The Best of the West in France - Part 1 (North)

Tour de Force Planning!

The plan was to exploit the fact that we were in the West Country and use a calmer crossing to France and then visit some places that we didn't know or where we have not been for many years. It has been been a great success!
First we crossed with Brittany Ferries from Poole to Cherbourg. After eleven years of Dover to/from Dunkerque or Calais the whole experience was like a breath of fresh air! Civilised procedures and manners - even from Border Force - space on the car deck, space in public areas, well-managed groups.. ! Just a bit of queasiness mid-voyage (four and a quarter hours in total) and some arrogant, loud and aged Rotarians in the cafeteria! Good stuff - Greyrocks will do this one again!

Our first stop was just half an hour away from Cherbourg in Quettehou - a small town down the Cotentin coast from Saint Vaast la Hogue. We had three nights in a mobile home on a mid-sized campsite. It was very busy for two of them as it was one of those many Bank Holiday weekends in May in France, and unfortunately the weather was poor:- largely dry, but without sun and very cold, and not pleasant for cycling, so we made more trips by car than we had hoped.

We visited St Vaast for its Saturday market and twice to eat (we had been there before - once as a couple with folding bikes, and once with a very young Chloë), and we also revisited Utah Beach and Sainte-Mère-Eglise, where there is a new large museum. This engaged us for an age - and kept us warm!
Whilst in the area we consumed several dishes of mussels and oysters - both local specialities - and survived!

LU - remains of the biscuit factory

Then we had our two-day city break in Nantes:- Greyrocks' first visit. Once again we had a map for getting to the hotel, but it was not up to the job and we ended up in a residential area without a clue! A nice passer-by not only put us right, but arranged for a white van to lead us there! This set the tone for our stay:- nice place, nice people! It is now running a close second to Montpellier as favourite French city!
 We used a Campanile located on a Busway route (eco buses integrated with the trams) which was comfortable and very convenient for the touristic things we had in mind. As we set out for the first afternoon the sun came out and a run of beautiful weather. The city is a great example of catering imaginatively for tourists. We followed much of their "Green Line" for walking around to see the sights - which are numerous! In the early evening we sat in a city centre square with some chilled wine and then went in search of galettes. This proved difficult, but ended well. See the review on Trip Advisor.

On the full day we took the tram on to the island where old shipping-related buildings have been transformed into workshops, galleries and engineering features. We wanted to see the giant mechanical "elephant" take one its "walks". This we did! It lumbers around with up to fifty passenger, making appropriate noises and squirting water.  We were intrigued by the range of other things in the park and hung around the "carousel" as it filled with school groups. We hoped to get some sort of a glimpse of the undersea action for free, but didn't. Chronic meanness again, but YouTube is free!

In the glorious sunshine we walked to the tip of the Ile. Along the river bank are a series of "rings" lined up for optical effect, and interesting murals on the opposite bank, then we came upon an old warehouse with deckchairs outside and a kitchen garden. We stopped for a drink in the bar, and were lured into having an early lunch, which was a charming experience.
The afternoon involved following more of the green line - including to the Jardin des Plantes. A truly lovely day!

Not so quiet on the Western front - including a splicing!

This year's UK trip for Greyrocks was a shade shorter on both time (16 days) and mileage (650) than many. The whole plan revolved around the civil marriage of Chloë and Jack on May 1st. See the annotated map! It went thus:
Dover (from Calais) to Forest Hill, London chez very old friends, to Bristol for the marriage event to Whitbourne, Hereford chez Bill and Julia to Goginan Mid Wale chez

John and Barbara to Melksham Wilts for canal-side cycling to Poole, Dorset for car service, serious provisioning and ferry to Cherbourg.

Our stay saw "interesting" weather: coldness and rain seen as very unseasonable to start, a few days over the Bank Holiday with record high temperatures and a return to normal May conditions which felt "blooming cold" to us!  The cultural climate - of course - also felt alien owing to the chaos of a commitment to Brexit dominating the news, and the need to skate round the subject with strangers in the May/Rudd "hostile environment". Somewhere on the A 44 we saw displayed in a field a poster saying something like:

"Brexit:- and exercise in cultural isolationism and economic self-harm"

In the circumstances Greyrocks is glad to be out - although we had a series of delightful experiences!

The crossing was not delightful - being shared by most of the high school population of Belgium, but it was thankfully short getting on/off and through the hostilities! First stop was Bromley for the collection of various items ordered online. As we wrestled with the new location of Argos it started to rain, and that set the tone for the next week or so! When we reached Forest Hill we were surprised to find the hostess there mid-afternoon. Why was she not in school doing headship things? Over some bubbly we heard the tale of woe: yet another politically motivated OfStEd judgement and yet another premature loss to the teaching profession!  We spent a lot of the three days with them wet as we sorted out the boot and made a trip to the old house for loft contents to take to Bristol. A plan to go "up town" was shelved in part because of the weather, and partly as we had a chance to visit another old friend and comrade, Paul, who since last year has moved from home to a nursing home. It was distressing that - unlike last year - he could no longer use his communicator, but he seemed really pleased to see us and share our conversation about the things we all used to discuss over numerous dinners. Later that day his wife came back to Forest Hill for the pescatarian meal we had hurriedly prepared together. There was also news of the sudden death - in her twenties - of the daughter of "friends of friends" and its impact on the family. Indefensible government policies and random terrible twists of fate: - time for some Good News!

Which was on the cards!

We drove down to Bristol with a car full of memorabilia  et al that we had taken from the loft. On arrival Chloë declared much of it worthy only of the skip or charity shop, which was a bit annoying- but only she could make that decision! We also off-loaded a range of camping kit that we would never use again at our age - and that was a bit more welcome! We went to check-in at the hotel we had selected and were given the bridal suite. It is an odd place - see Booking.com review - but served us well! That evening we met up with Chloë and had a pleasant evening with Italian meal and a bottle in a pub! It was now not raining and that remained the case through Sunday when we took to buses over to her house for what was billed as a barbecue. As it was so cold but we wanted to be in the garden with its new mural by Helyn (pic to follow!) we ended up sitting round a fire in a bucket that has made clothes smell disgusting ever since! But it didn't actually rain! Monday was a day in the city centre doing last minute things, followed by fish and chips at the hotel and an early night.

The Other (May) Wedding of the Year

On 1st May - whilst we were titivating - we received a desperate message from Chloë. She had left her wedding earrings in the overnight bag delivered to the Hotel du Vin, Would we go there and get them? So that was where the taxi dropped us. The receptionist told us the couple had been upgraded as a surprise. It wasn't raining and it was bearable in light clothing, but Ruth's fascinator was a bit vulnerable in the wind as we walked up to the venue. We killed time at the local Wetherspoons and then met the in-laws' party outside the Register Office to collect buttonholes and corsages. There were beautifully assembled - along with the bride's bouquet -by a florist friend of Janet. They included red roses for 1st May as Workers' Day, lily of the valley for France's Jour du Muguet, and thistle and tartan ribbon for Jack's Scots heritage.

Fortunate their kit colours were appropriate for the date!

Bob then ambled back down to the pub for a rendezvous with the Bristol Morris Men. Ruth had located them and engaged them to perform a few dances outside the Register Office as part of their traditional May Day celebrations. It was a complete surprise for the couple, and  there was frantic liaison between Ruth - inside waiting to be a witness - and Bob outside assuring the men it wouldn't be long! (Much of the delay was due to the previous marriage being a double involving two sisters/ They must have been "fellow travellers" marrying on this special day, as one groom had a red suit! Eventually the deed was done in a tiny room with just Jack, Chloë and the two Mums present.The Registrar said they were a lovely couple!

As we left - bang on cue - the Morris began their dancing , attracted a good crowd of on-lookers, and then posed in group photographs.Rose petals (red, of course) were thrown and the wedding party of ten went to The Rummer nearby for cocktails and then walked to The Centre to take a ferry over to SS Great Britain. As Jack now works there we had free access for a short tour and more photo-opportunities. This included the newly-opened interactive museum dedicated to Brunel. We went back on the ferry and walked to The Glassboat for lunch - a fairly French affair - and Bob made a brief speech of thanks to Jack's parents and proposed a toast. Four people peeled off at the end of this and the rest of us went to Hotel du Vin, encouraging the happy couple to look at their room. They were not disappointed! And that was that! No rain all day and what Greyrocks hopes is their only day as parents of the bride!

We met up with them next evening for early evening drinks, having first collected a couple of large boxes of wedding-party-related things for transport to Crete. It was whilst in Chloë's road loading that we had a strange encounter for our last day in Bristol. Read on!

The Bizarre "Babbers" Incident:
When we first arrived at the house and were unloading we passed the time of day with a man whose elderly father lives opposite. He was intrigued by the way we support the hatch with its bike rack when we need access to the back of the car. Later - in the evening we were in Guisseppe's restaurant and were seated near a large table consisting of fairly young Black folk and one much older White man. It was he of the street and he said hello and remarked on it being a coincidence. As the evening progressed the party became rather anti-social and had to be told to quieten. It was clearly something to do with radio, and C later identified it as DJs from Ujima Radio. Four days later as we re-packed he was there again in the street and we had a long conversation. We asked what he has to do with the radio station and he said he was active in Bristol Ageing Better, which has a weekly show on the station called "Babbers". We told him about our lifestyle and we had a number of overlaps (including Ruth's spell on the defunct Hot FM). He said their next programme would be about the joys of travel in old age! Here it is.
We parted company agreeing on the existence of coincidences, and we told him about this blog. So - if you ever visit - "Hello, David - me luvver!"

Old Friends and New-found Family

1991 with Chloe. They still have sheep!

We headed up the M5 in unremarkable weather and traffic arriving too early in the environs of Bill and Julia's estate, so we went in search of a pub. We passed three closed ones, and one that was suspiciously posh. It took ages and a lot of diesel, so we turned off and found a gem - a model of the remote rural inn, with excellent real ale. The Live and Let Live in Bringsty. Then we got lost looking for the farmhouse, but arrived to find a family en fete! Just five days previously one of the three daughters had married there with a Humanist ceremony in a bluebell-filled part of the woodland, and a reception in a working cowshed. Members of the New England and Bristol chapters of the family were still around but shortly to go home so that evening was a huge family dinner. Bob was introduced as someone Bill has known for longer than he has his wife, and we spent time trying to remember when we were last there! Thanks to this blog we tracked it down to 2010.

Old Codgers ford the stream

For our only full day we went with Bill on a major walk! We set off - in wellies (borrowed) of course - armed with jackets, scarves and waterproofs. As the day progressed these started to look ridiculous as the afternoon turned out to be glorious! Talk about a celebration of two new knees! This was a serious walk with steep hills, a stile to manoeuvre and a stream to ford. Bill was full of information and we saw evidence of trout, pheasants and muntjac - all of of which would feature at dinner! We also visited the Care Farm on site, which Julia runs and for which she was named BBC Countryfile Farming Hero in 2016.

In the evening we four went to Green Cow Kitchens - a further enterprise in the family - for a tasting menu dinner. Ruth's ravings about this are on Trip Advisor.

Bob's Dad's banjolele

,, and his kukri

Next day after coffee at son Joe's house we left rural England for rural Wales in glorious sunshine. Essentially this was a journey straight down the A 44, but progress was a bit slow and at points "hairy" as it is used by bikers(!) for showing off! The terrain becomes dramatic and beautiful - particularly with the lucky weather. Greyrocks was off to meet Bob's cousin - for the first time at ages of 71 and 67 respectively! Contact had been established in 2017 (see how and why)  They now live near Aberystwyth and put us up for the night in their superbly modernised "cottage". We went out together for dinner at their local pub (which we had discovered ourselves for lunch and has some very good ale. There we enjoyed a homemade pie with Welsh lamb and leek. Very nice! The main task for the visit was to share what is known about the family history, We learnt quite a bit more about the mutual grandfather, and a brother who had been a firefighter who died on service during the Birmingham blitz. All we could add was some speculation about how Bob's late parents might have met, leading to the move to Yarmouth after his father's death. We were intrigued to view two of his items now held with the cousin. Mr Google has been helpful in identifying them. What we thought was a banjo is actually a banjolele, as played by George Formby. We knew that Bob's father had been in Burma during the war and he had brought back the weapon we identified as a war-issue Gurkha sword - the kukri. It was our intention to do a couple of tourist things before leaving the area, but we were thwarted - first by a very heavy sea mist which was evident even from our starting point - but made the seaside of Aberystwyth invisible. This was a shame as Ruth was making a sort of pilgrimage there to recognise it as her parents' honeymoon venue back in 1950. There was no point in us parking! Secondly we were thwarted by the wonderful weather when we subsequently went to Devil's Bridge. It was heaving with no parking space, so that was abandoned too! We had a coffee and braved the nutty bikers and vintage cars to leave Wales!

"Alone again or .."

After 11 days focused on friends and family Greyrocks reverted to form and embarked on adventures designed solely  round shared passions! We started with Melksham:- an unlikely place, but on the way to the Poole ferry and on the Kennet and Avon Canal.
After a fairly easy journey we arrived with time to explore, so having got lost trying to find the hotel we did find the canal and that it was very close (by foot or bike) to said hotel and we would be well positioned for the next day's adventure. There was a typical canal-side pub at Semington which was very welcome in the late afternoon sun. Later we took notice that this would be the last Sunday in UK for a very long time and had roasts in the pub nearest to the Travelodge - both very new ventures and staffed by jolly people. Next day we set off in glorious sunshine for a bike ride along the canal. Unfortunately so did a lot of others, (Bank Holiday!)  and Ruth's timidity about this and the narrowness of the towpath meant she was walking most of the time! Still a good place to be but no prospect of reaching Caen Hill, so she ducked out and found a pub! Bob went on somewhat further and we met up, cycled back by an interesting route and relaxed.

Next day was not so hot, and we were off to Poole. The road south is a bit tedious but pretty, and the road network skirting the town is complex, but we found the hotel, checked in and took our washing to a launderette giving us a better sense of the lie of the land. This new Premier Inn is good for a short stay, large and fairly close to the garage we would need for the car service, but gives few options for eating elsewhere by foot, so we used their restaurant twice:-crowded, impersonal and unremarkable as you would expect, but good enough when one is off soon to France!

Twin Sails Bridge, Poole Harbour

There was a very strong and cold wind for the whole time here. Mostly Greyrocks' time was spent on dull, but vital tasks of the shopping, re-packing and car-related variety, but we did manage some strolling and cycling round the Old Town and Quay, and a morning braving the wind on a ride beside the Harbour and much of Upton Country Park with a return over the Twin Sails Bridge.
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The final UK evening being Thursday we had a chance to strike another item from the Greyrocks UK Nostalgia Meals List by doing a Wetherspoons Curry Night. This we did by taxi to the Lord Wimborne pub, which features on Trip Advisor as "the worst Wetherspoons" - not far off the mark, but it fitted the bill for the exit strategy!

We made our Brexit next morning bright and early.

Better Lattes than never!

Surreal image under the A709!

May 2018 will go down in the Greyrocks annals as a frantic but joyful month. As a consequence the rate of publication of posts has come to a near halt. Ruth now finds herself filling the gap for part of April! We spent eight days in Lattes:- as usual staying in our favourite mobile home on our favourite campsite. The weather was - perhaps - the best we have ever experienced there, after a soggy start. (Visits are always in Spring or Autumn so susceptible to the other sort!)
Over the winter we had arranged to have a long stay in an apartment nearby central Montpellier, and our regular reader will know that Greyrocks deems it their favourite city. This April we took advantage of several of its facets.

Cycling and Tramming
It is two years since Ruth could ride the bike around the area, so great was the joy when we completed several round trips to Montpellier itself - including a look at the building where we will be staying in October, and around the Port Marianne, where an impressive number of blocks of flats have been completed during the winter. The ducks were on the lake and the swans nesting. Bob saw a mammal  he thought was a beaver causing speculation about the difference between beaver, coypu and otter. Mr Google resolved it. This was a coypu and a bit of a pest! On other days we used the trams extensively to access - for example:

Culture and Politics
With such good weather the cinema was not needed as a refuge, but we still wanted to see at least one V.O. film at the Diagonal, so spent an afternoon watching A Sense of an Ending  (with a French title that is not a direct translation) Bob was the only man in the audience of twenty!

We also took the tram to an outer banlieue to the department's cultural centre to see an exhibition recently transferred from success in Paris which examines the social scientific aspects of racism. There was some English translation, but some challenges in the interactive bits. It was very engaging and predictably distressing!

Out in another ethnically mixed area  La Pleine Lune has undergone some refurbishment and we went to their Sunday "Aperotifunk" session with Neil Conti etc, whom we have seen twice before. They were very late starting, were down a few in the line-up and we needed to leave after just a few numbers, but still worth the journey.

The city has a proud leftist history and we came across two "manifestations" - one on behalf of the Kurds, and the other against Macron's labour reforms.

• Seaside

In the last post Greyrocks explained the zone system for Spring school holidays and that our stay coincided with that of both local and Parisian schools. Combine this fact with the glorious weather meant that the nearby resorts were heaving. we went twice to Palavas and neither occasion managed to have the shellfish lunch we sought, and once to Carnon. This latter involved an interesting journey on a very hot Saturday. We walked to the tram stop nearest to the campsite and boarded a crowded tram. It was clear from the trappings that most people were beach-bound, so when we reached the terminus most went to the bus stop. There were far too many for the capacity but grey hair got us on and one seat. We got of at Carnon rather than travelling on. and that turned out to be a good idea, as the town was en fete! Beside the marina were ranged a dozen different  oversized "table-top" games like shove-ha'penny and Connect 4 all beautifully crafted and free to use. Later a small and bizarre carnival procession passed by. Half the participants were in Argentinian colours, and others were vaguely Brazilian-themed or in random individual fancy costume. We spent hours taking all this in and then sharing an outdoor bar area with the resting marching band. For our return we walked to the tram terminus and hung around near our stop until La Boucherie opened. There we marked our last evening with a delicious cote de boeuf - which also furnished the next day's en route picnic!

And so ended another jolly stay!

"Changes in Latitude"

As the Jimmy Buffet sings: "Changes in Latitude... Changes in Attitude"! Greyrocks headed northwards, and it was a roller-coaster in terms of weather, stress and luck. Five days of travelling sandwiching an eight day stay in the usual Lattes location brought Greyrocks to Calais. whence we crossed to Dover for the eventful three weeks in UK. The time on the Med coast was one of the best and the next post documents it.

There were ten days between the offspring's departure from Fuerteventura and ours. We travelled down with her as far as Puerto and had a few hours strolling round. The plan to visit El Bounty was scuppered by the "brunch" we took soon after being dropped off! In Las Palmas we have been impressed by the chain "100 Montaditos" - and now there is a branch in the mall. Wednesday is specially good value there, and an order of  cheap "coffee and toast" brought forth two huge rolls, Iberian ham, concassed tomato and olive oil. We consumed half and took away the rest for a picnic. The weather was good and we walked along the seafront expecting to find a choice of two known watering holes, but one has closed permanently. As we sat in the other surveying the pedestrianisation works we were hailed by "Spectrum Ian" from Corralejo. There is no hiding place! Not much of note happened in the remaining days - as we cleared the decks, killed two obsolete laptops, scooted round significant places and tightly packed for a six months absence; although we did invite round Sandy and Pete to help with food disposal in a jolly and very sunny afternoon on the balcony, and spend the early part of the last evening at a quiz.

Friday the Thirteenth - not auspicious for a journey! The weather we left behind was not good. The forecast for Barcelona was much worse, but the flight arrangements all worked well - once we were through Security! We consider ourselves seasoned travellers and smugly watch various entrapments of the less-so. This was our "comeuppance". The laptop, two Kindles, the tablet, the liquids bags, watches etc went into the trays, Ruth declared the prosthetic knees and waltzed through to wait for Bob, and waited .. We had forgotten the old netbook destined for Chloë and jammed into his rucksack. Red faces and a lot of re-packing for Greyrocks!

Outside Barcelona airport we were very, very cold and unsuitably dressed,but it wasn't yet raining and the shuttle bus was mercifully prompt in arrival and empty. We were back again at the usual airport hotel. The receptionist looked sheepish as she handed over the key. It was the room furthest away in three dimensions, but it was comfortable and familiar in facilities. At dinner we were surrounded by participants in the Canoe Championships and qualifications for the Youth Olympics. There were team members from Estonia, Slovenia and Turkey. The quality of this buffet-based meal offer has been slowly deteriorating in quality over the years, and Ruth had an oxtail dish that was a disgrace. But hey - there are many worse options than this place for a simple overnight near the airport!

We were up early and decided to take breakfast. Some canoeists were there too and a vast crowd of Korean young women shouting very loudly at each other and into phones. We had to move tables. Grumpy Old Brits is Us!

Besides which it was raining, and didn't stop all day. Killing time at Terminal 1 was blighted by the absence of open catering outlets. We had noticed this the night before in respect of one cafeteria, but now realised the strike  (over workers' rights and changes in the concessions) was more extensive. In solidarity we occupied seats and didn't buy anything! The coach service to Girona was as efficient as ever, but through torrential rain; and we got wet meeting the pick-up for the parking lot. Yvette was shining and ready to go. We asked how business was and were told it was busy at the moment because of the French school holidays. This was the first we had thought of that significant factor! - but more of that later! Suffice to say that the three hour drive to Lattes on the Spanish A7/French A9 in stormy conditions wasn't enhanced by it!

The following Sunday the migration resumed. We have perfected the art of leaving a mobile home, and were waved off by the owner family as if we were the old grandparents. Dull and cold weather again, few HGVs (French law) but very heavy car traffic and heaving service stations! The dread was traversing Lyon on the A6, and Autoroute Radio updated us on  the length of the"bouchon"! We held our nerve, knew time wasn't an issue and survived to arrive smoothly mid-afternoon at the booked hotel in Chalon (in Burgundy)  where it was a little too windy to sit outside but still with a good temperature, as the day had seen the cloud clearing. We would have two evenings where the hotels were on industrial estates with few alternatives for dinner, but Greyrocks has a fondness for the ubiquitous Campanile model and did very well on both occasions. (This time with two lamb dishes as mains). We ended the day feeling that it had been demanding but that careful planning had minimised the stress and we could relax and enjoy! Eschewing breakfast we drove over to the supermarket nearby, made the purchases necessary and found ourselves trapped! There seemed no way out that didn't have a height restrictor. We tried all sorts of possibilities and wasted time, diesel and karma. We still don't know how we went wrong.

School holiday arrangements.

We thought that day's driving would be less frantic, but the schools in Zone C (including Paris) were only halfway through their time off, so service stations were still full of families and private cars were racing on the autoroute. Nonetheless we made it to Reims and a bottle of champagne in good time, but al fresco consumption was out of the question! The cold we were expecting had arrived!
Back on the autoroute next day we suddenly were greeted by Yvette's occasional party trick:- loss of power and warnings of engine failure. What to do? We knew what this was all about but needed a Fiat dealer to sort it out. As we struggled along the autoroute we ran through options, and eventually decided to stop in St Quentin and get it fixed. The staff were wonderfully helpful and Ruth's French was given a thorough workout! Amongst the advice was what she translated as "Giving it some Wellie!" to keep the filter clear. Not easy to do at Greyrocks' age!

We arrived in the Calais are much later than expected owing to this incident, but still had time for lunch at one of the Cité Europe brasseries and shopping for wine. The Kyriad where we spent the night is not great, but we wanted somewhere with a restaurant. The restaurant no longer exists, but next door is a branch of the chain Poivre Rouge. We were happy that and walked there through the rain. Midway through a decent meal in came a group of gendarmes - and then some more, and more..until there were well over a hundred - some armed, some in mufti and all tucking in! Later we learned that they were staying in a neighbouring chain hotel and spend a month at a time thus as part of the Calais port security (and alleged violence!) The details came from the partner of the receptionist at our hotel, who is a long distance coach driver, and told us more about the situation. Good to know our UK taxes are well-spent!!