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.