closing of some sites towards the end of September, so will take that in mind planning stops.

If anyone thinks that we should take in some unmissable sights, or stopovers, along the way, please feel free to chip in with suggestions. We've already met some great folks along the way.

Cheers!
Clare and Dave.
16309437295901271813661.jpg
 
Slovenia - Lipica for the Lippzanner horses; Postojna caves
Nice site on Slovenia/Croatia border (literally) - Parking Benetic €20 inc EHU. Tare care with the homemade cherry brandy!

Croatia - country parks at PlitVicky and Krk. Site between the two - Camping Bear, Rakovica
 
Looking forward to checking them out thanks.

Now reached Lake Annecy after stops in Tours and Claremont Ferrand.

20210911_085159.jpg

100 metres from the lake isn't too bad.

Some school of life lessons:
1. Claremont Ferrand CF aire is within walking distance of Police raids in the ghetto.
2. When buying milk from the Local arabic supermarket in such area. Just because it has a cow on the bottle, it doesn't necessarily mean it's got milk inside.
3. Really thick yogurt from a bottle does not mix well with tea.
4. Learning fluent French for " I worked 40 years to get this" helps when replying to verbal abuse from locals in CF.
5. Small towns and villages are much nicer to visit than main cities.
6. Even 1200km from home you can still pitch up next to a fellow scouser!
 
Having spent 5 days at Annecy at a site we will definitely return to, a check of the weather showed some heavy rain for a few days. We decided to head for Embrun. Sat nav programed and we left making a steady pace. Early school of life lesson time:

Always check the sat nav when your route could run close to another country.

Along the route we picked up signs for the Frejus tunnel. The distance matched our turn off, so I assumed we'd turn off just before. What's that old saying about ' never assume........' Well Mr Ass here, drove Elsie the MH right up to the front door of the tunnel!

We did check before leaving as we'd eventually go to Italy, after doing a bit more France. We also read about needing a locator form for Italy. So I thought we'd print one out once we'd decided to ţurn that way. So with no locator forms filled in, we thought what's the worst that could happen:
A fine
A U turn costing another 60 odd euros

Fingers crossed we approached the booth, trundled past the border police and.....

Hey presto, we were in Italy. No covid vaccine questions, no checks, not even a sideways glance.

Now settled for the night just outside Turin. Had a ride in on the Vespa and was pleasantly surprised by how nice the old town was.
 
As you are likely to go past it from where you are to Croatia. This is a bit of a left field stop other side of Venice.
80 + sundials of all forms all round the town.
Statues of them paintings of them etc.
Worth getting a map to look around. You can park near the police station.
www.wanderingitaly.com

Sundial City: Aiello del Friuli

Sundials come in many versions and have several purposes. Find out all about them in Aiello del Friuli.
www.wanderingitaly.com www.wanderingitaly.com
Screenshot_2021-09-16-05-57-49-64.jpg

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Many thanks. However......we decided on a detour first to Ventamiglia. School of life time, quite a big one tonight:

Just because an ACSI site has 5 star reviews, check it out on Google maps first.

If the guy showing you around looks like an extra from the Italian version of Deliverence.......RUN AWAY!

When he says he has a small pitch, understand small means Smart Car small.

When you find an alternative site you REALLY, REALLY need to check it out on Google maps.

14 hairpins on a 3m wide road do not do ones nerves much good.

When you finally get to the top of 14 hairpins, a 2.4m wide motorhome cannot get through a 2.35m wide access gate.

Going back down 14 hairpins on a 3m wide road really doesn't do ones nerves any good at all.

Whoever said bad luck comes in threes, was spot on.

Just because it says municipal camping car park, it doesn't mean a 7.5m motorhome can get up the six 3m wide hairpin road.

Don't forget to switch the traction control on when going up many hairpined roads, especially when fully loaded with 200 litres of water.

Grimbergen Kriek tastes so much better after a hard days graft behind the wheel of a much travelled (up and down many hairpins) MH.

So after all of the above, we found a very nice new looking aire in Monta roux.
 
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Forgot to add. When the guy from Deliverence said he only wanted €28 for the pitch, he wasn't joking. Seriously it was just wide enough to open the door.

Arrivederci matey!
 
daveclare said:
Having spent 5 days at Annecy at a site we will definitely return to, a check of the weather showed some heavy rain for a few days. We decided to head for Embrun. Sat nav programed and we left making a steady pace. Early school of life lesson time:

Always check the sat nav when your route could run close to another country.

Along the route we picked up signs for the Frejus tunnel. The distance matched our turn off, so I assumed we'd turn off just before. What's that old saying about ' never assume........' Well Mr Ass here, drove Elsie the MH right up to the front door of the tunnel!

We did check before leaving as we'd eventually go to Italy, after doing a bit more France. We also read about needing a locator form for Italy. So I thought we'd print one out once we'd decided to ţurn that way. So with no locator forms filled in, we thought what's the worst that could happen:
A fine
A U turn costing another 60 odd euros

Fingers crossed we approached the booth, trundled past the border police and.....

Hey presto, we were in Italy. No covid vaccine questions, no checks, not even a sideways glance.

Now settled for the night just outside Turin. Had a ride in on the Vespa and was pleasantly surprised by how nice the old town was.
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Site details at Annecy please? We may be heading that way the week after next. (y)
 
Le Lac Bleu in Doussard. Pitches on lake are very nice, has its own private beach. May be prudent to book as very busy at weekends. Getting around it quite tight if you're over 8m.

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Forgot to add really nice restaurant 150 metres from site called Dans Ma Cuisine. Decking over lake.
 
Having spent some time at Montaureux, we decided to head off in a completely different direction and are now in an empty'ish aire in the small village of St. Pierre, not far from Verdon. Getting the hang of this making no plans and wandering anywhere we like. May not even go to Croatia now and might head to Spain eventually......or not.
 
daveclare
If I may..... It is not claremont ferrant as in Clare... But..Clermont Ferrant.. I'm just thinking of the Funsters who are trying to find this town on the map...😁
And I'm wondering now about the other towns...sorry...but I don't know all French towns! May be you should check? 😂

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20210921_175931.jpg

Photo of where we are in St. Pierre. Nice little aire. Still learning about turning off water heater before plugging in kettle with only 6amps supply.

Good job the access flap to the reset button isn't locked. Must've known we were coming.

With data run out, managed to get 'Free' French network sim with massive data for €29.99

Must remember to cancel before we leave for Spain.
 
Switzerland
Stick RIGIDLY to the speed limit. Police have zero tolerance to any excess speed as I found out with a £210 on spot fine.
Speed limits can fluctuate entering-going through-exiting villages (3 different limits within a village boundary) and I got caught out as didn’t see the sign of the speed change. Even my satnav didn’t change.
we stayed at Lucern International Camping.
Austria
Innsbruck- nice site overlooking airport called Kranebitterhof. Got taxi to centre.
Would like to visit Salzburg next time.
Have a great time
 
A bit mixed up with this thread , don't know if you have been to ventimiglia or not yet, but if you are still going I can point you to an excellent campsite, where they will shuttle you to the market on Friday or Menton the other way.

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chaser said:
A bit mixed up with this thread , don't know if you have been to ventimiglia or not yet, but if you are still going I can point you to an excellent campsite, where they will shuttle you to the market on Friday or Menton the other way.
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Camping por la mar , I think it's called
 
That was the site with the smart car sized pitch. Not our thing that site. They wanted €28 euros for the pitch. Mind you on a hilly coastline, space is tight. Couldn't find anywhere in Menton, which was a lovely town.
 
daveclare said:
That was the site with the smart car sized pitch. Not our thing that site. They wanted €28 euros for the pitch. Mind you on a hilly coastline, space is tight. Couldn't find anywhere in Menton, which was a lovely town.
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Not arguing mate, but are you sure it's the same one , we have been three times now, always had plenty room, a lot are even hedged in, excellent facilities, nice helpful staff, short walk to a restaurant on the beach, we don't usually do campsites but love this one.
 
chaser said:
Not arguing mate, but are you sure it's the same one , we have been three times now, always had plenty room, a lot are even hedged in, excellent facilities, nice helpful staff, short walk to a restaurant on the beach, we don't usually do campsites but love this one.
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A tap and electric point to every plot.
 
daveclare said:
That was the site with the smart car sized pitch. Not our thing that site. They wanted €28 euros for the pitch. Mind you on a hilly coastline, space is tight. Couldn't find anywhere in Menton, which was a lovely town.
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Just looked back at your post, can't really follow it, only ever seen one bloke and he was small, it's mostly run by nice Italian girls who speak perfect English.

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This is the Google review of the place

Camping Por La Mar

Corso Nizza, 107, 18039 Ventimiglia IM, Italy
+39 0184 229626 Broken Link Removed
 
Just checked, because I don't want to mislead anyone and thanks for raising it because I was starting to doubt myself. But yes we went into the site down the hill with the reception in a wooden chalet at the fork of the lane and was directed to a pitch not far from the entrance gate, down the hill and to the right, just through a wide gate. On the top right pitch, looking from the gate to the left was the services area with a wooden fence each side. To our right was a small wooden chalet with an old Italian couple in it. With a toyota parked outside.

We didn't go anywhere else on the site because as the MH wouldn't fit, we left. The chap did offer to knock three euros off. But I suppose I should rephrase what I said. He said we had a choice of two places one next to an large gate, which probably would've blocked access to others coming or going and the pitch above.

Not seeing the rest of the site, what we saw at the very top and what we were offered was not right for us. It may indeed be right for others and there may well be other nice pitches on the rest of the site, but I can't comment on what I didn't see.
 
daveclare said:
Just checked, because I don't want to mislead anyone and thanks for raising it because I was starting to doubt myself. But yes we went into the site down the hill with the reception in a wooden chalet at the fork of the lane and was directed to a pitch not far from the entrance gate, down the hill and to the right, just through a wide gate. On the top right pitch, looking from the gate to the left was the services area with a wooden fence each side. To our right was a small wooden chalet with an old Italian couple in it. With a toyota parked outside.

We didn't go anywhere else on the site because as the MH wouldn't fit, we left. The chap did offer to knock three euros off. But I suppose I should rephrase what I said. He said we had a choice of two places one next to an large gate, which probably would've blocked access to others coming or going and the pitch above.

Not seeing the rest of the site, what we saw at the very top and what we were offered was not right for us. It may indeed be right for others and there may well be other nice pitches on the rest of the site, but I can't comment on what I didn't see.
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Ok mate, fair does, just shows how two reviews can be so different, I suppose you have a large van which makes a difference in where you can fit, we can go in anywhere and lower down it does open up, but must have been full.
 
Yeah sometimes I wish we had a 'switch to reduce'. Would make things easier, but I'm not complaining, best thing we ever did.
 
Mind you, your stayed three times and liked it, trumps our half hour experience!

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