WEEK 5: Fegreac, France to Ellewoutsdijk, Netherlands – 550 miles
Saturday 20th April 2019 Fegreac to Vitre. 75 miles
It’s a beautiful morning by the river. We are so pleased that we moved away from St. Nazaire, an interesting place but we do like being in the countryside, next to a river or canal. It’s a warm morning so we have a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs and salmon listening to the birdsong. Before we leave we have a short walk. It’s nice here.
Today we are going to a municipal campsite in Vitre north east of where we are now, it’s a good hour and a bit so we get going. We are looking forward to a bit of a bike ride but when we arrive at the site it is 30 degrees, hot and humid. We can’t be bothered It’s too hot for messing about on bikes so we stay in the shade of our tree that we are parked under.
By late afternoon it’s cooled off enough for us to get on our bikes and head off into the town. It’s a lovely place, with lots of old wooden buildings and churches. Very clean, tidy and old! We like it but we are getting hungry.
We get the bikes off the back of Jess and cycle into the town. It’s a lot cooler, nice in fact. We find a nice little dark wood-panelled old restaurant called Auberge de St. Louis and have quite a feed of traditional French fare.
Frogs legs, duck a l’ orange, fillet of beef and escargot. For dessert, chocolate fondant and creme brûlée, all quite delicious. Apparently we eat quick, according to the maitre d’. We even make it back to the van before dark.
There is an owl outside hooting tonight.
Sunday 21st April 2019 Vitre to Arromanches-les-Bains. 108 miles
So far, almost every night we have had to have a little bit of heating on as there is a bit of a chill in the night, however, last night was the first night that we had no heating on!
It’s a nice sunny morning this morning. After breakfast, we set off to find some fuel for Jess and food supplies for us. Today we are doing a good two-hour drive to the coast to Arromanches-les-Bains to have a look at Mulberry Harbour, amongst other things. The Mulberry Harbour is actually the remaining bits of a temporary harbour built by the allies in its fight against the advancing Germans. There is a lot of interesting stuff along this stretch of coast and sadly we don’t have the time to see it all, but we have every intention of having a good look around with the time that we have and then trying again in the future on another Jess trip.
We arrive at the aire and park up at a windy cliff edge. It’s sunny but breezy and we have a good view of the harbour pieces, some of them are even on the beaches.
The beach is massive and stretches out for miles on a low tide but also goes for many miles along the coast. We walk into town but as it’s easter and it’s packed. There is a museum here that we thought we would have a look in. It was really good and interesting but you could hardly move. Such a shame.
After a bit more walking around the town we head back to the van and have a beer in the cab and look at the remaining bits of Mulberry Harbour. Later we watch a documentary on the subject with the real thing just outside. It’s quite a story. Pizza tonight. Ace.
Monday 22nd April 2019 Arromanches-les-Bains to Saint Vigor le Grand. 6 miles
A nice clear morning this morning, but the clouds are gathering. Today we are going to go to Omaha Beach, just up the road but first, we will go to the American cemetery. It’s a short drive and we are soon parked up and walking to the cemetery, There are over 9000 graves here of men, many as young as 17 who gave their lives on the beach that the cemetery overlooks, Omaha Beach. It’s a beautifully manicured place, peaceful and tranquil. All these men buried here, it makes us think about the folly of humans.
Another short drive and we are at Omaha beach. The tide’s in and we are able to stand on the last bit of sand before the waves cover the whole thing. Omaha Beach is where thousands of lives were lost as soon as they stepped off the boats that brought men from larger boats out at sea. It was one of 5 beaches used in operation Overlord on the 6th June 1944 to fight the Germans and push them back from the Normandy coast. If you haven’t seen it, the check out this opening scene from the film Saving Private Ryan. Terrifying.
After a sobering day, we head back into the countryside to an aire for the night.
It’s a lovely place with a few hens pecking about and geese that chase after Del every time they see him. The town of Bayeux is nearby so we get on our bikes and cycle into the town which is the home of the famous Bayeux Tapestry. After a quick look around the town we go in and look at the “the rag“.
Wow! It was brilliant. It’s one of those things that you hear about at school and through your life, so we have to see what its all about. For 13 euros you get an audio guide that talks you through the whole thing as you walk along looking at this amazing 950 year old artifact. A brilliant story, commentary and music all well worth the visit. So glad we did it. We played medieval music during dinner just for fun.
Del’s rear bike tyre blew up today in the heat…
Tuesday 23rd April 2019 Saint Vigor le Grand to Saint Saire. 153 miles
Another change in the weather. It’s grey this morning as we set off, realising that we have left the water adaptor behind after a service that took ages. We are on the hunt now for a hardware or gardening shop to buy a hosepipe adapter.
Today we are going to a cheese producer in the town of Liverot. From here we will drive northeast all the way up toward Belgium and Holland.
Once we get parked up at Liverot we are greeted by a very professional and slick tour of the factory. You get to see the whole process of how some of the world’s famous cheeses are made.
Of course, there is a shop and of course, we buy some. We get a Liverot (nicknamed the ‘colonel’ due to its wrapping of five raffia strips), naturally. A Camembert, and a ‘Petit’ Brie‘, which is huge, nothing petit about it.
We now have to do longish drive, just under 2 hours to a chicken farm where we will be staying the night in the town of Saint Saire. We are greeted, as usual, by a very friendly lady who shows us to our pitch. It’s very nice here, but for a chicken farm there is a distinct lack of them. In her best French Hayley asks “where are all the chickens“. The nice lady tells us where and soon we are surrounded by hens, cockerels, guinea foul and just for good avian measure we hear a peacock! We buy some cider and eggs from the nice lady and settle in to a game of Pétanque. There is a place just for it next to our van.
Pasta for tea and a little bit of… Cheese…
Wednesday 24th April 2019 Saint Saire to Maisnil-lès-Ruitz. 91 miles
One day it’s bright and sunny, the next cold and grey. Today… It’s sunny. Breakfast with the door open so we can hear the hens. Once cleaned up we are on our way and onto the usual collection of motorways, roads various from good wide single carriageways to narrow bumpy roads. They’ve got all sorts here. Jess gets a wash en route. We are going to an aire in a park called Maisnil-lès-Ruitz. There is plenty to do there, bike riding in the nearby woods and forests, there is also a huge public area of tree walking nets, the biggest in the world by all accounts, good walks, oh and there is one of those toboggan things on rails, not bad, but not as good as the one in Germany. Should be a good stay.
Once we arrive at our foresty aire, we get a good spot in the shade. There are a few other vans here but it’s no where near busy. It’s good. Just how we like it, one or two vans to keep us company. Safety in numbers you could say.
We decide to do one of the easy bike routes, only 6km. It was a tough. Lots of deep dried out mud that left huge rutts in the track, swarms of insect that needed to be constantly batted out of the way, up hill and down hill. By the time we are back at the van we are worn out, but satisfied with our endeavours. It was quite good really, we enjoyed it. Del has a go at sorting our Hayley’s cheapo bike. The brakes squeak, the gears are clunky. It was only a 100 quid after all! He manages a slight improvement but really Hayley needs a new, decent bike.
Thursday 25th April 2019 Maisnil-lès-Ruitz, France to Ellewoutsdijk, Netherlands. 121 miles
Guess what…? It rained all night last night and this morning it’s cold and rainy. Hayley had plans to try out the tree net, but thats off now. We have some breakfast and cut our loses, pick-up and clean up and set off for Holland via Belgium. We think.
Goodbye, France. We love you. We really like France it’s a lovely place, the food, the drink, the views, the history and the people, but today we are moving on and to another country, Holland or The Netherlands or The Low Countries! Maybe some better stable weather too?
It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive today. Simple, but we got lost in Ghent somehow, still don’t know how but finally we get into Holland and into a 6.5km long tunnel, we pop out the other side onto a peninsular which is where our campsite stop will be tonight.
Holland is very different. It’s flat of course, very clean, new and tidy. Nice. It’s good this van thing, you really get to see how different countries are. It is fascinating.
Once parked up in the corner of a damp field the heavens open up and it rains heavy for hours. It’s miserable. We take our chance and go for a walk up on the dyke. Yes our campsite is below sea level. Gulp! It’s a massive expanse of grey water with an oil refinery on the other side. It’s a bit bleak at the moment, when the sun is out it’s probably very nice… Not today!
Friday 26th April 2019 Ellewoutsdijk to Voorhout 103 miles
This morning it’s a lot brighter, but rain is forecast. Again. After the usual stuff in the morning, Hayley plots a course to Voorhout. Today we are going to see some tulips and go to the Keukenhof.
It’s been on our list of places to see and today we are going there. The drive is interesting, we drive across a huge long dam, up through Rotterdam and the Hague. The first campsite we come to is full, so we about face and head off for our second choice, a cattle farm. She can choose them Hayley! We are welcomed in and given our pitch, right opposite the cow shed. We like it really, we can sit in the cab and watch them in the rain, but we also get the chance to go over and say ‘hello‘ to them. They are sweet.
It’s a 7km bike ride to the Keukenhof and the weather is fair, so we prep the bikes, and ourselves for rain and set off. They like a bike here. It good for cycling. It’s flat and smooth, all marked out and safe. Here they respect cyclists, it’s not quite the same back home yet. We pass a few tulip fields but they all seem a bit bare, not as many colourful strips of flowers as we hoped. Maybe we are too early.
10 minutes later we arrive at the Keukenhof. It’s a huge place and it’s very very busy. Once inside everyone is spread out so its not to bad. It’s beautiful here though. We didn’t realise that there are so many shapes and sizes of tulip and so many colours. It’s all well maintained and lovely to walk around, made all the better with the weather which has now settled down to broken sunshine.
There is a small petting zoo here that we take advantage of, once we have pushed all the kids out of the way of course.
A very nice place and very nice cycle back.
back at Jess the weather has improved further so we sit outside with a cold beer. Tonight dinner is burgers. Veggie burgers. Well has to be with this lot around looking at us.
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