France Part 15 - Dienville, Yet Another Gem!

The problem with travelling, especially in France, is how repetitive the posts can become. How about the gem of a campsite we have found in the village of Dienville, a few miles east of Troyes? It is privately run by a very friendly husband and wife team, and our pitch looks to the river Aube, and in this heat, where temperatures are hitting forty degrees, it is so warm that when we first run the taps inside the motorhome or refill bottles from the campsite taps, the water is warm.

If I need to get away from the co-pilot for a few minutes, they have their own rest room, and there are nice spacious pitches!

As I write this, it is 35 degrees at midday, and it got to 39. One of the dogs is lying under the hedge, the other in the shade of the hedge on her cool mat. All the blinds are closed on the motorhome, and the fan is permanently on to keep it cool for later when it will be even hotter. They have plenty of cool water to drink, and the border terrier has taken to the water to keep cool, and I’m sure he’ll be back in later; even I’m thinking of going in. Dogs and whales in perfect harmony! Luckily, as we are close to the river, we get an occasional cool breeze, which helps!

What else is repetitive? How about long, straight, very smooth, pothole and rubbish-free roads with beautiful scenery? Because that is what happened yesterday on the drive from Villey-le-Sec. We drove about 80 miles, and it was predominantly through arable farmland, with wheat and barley being the predominant cereals, along with fields of grass that Google Lens couldn’t identify, nor could my research!

(Still working on the co-pilot's photography!)

But all similarly coloured, it made the landscape that light brown colour for mile after mile, and the dark green corn/maize fields with some forests amongst them just made the scenery beautiful; the long roads let you see this mixture far away into the distance, and again, it was different and beautiful.

It was a really nice drive that took us over some hills too, so a slight variation for us. One thing that we put down to the hot weather was how most of the towns we drove through were deserted, with plenty of cars parked and plenty of houses with shutters closed but no people.

I can’t say I have given up trying to work out some of the French traffic control, but one of the towns was like one long street, and it was a 30 km/h zone, and without the street changing in any way whatsoever, the sign showed the end of the 30 km/h zone, and I have no idea why! And on this stretch, there were no speed bumps or pedestrian crossings

I say this because one thing I mentioned in an earlier post was that I couldn’t believe how short some of the 30 km/h zones were. They weren’t short; it was me being a muppet – no offence Kermit! It seems when you are driving in a town where the limit is 50 km/h, when you approach a speed bump or pedestrian crossing, there is often a sign pointing this out, and they have a speed limit of 30 km/h, so once you have cleared the bump or crossing, they then have a sign saying you no longer have to do this speed and it’s back to 50 km/h. Yes, a lot of signs, but at least I’ve worked that one out!

The trip was in a westerly direction, going slightly south, probably west-southwest, looking at a compass. But coming off the back of our time in the Alsace, it has been a fantastic few days; in fact, it’s all been fantastic.

This campsite in Dienville is called ‘Camping la Colombier,' found on the Pitch-up website. I am pretty much letting the co-pilot decide where we are going, and if I’m not so keen, I will tell her, but as it is all new to me, I tend to find myself just saying 'yes,' and that’s not for the easy life, trust me.

But it is a lovely site and very child-friendly, not because there are lots here but just from the kid facilities, but I am sure that will change during schools holidays There is a fantastic playpen with a trampoline and what looks like a one-or-two-a-side mini football pitch, and of course there is the river, where families were happily playing last night and today. Admittedly, in one review, someone did dislike the soap on a stick in the toilets, but remember, we’re all entitled to those opinions. It is also the first site we have been on whereby they ask you to take your shoes off before you enter the shower area; it simply stops you from taking dirt in and turning the floor muddy!

I would say be careful with the Friday night snack van, that pops up outside the front gates, as the samosas are not much bigger than a 50p piece, (photo menus can be deceiving,) and something I should have photographed for this post when we had a snack type meal last night, tasty enough but frozen and probably deep fried, but we weren’t that hungry and it did the job!

So much for the kids; just watch the barbed wire!

We are 1 hour ahead of the UK, and had the French v. Norway match kicked off at 8.00 French time instead of 9.00, we may have stayed for at least the first half, as the local cafe had put up lots of extra-long tables and additional seats, and they were expecting a crowd for the game. The burgers looked quite appealing too, but we gave it a miss and came back, hoping for a slightly bigger samosa.

The only other two things whereby I would say ‘be careful’ are that the river is quite deep. I was having a little swim, and suddenly I couldn’t touch the bottom; you may know that silly little panic mode we go into, until, that is, we remember to hold our breath and swim to safety, but it was only a few feet away from where I could stand, so this is in the area by the wooden steps, obviously a little way in. the other thing is the barbed wire; it’s used as part of the fence that surrounds the swimming rest area. Not too much of a problem, but if this is a site for families and children, it's best to know in advance!

But it is a nice site; it has quickly become one of my favourites, but I am glad we are doing this outside of school holiday times. I much prefer seeing children playing outside getting exercise, rather than sitting with a face in a phone or a tablet, but as mentioned in a previous post, too many kids can’t seem to play these days without screaming at the tops of their voices, which I don’t like to hear, but which I can, thankfully, some distance away as I write this, so generally we are getting peace and quiet on the sites we have been on. Luckily, in the UK there are adult-only sites we can go to.

Not sure the soap on a stick is worth complaining about, and please leave your shoes outside. Use a clean pair if necessary and throw them in the washing when you've finished. PODs are available if required, and the town church is at the entrance to the site!

You’re probably now thinking I’m a miserable git, but you would be wrong; it’s just another thing we can choose to like or not. I’m not a child person; my daughter (not my wife's) was an accident, even though a pretty good one at that, and our granddaughter is 5 in October, and I love her to pieces. Her Mum and Dad are no longer together, and with her being at school, we don’t get the chance to see her too often, as my daughter has other commitments, but we do enjoy seeing her.

Anyway, kids can be a post for another time; back to France, and these photos show what a nice site we are on, and another one I would recommend. One thing I have noticed more of as the journey goes on: nearly all the pitches are grass.

Like the first site we were on, where I questioned the quality of just about everything, I doubt it would take much rain for vehicles to get stuck there. On others, the ground has been pretty rock solid, but during a wet period there could still be issues; however, with the weather we are having, I can’t see us having many problems with getting stuck, but it is just another thing to consider, and of course we are so used to gravel pitches back home.

Quite early in our travels, I think about two weeks in, I was quite surprised to see a cabinet on the side of the road with books inside, and while they are not everywhere and not in every town we have visited, there have been a few to see. I can only assume it is a swap system or maybe even a take-and-bring-back scheme, but my wife was a little disappointed with one, as none of the books were English. Not quite sure what she was expecting in France, but I did smile! It’s okay though, I know she was only looking out of curiosity, not expectations!

We move on tomorrow when the temperature is hopefully a little cooler, and we are heading to Troyes and stopping at Chalons-en-Champagne, again chosen by the co-pilot – I wonder how much that has to do with the name. Bet she wouldn’t have picked it if it had been Chalons-en-Carl!

Thanks for reading

DJ