Life In New Lanes

I decided to revisit the Camping Sandaya in the town of Maisons-Lafitte on the banks of the Seine to the west of Paris from which a 5-minute walk/cycle to the station will bring you + bike to the Arc de Trimphe station. Everything worked – it’s a lovely campsite offering an out of season price of 21eu plus tourist tax for the pitch, 2 adults including electricity, with shop cafe/restaurant and swimming pool. Raised a smile about my & friend’s tent stopover in abit of mud on the bikepacking ride at the end of last season!

The next day I enjoyed cycling round some of the main Paris landmarks I’d missed back in September.

On the campsite side of the Seine

Another night beckoned with good weather the next day, so I decided to cycle some of the Dieppe to Paris route along the river before crossing it to get to Versailles.

Suffice to say, this was a somewhat naive plan, slightly offset by the glorious sunlit route of the flat waterside distance in the well-heeled burbs, wooed by the Paris cycling infrastructure, which doesn’t necessarily extend to the hills and dual carriageways up, over and under which (fortunately) my legs had to push my bike. It was some of those ‘where is flippin’ Versailles’ as the climb went on & on, and ‘am I going to end up on a dual carriage/motorway with no way back’ stress-building thoughts. I obviously made it, and collapsed to enjoy the coffee – the prospect with which I had kept myself going.

This was my second lifetime visit to the park area, the first I think when I was a student back in the day. I was struck by how extensive it was. I could see the lovely palaces in their setting, but chose not to go in instead enjoying all the tourist and parisien life of all ages cycling, walking, rowing, picnicking and sightseeing by electric car and little bus.

Knowing that I could get a train to the La Defense station and then change to one to my town, for the sum of 2.55eu gave me the reassuring return journey. Nevertheless following satnav to get to this Versailles station proved somewhat tortuous, so all in all I knew I’d earned a complete do nothingness when I finally got off the train knowing my pad was thankfully just round a few corners.

Now I’m at the end of the next day’s well-judged departure and travel plans. Good weather is forecast for the south west coast near Bordeaux for the next 2-3 days, so it’s been time to move on. Today has reached 24deg but being Saturday, the roads were empty. When was the last time a main road – the free autoroute A10 between Vierzon and Limoges – looked as empty as this in England?  The Creuse Valley region certainly looks worth a visit.

An interesting observation of myself is that if I get used to a site and enjoy being there, I tend to subconsciously assume a more defensive posture and expectation of the next journey and place.  And yet once underway this tends to dissipate.

My thoughts while driving for some of this afternoon went to remembering individual family and friends whose life has ended – at least on this earth -, and how absurd and therefore horrific their death is; all that character, personhood, relationship, love, has just simply disappeared abruptly. It’s a very very deep and expansive ‘missing them’ and plaintiff cry ‘where are you’, which also contributed to some wakefulness last night. Inevitable more frequent thought patterns as I and loved ones get older.

I have stopped half-way in the region between Poitiers and Limoges, following the recommendation of one of my catalogue of Motorhome Monthly Magazine articles from 2018 I think, for the municipal campsite at the little historic town Le Dorat.  This is now being operated on the platform/scheme campercarpark.com, for what appears to be less than 10eu per night, (bit of confusion re having to buy a credit-loading card for re-use as well as the stopover) including electricity, little toilet/shower block, 5 mins walk to the town square with cafe, boulangerie, even a cinema. How lovely is all this.

The 2026 trip was officially put into operation a month or so ago with the booking of the ferry to France. The plans were considered in the shadow of the Trump & Netanyahu and their governments’-induced needless loss of hundreds if not thousands of innocent lives from illegal bombings & targeting of civilians in Iran & Lebanon, reciprocal shelling on sites in the Gulf states, shortages of resources with impact for food production across the world, and other significant impact on global economies and the person in the street arising from this and the diesel price instability and hikes and fuel shortages, adding to the continuing Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank, and of course Ukraine still fighting off the other tyrant. I’ll record these unprecedented, at least in my lifetime, sufferings whose responsibility falls according to my study on those 3 war criminals and their sycophantic, greedy and power-addicted enablers, for when I may look back from however my near-future unfolds.

At the moment this minion is fortunate and thankful to be many steps removed from all this. Since last writing, two grandsons have been born to my daughter and youngest son and their partners. I was struck on visiting to give them all a last hug before this grand depart, by how much I will miss the little ones. I am able to enjoy spending alot of time with them, and other little great nieces and nephew who also live locally, which is such a joy despite being knackering. My granddaughter who is now almost 3, loves coming into ‘Nanavan’ and when I opened the bathroom door to remind her of what was behind it, she again caused such a laugh with her main  expression of toilet expertise – namely “is that a soft-close lid?” My little shower room equipment doesn’t thankfully extend to a hand dryer, of which she is pathologically scared.

My choice of day to drive towards the south coast avoiding bank holiday Monday traffic proved wise as once again I entered into a very nostalgia-evoking memory lane with Heart 70s radio. A lovely journey break and stop over with relatives near Oxford and then the ferry with a calm sea and bright day heading for Le Havre, France from Portsmouth. No reservations initially but just target places on my travel list to Carcassone and then upto Germany & the Netherlands.

Off the ferry and we were not put through any Schengen border new requirements. The 2-hour journey to the planned first night stopover at the free motorhome parking provided by Giverny, worked. How fantastic to be on the continent where the philosophy hasn’t been to monetise every blade of grass or parking space. What would have been the overnight cost was able to be spent on the entrance fee for the Monet museum, house and garden. Very busy it has to be said, causing me not to want to join the big queue to get into the house from the gardens, but I got the picture! 🙂 Heavy overnight rain had dissipated and it’s been a really pleasant day. Am so happy in this free setting that I’m staying another night, and then will head to a site closer towards Paris for a day of train plus cycle tomorrow. Just one minor annoyance in that there’s a known problem with my TV aerial which needed fixing and I had forgotten about it. This realisation was prompted by the concept of trying to see if PSG vs Bayern Munich might be available this evening so that I could watch some good football and see who Arsenal will meet in the Champions League final.