Thursday 11th January 2018

Today we returned to our house in Devon. I think that the moles have finally won. I give up.

Today we travelled 241 miles (388 kilometres).

Our journey lasted for 67 days. We drove our van for 4841 miles (7794 kilometres). We made ferry crossings from Poole (England) to Cherbourg (France), Nice (France) to Bastia (Corsica), Bonifacio (Corsica) to Santa Theresa di Gallura (Sardinia), Cagliari (Sardinia) to Palermo (Sicily), Messina (Sicily) to Villa San Giovani (Italy) and Calais (France) to Dover (England).

Many thanks to anyone who has taken an interest in this blog and particular thanks to those of you who have commented and added context to our travels.

Bye for now, Roger.

Wednesday 10th January 2018

This morning we made the short journey from Dunkerque Ferry Terminal to Calais Ferry Terminal. Calais Port is like a prison camp with high razor wire fences everywhere. We were searched by French soldiers with machine guns at the ready and then by the British Border Force. As we were a bit early for the 13.00 sailing P&O put us onto their 12.00 departure.

 

Before long England came into view.

We docked in Dover about 12.30.

We made another shortish journey to Ann's daughter Kerry's house in Kent. Kerry was out when we arrived but she had left us a key so we soon met up with her dog Wilf.

Kerry came home before long.

We took Wilf for a walk.

I saw this nice cloudscape. 

Kerry's son Henry came home from school.

Finally Kerry's husband Gareth got  home after having been to Glasgow and back on the plane from Gatwick for a business meeting. He looked a bit tired not surprisingly. 

Kerry cooked us all a really nice meal. Many thanks Kerry, Gareth and Henry for your great hospitality.

Today we travelled 66 miles (106 kilometres) excluding the distance we travelled on the ferry from Calais to Dover. 

Tuesday 9th January 2018

Today we made a long journey north to the coast of France. We passed through many areas where there was flooding. We are stopped for the night at the DFDS Ferry Terminal at Dunkerque. DFDS Dunkerque to Dover is in our experience usually the cheapest short channel crossing. When we went online to book our ticket for the ferry tomorrow we found that P&O were offering a much cheaper deal from Calais. So we'll be off from here tomorrow morning for the short trip west down the coast to catch the 13.05 sailing from Calais to Dover.

Today we travelled 219 miles (353 kilometres). We are at N51.01591 E2.19768

Dunkerque Ferry Terminal    

Monday 8th January 2018

Despite the dire warnings from last evenings' "visitor" everything was quiet and peaceful during the night by the canal side in Dijon. We filled our LPG tanks before leaving town. We headed north, at times travelling down the valley of the Seine. The river had broken its banks in many places we passed.

We had a good clear run on main roads slowed from time to time whiles we passed through small villages. We filled our diesel tank near to the City of Troyes.

Many French roads are still lined with avenues of trees.

We stopped for the day at the town of Sezanne. Ann visited the church.

Here's the view inside.

We are staying at the town Aire which unusually provides visiting camper vans with free electricity. However there is no fresh water supply. 

Today we travelled 136 miles (219 kilometres). We are at N48.72164 E3.72151

Sezanne   Street view (seems like what is now the Aire was used for bus parking when Google visited in 2010)

Sunday 7th January 2018

It was quite overcast today but it remained dry. We set off north and travelled through some beautiful countryside in the Jura mountains.

There has obviously been a lot of rain or snow in this area recently. All the rivers are very swollen and some have broken their banks. We saw quite a lot of flooding.

We stopped for the day in the City of Dijon. The town Aire was flooded so we settled for a nice quiet car park by the canal which we found through the Wildcamping database. We were keen to visit the church of Notre Dame which had a good write up in our Rough Guide to France. We got the bikes out, cycled along the canal and chained the bikes to the railings before walking the last bit into the city centre.

This is the facade of Notre Dame.

Here's some detail of the arch above the main door.

This is a general view inside.

On the inside of the main door is this little carved devil with his hair standing on end.

Here's the alter.

To the right of the alter is the statue of Notre-Dame de Bon Espoir - often erroneously referred to as "The Black Virgin" due to a coating washed off in 1963!

On the left close to the entrance is this old mural.

On the outside of the church is this carving of an owl worn smooth by countless hands. Apparently it is a very lucky thing to touch!

We wandered back to our bikes through the old town stopping along the way to buy some (Dijon) mustard. What else would you buy here?

Back at our van after we had finished our tea and it had got dark there was what I would describe as an extremely unsettling incident. A middle aged to elderly woman with a dog started shouting at us through the windscreen of our van. We opened the side door and talked to her. She told us that we were in a very dangerous place. That there were drug addicts here. That they were likely to set our van on fire. That the police had been ordered by President Macron not to come here because it is too dangerous. We asked her why she and her dog were here if it was that dangerous. She explained that she couldn't afford to move anywhere else!

I spent quite a while wandering around the very quiet and tidy car park pondering on what she had said. Everything I was seeing seemed to be at odds with her account. People were strolling up and down the canal side path without a care in the world. It just all seems a very calm and okay place. Who knows what the truth is?  

Today we travelled 114 miles (184 kilometres).We are at N47.32142 E5.00493

Dijon   Street view

Saturday 6th January 2018

Despite quite a poor weather forecast it was an okay day. We travelled north.

We stopped to do a supermarket shop and later to service the van at the Aire in Annecy. Ann took this view of Lake Annecy as we were passing by.

We left the Alps behind and moved into the Jura - an area of wooded hills and valleys.

We stopped for the day at the town of Nantua. We parked at the Aire by the lake. Here's the view from our van.

We went for a walk along the lakeside. I like the reflections in this view.

Nantua Sauce is a classic French recipe - it is a cream sauce made with crayfish - presumably caught originally in this lake.

We saw this pair of Mallards.

And a couple of these Grebes?

Also we saw a lot of these ducks - I'm not sure which species they are.

Here's a view looking back towards Nantua from a couple of kilometres along the lakeside.

Back at our van the lights of the town reflected in the lake as it got dark.

Today we travelled 108 miles (174 kilometres). We are at N46.15510 E5.59632

Nantua   Street view

Friday 5th January 2018

It was quite misty in the Po Valley this morning. Ann went to the Post Office in Asti before we left and had to queue for an hour just to buy stamps to post 5 postcards! The Italian Postal Service seems to be in crisis! Each postcard had to be individually weighed and instead of sticking a stamp on each it had to have an individual print out "stamp" which was much too big to stick onto the postcard so had to be folded around the back of the card!

We travelled west passing to the south of the City of Turin. As we approached the Alps we started to see breaks in the clouds.

The issue as to how to get through the Alps was soon settled. Signs indicated that the Col du Mont Cenis was closed so we headed for the Frejus Tunnel.

The sky cleared as we approached the tunnel and we got some marvellous views.

The road up to the The Frejus Tunnel entrance is a superb feat of engineering going through many long tunnels before you reach "The Big One". 

The Frejus Tunnel is about 13 kilometres long. The one way fare for a vehicle of our size is 60 euros. Value for money? I suppose if you have a monopoly and there is no viable alternative to travel by road from Italy to France in this area at this time of year then there is nothing to stop you charging the maximum amount that you think your customers would possibly be able to pay. Here's the view as we emerged on the French side.

As we descended from the tunnel exit we got some fine alpine views.

We stopped for the day at the Aire in the town of Saint Jean de Maurienne in the Rhone Alps region of France. Here's a view from our parking place.

To day we travelled 127 miles (204 kilometres). We are at N45.28030 E6.34776

Saint Jean de Maurienne   Street view

Thursday 4th January 2018

After yesterday's disappointing  weather today was a really nice contrast with bright sunshine all day. Here's how it looked first thing from our parking place at San Rocco. Everyone here had endless fun trying to work out how to operate the car park's enigmatic parking ticket machine.

We set off north west. After taking on diesel we travelled on narrow mountain roads with many tight bends and passed numerous small mountain communities such as the one pictured here. We crossed from Liguria into Piemonte. 

Eventually we descended into the plains of the Po Valley and stopped briefly to buy groceries. We stopped for the day at the town of Asti (famous for the local sparkling wine). Here's the view from our parking place. This car park is used each summer for a bare back horse race similar to the more famous one held in Siena.

Tomorrow we need to think seriously about how we are going to cross the main chain of the Alps. Alpine crossings in January are not always straightforward. The obvious way to go is via the Col du Mont Cenis (2081 metres). We crossed the Simplon Pass (2005 metres) on 25th January 2015 so we know that these kind of crossings can be made at this time of year if the conditions are right. The alternative to the Col du Mont Cenis is the very expensive Frejus Tunnel.

Today we travelled 104 miles (167 kilometres). We are at N44.89724 E8.20950

Asti   Street view