Electric Bikes Are Fun

We decide to invest in a couple of electric bike’s last year, having seen and tested them out at the caravan show at the NEC.

Got to say, they are fun to ride and add to the enjoyment we get from caravanning in France and other places.

We bought them early last year and never really had the chance to use them properly up until this visit to France, but there was a reason for this which I may post about later.

Yes they are electric and if you really want to, you can just switch them onto full power and let the bike do the rest. But that's not how we use them, we still do the peddling and use them on assist for the return journey (plus steep inclines! why bust a gut when your out to enjoy yourself ) The joy of this, is that you can now ride for miles without worrying about the return journey because the bike will help you do this. Yes your right, it is cheating I suppose but neither of us are getting any younger.

I thought I had taken pictures of both of us on the bikes, but obviously not !

So here is Lesley on hers

We opted to buy Batribikes as they are folding bikes also. Both fold down and fit in the back of the Skoda Octavia with room to spare. Battery life is about 25miles but if your using them purely for assisted riding then you can get more out of them.

Lesley uses the Breeze – I use the Quartz. Give um a try they really are fun.

One of the local villages we visited on the bikes, taken just after we had left the bar on the right hand side of picture. Drunk in charge of a bike ! let um try

Parc de Montsabert–France June 2013

 

We decided to re visit the Loire Valley area again this June, as the last time we visited was about 5 years ago so needed a quick injection of the Loire area again.

Five years ago, when we were staying in this area, we did a few checks on sites for future stays, Le Camping Parc de Montsabert was one such site so we decided to give it a 12 day check out.

The site is in the grounds of the Château de Montsabert. Surrounded by tranquil countryside and vineyard's, in fact 3 were with in walking distance from the main gates of the site.

The site is part of the Yelloh Village group and takes ACSI members, so off season the price is about 16eur per night in a caravan/camper van. No ACSI card and the cost per night will be over 20eur’s (Get a Card)

Facilities on the site are excellent, Pool, bar and loads of stuff for families to do, during the months of July and August, in line with most French site all the facilities step up a few gears with children's entertainment and themed restaurant nights when they serve local dishes. The restaurant it should be said, is really only a snack bar which caters well for holiday makers with families. i.e. pizzas, chip (frites) burgers etc.

The pool is excellent, 25m covered in the cold weather open in the hot. Heated of course.

Lesley and I visited this a few times. Lesley did her usual 20 lengths and then I joined her or stayed at the poolside bar

I even had a go on the trampolines but the balance is not so good these days and fell on my arse a few times.

Poolside Bar

More Pictures of the site.

We really enjoyed our stay at this site and will return.

La Garangeoire – The Vendee – 2010

What can I say ! We just cannot stop coming here.
Voted one of the top 10 European sites and lives up to it every time. Just coming to the end of the stay here and moving on to Normandy and the ferry home. Sad to leave really because this is the place to chill out with plenty of sun, temps usually in the 21c – 26c area for most of September.
 
The staff on the site are first class and speak both French and English. You can not stay here without treating yourself to a meal in the excellent Restaurant, we had 2.

They even do a meet the chef (free) morning once a week which Lesley went on and came back with nothing but praise the kitchen area was spotlessly clean and the chef explained about how he made the pate de foie gras for the Restaurant and the macaroons which every one on the tour had a go at piping.

Wish I had gone round also but missed it.   
For a good walk, followed by a 1200hrs meal, Lac Jaunay (Lake) is about 10 mins drive from the site. The L’Auberge du Jaunay couldn’t be better. The bar – creperie – Restaurant sits high on the northern bank with stunning views across the lake whilst tucking into some good French food and of course some good wine.

Wild life on the lake abounds. This was one of the many large green lizards we came across basking in the sun. This was the one day I never bothered to put the long lens on, sods law as they say but it came out quite well.

It is also a good place to relax with your own picnic at the many places on the surrounding banks.  Pictures are worth a thousand words as they say so here are a few more of the areas we travelled to this time round.

Coulon - Marais-Poitevin.

Coulon is in the Deux-Sevres department, west of Niort and at the centre of the Marais-Poitevin region.  The village - listed one of the most beautiful village’s in France is in an area the French call The Green Venice of France.  Lesley and myself cannot recommend this area enough,  its stunning and so peaceful you will just not want to leave. The campsite we use is on the edge of the village and is called Le Camping Venise Verte. Take your bikes because this area is full of cycle trails 2500 miles of them so they say.

Hummingbird Hawk-Moth.

The first time we ever saw these was in France on our first visit about 4-5 years ago. Fascinating to watch and very fast.  We have seen them all over France on our travels

Some Bar in Ile De Re

Saint-Martin-de-Ré has extensive fortifications, reflecting the strategic importance of the Île de Ré. During the Wars of Religion in the 1620s, Cardinal Richelieu ordered that the island be fortified as a counterweight to the Protestant nearby city of La Rochelle on the French mainland. This included a citadel at Saint Martin. After La Rochelle had been subdued, Saint-Martin's fortification were largely demolished to remove its potential threat to royal power.

In 1627, an English invasion force under the command of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham attacked the island in order to relieve the Siege of La Rochelle. After three months of combats in the Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré against the French under Marshal Toiras, the Duke was forced to withdraw in defeat.

Later, in the 1670s, the French engineer, Vauban was commissioned to review and overhaul the island's defences and, as a result, Saint Martin was enclosed by extensive and modern walls and embankments. This was done in three major phases ending in 1702 and the end result was an enclosed town capable of housing the island's population for a long siege.

After that they started to build some bars !! And the Roulstone’s arrived :-)

Saumur Cavalry School Bar

The French cavalry school has been in Saumur since 1768 and of course cavalry regiments have long since abandoned the horse in favour of horse power, so now it is essentially a tank school. But horses are still used for all the official pomp and ceremony. Anyway that’s the end of the history lesson :-)

Both Lesley and myself  having a military background soon found the bar the army guys used and what a great time we had.
We went back later in the week on the Friday for an evening meal which we booked after this session. After the meal we realised we had been the only people eating there all night, he had kept the bar open for just us ! Friday of course, all the army guys had gone home for the weekend. Must have been cus we mentioned we had been in the Navy but the hospitality was second to none. We will return :-)

Our First Week In France

Friendly people.

Everywhere we went the locals were friendly. Every day I bonjour'ed all the way to the toilet and back :-) I even bonjour'ed the English campers and guess what! They bonjour'ed me back which I found quite amusing, must have thought I was a local. One French lady or should I say madame, said my French was very good, which made me feel quite proud, seeing as I could only say bonjour, madame and Monsieur. Anyway, the week went on and I bonjour'ed everything that moved. In the UK being so familiar in and around toilets would get you funny looks or even arrested. :-).

One of the main reasons for travelling to Normandy for our first trip to France, as I have said before, was to just do a short stress free trip and a recce. Our second reason and something we have been planning for some time was to visit the D-Day beaches and towns, plus pay our respects at a few of the war grave cemetery's. Something I personally think everyone in the UK should do at least once as this was an important stage in our history and those who died for the liberation of France & Europe should never be forgotten.

For those caravanners that take the tele away with the van, on this side of France the reception from the channel islands is excellent, even the Status aerial on the roof of the van received a good signal. Everywhere else in France, you will require a Satellite system, which I will possibly talk about in the future, not that I'm any expert.

Our first campsite and on the this trip our only campsite, was situated on the coast and near to the small but charming town of Les Pieux. This we booked via Select Sites which included the ferry crossing from Porstmouth to Cherbourg.

Camping Village Le Grand Large, 11 Route du Grand Large, 50340 Les Pieux [tel:02 33 52 40 75]  is a medium sized site situated on the west coast and adjacent to a beach that stretches as far as the eye can see. It has the following-: wc, chemical waste disposal, baby facilities, showers, hook-up  , gas,  laundry, shop, bar, restaurant, snacks, heated pool & child pool, playground, games,  boules, tennis, dogs, open 5Apr-21 Sep.

Once we had settled in and ordered our daily bread from the on site bar/shop, we made our way to Les Pieux and the travelling market which visited a circuit of local towns, today was Les Pieux's turn. The French markets are old fashioned and full of local produce, long may they continue. As a boy I can remember going to Long Eaton Market in Derbyshire, this was in the 50's. Fresh vegetables, meats and sausages with meat in them. A lot of which came from local farms. We have moved on in the UK and in some way's not for the better. The French village markets as I said earlier are old fashioned and have held on to old traditions and standards, they are full of local produce, a joy to walk round sampling meats, cheese, pate's, mushrooms, the list goes on.

More to follow:-

First Experience of France

Came off the ferry in Cherbourg missed the turning on the island and ended up having to do a U-turn in the city with the shed on the back, tension is building. Lesley is driving and I’m doing the navigation, which I’m usually good at, I may add. But after 2 beers on the ferry and 2 kwells! I think my judgement is impaired somewhat! I even think I was still wearing the 2 stupid bands on my wrists, hey oh! This was all pre TOMTOM Go I may add, but I will cover this excellent GPS innovation later in the stories.

So we find the route out of the city and are given our first introduction to the French road system, which, and I quote from the excellent Destination France Magazine, “everything the British road system should have been and isn’t”. Trust me on this one, the road system is excellent, the tension which had started in Cherbourg just drained away, even if we were on the wrong side of the road.

We were heading for the village of Les Pieux then onto the camp-site of Le Grand Large at Anse de Sciotot. This is approximately 20 miles from the ferry port and we considered it to be a good location for our first venture into France, in other words, no pressure.

All the pitches on this site were what we would call super pitches, each had its own tap and waste drainage point, excellent! The site itself is on the coast, so 80 yards and your straight onto the beach the site consists of a pool, usual toilet block and bar which doubles as camp-site shop. Something we soon got use to was ordering your baguettes for the following day which you collected from the site shop at about 8:30hrs. Sliced Hovis who needs it! When in France do as they do. The thing to remember about French baguettes is eat them the same day and no more then 6 hours after purchase. If you don’t they make excellent short fence posts the following day!

Which brings me to the point, yes we are English and be proud of it, the same as the French are proud of being French, but stop being English when you hit the shores of France, loosen up a bit, eat the French food and attempt to speak a little French, don’t bother looking for the fish and chip shop, their aren’t any! The only thing I would suggest taking are good old fashioned PG tips or Typhoo tea bags because the only tea bags I have ever found in Europe are Lipton’s! In the shops on the ferry the ruddy things are everywhere! No wonder the French don’t like tea, they must also think we all drink Lipton’s! Someone should put them right.

2004: When It All Began

Having spend the last 20 years camping, trailer tenting and caravanning in that order, 3 years ago we decided to venture over the channel to France. Since then we have kept saying to each other, that’s Lesley the wife and myself, “why did we not do this years ago”! Well several reasons but looking back, all very lame reasons really.

1. The car may let us down when we get to the other side of the pond, what! we had a 240 Volvo, quite old, but its still going so I am told, the thing was built like a tank.
2. In my youth and early 20’s I use to get terribly sea sick, I know this because having been to sea in a warship(HMS Scarborough) in the late 60’s, crossing the channel in a force 8-9 was no joke! I thought we, the crew and ship, would not survive the trip. Even the French pilot would not come out and take us into port (Dunkirk) So this and a few other bad experiences on ships put me off that cross channel crossing with the caravan.
3. Could not speak the language and thought the French didn’t like the English.

The wife constantly refers to me as “Pessimistic Pete “ well she’s wrong about that because my names Joe! Anyway, that aside, just under 4 years ago we decided to invest in a new car to tow the caravan, which from henceforth I will refer to as the “Shed” Plus even better, we bought a French car which can be repaired anywhere in Europe if we break down. So this set my mind at rest and null and voided point (1) above.

Next came our first ferry crossing back in July 2004 a day crossing from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, funnily enough, this was were I sailed from on my last trip to France and this was not a good memory as I have said earlier. Things are not looking good, but she who must be obeyed, had matters well in hand. “Open your mouth” I heard her say and in went 1 or 2 Kwells. “What do they do” I asked, “never you mind” I was told. Once on-board and sat down in the cafe I was given 2 bands with buttons on each one? “what are these” I asked, “put them on your wrists with the button pressed against the pulse area” it was at this point I thought to myself, she’s taking the P…..! Bare in mind I was wearing a short sleeved shirt so the bands stood out like something you would see Michael Jackson wearing!

After 30 minutes into the journey the Kwells kicked in, moved into zombie mode. May have looked like a tit and mumbled to people for about 6 hours but arrived on the other side of the pond and no sea sickness whatsoever. Null and void point (2) above.

Point (3), well did I say Lesley had CSE French from her school days in Watford, “no” well she has and armed with this we thought we could take on France and beyond. The French don’t like the English bit was just rumour and something we would have to find out for ourselves. France here we come.