2019/20 Winter Tour and Xmas Stopover. 'Home' to Castelnaudary

Monday 4th November 2019 ☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁
Mileage 251 from Butterley Bank Certified Site to Dover Rd Park and Ride Aire
Parking Co-ordinates 51.26154, 1.09988

Today marks the start of our 5 month 2019/20 winter road trip on which we'll probably spend most of our time in 🌞🌞🌞 Spain and Portugal😀!  Our loose plan is to drive down fairly quickly through France over the next week, then to slow down and dawdle along the Mediterranean coast until we get to our Xmas stomping ground at Marjal where we'll spend the next 8 weeks with friends.  Then after that maybe we'll tour further south into Portugal and towards the end of March we might head homewards along the North coast of Spain - but who knows that may well change if the fancy takes us!

But before I get into our travelling story I just want to say a few very big 'THANK YOUS'😍😍 !


Firstly that will be to our Children, their Partners and our Grandchildren for welcoming us back into their homes and lives and for making our time with them so very special.  As a farewell yesterday Sarah and Paul (daughter and son-in-law) hosted a party so that we could all be together, and while I was there I had time to steal hugs and precious little conversations with everyone - both big and little children alike!  So now when I feel a bit homesick I can take them out from the safe place where I've stored them near my heart and I'm sure they'll make me smile and feel a lot better 😍😍!

From bottom to top there is 20 month old Max with Mum Vicky, Son Ben with his wife Louise and daughter Evelyn.  Then comes Son-in-law Paul, Daughter Sarah and their son Thomas, and then right at the top is Son Adam and Grandson Jack!

We also want to let Val, John and Mum know how much we've enjoyed sharing their company and also at times their home! Although we nearly always have the 'roaming bug'🐛 spending time with the ones we love is an essential part of our life.

Finally, many thanks to Cath and George for co-in-siding their visit south with our stay, and also our dear friends Sharon and Paul who we really didn't see enough off but who happily surrendered to being my 'guinea pigs'😂 when I tried lots of new Low Carb recipes at our dinner party last Thursday!  Nearly all the food got mopped up so my 'experiments' must have been edging towards 10 on the Likert Scale 😋😋.

And so back to our journey!  The drive down to Canterbury was completely uneventful and took just 5 hours (+ breaks), and happily, even on the M25 there were no traffic problems.  We overnighted in the dedicated Motorhome section of the Dover Road Car Park and paid just £7 for the privilege, and the only thing that disturbed our slumbers was the hammering rain on our roof, but 'hey ho' that can happen anywhere!


Tuesday 5th November 2019 ☁☁☁☁☁☁⛆⛆
Mileage 94 from Dover Rd Park and Ride to Saint Valery-Sur-Somme Aire
Parking Co-ordinates 50.18277, 1.62887

Overnight we'd had the company of about half a dozen other vans who all seemed to be departing and heading the same way as us, but when catching a ferry from Dover this Aire makes an ideal jumping off point so it wasn't surprising that we almost travelled to the port in convoy!  We left at about 8.30am and after just 15 miles we arrived just in time to catch The Spirit of France ferry which was the one before the one we were booked onto, thus giving us back the hour that we'd loose because of the time difference between England and France!   Our crossing was millpond still and the one and a half hours that we spent on the boat fled by fleetly, but I did manage to find time to purchase new 😎 and a quantity of 🥃 the good stuff that we can enjoy (if it lasts long enough😂) over Christmas!

Following our disembarkation we were soon whizzing along the A16 towards Saint Valery Sur Somme where we would spend our first night back on French soil, but once we moved onto the the D940 we hit a dreaded 🚫'deviation'🚫, however, in the end we felt quite lucky because it didn't really slow us down.  It was at the town of Saint Leonard where the River Liane had burst it's banks and flooded many of the town's roads, but it seems this has happened several times previously so the town's people were out in force and a way around for traffic was provided.

After that our first scheduled stop was at the Etaples War Cemetery which we've passed loads of times before but never stopped for a visit.   It seems that this is the largest Commonwealth War Grave Commission Cemetery in France and it's the final resting place of 11,400 service personnel from the First World War and about 120 from the Second!  As with all War Cemeteries over here it was immaculately kept but also a very sad and sombre place especially when you consider that all those graves are only a tiny potion of the total number that lost their lives.

Once at Saint Valery Sur Somme (where we've been several times before) we had a quick cuppa and then set out for a walk into the familiar town and along it's lovely prom.  However, on a damp darkening winter evening there was very little activity other than a few hopeful eateries touting for a bit of trade, and lots of bird life fishing in the murky waters of the River Somme!


Wednesday 6th November 2019 ⛆☁☁⛅⛅⛅☁☁⛆
Mileage 133 from Saint Valerie Sur Somme to Honfleur
Parking Co-ordinates 49.41943, 0.2415

I really haven't got much to tell you about today other than for the fact that we had an easy drive which took us partly on free motorway and partly through villages and countryside all the way to our destination.  Honfleur is another place that is very familiar to us and even though we've seen the lovely old buildings that line the sides of the port many times we keep coming back for another look at their ancient facades !  And today was no exception!  Once fed and watered we took ourselves out and down to the old fishing port, and then toddled along the southern bank of the Seine estuary to the sea gate.  From there we meandered back though the town's parks and just made it home before the rains pitter pattered on our roof once more.

Honfleur Port

Thursday 7th November 2019  ⛅⛅🌞🌞🌞⛅⛅⛅
Mileage 174 from Honfleur to Villandry
Parking Co-ordinates 47.33935, 0.50732

Well, if I hadn't got much to tell you about yesterday I've got even less to tell you about today, and that's because we more or less spent the whole day dawdling along to complete the 174 miles that took us mostly along quite more country roads and through lots of little villages.  We could've probably made it much quicker by using the motorways but we're not in any hurry, and if we'd chosen the faster route we'd have very grudgingly had to pay a fair old bill in tolls!  And the only drawback was that we arrived at Villandry too late to take advantage of the sunshine by going for a walk but with a bit of luck we might be able to make up for that tomorrow!


Friday 8th November 2019 🌧️ 🌧️🌧️⛆⛆🌧️🌧️🌧️⛆⛆☁
Mileage 250 from Villandry to Alvignac
Parking Co-ordinates 44.82508, 1.69718

Oh Dear!  We certainly didn't have any luck with our walk because the rain pelted down almost from the start of the day to finish😔😭!

Our intention today was to drive the 130 miles and overnight in the Saint Pardoux Lake Park near Razes but when we got there (just in time for a late lunch) much of the picturesque park was cordoned off and it looked just like a building site!  Therefore, we quickly decided to make the most of what daylight was left and head for our next destination which was the beautiful historic religious site at Rocamadour.

Unfortunately, due to heavy rain and spray the driving conditions on the free motorway were fairly atrocious and at one point we thought our journey would be delayed due to an  accident where a car had hit the central reservation and was sitting at  right angles thus partially blocking the road.  However,  as we approached the emergency services were just behind us so the carriageway hadn't  yet been closed😨 and we managed to squeeze by with only minimal delay!

After that we left the motorway with still about 20 miles to go and that turned out to be up through rolling hills with deep fall away valleys at the side, and as they were all dressed in their full Autumn glory they really were a very pretty sight to behold.  But at that point of our journey we were (4.30ish and nearly dusk) quite keen to get o our destination .......... but that was only to find that the old Motorhome Parking Area had been developed into a brand spanking new barriered car park, but as the barriers were open we sailed straight in and parked alongside 2 other vans!

By that time John had driven 245 miles so the kettle was very quickly filled and we were soon slurping a very refreshing cuppa!  However, as this was going down John was busy looking at recent reviews for this place on our Camper Contact App,  and there it had been reported that Motorhome Parking was no longer encouraged overnight and that if you did the charge could be €40!  Furthermore it advised that the car park is frequently visited by police and they move 'illegally' parked vans on!

The Link leads to the section of the blog when we visited in November 2018

This resulted in us feeling quite uncomfortable and as we didn't want to be disturbed at 'Silly' o'clock or pay more than a campsite would have charged we quickly decided to move sooner rather than later and nipped of to a free 'legal' Aire 5 miles further down the road in the village of Alvignac.  Unfortunately, that rather put paid to any re-exploration of Rocamadour's beautiful streets and steep staircases but 'hey ho' we've always got our old blog episode to look back on (and you can click on the link under the picture if you want to see)!

Saturday 9th November 2019  ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅
Mileage 151 from Alvignac to Castelnaudary
Parking Co-ordinates 43.31443, 1.94886

This morning we left Alvignac without having seen anything that it had to offer except the fleeting glimpse as we passed through!  But as usual, with many French villages, what we did see was quite picturesque with lots of old stone buildings that were all immaculately kept.

Initially today's journey took us over more high roads and valleys, and later, at about the half way point we entered  into the town of Cahors were the River Lot was raging - it certainly had a 'Lot' of excess water in it but here at least it's banks were managing to contain it!  And another thing we saw at this point was an occupied encampment of the Gillet Jaune!  Last year when we'd passed this way they'd engaged in delaying traffic my moseying about on the road and generally being a nuisance but this time their number was much fewer and all they gave us was a glare as we passed by!

From there it was forwards and onwards towards Castelnaudary and the Camping Car Park that would be our last stopping place in France.  However, were we would go from there had been under debate for the last couple of days!  Our options were to either take the shorter route over the top of the Pyrenees or the longer but lower lying one through coastal Catalonia.  Our preferred choice was the former but there was a severe weather warning for travel through the high mountains so I'm fairly sure we'll be continuing our journey via the later route!

But that's all for now 😗😗

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