The French Adventure

[Naughty Cal]

Tomorrow we set off on our latest voyage with Milo the motorhome and are heading across, well more correctly under, the channel and into France. 

 

I think pretty much every stop that we have on our very rough and ready (and subject to change on a daily basis) route is by water so may be of interest to some, if not all of you.

 

Tonight after work we will finish off loading up the van ready for a steady day tomorrow driving down to St Margaret's Bay where we have an overnight stop booked in at The Coastguard ready for a morning train on Saturday.

 

Now just to get the last afternoon of work over and done with. Roll on 4.45pm 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Naughty Cal said:

Tomorrow we set off on our latest voyage with Milo the motorhome and are heading across, well more correctly under, the channel and into France. 

 

I think pretty much every stop that we have on our very rough and ready (and subject to change on a daily basis) route is by water so may be of interest to some, if not all of you.

 

Tonight after work we will finish off loading up the van ready for a steady day tomorrow driving down to St Margaret's Bay where we have an overnight stop booked in at The Coastguard ready for a morning train on Saturday.

 

Now just to get the last afternoon of work over and done with. Roll on 4.45pm 

 

Have a great time. We are hauling the wobble box to Cornwall a week on Monday.

[Naughty Cal]

16 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

Have a great time. We are hauling the wobble box to Cornwall a week on Monday.

Enjoy.

 

Wouldn't fancy towing in Cornwall. It's bad enough with the van 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Tomorrow we set off on our latest voyage with Milo the motorhome and are heading across, well more correctly under, the channel and into France. 

 

I think pretty much every stop that we have on our very rough and ready (and subject to change on a daily basis) route is by water so may be of interest to some, if not all of you.

 

Tonight after work we will finish off loading up the van ready for a steady day tomorrow driving down to St Margaret's Bay where we have an overnight stop booked in at The Coastguard ready for a morning train on Saturday.

 

Now just to get the last afternoon of work over and done with. Roll on 4.45pm 

 

Im sure you will be aware but if not. If you rock up at Le Shuttle early you may get offered an earlier crossing than your booked one. Often at no extra cost. Nine times out of ten we have. If you dont you can sit it out in the terminal car park in the comfort of your van.

 

They say not to arrive too early but they to me encourage you to do so by offering this. 

[Naughty Cal]

1 minute ago, M_JG said:

 

Im sure you will be aware but if not. If you rock up at Le Shuttle early you may get offered an earlier crossing than your booked one. Often at no extra cost. Nine times out of ten we have. If you dont you can sit it out in the terminal car park in the comfort of your van.

 

They say not to arrive too early but they to me encourage you to do so by offering this. 

They put us on an earlier train last time we went across.

 

We did get a message from them today saying they expect it to be busy on Saturday so make sure we arrive with plenty of time to spare. We will play it safe and arrive about 90 minutes before our train time.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Enjoy.

 

Wouldn't fancy towing in Cornwall. It's bad enough with the van 

 

It's fine. We dont go down any of the daft routes our Sat Nav would want us to go.!  tend to stay on the same site now when we go and use that as a base camp for exploring with the car.

 

There is one bit between St. Austell and Mevagissey that is a bit tight en route to the site but thats about it.

[Naughty Cal]

20 minutes ago, M_JG said:

 

It's fine. We dont go down any of the daft routes our Sat Nav would want us to go.!  tend to stay on the same site now when we go and use that as a base camp for exploring with the car.

 

There is one bit between St. Austell and Mevagissey that is a bit tight en route to the site but thats about it.

We stayed in Mevagissey with the van last year. Definitely don't want to miss the car park entrance for that one 

 

We got stuck with the Sierra in Mevagissey a few years back and some kind locals held back all the traffic for us while we extracted ourselves again 

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

We stayed in Mevagissey with the van last year. Definitely don't want to miss the car park entrance for that one 

 

We got stuck with the Sierra in Mevagissey a few years back and some kind locals held back all the traffic for us while we extracted ourselves again 

 

When we were down in 2021 some burk got stuck trying to get through the town towing a huge twin axle caravan. Despite the numerous 'not suitable for caravans' signs.

 

We didnt stick around to find out how they extracted him but I doubt his 'van escaped unscathed.

[Naughty Cal]

We are all packed up, the van is all packed up and we are ready to set off in the morning. 

 

Just need to fill the water up before we go, can't do it with the van parked in the drive as the filler is up against the house wall. 

 

The dog is overly excited. He will be a nuisance tonight. 🙄

3 hours ago, M_JG said:

 

When we were down in 2021 some burk got stuck trying to get through the town towing a huge twin axle caravan. Despite the numerous 'not suitable for caravans' signs.

 

We didnt stick around to find out how they extracted him but I doubt his 'van escaped unscathed.

I think we saw this in the news.

 

Mind you we can't say much. We trusted the sat nav (which has the vehicle dimensions in it) and got stuck in a country lane somewhere between  Tintagel and Perranporth 🤣🤣🤣

 

 

Both mirrors were in the undergrowth and the side skirts were touching the sides of the embankments. Couldn't get out to see if it got any better up ahead, so we had a long, uphill and winding reverse through a tight village to find somewhere to turn around and to find our way back to a sensible road again.

 

No harm done. We gave the village locals something to natter about and we made it to Perranporth in one piece 🙃

[LEO]

16 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Tomorrow we set off on our latest voyage with Milo the motorhome and are heading across, well more correctly under, the channel and into France. 

 

I think pretty much every stop that we have on our very rough and ready (and subject to change on a daily basis) route is by water so may be of interest to some, if not all of you.

 

Tonight after work we will finish off loading up the van ready for a steady day tomorrow driving down to St Margaret's Bay where we have an overnight stop booked in at The Coastguard ready for a morning train on Saturday.

 

Now just to get the last afternoon of work over and done with. Roll on 4.45pm 

Have a good trip.look forward to updates. We were in St Margaret's Bay this year, good beach Cafe and Ian Fleming;s house, it's changed since I was last there in 1960.............

[Naughty Cal]

No chance of a lie in around here on a Friday. 

 

The dog woke us up at 6am, the time we get up for work. Then the bin men were round at 6.15am. Then people setting off for work.

 

We have just accepted it's time to get up

35 minutes ago, LEO said:

Have a good trip.look forward to updates. We were in St Margaret's Bay this year, good beach Cafe and Ian Fleming;s house, it's changed since I was last there in 1960.............

We have never been so it wil be all new for us.

 

Our friends who we are travelling with for the first week or so always use it as their first night stop over and say its good food, so that's a good enough recommendation for us. And it's the closest pub to France of course 😄

[MrsM]

Hope you have a wonderful time. After our boat goes next week 😭 I suspect we might be joining you by becoming vanners again (for the 5th time). Be interested to hear how you get on with overseas travels and dog. X

[Nightwatch]

We used ‘ to do’ Cornwall quitea bit in the seventies and eighties. At one time we have a Renault 6 with a Conway trailer tent slung on the back. Two nippers and all the kit and kabugle. Interesting on some of the very narrow hills. I remember one such hill that we didn’t make it up and had to reverse back down. That was interesting.

[Stilllearning]

2 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

We used ‘ to do’ Cornwall quitea bit in the seventies and eighties. At one time we have a Renault 6 with a Conway trailer tent slung on the back. Two nippers and all the kit and kabugle. Interesting on some of the very narrow hills. I remember one such hill that we didn’t make it up and had to reverse back down. That was interesting.

Renault 6...I still shudder at the memories.

14 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

We are all packed up, the van is all packed up and we are ready to set off in the morning. 

 

Just need to fill the water up before we go, can't do it with the van parked in the drive as the filler is up against the house wall. 

 

The dog is overly excited. He will be a nuisance tonight. 🙄

I think we saw this in the news.

 

Mind you we can't say much. We trusted the sat nav (which has the vehicle dimensions in it) and got stuck in a country lane somewhere between  Tintagel and Perranporth 🤣🤣🤣

 

 

Both mirrors were in the undergrowth and the side skirts were touching the sides of the embankments. Couldn't get out to see if it got any better up ahead, so we had a long, uphill and winding reverse through a tight village to find somewhere to turn around and to find our way back to a sensible road again.

 

No harm done. We gave the village locals something to natter about and we made it to Perranporth in one piece 🙃

I'm intrigued that you fill up with water before you start, as we never do, to avoid dragging 150 unnecessary kilos around. We carry 2 5litre bottles for tea etc, then put what we need in the tank when we arrive. 

[Naughty Cal]

22 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

Renault 6...I still shudder at the memories.

I'm intrigued that you fill up with water before you start, as we never do, to avoid dragging 150 unnecessary kilos around. We carry 2 5litre bottles for tea etc, then put what we need in the tank when we arrive. 

We are staying at a pub tonight. No option to fill up when we get there!

 

We will do the same in France and fill up whenever we get the chance. We are staying on aires not sites so facilities vary greatly between them.

Not much to report so far. Just a damp drizzly run down the A1.

 

Quick coffee stop and we will be on our way again.

 

[Stilllearning]

10 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

We are staying at a pub tonight. No option to fill up when we get there!

 

We will do the same in France and fill up whenever we get the chance. We are staying on aires not sites so facilities vary greatly between them.

Not much to report so far. Just a damp drizzly run down the A1.

 

Quick coffee stop and we will be on our way again.

 

The freedom to stop almost anywhere is very pleasant, isn't. 

Motorhomes regularly stop overnight on the square in the town centre here and no-one ever complains.

[Naughty Cal]

Took a tad longer to get here than expected due to M25 traffic. 6 hours including a couple of stops.

 

Very pretty stopover though with a lovely view of France.

 

 

 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Took a tad longer to get here than expected due to M25 traffic. 6 hours including a couple of stops.

 

Very pretty stopover though with a lovely view of France.

 

 

 

 

Nice spot.

 

Major routes have been a right PITA today, last Friday of the school hols. Daughter was stuck for ages in a rolling road block on the M5 coming out of Devon.

[MrsM]

How exciting! Happy travels x

[LEO]

11 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Took a tad longer to get here than expected due to M25 traffic. 6 hours including a couple of stops.

 

Very pretty stopover though with a lovely view of France.

 

 

 

Good pics, brings back a few memories, the ferries and 'booze cruises'. have a good trip.

[Stilllearning]

15 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Took a tad longer to get here than expected due to M25 traffic. 6 hours including a couple of stops.

 

Very pretty stopover though with a lovely view of France.

 

 

 

You must be looking forward to the quieter roads over here.

[Naughty Cal]

It's been a long busy day today. We have been on the go since 6am and we are all shattered. 

 

Check in at the tunnel was super smooth. We managed to get on a train half an hour earlier than booked.

 

We have been and had a supermarket stock up and a refill of fuel and reached our destination of Montreuil Sur Mer.

 

It is hot hot hot here. Just had a few beers in the square and retired back to the vans for some shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Naughty Cal]

Cracking end to the day in Honfleur.

 

 

[Naughty Cal]

We are having a day off driving today and staying here in Honfleur for another night.

Shouldn't complain but it's looking a tad hot for the next week or so!

 

[Momac]

11 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Cracking end to the day in Honfleur.

 

 

Is that a vehicle park exclusively for motorhomes /caravans? 

1 hour ago, Naughty Cal said:

We are having a day off driving today and staying here in Honfleur for another night.

Shouldn't complain but it's looking a tad hot for the next week or so!

 

You couldn't have picked a  better week.......... assuming you don't mind the heat.