France

Booked the ferry from Le Havre to return to the UK Fri 6 July, and planned the route from Perros-Guirec via Mont Saint Michel, Caen and the Normandy beaches and then Honfleur town visit. Apart from passing through, this is my first visit to Normandy.

The weather continues to be perfect for driving, stopping somewhere overnight, and walking/cycling to explore.

Mont Saint Michel was very impressive, although I decided that a visit to the inside of the Abbaye would wait for another time. The surrounding countryside is peaceful, and seems ‘gentle’. Don’t know whether this will change once the full Summer holidays start. Stayed on a camping car private aire called La Bidonniere about 2.5 miles from the start of the causeway and can see the Abbaye through my van side door.

This morning I woke up quite early and had just the sound of birds, gentle breeze and the faint echoes of successive village bells chiming 7am, from across the flat plains. Perfect.

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Have very fond memories of one or two holidays taken with extended family when the next generation were children – did that actually happen! – in this part of northern Brittany, when the weather didn’t perform like british Cornwall. I wanted to see whether it was still as beautiful as I remembered.

So Perros-Guirec and Tregastel – you are. I love the rocks and boulder formations, along the coastline and in the villages, the coves, inlets and beaches of the crystal clear sea. Recollect being in the water amongst the rocks when the tide came in very fast, and it’s one of the many places we’ve been fortunate to enjoy with our family which would have been paradise for me as a child. As an empty-nester – what could be better – fantastic for walking, cycling, kayaking, exploring the coastline – assuming sunshine, and not drizzle or sea mist which also happens.

For those who know Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire, UK, then it’s like that up and down the coast of pink granite, and the houses, street pavings, flower planters, etc are built from it. Unfortunately just a one-night stop here this time as part of the 5-day road trip from Benodet back to the ferry port at Le Havre, and the weather did its job – clear skies, low twenties.

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I love a good beach and go out of my way to see them, even if I don’t lie on one, or go in the water. Reminds me of the advert for the Bounty chocolate bar from my youth, where “they went in search of paradise”.

My journey to Benodet went via the Bay of La Baule, on the Loire-Atlantique coast past St Nazare, which I’d read on a French website was reputed to be one of the most beautiful in the world. This time I even went in the water at Pornichet, but didn’t linger when I saw a jelly-fish.

This is the coast at Pornic, and then the Bay of La Baule:

Landed at Camping du Trev which is like the wooded garden of a large country house, but just 200m from the main beach at Benodet. And NO HEATWAVE. A respectable temperature of around 25 – 28, whereas Courry in the Gard (southeast France) was 42 degrees yesterday!

This area is really lovely.

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Took the little ferry across the river Odet over to Sainte Marine, and cycled along the coast to Ile Tudy, then back across and just around the headland to view the ‘Letty’ beach which had been recommended by a colleague:

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As my outline plan had already been to visit southern Brittany, the forecasts of a major heatwave to hit most of France except there, was very convenient. But as France is vast, and given my preference for all the advantages of driving on non-toll motorways, the Loire area offered itself as an attractive stopover and my first visit to the region, so I made my way to the municipal campsite L’Ile d’Or at Amboise.

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For this western odyssey, I had roughly planned to see alot of Spain, then Portugal, then back through France before returning to the UK for the high season period – ie to avoid the much more expensive, booking-needing weeks of mid July to late August particularly given that I’m targeting places that are on the holiday map – and then to depart again late August. But without any fixed plans, I was tempted by the option with obviously lots of advantages, of staying in the south of France at my Mum’s house for those weeks, or leaving the campervan in the campsite next door and flying back to the UK, to return similarly late August. What options to have!

But I decided that the other places were still calling me, and the weather forecast was looking very favourable – as the variable southern Brittany would be hot enough, and also avoid the heatwave of temperatures upto 40deg throughout most of France. So interesting, that after 3 months of travel, the original outline plan was still holding.

Therefore had a beautiful recommended drive north of the Cevennes and west from Les Vans through Villefort, then upto Puy en Velay on the D901, then 906, then N102. The ‘Val D’Allier’ looked stunning. There was even a tightroper who I spied high above a gorge, and by the time the van made it to the top on one of those roads I’m not keen on, they had either fallen to their death or made it across.

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Continued to Clermont Ferrand, and then headed west into the Auvergne to Chambon-sur-Lac, to Camping Les Bombes – good reviews, which I confirm and so cheap for the place. Quick cycle ride around the area and resolved that I should push myself to use the van like a car – ie to drive to two locations around the area on route to my next planned stop to meet up with my Mum and partner at his daughter and son-in-law’s house they’re doing up in the middle of nowhere, just east of Limoges.

THE AUVERGENE IS GORGEOUS – mountains – ie extinct volcanoes above 1400, with ski resorts, so like the Pyrenees, Picos etc, loads of hiking/cycling trails, beautiful villages. I drove first to the ‘Vallee de Chaudefour’ and walked up the valley, through the alpine-like meadows to the ‘Cirque’ of mountains/volcanoes.

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In the afternoon, drove via Puy de Dome, took the train upto the summit at 1450m to look down on Clermond Ferrand, and the volcanoes in this chain, before driving on another 70 miles or so on great ‘D’ roads to get to the hamlet of Mont Pigeaud near the town of Gueret . Unfortunately my photos don’t do it justice, but plenty on the internet.

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Spent 2 nights parked outside the house of Nicola and Darren, just east of Limoges near the town of Gueret. Nicola is the daughter of my Mum’s partner, and so met up with them also as they were travelling down to Courry. Nicola and Darren have taken on a project with this house, not as far as re-building a ruin, but in terms of damp on a main wall, and lots of other basic maintenance, which they do in their holidays, driving down with car fully-laden, and the odd hire-van trip from Homfirth in Yorkshire. Very interesting, the challenges people take on.

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The photo belies the amount of work to be, and already done by Nicola and Darren, and it is somewhat in the middle of nowhere, albeit about 20 mins drive on the usual good minor roads from Gueret.