# A trip to the med...quite a long post



## 96088 (Aug 22, 2005)

Following our recent trip to France and Belgium I thought I would try my hand at a bit of a travelogue.

In it are personal views and observations and general nonsense about various experiences, delights and tribulations we encountered on our trip.

Back in the cold days of January when we spent several winter evenings deciding what we wanted to do, we decided to target Barcelona as our destination point. This was plan A. As the year wore on it became clear that we would be stretching our budget a bit too far to achieve this.

Plan B was formulated and involved avoiding motorway tolls while still managing to hit the Mediterranean coastline and the closest point to do that was Sete. We both knew that we needed at least 5 days of guaranteed sun and relaxation after what has been a hectic year so far.

The announcement that 'The Who' were playing Hyde Park on the first Sunday of our trip prompted a minor change of plans and a not insignificant dent in our budget. Clare our daughter also changed our options slightly by declaring that she no longer wanted to come with us as she wanted to spend as much time with her mates before going off to university in September. She did however wish to join us for the Hyde Park bash providing we paid for her ticket and transport home.

There was a secret 'Plan C' which involved English success in the World Cup, with Christine becoming caught up in the euphoria and meekly agreeing to a complete change of schedule and a visit to Germany with the sunbathing and relaxation being carried out on and in Lake Constance.

*The Trip

Saturday 1st July

Plan C goes out the window*

All the packing is done and we are fuelled up and ready to go. Meanwhile a certain Mr Rooney decides to assault a set of Portuguese gonads and the rest of the England team once again fail miserably in a penalty shootout. Well that's the euphoria gone which was a shame as Chris was beginning to show signs of enthusiasm during the match. 'Plan B' is now up and running.

*Sunday 2nd July 2006

Etnicicity and aged rockstars*

The day started 10.00am and as we headed towards the M40, we ran into an awful set of roadwork's just outside of Oxford on the London road. What the delays must be like on a working day can only be imagined and I would recommend avoiding this road at all costs for the next 30 weeks. The rest of the trip up to London was untroubled.

We were overnighting at the excellent if not slightly expensive Lee Valley Campsite in Edmonton.

http://www.leevalleypark.org.uk/en/fe/page.asp?n1=3&n2=12&n3=339&n4=347

The location of this site meant a couple of bus rides to Seven Sisters tube station before being rattled and shaken all the way to Green Park on the Victoria line, travel tickets can be purchased at the site shop. Often on trips to France I find myself commenting on the sad loss of Bakers, Greengrocers and Butchers etc etc on the English high streets nowadays, I found myself making these very comments as we travelled past White Hart Lane that day, it seemed like every second shop was stocked with fine produce right out to street level.

Following our arrival at Green Park station we enjoyed a lovely sunlit walk through Green Park along the Princess Diana Memorial Way that led us to Hyde Park. The afternoon and evening's entertainment was of the highest quality with the support band 'Razorlight' once again demonstrating what a fine live act they are. When 'The Who' came on Clare shouted "come on old men; let's see what you can do", and after one and a half hours she was standing in stunned amazement of just how good Pete Townsend was (and he really did put on a polished performance). if I can leap about like that at 62 years old then I will be more than happy.










We knew that the last bus running to the campsite left at 12.10am so as we came out of Hyde Park it was with some disappointment that we discovered the police were stopping access to Marble Arch station and directing people to Bond Street station via Grosvenor Square instead..

Now any rock concert audience will contain a contingency of shall we say rebellious minded people, so I had to wonder about the thinking behind forcing this crowd up past the heavily barricaded American embassy. A mini 'Bush out' style demonstration kicked off but we were in too much of a hurry to wait to see the outcome. The trip back to Seven Sisters station was straight forward until it was time to come out of the station, I saw the sign saying 'buses this way' pointing in one direction, Chris and Clare saw the sign saying 'exit this way' pointing in the opposite direction and despite my claiming that the sign I had seen was proof of Ken Livingstone's excellent 'integrated transport policy', I was democratically overruled and we came out the back end of Seven Sisters station at 11.15pm on a Sunday night. Experience now tells those two ladies that that is the last thing you want to do! We are lost, it is dark and there are a couple of guys who can I can only describe as white trash openly assaulting an Asian for the crime of walking down the street. We quickly got guidance to the bus stop from three Somali guys and beat a retreat. All in all, quite a hectic start to our journey

*Monday 3rd July 2006

Worn out and Dover bound *

We woke late the following day showered and prepared for a gentle trundle down to Dover, Clare was dropped off at Tottenham Hale station for her first ever solo trip across London to the Victoria bus station.

It must be a good twenty years since I last went near the Blackwall tunnel and the area has changed enormously, we checked out Canary Wharf all very impressive.

Having never really 'done' Kent and with lots of time on our hands we decided to go via the Medway towns and Faversham to have a look around. This messed up our plan to visit the Warren at Folkstone as the A2 is a painfully slow road, we now know that the M2 is a very good thing and we should have used it.

On arrival near Dover we parked up at St Margaret's at Cliffe for afternoon tea before heading into Dover for the 17.00 Norfolk line crossing to Dunkerque only to be told that our ferry time had been moved back to 16.00 hours and that we should have received an e mail about it. We finally boarded the 18.00 crossing found a couple of seats on deck and enjoyed the sunshine and sea air for the entire crossing.

Now the original plan was to overnight at Wissant:

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopic-16308.html&highlight

But as the temperature was so hot and we were running a bit late so we decided to head for the car park by the Dunkerque Plage de Allies memorial for a guaranteed sea breeze.


















*Tuesday 4th July

Fried alive and eaten by bugs*

After a good night's sleep we fuelled up at Carrefour and headed south using the slow N1 from Boulogne Sur Mer to Abbeville and then the non toll A28 to Rouen were it fiercely hot, so hot in fact that I found myself wondering whether the story about Joan of Arc being burned at the stake there was not in fact some form of French propaganda and the real story was that the poor girl just spontaneously combusted while gathering logs.

Following a break we then headed inland to Evreux, Chartres and Orleans. This route takes you across the 'Plain de Beauce' a huge farming area with fields of crops for as far as the eye can see, it was even hotter with a hot wind blowing.

We stopped of at Chartres but the whole of the centre around the Cathedral was undergoing a massive rebuilding program, concrete dust and sticky bodies are not a good mix so we did not stay very long. We had decided to overnight somewhere near Orleans and Chris managed to direct us straight into the middle of the City. This was at about 6.00pm it was a hell hole and we very quickly left and continued down the N20 to La Ferte-St Aubin and found the municipal site, €7.90 per night with 10amp French connection EHU; so good value.

After the heat of the plains the sight of a delightful woodland campsite next to a canal was a blessed relief, we were hot and bothered when at the site we were greeted by an English gentleman eager to tell us about his van and his air conditioning system. I think the conversation went something along the lines of: Me, "Blimey that was hot up there", Him, "Ah, we've got air conditioning", Chris, "Well we've got the bloody windows open". Yes, we were hot and grumpy but following a shower and a meal I did pop over to his van and be a bit more civilised why learning a lot more about Air con, Oyster satellite kits, Sky TV and Battery Masters. I clearly have a long way to go before reaching motor-home nirvana.

It was shortly after our arrival that we discovered the fridge was not working, a quick test lead to a blown fuse so not a major crisis, but not helped by the fact that yours truly had left the box of spare fuses at home. After all the tribulations I've had with the van electrics over the last three months I could not believe I could have been such a prat as to forget such a basic item. We needed to hit a supermarket the next day so I could pick some up then.

Later that evening we settled down for a few beers and soon realised that the canal was a breeding ground for a particularly vicious mosquito and despite our best efforts we were being eaten alive. Also by this time a strange cool breeze began to blow intermittently between periods of intense mugginess and it soon became clear that we were going to be hit by one France's fantastic thunderstorms.

The storm hit about an hour after we had gone to bed, I had moved up to the overcab bed as we were both struggling to get to sleep and spent the next hour watching the lightshow through the side window. It started with an intense gale which caused the shadow of the trees to leap about frantically and hit us with such a force that several poor campers were washed out almost immediately while the lighting lit up the site like daylight. I tried to take some photos of it but just ended up with shots of raindrops reflected by the camera flash, thankfully the heat disappeared following the storm and we slept well for the rest of the night.

If it was not for the Mozzies this site would come highly recommended as a stopover as all the facilities were at least adequate, it was well shaded and the cost was reasonable.

*Wednesday 5th July

Supermarket hell and Scary Mary*

Woke up very tired and immediately came up with the dumb idea that we stay put for a day to rest up, Chris swiftly pointed out the error of my ways as the weather had turned cold and wet, we walked into the local town for bread and a nose around. The town is an insignificant, typically French and pleasant enough. This was the first time I had considered how nice it was not to have our daughter with us as we could bimble around and not be concerned about her rising boredom levels.The Mosquito damage from the night before was myself, eleven bites and Chris six bites, however two of hers were quite nasty and did cause some concern over the following few days.

The plan for today was to find a Leclerc supermarket in Vierzon and then make our way down to Parc du Vulcans via Clermont Ferrand.

I have lost count of the amount of times over the years that we agreed that the rule is: 'Don't go hunting for a specific supermarket, just wait until you come across one'. We broke this rule again and promptly lost an hour trying to find one that was hidden away in a housing estate. Will we ever learn this basic lesson?

Anyhow, we found the fuses we needed and promptly loaded up the fridge with cheese, wine, olives, milk. orange juice etc etc, while the cupboards were loaded with other delights and after fuelling up we were on our way.

On fairly uneventful drive down to Clermont Ferrand with the only real entertainment being a Dutch couple in a parking area that we had pulled into for a cup of tea. We were sat having our cuppa and watching the world go as this car pulled in with 3 bikes on the back, a light board and a clearly agitated wife in the passenger seat. The guy got out to look at the bike rack, fiddled about a bit and kicked it in several places. The wife was giving him so much grief it was surprising he didn't give her a kick as well; the third bike was so close to the ground that we concluded they were dealing with some kind of structural failure that would see a trail of sparks in the very near future. We carried on our way and about fifteen minutes later were overtaken by the Dutch couple with the indicator on the car flashing left and the one on the light board flashing right so at least we found out the reason for their anxiety.

As made our way through Clermont Ferrand heading towards our chosen campsite the SatNav (known as Scary Mary after being dropped on her head in Etaples earlier on in the year) was doing really well and we were homing in on our destination. Then I missed a turning! I pulled up briefly to allow it to re-route and off we followed it's new course…straight up a side of a mountain on a road no bigger than our van for about 2 miles with no turning points (let alone passing places), through a rundown farmyard and with Chris giving me and Scary Mary all kinds of grief we amazingly popped out in a housing estate just down the road from the site…Phew!

Chris booked us into the site, got directions to our pitch and promptly got us lost…Magic!

We had planned to do a couple of days here and with the heat we had travelled down wanted a place with a nice pool to cool down in after and maybe before checking out Le Parc du Vulcans. Three hours later the weather turned cold and wet and stayed like that for the duration.

We spent the evening with the locals watching France dump Portugal out of the World Cup and silence a few gobby Portuguese cleaning staff in the process. The thunder and rain that night was punctuated by drunken cries of Allez le Bleu and best of luck to them.

*Thursday 6th July

Volcanic delight on a stormy day*

A Wet start so no pool early on which was actually quite pleasant after the roasting of previous days
We drive round parc du vulcans which was excellent with the stormy skies adding to the magnificence of it all. Checked out Royat, Rochefort-Montagne [quaint, good coffee in market square cafe], La Bourboule [lovely spa town with thermes and a rushing river], Le Mont Dore[pretty] and Puy de Dome [up in the clouds]



















A quiet night was spent with a bottle of wine and a discussion about what we wanted out of the site when we hit the Med the following afternoon, Chris had the site book out as she looked up and said "You don't want waterslides and lap dancers do you" ....This is a very female statement and I was well used to from my mother year's ago…"You don't want to do that do you". Well actually ladies it's hard enough for you to work out what I do want to do, let alone knowing what I don't want to do. I do however quite enjoy waterslides.

*Friday 7th July

222 miles of impressive toll free (almost) driving with a Mediterranean beach at the end*

We made an early start to get away from cold and rain and were mistakenly only charged for one night, this seemed fair considering the non use of facilities. Scary Mary got into a right old state in Clermont Ferrand and took us to a bridge that I would be nervous push biking through let alone taking the van through. She was switched off for her own safety.

What a drive that A75 motorway is; Gorges, Mountains, Wolves (or so the signs said), excellent Aire at Lozere with a wonderful 'products regionales section and of course the Millau Viaduct (which was actually smaller than we expected but stunningly beautiful).




























It wasn't until we were within 25 miles of the Mediterranean that the weather cleared up and we had perfect sunshine with an incredible mistral like (but hot) gale blowing.

We went down the North side of the Bassin de Thau, hit Sete at about 5.00pm and promptly got lost, that will teach us to turn Scary Mary off. We quickly stopped turned Mary on, banged in Agde while watching a twenty five metre section of rough land go up in flames right next to us. Of course she took us past an oil storage port that smelt like it had gone up in flames as well before we popped out on the beach road to Agde and promptly parked up just before the Le Castillas campsite/holiday complex and we were in the sea about five minutes later.










For those that don't know this area, we are on the N112 where there is a 10 mile stretch of beach that you can park up on for nothing including overnight. Note, the road can be a bit of a racetrack at night occasionally but apart from that it is totally unspoilt, very popular with Motorhomers and we loved it.










Having cooled down we debated whether to move on the Le Castillas site that night or the following morning before deciding that we were now on our holiday part of the trip so we booked in and dropped anchor.

Chris was so concerned about mozzies from the Bassin de Thau behind us that she brought a huge outdoor citronella candle, this coupled with the mistral like gale ensured of course that the pitch behind us had a mozzie free evening.

*Saturday 8th July - Wednesday 12th July*

We had Mozzie free night, and this site seems to tick every box, not cheap but excellent for families and has waterslides! Not a lot else to report (apart from the Satellite suitcase trial), as we didn't move anymore more than half a mile from the van for the duration



















It was Saturday afternoon, Chris was missing Wimbledon so I got the satellite in suitcase out to see what I could get on it. Put it up aimed at Astra 1 and bingo, Sky news came up straight away. I excitedly called Chris in to show off my success and even found Wimbledon tennis coverage. I was just about to go back up on the roof to secure the dish when there was a loud clonk, the dish had fallen over and was lying on its back. We set it back up again and despite an hour of fiddling and tweaking never found a satellite again, hot and bothered the contraption was returned to its suitcase which is where it stayed for the duration.

We joined 1000 locals in front of a big screen for the World Cup final on the Sunday

*Thursday 13th July

To hell with heat we go in search of cool mountain air*

The previous night Chris had got a call about a job she had hoped (but not expected) to get. This meant that we were going to have be home three days earlier than expected. We left the site and after a quick drive back up the A75 we arrived in Aguesssac at the start of the road through the Gorges de Tarn and spent the afternoon swimming in the Tarn river at the municipal site there. €12 per night all in [Camping d'Aguessac]










Then the storms hit and lasted for about 2 hours I tried taking photos of the lightning but really must get a better camera. This left a fresh evening in which to explore the local town, which town turned out to be a one horse/two bar village that seemed to be targeted by weekend second homers, it had everything we needed though and the few locals were extremely friendly.

We made plans for the next day over dinner of one of Chris's delightful Spanish omelettes a sure sign that larder stocks were low and a supermarket visit was going to be on the agenda. The plan involved a heavy day driving the Route de Gorges de Tarn, Clermont Ferrand and then across to Auxerre.

*Friday 14th July

Fantastic scenery and a surprise ending*

Le Gorges de Tarn were absolutely stunning in the early morning sunshine and mist, but required high concentration levels due to the bends and narrowness of the roads and frightened the life out of Chris! We drove as far as Ste Enimie with Chris commenting that "nobody should need an enema after a trip up that road" and then going over the top to Mende before cutting across to the A75. With no turbo technology t was a hard slog up to Clermont Ferrand. I spent some time looking at the map during this trying to work out where I had heard of Magne Cours, which we were due to pass through later.





































A stress free supermarket visit was completed, lunch was taken and we were soon steaming along A9 and A7 towards Auxerre. These are excellent roads and we made fantastic progress until Magne Cours when I remembered why I knew the name. It was six pm on the Friday of the weekend of the French Grand Prix and we had just hit a monumental traffic jam that was going nowhere and our plan was in tatters. Absolutely no chance of finding anywhere to overnight it took us two hours to get to Nevers, a distance of 8 miles.










Generally worn out, we ended 40 miles short of Auxerre in a place called Varzy and pulled into the municipal site. It was a bit buggy and had some of noisiest frogs (real ones) I have ever heard living in a pond there.

*

Saturday 15th July

Chablis, Champagne and Prairie farming *

After a good lay-in in the morning we had a lazy meander up to to Chablis a town Chris rather harshly accused of 'being up its own arse'. We had a couple of tastings before purchasing a few momentos of our visit and moved on.

After another lazy drive up to Champagne in the early afternoon through the endless fields of Barley and Sunflowers and repeated the exercise in Reims (one of my most favourite towns in France).










We decided to stop at a municipal site NW of Reims at Pontevert but found it closed, and so began today's campsite farce.

We checked with the Aires guide and there was nothing close so drove to Berry-au-Bac as I had spotted an info point there on our way through. There is large map of the area displayed there with several site locations shown, including the now closed down one at Pontevert. It was with short lived joy that we found mention of a site in Berry-au-Bac and after fifteen minutes searching for it we consulted an elderly local lady who informed us that this one was closed as well, she went on to tell us that there was a site in 'Genicourt'. we consulted the info point again and found the village of 'Gernicourt' put the location in Scary Mary with spirits raised quickly arrived at our new destination.

There was a church and a farmyard there but clearly no site. The was a map of the local area on a notice board (like I'm in the mood to take notice of the damn thing), anyhow Chris was more positive and noticed another village about 5 miles away called 'Guignicourt' and pointed out the possible similarities in their pronunciation (I was in the middle of dark thoughts more related to Agincourt and wild camping by now) and I was instructed to drive to this latest location and bingo that was the place and very nice it was too.










*Sunday 16th July

And the surprise is coming*

Chris was delighted when I suggested we head towards the coast following local roads and with no rush involved, I would follow Scary Mary's commands and she could watch the world go by.

I always like to spring some kind of surprise on her and as my 'geographically challenged' partner is rarely aware of where she is at any particular time or what towns and cities might be close by. It was quite easy.

Last year Clare and I had cooked up a plan to drive down the Champs Elysees and she didn't cotton on until we had got to the Arc de Triomphe.

This year was going to be less of a shock!

Her three favourite things in life are horses; chocolate, nice beer and she had never been to Brugge

We got as far as the Belgian border at Maubeuge before she queried the route. Having explained the true plan we crossed the border and got lost in Mons. The Benelux map for Scary Mary had been corrupted and was of no use.

I would recommend avoiding the A16 motorway in Belgium as it is falling to bits.

We arrived in Brugge just after lunch and parked up by the bus station.










It was extremely hot so we agreed that we would overnight by the coast close to a proper Belgian pub.

Brugge didn't let us down and I was a few brownie points in credit, unlike the budget which suffered severe damage that afternoon. It was also surprisingly quiet there.

When we arrived at the Belgian Rivera we found why Brugge was so empty, the whole of Belgian nation had decamped to Oostende, Middlekerque, Nieuwport, De Penne etc etc. We spent the late afternoon driving very slowly while people watching, dodging trams and holidaymakers in pedal carts for about 20 miles before getting bored and heading for Adinkerke to find the pub (campsite).

*Monday 17th July

Beached with the M25 to look forward to*

A lay in and then time to phone Norfolkline and see if they let us cross today, they were as usual extremely helpful and we were told we would get on the 18.00 ferry, which plenty of time for a lazy day at Bray Dunes where I'm sure the sea was warmer than the Mediterranean! It must have something to do with the relative temperatures of the air and the sea, or the fact that the water is shallow for a long way. Don't know don't care, it was lovely.

We were turned over by immigration at Dunkerque but at least they were polite

We got on the ferry no problem and it was the new one. All aluminium and glass, missing urinals with no seats on deck and of more concern, one of those white oblong radar thingies clearly broken and blowing about in the wind. Give me the old one any day at least you could settle comfortably on deck and enjoy the last part of your break in some form of comfort.










Landed in Dover and received a good grilling from customs, before hitting the race track that is the M20 Chris was driving and her navigator (surely not needed) was working his way through the instruction book of the recently fitted all singing all dancing Radio/CD player working out what various buttons did and seeing how many lights he could get to flash on it at one time.

A shout came from beside me, "Oi which way at this junction?" I looked up an knew instantly that Canary wharf never looks that close, Meanwhile the sign on the slip road was pointing to the Dartford tunnel, so we agreed the best plan was to get off the motorway to see where Chris had managed to takes us and promptly got lost in Crockenhill.

It turned out that she had missed the M26 turn off several miles back, and as I explained this I was reminded who the navigator was. The brownie points I had earned the day before seemed to melt in the warm evening air and we went home.

In the end we travelled 2078 miles and achieved a very respectable 28.5 miles per gallon

Total toll costs were €10.40 (Millau Viaduct)

Any sites that we used that were not in the MHF database are now there.

The old van went really well, with all the electrics not causing too many problems.

The only strain seems to be a broken seal on the roof vent

Our house hadn't been wrecked by Clare and her mates

And we had a lot of fun


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## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

Pete - nice write-up, especially with the pics. So it doesn't get lost down the page too quickly, why not put it in the Journal section as well - I'm still trying to get time to finish writing up our trip in May / June in there, but should be there soon. The memories of these trips disappear so quickly.........


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## 88781 (May 9, 2005)

Fantastic!!


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## 96088 (Aug 22, 2005)

Just tried to copy it in but the photos and formatting only came up as code.

Will try again tomorrow


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

Thanks, Pete, I enjoyed that read! 

Dave


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## sheringham (Mar 24, 2006)

Hi Pete

Very enjoyable read and informative, Thanks

Ron


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## 2point (Jun 10, 2005)

Cracking read, glad you enjoyed it. Missed you in Brugge by 48 hours from the look of it! (We were there on the Thur/Fri)


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

Great writeup, Pete. Enjoyed that a lot.  

Gerald


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## Pusser (May 9, 2005)

I have only read the first 3 days as I have work to do but absolutely brilliant bit of writing and will be back as soon as I can to read the rest undisturbed and in full.

You don't get quality like this is Motorhome mags. Thank you very much indeed.


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## DubPaul (May 10, 2005)

Enjoyed that. We we in Clermont Ferrand and the Puy de Dome area at the same time as you, also getting lost on small country lanes!


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## 96088 (Aug 22, 2005)

bognormike said:


> Pete - nice write-up, especially with the pics. So it doesn't get lost down the page too quickly, why not put it in the Journal section as well - I'm still trying to get time to finish writing up our trip in May / June in there, but should be there soon. The memories of these trips disappear so quickly.........


Mike

Have done as you suggested, I didn't know about the journal until you mentioned it.

Others

Thank you all for your kind comments


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## 99711 (Jun 19, 2006)

Great read, thanks for taking the time.

Being new to this, it gives me a good idea of what to expect on that kind of trip.

Also good to see someone using an older van - being the owner of a 1989 Transit this is important to me :>


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## carol (May 9, 2005)

Very interesting trip - thanks for taking the time to write it up. GPS's are most definitely NOT perfect...

Carol


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## Texas (May 9, 2005)

WOW! what a great read, we weren't able to go to France this year, but boy, what a lovely ride I had courtesy of Pete and his cohorts. It was almost like sitting in the back.

Texas


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## homenaway (Jul 27, 2005)

Great write up

You certainly caught the storms we missed by heading north through France a few days earlier  

I've reached typing up day 4 (only 46 more days to do) of our journal that I planned to do as we went along but where did the time go  

good to see the photos as well - brought back pleasant memories

Steve


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## further (May 9, 2005)

Splendid read well done
   
Chris


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