This year, it was decided that we wouldn’t stop at a campsite on the way down, but simply rest at an Aire. With that in mind, we departed on Saturday mid-day and headed for the ‘tube’, stopping at the three usual culprits on the way down.
We arrived at the tunnel and for the first time, had a little time to spare so we headed for the terminal building, just time for a toilet break before our letter was called. Before you could say ‘cheese and ham sandwiches’, we were in France, darkness looming over the horizon, we headed for the designated Aire, where we would stop for the night.
This Aire ‘de la Baie de Somme’ has a designated area where caravans can park up, toilet facilities, shops and coffee machines. Just the job! Access to the facilities is via a walkway, over a couple of lakes and past the ducks! A great stop and quite popular too. Steadies down and we rested for the night.
Early doors and we were off again, heading for the Vandee region. The route chosen would take us over the ‘Pont de Normandie’, which was quite a spectacular sight. Following this, a couple of more Aire stops, chasing the peripheriques of Caen, Rennes and Nantes and we arrived at La Garangeoire!
Following a warm welcome, we were shown to our fully serviced pitch, ‘Les Grebes’. A nice big pitch, covered a little by trees but not too much. A quick unhitch and we let the Mammut take over, quickly positioning the caravan where we wanted. Our swift and efficient set-up routine thus began followed by putting the awning up. Simples!
The weather was not good and rain pursued. We discovered that our neighbour used to live in Cramlington! You travel 900 miles and the guy next door … As it turns out, most of the campsite is British due to the popularity of the ferry port near by. Oh and also Irish, same ferry port, with a slight deviation I presume. As usual we decided to head for a take-away meal so that we didn’t have to cook anything on our first night. So off we went to the take-away, which was rather busy, where we had to wait rather a while. And the result, a soggy pizza mess! Won’t be doing that again!
Monday, weather not good. Decided to venture out to the town of moth-achard where there was a Super U, so that we could stock up on essentials for the coming week.
Tuesday, weather not good. Stayed in and read, played games.
Wednesday, weather not good. Took a trip out to the town of Les Sables D’Olonne, this was a nice town on the coast, best of the bunch I would say. Upon return we sneaked in a session of table tennis, or should I say ping-pong! Then took my chances and tried to see if I could get a satellite signal. I wasn’t holding out much hope as South facing to us were all the very tall trees .. I gave it a go however, but didn’t get the meter squeaking adequately, so gave that idea up!
Thursday, weather not good. Took in a few more towns today, namely: Bretignolles-sur-Mer, Brem-sur-Mer and Aizenay. Not really much at any of these towns to be honest, but it was a break from the site and poor weather. Managed to track down the Hyper U in Aizenay after a few detours!
Friday, weather not good. Today’s outing was to St Gilles Croix de Vie. Starting to conclude that I prefer the villages and town in the Dordogne better!
Saturday and Sunday, weather not good. Decided to stay at campsite.
Monday, weather .. good! Finally, the sun was shining! We stayed at the campsite, basked in the sun and had a BBQ! About time too!
Tuesday, weather still good! Headed for some more villages and towns: La Roche sur Yon and Challans.
Wednesday, the sun is still shining, stayed at campsite and soaked it up!
Thursday, the last day. Again made the most of the weather at the campsite. Took the awning down and cleaned it (the birds were quite kind).
Friday, time to head back up to the Aire where we would spend the night again. Noticed quite a lot of road-works this year, unusual as you don’t normally see any in France! Steadies dropped for the night and alarms set for an early start!
Saturday morning, early, still dark, forgot about the 1 hour difference in daylight terms, so headed off in the dark. Soon found a lorry on the motorway which I followed up to Calais, made the jouney a bit easier! Again got to the ‘tube’ and the departure was delayed. So we had time to visit the duty free and make the most of it! Out letter was called and once again we were heading back for England.
Back on the left, stopping at the three usual culprits again, we were soon back at the storage compound. Another France holiday in the bag. Not the best of weather, not the best area in my opinion, but we’ve had a great time. Just need to pay Stephanie’ phone bill now — ouch!
- Date: 15th June 2013
- Nights: 14
- Pitch #: Les Grebes
- GPS: 46.663647, -1.713508
