Friday 37th June- Weybridge here we come

Oh, how I hate 0630 in the morning which is when we needed to get up. It was so early there was no hot water in the showers so a cold wash down instead. Critics might say why not use the shower in the van but not anticipating this problem we had turned the water heater off overnight so that we did not forget to turn it off whilst were away. Anyway we reached the underground Car Park at the Old Post Office in Vichy and had to see the office to advise them we were leaving the car for four days. OK Monsieur no problemo he said.

The train was very comfortable and pretty much on time apart from a couple of minutes, who says nationalisation does not work. We arrived at the Gare D’Lyon and found the Air France bus stop which would take us to the Airport. The bus was about 45 minutes late but the time was well spent watching the passing traffic and so many bicycles were being used, a lot more than London. Nearby was a large bay where you could rent electric bikes , how sensible is that.

The BA flight was almost on time but Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport needs a medal for being one of most confusing and badly laid out Airports there are, I hate to think what a first time traveller would think when they try to use it.

We arrived at the new terminal 5, from an arrivals point of view it is a glass and steel building of NO character whatsoever. The designers should have taken advice from Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore before making this big mistake. Maybe it’s different on departures, lets see on Tuesday.

It was starting to rain as we got back home and guess what, no hot water. We believe that in error somebody must have adjusted the water temperature down to zero and so after fiddling about Noel got it going but we had to wait for at least an hour and half before it was warm enough for a shower which we so badly needed.

An early night in our big new bed and we watched the repeat of Top Gear.

Let’s hope the weather is better tomorrow.

Thursday 26th June- A visit to Gannat

Gannat town

Normally I do the blog the day after however as we are leaving early tomorrow

morning I have decided to do it early and so will have to do this afternoon whatever we write now.

However, this morning we took a walk around the old town of Gannat and took a few photos. We sat in the Church square and had a coffee and cognac and watched the world pass by. This part of the Auvergne appears to be completely unspoilt by tourism, as far as we can see. In Ebreuil there don’t seem to be any Brits living here and 99.9 per cent of the population is very much local.this afternoon we spent by the river watching the new arrivals put up tents, manoeuvre caravans all over the place and read a book.

Last night we watched a film called ‘The perfect Storm’ we were both quite seasick after watching the film and I don’t think Noel will ever do a cruise particularly across the Atlantic.

Anyway, back to today and tonight is the Salmon which I am sure will be excellent.

Next update will be on Saturday.

Wednesday 25th June –Another quiet day at camp

A bit like Monday really, fiddled around with a few things like sorting out the tools in the back of the car but generally taking it easy.

The musings of an old man. Why do the flies always get on the wrong side of the fly screens. I could never work this out? The idea of fly screens is to keep out the flies and not to stop them getting out. Answers to…Bored of Auvergne. c/o The big Caravan by the River Sioule

The site seems to be filling up a bit, this time it’s the ‘Germans’ (don’t, mention the war) and some Brits. Perhaps this explains that tonight’s take away was ‘Shepherds pie’ we didn’t purchase this as we don’t want to be associated with the wrong type of people. Tomorrow is Salmon-en-croute, now that’s more our style.

We leave early on Friday morning to catch the 0845 train to Paris, it will take about three hours and then we catch another train or bus to Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport and arrive back at terminal 5 which could be fun. We have the Elmbridge Building Inspector coming next Monday and so we need to be ready to receive him, armed with all the answers and changes that were required

Tuesday 24th June 2008 A busy day ahead

To make up for yesterdays relaxing day we planned a visit to Vichy to do some shopping and get the tyre fixed.

Noel was also looking for a large plastic box which he can store all the essential bits and pieces that come along with towing a van such as Jacks, wheel nut Newton tighteners etc etc and so we headed for Cora a large Hypermarket just outside Vichy which we have been to many times before hoping they may have what we need. After a complete search of the store we came across a metal box which although the right size would be awkward and also being metal might damage the inside of the car.

So we moved on and nearby was a company with a workshop, very much like a French version of Halfords called Norauto but this place seem deserted of staff and there only appeared to be a young girl on the till and so we gave this up. We had previously seen a place nearer Vichy called Speedy who seemed to do tyres and in my best Frenglish I explained that the tyre had a petit, petit psshhh, remarkably he understood and said in his best French that they do not mend punctures as they only sell new tyres and fit them. He suggested that the best place to go was a company called Norauto which was close to Cora Hypermarket. And so we went back to Norauto and Noel tried his best French again only this time Jennifer chipped in with the magic word ‘Crevaison’ Ah we (oui) he said and show me the tyre. We had to wait a while for everybody to recover from lunch and then they started.

The Land Cruiser wheels have locking nuts and the technician wanted to see the ownership papers of the car, he said with the help of a passer by. I could not understand why he needed to see the ‘Papers’ when I had the special nut remover to hand, that solved the papier’s issue quickly.

It took about 35 minutes checking to decide that it was a faulty valve and not the tyre and as Toyota fit the Land Cruiser with metal not rubber valves and of course they don’t have the metal ones and so we have to make do with the rubber one until we can get a new one from Toyota. I think there is a Toyota garage in Cahor in the Lot Valley which is where we go next in about 10 days time

During this time Jennifer went to Cora for a couple of foot long baguettes for lunch which we ate whilst waiting for the happening to begin.

The temperature when we left Norauto was about 35 degrees Centigrade wow it’s really getting warm now.

In Carrefour we found the ideal plastic box and along with some food shopping headed off home for an early evening meal of Avocado and shrimp salad followed by a Magnum ice cream, boy do we know how to live it up.

Later in the evening when checking on email and weather, we noticed that it is still quite cool in London at this time whereas the 10 day forecast for here is to stay around the 30 degrees mark during the day a then cool to around 21 degrees in the evening, very pleasant indeed.

We are reading books at a rate of knots at the moment and its really nice not to bother about the things we need to do at Piplin House when we eventually get back.

Monday 24th June- Not a lot really

Not a lot really, about sums it up. Reading and resting comes to mind.

Sunday 22nd June- It’s hot and muggy down here

There are a lot of unhappy and sad looking faces around the site today. Most of the inhabitants are Dutch and yesterday it seems that the Dutch National Football squad at Euro 2008 grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Russian team who beat the Dutch is coached by a Dutchman and so I don’t think he will be setting foot in Holland for a while.

It’s been a bit grey and very humid today with the temperature going up to about 33 degrees centigrade. The heat is not so bad if it’s not too humid but yesterday was quite uncomfortable. Lets hope tomorrow is better.

We spent most the day reading and watching the canoes go by on the river and only interrupted by lunch, dinner and the odd cup of tea.

The site is still quite empty, just as we like it although three Brit caravans turned up late yesterday but only spent the night. On one night last week there was a small French car with an elderly couple in it who parked on a site with no tent and we assume they slept in the car. Most strange we assumed they parked here to use the facilities.

The couple who run this site, John and Jane are a very nice couple who seem to go out of their way to make peoples stay enjoyable. The take-away food is really excellent and although we have missed out for a few nights as it can get expensive we will try again later this week.

Looks like I have a slow puncture in the Land Cruiser and that will be fun trying to explain that in French, but we must get it done before we move on to the Lot valley in a couple of weeks.

or those who more information on our location see the following link

Bi for now.

http://www.campingfilature.com/index.html

Saturday 21st June- Gosh it’s hot today

The sky was clear blue as we did a quick trip in to town for a little bit of shopping and then headed down the Gorges des Chouvigny for a few miles. With all the recent rain everything looked bright and green and quite beautiful. There are a number of two and three star small Hotels in the gorge with impressive views and well worth a visit for a long weekend in the Auvergne.

The river flows through the gorge and passes by some beautiful views of not quite mountains but very large hills. We stopped at a local municipal camp/caravan site we had visited before and it was crowded with one tent in about 20 acres. It’s still early season here.

It was getting really hot in the afternoon and up to about 33 degrees and so we hid in the shade and read and watched the canoes pass by on the river.

We had been advised that there was to be a musical event in the evening in Ebreuil and so after dinner we headed downtown to see what we could find. The evening sun was creating great shadows on the old buildings and so Noel took a few photos.

When we arrived in town there was not much sign of a musical festival and so we carried on walking and found in a restaurant near the main square, where they hold market day, a disc jockey playing music across the road to people eating in the restaurant. We thought if this was the musical event then something must be wrong.

However, on the way back and in the Marie square a small group had gathered of the local guitar club and also we think the church choir. The guitar group started first and were very nervous and it felt like a finger warm up rather than a tune until they came to the end when we were encouraged to clap. After three tunes of indifferent nature it was the turn of the choir who also started quietly and also off key. The Vicar was doing his best to keep things moving along by playing a decrepit organ and waving his arms between notes to encourage the choir. It did get better and in the end they were beginning to sound quite good. I think the café across the road missed a trick by not setting up tables and selling some plonk. Anyway it was good to watch and madefor an entertaining evening.

Back to the site and bed, by this time the van had cooled down quite a bit but it was still warmer than any other night here.

Friday 20th- Ou e le billet’s please

The sun was shining again, it is getting hotter each day now.

We needed to get our train ticket for Paris and as mentioned were concerned that they had changed the schedules. Ready for an argument we approached the ticket counter and were given the tickets with no problem and then we noticed that there is only one train per day to Paris that is affected. Thank heavens for that.

Being ready for an argument which then did not take place was a bit of an anticlimax and so we headed off for some last minute shopping to cope with the next few days food requirements. Loaded up with Atlantic salmon, shrimps and steak and a couple of bottles of plonk we headed back to site for an afternoon of reading.

This holiday is not like the New Zealand one where we kept moving. This one is all about taking it easy and so don’t expect to much on the travel front.

We spent the evening with a great dinner and a quiet evening’s read.

Thursday 19th June- A quiet day on the site

We spent the morning fiddling with the awning as is has a number of different ways it can be used; it took a little while but it was worth it.

The sun was shining and the temperature was being to rise and it was a very pleasant day indeed. We spent most of the afternoon reading and then enjoyed roast lamb for dinner. A quiet but very pleasant day. Tomorrow we intend to go to Vichy to collect our train tickets and try to find out more about what trains are running and/or cancelled.

Wednesday 18th June- I told you it was inside out

Before and after

Today was awning put up day. We have never attempted this before for a number of reasons and so it was going to be a challenge

The first mistake was to put all the poles out as this is add to the general confusion as you need the poles in a set order.

Last year on a sunny day we did take out all the poles and mark them and pu them in bags marked 1 and 2, neither of us could remember why we did this but we did. Now we know why, the first bag contained the poles for the first part of the awning and the 2^nd bag the balance of the poles. It had taken us several hours to sort them out and now they were in a big pile on the floor. Great start!.

Having realised out mistake we started to sort them out and then tried to understand the erection instructions which are printed in 6 languages in extremely small print

The first step is to get the awning in the metal channel which runs around the caravan. This went better than expected except that we realised that the awning was inside out-brilliant. So we had to take it out and start again. Well given another couple of hours with many references to the instructions we finally finished and we surprised how big it is. This could be perhaps we had only seen this awning at a caravan show where it was attached to a much smaller van as against the one we have.

We liked the finished result but we would not this up again for a short stay but only for long stays over say a week or more. Next time it will be a lot easier and faster as we get to know the ropes, so to speak.

By the time we had finished it was rather late and we had to resort to the site take-away of chicken and rice, however it was really good as per usual and taken with a bottle of red organic wine.

Tomorrow we will finish sorting out the awning and cut the carpet to suit. Just like being at home.

The weather here today was brilliant and quite warm with plenty of sun and around 27 degrees centigrade. The site is still fairly quiet which is how we like it

We will try to catch up on some reading tomorrow and put our feet up for a while and watch the river flow past. This has a mesmerising effect accept so much visible water mean more frequent trips to the loo, oh the signs of getting old.

Tuesday 17th June A day trip to Vichy

It was raining quite hard this morning and so rather than on site we headed off for a trip to Vichy. By the time we arrived the rain had stopped and we were there in time for lunch in a place we have been several times before.

After lunch we decided to head for the Station to find out where it is and also perhaps look around as we will be going there again later this month when we leave by train to Paris and then on by plane to join an important friends event in Wey Road.

The station was in turmoil as not only were they digging up the tracks and refurbishing the station there was a sign saying no trains to Paris by exception????

We went inside the station to try and find out what was happening but the ticket area was very busy and also we did not have our train confirmation email which we could use for checking the booking. So we will return later this week fully armed with our confirmation slip and try to find out whu SNCF sold us tickets on line for perhaps non existent trains. This will be fun.

There is a brand new Carrefour Supermarket in Vichy which we visited for some shopping, this a very shop with a great choice of food which all looked very fresh.

We headed home after getting a little bit lost around Vichy, it’s a bigger place than we thought, and arrived back at the site nas it started to rain again,

We had some of the Lasagne left over from last night and decided to have that for dinner and then spent the rest of the evening reading to the sound of the passing river.

I am writing this on Wednesday morning 18^th and the sun is out, there is pretty much blue sky everywhere and its getting warm. We plan to put up the Awning today so tomorrow read the sordid and frustrating details of our first attempt.

PS We did not take any photos of Vichy as we have quite a few during past visits. You can visit the Phafare Blog for our previous photos of this area

Monday 16th January let’s go shopping

When we woke up it was raining and it continued to rain, pretty much, throughout the complete day. We went shopping in Ebreuil but of course on a Monday most shops are closed and the only food shop was the local SPAR which carries a good range but nowhere near as good as big Hypermarket. We looked at some pork chops for the evening and decided they had seen better days and then we decided to cheat and opt for the take-away which was Lasagne.

The only other shop that was open was a very different Local version of a Bricomarche. This shops sells everything from shoes to Plasma TV and from a garden tractor to a rain hat. It’s a fascinating place to tour and anyway we needed a small battery for the I-Pod player remote which had decided to stop working.

We did consider putting up the awning but in the poring rain it did not seem like a good thing to do.

The camp site now has a wireless Internet connection which will make it much easier for updating the Blog and reading emails. In the past we have needed to visit Vichy, which is a lovely city, but it does take about 30 minutes to get there and so this development is really good.

The river which is about 20 feet from our caravan is much higher than we have seen in the past and it is not possible to see the river boulders which during our last visit were quite visible.

We have pretty much got ourselves organised and so after the Lasagne and salad with a small glass or two of Bordeaux Superior we watched ‘The Last Samurai’ with Tom Cruise. YES, we have a LCD TV with us which has a DVD player and so when it does rain we can watch a film.

Let’s hope the weather starts improving tomorrow, Wednesday is forecast to be sunny and 23 degrees.

Sunday 15th June We are off to Ebreuil

We left slightly later than planned as we both slept very well and by the time we had got organised we left about 0830 to head off round Paris on the ‘A104 Francilian’ almost a motorway but more of a ring road. This road is about 30 miles outside of Paris which does make it potentially a longer distance but there is always less traffic than going round the Paris Periphique which can be a nightmare.

So two hours later we were South of Paris and on the A10 Motorway heading for Orleans and there we switched to the A71 in the direction of Clermont Ferrand. We had a couple of stops en-route for food , fuel and the usual relief stops.

We arrived at the Ebrueil exit and due to confusion with the signs above the toll booths we ended up in the Truck Exit lane instead of cars which did cause some confusion. However this was their fault as the car exit had a height restriction and now way would the Caravan go under a 2 metre bar.

We have also noticed that the width of the toll booth payment areas is also very narrow and so you have to be very careful when entering.

The site at Ebreuil was quite empty and we were able to spend some deciding where we would park the van. We wanted to be close to the river but not under the trees and not to close to anybody else but also near water and electric. We succeeded however and one hour later we were having a nice cup of tea.

Whenever we arrive here at the Ebreuil site, this is our third time, it is always raining and today was no exception. Better weather is promised/forecast from mid this week, so let’s see what happens and keep our fingers crossed.

The take-away is great and tonight is it Steak & Kidney pie, the owners of the site are English, which explains the menu and it was really good and together with a bottle of local red wine we had a great evening listening to the light rain fall and reading.

After dinner we both tried out the Caravan shower for the first time and both of us agreed it was very good, not a lot of space but sufficient to get clean and not have to go to a cold wash block

We may well set up the Awning tomorrow if it is not raining too much.

The view from our bedroom

NB More photos of this holiday are available on the Phanfare Blog see link

Saturday 14th June Let’s go

We needed to be up quite early as we had booked the 0915 hrs P & O Ferry to Calais and we need to be at Dover by 0815 and as usual Noel likes to be on time so we were up at about 0500 Hrs doing the last minute things. We had left the van on the road overnight so as to not make to much noise early in the morning but we still needed to disconnect the mains electrics and also the security systems.

The journey down to Dover was quite uneventful and the Ferry was quite full. We went straight to the Langhams Brasserie for a good old English egg and bacon breakfast.

Our journey to our first caravan site at Sorel which took about 3 hours to reach as it is just outside of Paris where we stayed, the site was mainly occupied by the Dutch , most of whom seemed to be going home. We had a nice dinner at the site restaurant with a glass of beer which went down extremely well. And so we went off to bed.

The FRENCH Blog Friday 13th June-Ahh

We leave tomorrow and the previous two days were exetrmeley busy indeed what with the carpenters and also the need to check the drains and sewers in the house.

The Caravan was collected on the Wednesday evening and brought back to Piplin House so that we could check it over. So two days of understanding the water, gas and electric systems was extremely useful and enabled us to get ‘up to speed’ on the inner workings of the van. and to ensure there were not to many pitfalls.

Just a tiny bit more to do

The last few weeks have seen a significant change to the house, with floors and carpets being laid. Our experience with ASHLEY FLOORING who laid the bamboo was very poor and not to be recommended. Actually down right amateurish.
The Elmbridge Building Inspector came to check up on developments and requested some changes which we hope will be finalised by Tuesday 10th June which could allow him to return the next day and perhaps sign off on the development. Time will tell.
Generally the house is now in good order and we had a BBQ for family and friends last Saturday but I forgot to take photographs of the event.
We are hoping to head off with the caravan on Saturday 14th and head towards Vichy, all being well on the Building Inspector side.
The plan is to spend around 7 weeks in France, although we will be back for the Elton John Concert in early July at Brooklands and then we return to France until we have had enough but most likely we will be back early August when it can get very hot and quite crowded.
It looks like we may to return to New Zealand at the end of October and stay in our friends house until early March and miss the good old British winter. We are hoping that Joanne and Michael will be able to join us for a couple of weeks but this depends on their holiday arrangements .
I am planning to take some photos of the completed house later this week after the inspector has been and will post them here.
Over and out for the moment