Yesterday and last night, in particular, was the hottest that we have experienced so far. The temperature inside the van at 9 pm was 37 degrees and it didn’t really change much as we went through the night. We did however have a most fabulous dinner, a peach, prosciutto ham, blue cheese, and walnut salad, with anchovy and tomato bread. It was a brilliant feast and perfect for the hot night. One to remember.
Last night’s fine dining in the heat!
Temperature at 9 pm.
We did have the idea to stay another night but decided to make our way to the Alps where we hope it will be cooler. Breakfast is done and we are soon on our way. No toll roads today so we find ourselves threading through small French villages, getting some speed up on the roads that connect them all. They do have some lovely countryside here to drive through, you can find yourself being the only vehicle on the road sometimes.
After what feels like a long couple of hours we arrive at the municipal campsite in Condes. It’s basic, friendly, and cheap, but the best part is that we manage to get a spot right on the Lac de Coiselet. What a view. A vast lake before us with an imposing mounting range on the other side. It’s hot. Not as hot as yesterday, but hot all the same.
Today’s view
We take a short walk but the heat is getting the better of us. Back at the van we set up and Hayley gets all her books, guides, and phone out and she starts to plot our next week into the French Alps. We have a good breeze blowing through the van so hopefully tonight we’ll get some sleep?
It is a truly beautiful day today, just the very best you could have. We have woken up in our new spot further along the river and the sun is just coming over the trees on the hill, the river is sparkling, and already it’s warm.
It’s going to be a hot day today so they say, already at 8 in the morning the temperature is in the mid to high 20s. Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon with a side of avocado and black coffee to start the day. It will be a long day today which is ok, we have almost taken root here after 4 days but it has been worth it. Today we are moving on. This time it’s for real.
A quick van service and a shop at the local supermarket and we are on our way, while we are waiting for the freshwater tank to fill up, Hayley catches this little fellow up to his knees in pollen.
Hard at work for a Sunday
It’s hot today, 34 degrees for the most part as we take a toll motorway to Seurre which is three hours from the Swiss border. We stay in a very pleasant site close to the river Saone. It’s hot, even in the shade, we get a breeze blowing through but it’s just hot air. Getting to the French Alps will be a welcome break from this heat.
Today we are on the move again, but only just, all 100 feet. Last night we took the decision to stay here in Vouecourt just one more night but this time to a different spot, closer to the river next to a small rocky weir and a little shadier.
All day shade for Jess. For a change
We are up at our usual time just in time for the bread man to arrive with fresh croissants for breakfast, pack up our stuff and move the 100 feet along the river bank to our new place. It’s lovely, under a nice big shady tree and with a new view.
Nothing happening today. We will just sit in the shade and watch the river go by.
We are watching the virus developments closely, we had a plan to do an overnighter in a day or two in Switzerland but the area we wanted to go to is a “red” area so we are staying away, unless of course it changes.
Del gets stung by a nasty wasp. There are a lot of them about this year, so much so the news has made the headlines here in France.
Special measures in sting prevention
This wasp thought it might be a wheeze to fly up the front of his t-shirt and sting him on the belly.
A fantastic dinner tonight right on the river. The wasps tend to disappear by 8pm so we are left in peace as the sun sets at the end of another smashing day.
Last dinner in Vouecourt
Tomorrow we are definitely on the move with two short days to go before arriving at the French Alps, probably around Annecy.
We had a good night’s sleep in the carpark at Lac d’Orient. Our plan is to stay for a few nights at a place that we visited two years ago, the first time we took our new van out. Today we are going to Vouecourt. It’s an idyllic place. The campsite is super cheap with free laundry and it’s right on the river Marne which runs approximately from the Champagne region to Langres way down in the south-east of France.
Vouecourt is a very idyllic location, a small town on the river. The campsite, and our pitch, is just stunning. If you want to get away from everything and reach a level of calm tranquility then this is the place to come. The small village is made up of a church which, when the sun is in the right direction, the stain glass windows in the church are amazing, the village has a small bridge over the river. An excellent place for cycling along the canal, which runs parallel to the Marne and for walks up into the forest. Once here you don’t want to leave. So we plan to stay here for three nights while we plan our next few weeks.
The 5th – Arrival day. It’s warm and sunny, we are lucky and we get the same exact spot as we did two years ago right by the river. We did plan for a bike ride today but instead we elect to stay put and relax by the river and admire the wonderful view that we have here.
The 6th – First full day. A relaxed morning. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. We like breakfast on the van. It goes on forever, coffee followed by more coffee and just chatting away until we realise that a couple of hours has gone by.
Today we will take a bike ride. While we are getting ready an English lady on a bike stops to say “hello”. Her name is Vicky and she lives here in Vouecourt and has done so with her husband John for over 27 years. We chat for about half an hour, she is a fantastic font of information about the local area. She kindly offers us to join them at their house tonight for drinks a a bite to eat which we gladly accept.
Finally, we set off on our bikes, no great distance will be covered, 12 miles we think. The bike riding here is exceptional and the scenery equally exceptional. We cycle to the town of Bologne. We almost end up having lunch but quickly change our minds, good job to as the return cycle back to base is for some reason harder so with a three-course lunch in us… well…
The rest of the afteroon is spent at the van chatting and reading in the warm afteroon sun. Laundry day today.
At 6 o’clock we take the short walk to visit John and Vicky who have a stunning house that they built themselves. They make us very welcome in their home and we spend the evening together along with their two collies Pip, Stella, and Rosie the cat. A smashing evening was had, Vicky had put on a fantastic spread, her homemade guacamole was to die for, and as for John’s homemade bread…, well that was amazing. Just before 11 we leave our kind hosts and the 4 bottles of empty wine on the floor and arrange to meet again tomorrow.
The 7th – Our last day. A shorter breakfast today, the drink the night before has a slight effect on us this morning. Today we will cycle in the opposite direction along the canal to the next town along, Froncles. Much shorter than yesterday, 8 miles, two hours in total which included a stop for coffee and a Pepsi. Back at the van, we spend the remaining afternoon again soaking up the sun and tranquility. Vicky drops by to say hello and arrange the time for tonight’s outing to “Tip Top” a local popular eatery in a nearby parking area, yes parking area, a bit like a UK layby. Very very popular and we tasted why. Excellent if a little unusual.
Another splendid night in good company. Many thanks to Vicky and John for their kind hospitality, we wish them both the very best and to see them again in the not too distant future.
We have been out for just over a week now and we have had almost perfect weather. We are under our budget, still, we have stayed in cheap but nice places and we started with a good stock of food and drink, expertly managed by Hayley. We have kept an ear and eye open for the latest news about the virus and we have noted that the number of infections is continuing to rise and countries are continuing to quarantine each other.
Our original plan was to make for the south coast of France after the Alps but the numbers have been rising quickly on the French coast as everyone is on the move to go there for their annual holidays, with this in mind we have decided to avoid the south coast of France and instead go back north after the Alps following the Swiss border back into the Black Forest of Germany, depending of course if Germany allows people traveling from France. The way it’s going we could end up just staying here in France. Oh dear. Could be worse.
Hayley has found us a nice lake southeast of Paris, some way southeast of Paris. There are a couple of camping areas in the vicinity so we are sure that we will find a suitable parking place.
We set off following Google maps which takes us through the Champagne region which, at this time of year, looks absolutely stunning. We stop to take a few snaps along the way.
However, we do get a little lost as we are jumping between Google maps and the van’s built-in GPS which takes us down a very long and untreated road.
We are lost…
After an extended drive, we finally pop out where we should be only to end up at a closed road, and a diversion is in place. Now what?
We are not far from a Champagne producer that we stayed at two years ago on our first van trip to a small town called Montmirail. The Champion Champagne house is a small independent producer who produces fine Champagne so how fortuitous that the diversion should take us there.
One of our “favourite” Champagnes
We set off, destination Champion Champagne and we drive through a beautiful town called Orbais l’Abbaye that has, yes, an abbey.
Your typical French town
A very tight squeeze at the top of this road!
The small town is stunning and while trying to find a place to park we end up in some very narrow back streets threading between parked cars with only mm to spare, but with Hayley, at the wheel and me watching out we get through, park up and make our way to a delightful restaurant that is putting on the usual menu of the day.
This is the first restaurant that we have been out to since early March, but it has all been done right with enough space between tables, a designated entrance, and exit to the restaurant. We have a fantastic three-course lunch with drinks and coffee for £30.00 for the two of us. What a lovely place with such lovely people.
A quick walk around the small town and the abbey, which is need of some upkeep, and back to Jess and on to the Champion Champagne house.
Nothing has changed here. Last time, two years ago, we stayed the night right behind the house overlooking the vineyards. Today it looks amazing in the sun as we pick up a six-bottle case of their latest and head off, finally to the Lac d’Orient.
After roughly 182km and a few stops, we arrive at Lac d’Orient. It’s a rather unusual place. Imagine a Tescos car park if you will. Well, it was a bit like that. A huge expanse of tarmac painted out to allow up to what must be 50 – 60 campervans to park up for the night free of charge! You can also empty your greywater and for a couple of euros, you can have 100lts of freshwater. Not bad.
Whilst the surroundings are not would you would call “ideal” it does however have a hidden gem, the town itself, and the wonderful lakeside beaches which are about a two-minute walk. There is a good-sized marina as well with a large fancy restaurant.
Lac d’Orient
We take a walk to the beach to see how our European friends are dealing with social distancing. People are wearing masks when ordering at bars and cafes, there is sanitizer also available. People are well spaced out on the beach, it still looks packed while a couple of local Bobbies patrol the area looking for any infraction of the rules.
On the beach! (there’s a song about that)
A short walk and we settle on a nice little bar for our first cold beer of the season since lockdown.
First real outing to a public bar
It goes down a treat. A short walk, further along, brings us to a beach bar with deck chairs and tables made from pallets. (You can get away with anything now and call it “trendy”).
Cheers!
It’s a long time to the sunset so we thought we would hang out here for a while and soak up the late afternoon sun with a bottle of ice-cold rose wine and a small platter of food to help it along.
Waiting for the sunset
It’s a beautiful evening as we watch the sun start to set and the beach slowly empty.
We would be better off placing ourselves somewhere else for the full sunset so we take the 15-minute walk back to the marina and watch the sun disappear while a family and their mad dog frolic in the water. Magic.
It’s a big country is France. We are on our way to the French Alps way down in the south-east corner near Switzerland and we are still only just somewhere up north. Time to leave the Somme Valley and make some progress. The weather has taken a slight turn, cloudier, cooler with the odd heavy shower.
We set off from Cappy around 11 am after doing a full service on the van and off we go. Today we are setting up on the side of a canal which runs alongside the river Aisne. The site is a simple but charming place with lots of space. We are really just using this place to make some kind of progress through the country.
Nothing much here, we go for a walk into the small town and pick up some fruit and head back for a large batch of Hayley’s homemade Quesadillas. Ace.
Always a winner…
The evening is cool and the sky is full of heavy black clouds that, for now, don’t really do much. Apparently it’s a blisteringly hot back home. Oh well, tomorrow promises to be a return to the hot weather…
Our next stop is probably somewhere around the Troyes area which is still northern France, southeast of Paris or 2 inches depending on which map you are looking at.
It’s so nice here, so peaceful, green, and calming we thought we would stay another night in the Somme Valley. We don’t remember anything about falling asleep, it was so quiet.
Breakfast is outside. So far we have managed almost every meal outside. How long will that novelty last? It’s busy at the campsite today. People are moving on and more are coming in. All from different countries, Germany, Holland, and Luxembourg. Here we are in the Somme Valley, France where so many hundreds of young men died defending or trying to keep hold of a couple of feet of land, and now here we are all are mixed up together and just “getting along“.
Have a look here for more details about the Battle of the Somme. Very sobering. We are currently next to Bray, almost right in the middle of the map.
We have decided to stay here another day. There is an excellent railway museum here which takes you on a 7km steam engine ride, one of the routes used in WW1 to get armaments to the front so we thought it might be worth a look, especially as the weather is so good. To get there it’s a lovely bike ride along the canal.
Our route planner!
Hayley uses some time after breakfast to look ahead at our route and where we are going to stay. She is very good at this and has found us some excellent stays not only on this trip but on past trips out. She takes her time making sure that we get to see the best places, a good overnight stop with facilities should we need them.
The banks of the Somme
We use some of the remaining morning to try and get to the river that runs along the back of the site here in Cappy but it’s not very easy. The banks of the river are heavily tree-lined and where there is a gap it has been turned into private boat launches for fishing.
It’s a lovely warm afternoon, the cycle ride to the museum was fabulous. We arrive in good time having booked the tickets online, we don our masks and go in. It’s fantastic. We will check the museum out after the train trip.
We find a small steam engine that will pull half a dozen carriages for the 7km run that takes in a 200m tunnel and an interesting zig-zag arrangement to get us up the hill which must have been very time consuming back in the day.
Back at the museum, we spend an hour having a good look around. It is a popular place and starting to fill up with quite a line now back up at the door. Have look here at the museum and if you are in the area it is well worth the time, train lover or not! Everyone is well behaved and doing the right thing, wearing a mask, and keeping a distance. The way it will be from now on!
We had a bit of drama going back to the camp. A couple of lads ahead of us on rather large powerful Segways were out enjoying the weather when one of them lost control and ended up in the canal. It could have been very nasty. With the help of some rope, we managed to drag a rather sodden and shaken french lad out of the water while recovering his waterlogged and expensive Segway. Oh dear.
Today we are making for the Somme Valley and to a small town called Cappy. There is a small site there where you can set yourself up for just 11 euros. It’s quiet and private, right in the Somme Valley. It’s just over a 1-hour drive from Maisnil Les Ruitz to Cappy. After we pay out 11 euros we can choose our own spot. We get settled in. Once again it’s a warm bright sunny day. We sit and soak up the sun chatting about everything and anything before setting off for a short bike ride into Cappy, along the canal to a small railway museum which is near closing time. It’s an interesting place. Back in the day, the British and French armies used this small gauge railway line to move armaments to the battlefield which is but a stone’s throw away. We should probably stay and have a closer look.
Cappy Station. Probably the smallest station in the world?
The next stop is Cappy town or village. Like most of the towns and villages in France Cappy is a delight to walk (or cycle) around. The town hall or “Marie” is charming. It doesn’t take long to cycle around and we exit for a short bike ride down the canal which has a small marina. It’s a lovely day and people are out and about lying in the sun, picnicking, just doing the stuff you do on a hot summer day.
Cappy by the river (with a canal on the other side)
Does anyone know why the French build a canal next to a river?
Enough of this. Back to the van for a fantastic dinner in the setting sun. Tonight it’s paella. Hayley, who is from Stockport, does the best Spanish paella which goes well with a white wine spritzer.
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