Arrived in Guignicourt for a couple of days:
Weather forecast terrible, but rain was less than predicted. Went to get train to Laon, but ticket prices silly and trains very infrequent, so we’ll find another way to visit Loan.
Not too bad a view to wake up to
Chaos at Eurotunnel, Folkestone due to a broken train. Spent over four hours there, blocked in on all sides at some points. Now at Guînes, planning to head south tomorrow, with a full tank of diesel, hoping to get somewhere without rain by Monday.
Here we are in Folkestone, after a night in Moreton-in-Marsh and a couple of nights in Birmingham:
Who knows why the Sat-Nav took that way around Oxford but it did. Torrential rain all day, still pouring down, and the TV bracket has jammed meaning we can only watch TV in bed until it gets fixed. Late afternoon crossing tomorrow so off to find a socket set to see if we can free the dodgy joint.
Three months in a big circular tour of France. Here is the trip from Wimereux to Guînes via the local wine shop:
Which is where we started this. Back to UK tomorrow, rain expected overnight, and the forecast for Birmingham, where we are spending a couple of days before going home, looks dire:
Oh, pants, but typical
The complete trip:
Went to Wimereux for a couple days, a pleasant way to end the holiday. Here is the route:
Wimereux is a seaside town not unlike some in the UK. It has some nice shops selling a mixture of tourist tat and nice stuff and is generally a nice place to be when the sun is shining.
There is a bus to Boulogne-sur-Mer for a Euro, where there are boats and seagulls and an interesting old town.
A well behaved seagull. Cornish seagulls take note
Up above the world you fly, Like a tea tray in the sky
The prom at Wimereux
Picquigny is small but nice, on the river Somme. Today we got the train to Amiens for a wander round, which turned out to be a big but somewhat uninspiring place on first impressions. Cathedral is nice, but not the best in France, and the town center lacks the charm of nearby Reims or Troyes. Off north tomorrow. We’ll look at some guide books when we get home and give Amiens a second chance, as the campsite is great and the transport links are good, if a bit infrequent.
Tabac in Picquigny
Not the best cathedral in France
Maybe not even the best cathedral in Amiens
Some fireworks to celebrate the holiday tomorrow. Pictures taken from the campsite pitch.
Heading for home now. Route from Honfleur to Picquincy:
Important information: If you leave the A16 north of Amiens (at J21) hoping to find a supermarket, just go to the Super-U you drive past, even if you are looking for the Intermarché down the road. The Intermarché appears to have been taken over by Romulans who have hidden it using their cloaking technology – you will never find it. Fortunately, Picquincy itself has a small Carrefour. Unfortunately, it has about 10 parking spaces, of which we took up four. Never mind, we now have enough food and drink to last us until after the public holiday, when we will hit the road for the channel.
Of course it is raining again, and cold, so in France, in July, with the heating on.
Also note that filling stations are few and far between on this route so don’t embark on it with a nearly empty tank.
Went for a wander round Honfleur, another place full of tourists but not really selling that much tourist tat. In fact some of the stuff on sale here does not have prices on, so not affordable by the likes of us. Here is a cow trying to entice us into buying some of the local produce:
I’m just a cow, why have I been roped into this?
On the subject of cows, there was much mooing from the cows in the field next door to the campsite. Much more mooing than anybody would reasonably expect from a field full of cows. Then last night the fields fell silent. Were the cows aware of their fate? Poor cows what a shame we thought, as we sank our teeth into our cheeseburgers.
Tourists taking pictures
Reminds me of Leith
This is Pierre Berthelot, one of many local celebrities whose busts are on display in the Busts of local well known characters. This poor chap was a sailor, cartographer and navigator who gave it all up to become a monk. Later, working for the Portuguese, the Dutch took exception to his activities and saw to it that he was tortured and murdered.
It’s a bust
Here is a big boat sailing past Honfleur:
A boat. Makes a change from a farmyard animal
The bridge in the background is the Pont de Normandie. We have been over this a few times but it still looks a bit scary on the approach as it goes way up in the air.
Scary bridge
We are off from here on Tuesday and need to be a bit careful since Friday is a national holiday, and Saturday and Sunday will be mad as usual. We need to stock up on food and drink to keep us going into the next week. This is a nice campsite where we have been before and will be again, but the wi-fi falls apart in the early evening and doesn’t seem to get better until morning.
Having assessed our gas situation we concluded that it is probably about time to end this trip. Without the lack of gas we would have gone back to Burgundy, but instead we decided to head north with a view to going home, maybe a bit earlier than planned. The GPS got set for Chartres, but it looked look incredibly busy so we carried on going towards Dreux, where we topped up on provisions.
On we went to Honfleur, a place we know well. The campsite here has everything anyone could need, is on a bus route to lots of places, and is next door to a supermarket and wine shop. It is also sufficiently far north that we can get UK TV on Astra 2. Oh, great. We’ll stay here for a week and try to visit various local places on the bus.
Pitched up at Honfleur