FRANCE - U.K. BREAK
MAY 14 - 25, 2016
14- SATURDAY
We travelled all day - what AGONY!!! drive, drive,drive! We started at 6.30 this morning and arrived at the campsite in Cestas at 7.45 tonight. Hadn’t we had to get there by 8.00pm we might have taken it a bit slower… still, we made it, and rewarded ourselves with a nice meal and a pint at K2 restaurant.
We are staying at Camping Beau Soleil, in Gradignan. The campsite is very quiet and clean.
The journey was pretty smooth, we discovered a nice panoramic road that saved us 100km [62mi] and a total of 300km [186mi] on the motorway.
>> I really don’t know which is the best way to travel - in the car it’s ever so tiring, we should keep a looser schedule; by train you end up changing trains turning a 2-hour journey into a 5-hour one; by plane you waste most of your day in airports for just a 2-hour flight… the car should really be the best option as you can get exactly where you want to. I think it’d be a good idea to take a couple of folding bikes along, so to be able to wander about freely without displacing the van once at the campsite. BUT! we must plan for 400 odd km journey -tops- otherwise it’s too hard to drive longer than that in a single day!
Motorways are alright, but you don’t get to see much AND you always feel compelled to drive at great speed just to get it over and done with!
15- SUNDAY
STAGE 1 / DAY 1
A nice productive day! The room where the stage is held is really good - wooden floors and great sound. I’ve been “elected” by GM to take the minutes of the stage to make a report afterwards - just as I was happy I didn’t have to do any translating…
The convivial dinner tonight, at “La Regalade Pledran”, was also very nice - a good bunch of people, great food and wine, a very enjoyable night. We managed to get a lift to the restaurant and back as GM is staying in a hotel very close to our campsite… :-)
16- MONDAY
STAGE 1 / DAY 2
The Stage morning went on very nicely - 5 of us practising and developing what we did yesterday, while the rest of the group practised the Bong. I preferred something softer, so I stuck to some Noi-Cong practise.
At 1.00pm it was all over, I gathered my Diploma and said good-bye to everyone there, with the good wish to meet again next year in Pledran.
Rosie came and pick me up, we grabbed a sandwich and we headed to Dieppe for the ferry home (albeit for a short break).
It was another quite long stretch, about 700km [435mi]. We managed them changing drivers a few times and we finally reached Dieppe, where we had dinner.
We should schedule a trip to Dieppe allowing some time to visit the town, as it seems really pretty and should prove rather interesting…
17- TUESDAY
The ferry crossing to Newhaven took the standard 5 hours and we disembarked at 4.00am, local time. After getting ashore we drove into a 24-hour McDonald’s to grab a coffee and dozed off for another couple of hours in the carpark.
We then made our way to Alfriston, checked the campsite for tonight, saw nobody, used the facilities for a quick morning wash, and headed to the Long Man of Wilmington. We took a nice walk on the Downs, circling the Long Man - a pleasant hour and a half or so walk. After sharing an apple, we drove to Herstmonceux Castle and the Royal Observatory. We arrived just as a busload of school kids were heading to the observatory, so we opted to start with the Castle. We took a nice walk in the park and gardens, and we shared a few biscuits in front of the Newton Sundial. By one o’clock we were ready to join a guided tour of the inside of the Castle, now a University. The chap guiding us through the history of the castle was very nice and shared a few stories with us. After the tour of the castle, we dedicated ourselves to the observatory - dedicated being the very appropriate word! The kids blissfully gone, we could test all the [kiddies’] experiments that were there - we had the time of our life! Of course, you might know how things work, or how a certain something happens, but to actually see it happening is really priceless!!! We had fun there for a couple of hours, and we saw the telescopes that are still in use today. A totally fascinating afternoon.
We were pretty tired by then, so we headed back to Alfriston for a proper meal. We went to “Ye Olde Smugglers’ Inne”, where I couldn’t resist a plate of Cumberland sausage and mash, washed down with a pint of Stowford Press, of course.
We ended our long day at our friends in Seaford, where they offered to put us up for the night, so, not having any other arrangements, we agreed to squat at theirs for a good-earned night sleep! Our friends, Emy and Sara, are very nice people - it was very good to have a chat with them and doing some catching up.
18- WEDNESDAY
Today it’s been raining on and off all day, as we moved to the East Coast, via the Dartford Tunnel. We couldn’t do much sight-seeing, but we did manage a short walk along the beach at Clacton-on-Sea. The town pier’s is very busy in the summer, but now it looks quite abandoned, with all the rides closed and under a cloudy sky…
We then moved on further North along the coast and, after much searching and many closed receptions, we managed to find a nice and quiet campsite for the night, Rose Farm Touring Park, and the landlady is ever so pleasant. We cooked some pasta and vegs, and took advantage of the free wi-fi to send out some check-in messages.
We must plan better camping-wise… there’s always something missing, maybe ‘cos we usually concentrate on the van itself. Our external tent proved alright to shield us from the wind, but we noted some needed improvements.
19- THURSDAY
Today we travelled North along the coast. After an excellent night at Rose Farm, we had breakfast with muesli and fresh raspberries [bought yesterday] - fab!
We lazed out of the campsite and headed to the sandy beaches of the North Coast. Along the way, we stopped for a walk on the beach where we met a small colony of seals - some just basking in the sun with the cubs playing in the water. What a nice encounter! It always fascinates me when we get so close to wildlife!
After the walk, we had a nice pub lunch at the Nelson Head - cheese Ploughman -something I hadn’t had in a long time- and a pint of red berry cider. Quite particular.
We then drove along the coast and found a campsite in a farm in Wells-next-the-Sea. Our Quber tent proved invaluable protection from a few drizzle showers we had in the evening, while cooking and having our meal of rice and vegs. :-)
20- FRIDAY
We moved out of the farm, still following the coast, and stopped along the way to walk on a huge sandy beach. It was low tide, so we could walk about, I guess, 1/2mi into the sea! We enjoyed lunch at a beachside cafe’, then we moved down to Cambridge and Duxford Imperial War Museum. They have a superb collection of airplanes, old and new, some of which are still working and fly at airshows all over the Country. What a day!
I’m always fascinated by imagining the life of people during WWII - it’s a historical period I can never get enough of. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit, that took us the best part of 3 hours! [and it could have lasted more if the museum hadn’t shut…]
In the evening we got to Highfield Farm Campsite and, not happy enough with the thousands of steps already walked today, we added another 1.5mi to check the local pub, The Six Bells Pub, and enjoy dinner there. We also treated ourselves to a nice apple crumble with custard cream - a well deserved reward!
21- SATURDAY
STAGE 2 / DAY 1
Quite a tiring day, especially on my back! The Stage was interesting, we learnt a new quyen and started to go in depth of Sulo KyMon that we already studied. All the while Rosie was out and about, museum-hopping in Cambridge.
The Viet training group consisted all of Italians plus Waldemar, the organiser. Fortunately Edio + Iva\s daughter was translating for the Its, so I was spared! The hall is a bit small, but we had use of the kitchen, so we could fix ourselves a sandwich and there was tea and coffee, and fruits available.
We met again for dinner at a Moroccan restaurant [odd choice]. The food was good, but we didn’t start eating till nearly 11pm, which is a bit too late for me. Anyhow, we left soon after finishing our plate for we were both very tired… and tomorrow we’re starting at 9am!
22- SUNDAY
STAGE 2 / DAY 2
A lot of theory at today’s session. GM has explained to us how to be a teacher, true to the values of Viet Chi. It’s been a very interesting couple of days. Master asked me how to work on text on PhotoShop, so I illustrated the use of text filters to him - collaborative learning!
The Stage was over at 1.00pm, so we said our goodbyes and off we went to Dover.
We still had some time to kill when we got there, so we took a walk up to Dover Castle, but it was already shut and we couldn’t even see the grounds… shame! The town looks otherwise pretty run down and dull -the weather didn’t help- lots of rubbish scattered about…
The harbour doesn’t have any kind of ticket/info office BEFORE customs, so, since we were very early for our ferry, we asked at the check-in [after customs] if we could board an earlier boat - we could, but not on the next one, so we had to exit the harbour, wait for 1/2 hour, and then go back in again, through customs and all. Anyhow, we managed to get on the 7.55pm ferry and we saved 1.5hrs on our schedule and I could drive into Belgium, where we stopped in a rather filthy petrol station for the night.
It’s my turn to do the driving now, as Rosie practically drove all the time in the UK… It’s been another quite long day, but fortunately we don’t have to keep any fixed time-table anymore, so we can take it easier :-)
23- MONDAY
A wet day in Gent, Belgium. Raining on and off didn’t hold us back from walking through the town. We arrived at the campsite [Camping Blaarmeersen] this morning, stationed the Quber and took the bus into town - so, no bother with finding a car park and all that. We had lunch in a nice bistro-pub, just off the beaten (tourist) track, where we tried some Belgian specials… including a great Belgian beer, Tongerlo Blonde, 6 proof.
After a few hours wandering around, and quite an unsuccessful “concrete canvas” graffiti tour [2-3 really good works, but the rest mostly crap], we caught the bus back to the campsite. Tonight we’ll be going back after dinner to see the town by night, apparently a lights display worth seeing.
Overall, the central part of town is very pretty, lots of buildings have some similarities with the houses of Amsterdam, perhaps because also Gent has some canals criss-crossing it. There are lots of bikes going around. As soon as you leave the town centre though, you meet with very tall [some over 20-storey high], really horrible, blocks of flats with no apparent shops or services in the vicinities… such housing just give me a sense of oppression. Not that we saw many shops in town - the main feature being restaurants and cafes, souvenir shops, clothes shops and jewellers, but little in the way of food, for example. There are some old-looking shops, even a “red lights” street we bumped into during our evening tour [I will not comment on the sad display of that], but I haven’t seen anything that caught my attention…
24- TUESDAY
TRAVELLING SOUTH
We spent the day driving, me with a double-swollen knees and an outdated map that “made” us take a wrong turn on the motorway adding a few kms to our journey… In spite of it all, we managed to find a nice campsite for the night near Chambery, only some 300kms [190mi] from Sangano. This way, tomorrow we can avoid the motorway altogether, and take a nice, SLOW, leisurely drive back.
We had a nice dinner in a kebab house in the village, just about 10min walk from the campsite along the river Ain.
A little note on Belgians - the impression I had is they are quite scruffy, pretty dirty overall, and rather dull. Loud and disrespectful - at least those we met in the Flemish part of the country we visited. I won’t pull my hair out to go back there, that’s for sure…
25- WEDNESDAY
We took the road left to do at a very leisurely pace, cruising through French villages. We purposely avoided motorways to enjoy some nice mountain views.
After stopping to walk to a waterfall, we bought fresh bread and some picnic material for lunch, that we had by the lake Du Bourge.
After a flying visit to St. Jeanne de Maurienne [and Opinel Museum], surely worth a little more time, we had our last French dinner in Lanslebourg, last village before the French-Italian border. On our way to Mont-Cenis we were stopped for “controle alcholemique” [alcohol test] - Rosie was at the wheel, but she only had a glass of wine over dinner, so no problem.
At 10pm we were passing out threshold, and by 10.20 we were in bed, quite tired, but very happy for these past few days in Europe.
all the pictures here:
http://bit.ly/2aA3eUt
