France Part 6 - UK Radio In France

This post finds me sitting in the sun, well, the shade actually, outside the motorhome on a campsite in the village of Bracieux, some 35 miles south and a little west of Orleans. We had arranged to be here as today is the 25th of May and a public holiday in France, and we were advised that many places close when it is a public holiday. Seemingly the French don’t queue up to get onto retail parks on a bank holiday!

Thankfully campsites are open, and I believe the bar and restaurant areas are too (as I post this they’re not,) but it is something to remember when you are planning a trip. I’m sure many of the tourist attractions are open too, but we had planned a three-night stopover after two weeks of driving, just to chill out really, and as the driver, I think it was needed.

There are many beautiful-looking chateaux’s in this area of the Loire Valley, and we stopped at Chateaux de Chenonceau on our way here on Saturday, as we wanted to take a look around whilst on this part of the trip. And although the parking was free, it was €19 each to get in, not bad if you can take the dogs into the house as well, but of course you can’t, so I didn’t think it was such a good price just to walk around the grounds, which I am sure would have been lovely. It was also pointed out by my good lady that it wasn’t that much more than we would pay back home to get into some of the National Trust sites, and that too means grounds only with the dogs.

Chilling at Huttopia des Chateaux

Let’s be honest, the dogs are a bind at times, but we wouldn’t be without them, and I’d rather miss out on a nice French chateau or an English stately home than be without the dogs!

The campsite is called Huttopia des Chateaux, and Lola, the manager, does an amazing job, as all the staff seem to do. We have plenty of room even though it is a double pitch, which we have shared with a very nice couple from Loughborough. The sites are generally as good as the UK, with very friendly, helpful staff. But I wish I could say the same about some of the French customers. If you have read some of my other posts, you will know I don’t use the word ‘hate’ very often, but two things I will use that word to describe are e-scooters and ignorance, and so I would say ‘be prepared’ if you too dislike the latter.

Twice whilst standing speaking with reception or bar staff, and whilst in full conversation, a very fluent speaking French person just walked up to the front of the queue and started speaking to the person I was talking with and interrupted without an ‘excuse me’ or anything and just started speaking as if I wasn’t there! Something was said, but they just weren’t bothered. The thing is the person I was talking to, rather than asking them to wait, entertained them in the conversation.

And twice in queues for the bar later in the evening, other very fluent speaking French people, again, walked to the front whilst ignoring everyone else and asked for something, and again they were entertained, rather than being asked to wait or join the queue. When I questioned one guy, he told me the bottle of water was for his kids – like that’s okay. To me, it is just teaching kids you can jump queues. Teach them to queue like everyone else is my philosophy! When I pointed out people were in the queue ahead of him, he also told me his wife had queued earlier for 30 minutes for a pizza! I took great pleasure in telling him that wasn’t my problem!

But there is a point to this. Is this the way the French do things? Because I think it is a very acceptable part of their lifestyle. Other than a supermarket, it is really the first time I have had to queue, other than with maybe one other person. As mentioned, I did say something, because most people would if this happened in the UK; we don’t really tolerate queue jumpers, do we? But then I have to come to the reception area to use the internet, and speaking to the very helpful Lola, seemingly it isn’t the way of life!

But this is something I will look out for, just because I’m now curious, but I also think I need to get my French head on when queuing, as it is pointless saying something as they don’t seem the slightest bit concerned, and neither do the staff, so be warned and be prepared just in case!

Either way, it is still a lovely site, with beautiful sunny weather and a perfect, relaxing couple of days. The dogs are chilling out lying under the motorhome, even though they have a cool mat to lie on, something else to consider if you have dogs, or even a cat, as one of our motorhoming neighbours had in their van a couple of nights ago. Happily sitting up on the dashboard area, watching the world go by.

Not just for travelling vehicles

What else? Well, I mentioned picking up French radio stations when in Dover, and when we drove round the coast road from Cherbourg towards Saint Malo, so we could see the Channel Islands, we were listening to BBC Radio Jersey! Can’t help thinking it should be the other way round!

My little ‘keep right’ sign in the windscreen does help, although I am finding that driving on the right is becoming more natural, but the sign is staying. There have been a couple of occasions when my instinct has been to go left; obviously, this tends to happen when there are no cars going about, as you do tend to follow the crowd, or maybe not if they’re coming towards you, but you know what I mean! Please don’t get complacent with it though!

Being overly cautious

I’ve never really been one for breathalysers, but I did get one for our trip, and whilst I am sure they are not 100% accurate, they will give an indication, and I have tried them at 10 o’clock at night after drinking, and they have turned red and back to green by the time I am ready to drive the next day. But of course, there have been mornings I have forgotten, and so I always try to remember to leave it right in front of me on the dashboard so I see it each morning before setting off. As mentioned, it is not always accurate and is only a guide. Hopefully I haven’t had that much to drink that I need to worry about driving some 12 hours or more after my last beer, or I would be concerned!

But I have found myself more tired at the end of each day; there is more concentration required as things are different. Maybe that's why, after getting set up for the stay, wherever that may be, one of the first things I do is have a cold beer. After my experiences in the past, I try not to do stress, but there are times I call the driving ‘challenging,’ especially in towns, as of yet no cities by size, though seemingly by stature!

Finally, in this post, with smaller travelling vehicles like ours, many people will use the shower as a storage area, but a word of warning, please. As you can see from this photo, I have had to secure our shower control with a cable tie. Very early on in the holiday, we noticed a small stream of water in the toilet.

Looking closer, we realised that by taking something out of the shower, I had accidentally moved the lever to the ‘on’ position, and the shower was flowing. Now call us muppets, but it was the water pump working that also drew our attention to the fact there was a problem, as it only works when you need water to flow, and we weren’t needing any. It wasn’t helped by the fact the plug for the shower was in place and so the water wasn’t draining away, and the reason for the small stream in the toilet. The water did soak into one of the clothes storage compartments we bought for the trip, and so everything out, dry the clothes and everything back - the joys of motorhomes.

Overly Cautious Part 2

I have also shown you we have a small garage on our motorhome, and so after two years we have changed things round; the chairs and tables and a couple of bits we need for outside have been moved to the shower, and the two clothes storage boxes and some other bits are now in the garage. That probably doesn’t make much sense; however, it does mean things are just easier to get at and easier to get in and out when you need them, and you need to think ‘easiest option’ when travelling in a smaller travelling vehicle, and moving stuff about so much!

Just some things to think about.

Thanks for reading

DJ