France Part 17 - The Land Of Gold And Green!
Good evening from the very small village of Vendeuil, on another camping car park site. No showers, no toilets, but a nice little site with some peace and quiet and a cold tea. Served by the co-pilot, which she has done admirably every night we have eaten at home, and before you complain about me not doing anything to help, we have driven over 3,000 miles since leaving home, and guess how many she has driven? Dare I say ‘0.’ But as you’ll find if you ever decide to join the travelling vehicle fraternity, there are ‘blue and pink’ jobs just as there are at home; ask her when she last emptied the chemical toilet!
We have joked about swapping, her doing the driving and emptying the toilet, and me making the tea, but her answer has always been ‘no’ for some reason! I don’t call the driving stressful; however, at times I do call it ‘challenging.’
But these sites are a good cheap place to stop, and looking back, my frustrations were ignorance at not knowing what I was doing, yet there is a phone number at each site that takes you through to a very helpful assistant (somewhere,) and all can be resolved. Even opening barriers for you when there are glitches in their system and it’s not working. I would recommend it if you like the ‘wild camping’ option.
Wherever we drive in the world other than at home, it is different. We went to Sri Lanka about 16 years ago, where dogs are sacred, and so if you are driving a bus or a lorry and a dog is lying on the road or walks out in front of you, you have to avoid it. Try doing that with 20-odd tons, or more, behind or under you?
But the best part was the private and public bus drivers competing against each other, and so to show you, I needed to post this photo. The bus wants to meet a schedule and pick up passengers, so it is overtaking on a blind bend to get ahead and make sure it does both – scary! Remember, in Sri Lanka they drive on the left!
Get out of my way, please!
But however scary, however many blind bends, in the two weeks we only saw one accident, and that was a tuk-tuk in a ditch!
We travelled up from Chalons-en-Champagne yesterday, another beautiful drive; however, I must admit we did have a bit of an eventful morning on the campsite, which I will mention just in case!
We stopped at Camping De Chalons-en-Champagne, and it was a nice site, with good, clean facilities and friendly, helpful staff; a handy little bar and restaurant on site; and all good, although we did get a bit concerned about a tent pitch with 2 men, 2 tents, and 2 dogs, which got a bit noisy at times.
We heard a couple of human shouts, followed by a couple of dog yelps, and immediately thought they could be mistreating the dogs, but we didn’t see anything so didn’t get involved, and probably it was for the best.
But yesterday morning was different. There was shouting, banging, and a lot of strange noises, and when I looked over, I saw the younger man trashing his pitch, as you can see from a poor snip from a video; unfortunately, I can’t get the video to upload! The table full of all sorts of pieces went flying, as did nearly everything.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
As no site staff had appeared, I thought I better go to reception, as things were just getting worse; he was having a field day where tent thrashing was involved! Staff had no idea what was going on, and one immediately ran out to try to dissolve the situation; the other was so stressed and stood there telling me all about it!
It was a father and son team who were homeless and who were paying to stay on the site, and because of this her manager told the lady I spoke to that she couldn’t kick them off site, something I pointed out that I completely disagreed with; if it’s their site, it’s their rules, if you don’t abide by them, then surely it’s cheerio? Credit to the site for putting them up, but the son had issues, as she put it ‘a disease’ that she didn’t want to mention in case it upset him more, and you could just see the stress all over her poor face.
Meanwhile, the carnage had continued, and someone had decided to call the police, who appropriately turned up, all three armed and burly-looking, so we finished packing and left. A situation at 63 I am not getting involved in. But whoever is paying to stay there, that is not fair to other paying customers who want a quiet night and to enjoy their holiday.
They were on benefits, and the father sat in one of those high-backed motorised wheelchairs, so there are problems within the family, and part of me felt for them, as I wouldn’t want either of their conditions or their lifestyle; however, I did find it strange that when the father went out twice with the dog, he walked. Are we judgemental? We are.
So, we made our way into town and had a walk around, another lovely place to be. I was hoping for a galette (crepe with a filling), but I settled for another flambe with lots of cheese; it was lovely, and a nice couple of hours it was too!
We then made our way to Troyes, and another nice town with a lovely cathedral. I must admit I’m not religious, but I am in awe of how they managed to build these beautiful places some 1,000 years ago with curved brickwork pillars and large bricks at such a great height. How did they get the work done with no H&S to worry about? Maybe that’s why they got it done!
We also stopped at the small town of Laon on the journey as well, another lovely old town with a slight difference but quite similar to Bridgnorth in Shropshire, where it has two levels. The higher level is the old town and has lovely views and old buildings, even though the old streets themselves are decorated with modern colours and sunscreens, a lovely street to walk down, and I do believe the last time we saw anything like this was in Durham.
Laon on the left, and I do believe it is Durham on the right; that may be wrong, as my photos are from a weekend when we stayed at Durham but also went elsewhere!
You may have read my post about the town of ‘Die’ and the graffiti on the walls. Laon was different with wall art; instead of random writing, it was very nice too.
The drive from Dienville has once again been beautiful, with more long straight roads and if the D677 isn’t one of the longest, straightest roads in Europe let alone France I don’t know which one is (no research done.) It just went on for straight mile after straight mile. Driving through Reims was as if someone had drawn a straight line through a city map and said, ‘this is where the road is going.’
Into the country, and once again, it was the cream/brown-coloured fields stretching far off into the distance, with green tinges of other crops and woodland! When we stopped off in a layby (yes, we found one,) I had to take this photo, which is a great example of what we are seeing.
And on the roads from Dienville, I have seen more set, specific laybys with 200m warning signs than I have in the previous 7 weeks of driving combined. But then I found fly-tipping for the first time too, even if it is minuscule compared to the UK sights we see! And the theme of no rubbish must be mentioned again, but I must also say it’s the same in towns. It definitely seems French people have more respect for their country all over. How I wish the Brits did too; it is refreshing to see!
And in the town of Laon, some of the pedestrian crossings had small blue lights going from side to side in the tarmac to help draw your attention to the crossing, and that was another first since arriving at Calais some 7 weeks ago. I can only imagine that a region/municipal or community can pretty much make their own rules up. I don’t know, but it’s strange that we only see certain traffic measures in certain areas.
There is so much arable land in France; I wonder how they can ever harvest everything in one season. As mentioned, it is tens of miles after tens of miles, and it must take a lot of hard graft to get the harvesting finished. It is 9pm as I write this part. I do believe the same tractor and trailer have driven past us about 4 times. Do you really want to be working at 9pm? Agricultural workers deserve respect for what they do, but that's another post for another time. And as I finish this at 9.30am, the same tractor and trailer have just gone past again!
But what I have noticed recently is there are more agricultural vehicles both out in the fields and out on the roads; harvesting must be in full swing now, especially if you’re working at 9pm. How we need these people and how so many now don’t want to do the work. Speaking to the owner of one of the small sites, they have the same problem with agricultural labour in France as we do in the UK!
But into week 8, we are still having the trip of our lifetime, or as the co-pilot called it, ‘the adventure’ because I suppose it is. I just feel a bit childish calling it an adventure at my age; still, there’s a first time for everything!
Thanks for reading
DJ
