We are now on the north coast of France. To get up here we decided to cut up through the Vallee de la Sarthe. We've not actually been to that region of France before and we can reccomend it as a wonderful holiday destination, but more about our sight-seeing later. This is a blog about a little incident which happened while leaving the town we were staying in there.
We had decided on our morning of departure that instead of Peter nipping out in the car to fill up with fuel before we hooked the caravan up, we could do it on our way out of town. There was a 'Super U' supermarket we had walked to the day before so we knew there weren't any height restrictions getting into the car park.
We left a little later than originally planned as we'd stopped to talk at length to the owner of the site and a few other campers, but as our motto is 'there's no rush' it didn't bother us.
We pulled into the supermarket car park and round to the petrol pumps and that's where all the fun began.
There was a rather 'sharp right turn' as Emily-the sat nav would have described it, which also had a high kerb and a narrow passage into the parking area to re-fuel.
As Peter pulled into the re-fueling area there was a loud grating noise coming from the back of the van.
Now, because we had left later than envisioned, it was close to lunch time and the supermarket car park was becoming quite busy and everybody had to exit past the entrance to the fuel pumps.
I got out of the car to see what the noise was to find the motormover (a mechanical device to move the caravan, which is permanently housed in front of both the caravan wheels) perched on the edge of the high kerb.
We were already taking up the space for two vehicles, but cars could squeeze past behind us to get out.
There was only one way to get off the kerb and that was to back off. So while I held up the traffic Peter backed the car and van very slowly off the kerb.
We still had to get fuel so we tried again to pull over a little more to the left to clear the kerb. Success! But this time we were so close to the pumps that we couldn't take the caravan any further forward after we had filled with fuel or we would have lost the offside of the caravan.
In the meantime we had become a bit of a spectacle with some offers of help and a few raised arms and shrugged shoulders.
The only thing for it was to hold all the traffic up again and back completely out of the service station. I went to pay at the kiosk and explain what we were going to do, by this time people were saying hello to Benji popping his head out of the car window and discussing our best way forward.
Peter held his nerve and while I stopped the traffic backed expertly out of the narrow situation we had got ourselves into.
As I got into the car we both laughed and said "well that was another first", maybe not to be repeated. But what struck us the most was how calmly we had both dealt with it. Neither of us fussed or flustered, neither of us cared how long it took us to sort the situation out and no-one got upset. We can imagine we were possibly the talk of a few lunch-time conversations, and we probably haven't done a lot for Anglo-French relationships, especially if anyone was in a hurry, but we've learnt the French take most incidents like this with an air of que sera sera. Fantastic!
Bucks Caravan Club members - you would have been proud of Pete!
Sunday, 29 August 2010
The adventures of Benji the wonder poodle!
If you've been following our blog you will know that we have been accompanied on our trip by our faitfhul companion Benji. In fact you can't have missed him as our sons Dave and Paul often joke about how many of our photos and videos feature him in some way.
Some of you will know the story of how we acquired Benji--an ex Hearing Dog who made it most of the way through his training but didn't graduate at the end so needed to find an alternative career.
We've now been his owners for just over 5 years. When we first got him he was ever so well behaved and didn't act like a dog at all. This particular cross-breed (poodle/terrier) is renowned for its intelligence which is why they are often used as assistance dogs. During his training he had used his intelligence to learn to react to different sounds. When we first had him, if the phone rang, he would circle round the room and come and sit down next to us to let us know.
He also had an "off" switch at meal times where as soon as food was served at the table he would go and lie still in his basket until we had finished.
Hearing Dogs are trained by rewarding good behaviour and ignoring bad behaviour and although they learn very quickly the good behaviour needs to be regularly practised and rewarded to reinforce it otherwise the animals slowly forget their training. Of course from their point of view there is no "good behaviour" or "bad behaviour" - only behaviour that often seems to result in some sort of reward so seems worth trying again - and behaviour that doesn't.
So, had we continued to reward Benji's mealtime behaviour we would still have a dog who didn't scrounge. Unfortunately it's our discipline rather than his which has let us down!
In fact a year away with us in the caravan has turned him into a scrounging mutt. He no longer goes to his basket when we eat....instead you'll find him hoovering any crumbs which fall to the floor, and many do as we eat outside a lot - and yes we do sometimes "accidentally" drop other bits of food onto the ground so he really has no incentive whatsoever to stay in his basket!
We're still not sure that, given the choice, he really wanted to spend a year away from home but maybe he just wanted to be away for Christmas to avoid this sort of humiliation!
Not satisfied with being patient while we do the necessary chores around the van, as he always was at home, he constantly gets under our feet wanting us to play.
At night he tries his hardest to join us on the bed rather than occupying his own bunk at the far end of the caravan.
He's worse than any child for running away from wasps as he got stung within our first week away
He has got very used to his morning walk coinciding with visiting the camp shops or boulangeries to pick up a baguette, and now expects 'the knobby bit' as a treat for waiting outside.
He has been loved and adored by many other campers and campsite owners, which seems to have given him an elevated thought of where his rank is in our pack.........and he tries emotional blackmail whenever we go out and leave him behind by looking so dejected and hurt.
He reads our body language like a book and seems to know exactly what our plans are every minute of every day.
One thing which we've not lost from his previous hearing dog training is his reaction to the smoke alarm in the van. As you can image even making toast sets the thing of in such a small place, so if we forget to remove it before any cooking takes place it tends to let everyone know we're cooking something. Benji has a great dislike for its noise and has learnt that whenever Julie just lifts the lid to the cooker or opens the oven the alarm will probably go off, so he clears out before it has a chance and we usually find him hiding somewhere outside the van.
All in all he has been a marvellous travelling companion, and although having a dog with us has prevented us from doing some of the touristy things, we haven't regretted our decision to bring him with us at all. In fact we've been kept much healthier because we've gone out of our way to make sure he has a lot of exercise so we've had a lot of exercise too. We think nothing of a 10 km walk before breakfast......will this continue when we get home?
We think he misses home but we can't be sure. When we arrive at yet another new camp site you can sense him thinking "OK, so where are we now?"
It will be very interesting to see his reaction when we walk in the front door in a couple of weeks time.
But he has definitley enjoyed most of his time away and his favourite pastimes include sunbathing
and a day on the beach (river, lake or sea)
.JPG)
But when he ends up looking like this
he's not so keen on the mandatory visit to the dog shower
but after a wash and brush-up it's time for a visit to a beach cafe
and a sleep back at the caravan, guarding mum's favourite chocolates!
Some of you will know the story of how we acquired Benji--an ex Hearing Dog who made it most of the way through his training but didn't graduate at the end so needed to find an alternative career.
We've now been his owners for just over 5 years. When we first got him he was ever so well behaved and didn't act like a dog at all. This particular cross-breed (poodle/terrier) is renowned for its intelligence which is why they are often used as assistance dogs. During his training he had used his intelligence to learn to react to different sounds. When we first had him, if the phone rang, he would circle round the room and come and sit down next to us to let us know.
He also had an "off" switch at meal times where as soon as food was served at the table he would go and lie still in his basket until we had finished.
Hearing Dogs are trained by rewarding good behaviour and ignoring bad behaviour and although they learn very quickly the good behaviour needs to be regularly practised and rewarded to reinforce it otherwise the animals slowly forget their training. Of course from their point of view there is no "good behaviour" or "bad behaviour" - only behaviour that often seems to result in some sort of reward so seems worth trying again - and behaviour that doesn't.
So, had we continued to reward Benji's mealtime behaviour we would still have a dog who didn't scrounge. Unfortunately it's our discipline rather than his which has let us down!
In fact a year away with us in the caravan has turned him into a scrounging mutt. He no longer goes to his basket when we eat....instead you'll find him hoovering any crumbs which fall to the floor, and many do as we eat outside a lot - and yes we do sometimes "accidentally" drop other bits of food onto the ground so he really has no incentive whatsoever to stay in his basket!
We're still not sure that, given the choice, he really wanted to spend a year away from home but maybe he just wanted to be away for Christmas to avoid this sort of humiliation!
Not satisfied with being patient while we do the necessary chores around the van, as he always was at home, he constantly gets under our feet wanting us to play.
At night he tries his hardest to join us on the bed rather than occupying his own bunk at the far end of the caravan.
He's worse than any child for running away from wasps as he got stung within our first week away
He has got very used to his morning walk coinciding with visiting the camp shops or boulangeries to pick up a baguette, and now expects 'the knobby bit' as a treat for waiting outside.
He has been loved and adored by many other campers and campsite owners, which seems to have given him an elevated thought of where his rank is in our pack.........and he tries emotional blackmail whenever we go out and leave him behind by looking so dejected and hurt.
He reads our body language like a book and seems to know exactly what our plans are every minute of every day.
One thing which we've not lost from his previous hearing dog training is his reaction to the smoke alarm in the van. As you can image even making toast sets the thing of in such a small place, so if we forget to remove it before any cooking takes place it tends to let everyone know we're cooking something. Benji has a great dislike for its noise and has learnt that whenever Julie just lifts the lid to the cooker or opens the oven the alarm will probably go off, so he clears out before it has a chance and we usually find him hiding somewhere outside the van.
All in all he has been a marvellous travelling companion, and although having a dog with us has prevented us from doing some of the touristy things, we haven't regretted our decision to bring him with us at all. In fact we've been kept much healthier because we've gone out of our way to make sure he has a lot of exercise so we've had a lot of exercise too. We think nothing of a 10 km walk before breakfast......will this continue when we get home?
We think he misses home but we can't be sure. When we arrive at yet another new camp site you can sense him thinking "OK, so where are we now?"
But he has definitley enjoyed most of his time away and his favourite pastimes include sunbathing
and a day on the beach (river, lake or sea)
.JPG)
But when he ends up looking like this
he's not so keen on the mandatory visit to the dog shower
but after a wash and brush-up it's time for a visit to a beach cafe
and a sleep back at the caravan, guarding mum's favourite chocolates!
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Camping a la Ferme
For most of our travels we got used to the fact that we were outside of the main summer holiday season and so we didn't need to book ahead. We've really enjoyed turning up at sites and deciding after we arrive how long we stay. This approach has only let us down once and that was when we arrived at a site in a remote region of Spain - the problem wasn't that they were full, they just weren't open! (You've probably read the blog entry!)
For July and August we were more cautious. Before we left home last August we had already pre-booked a site in the Dordogne region for July and the first two weeks of August this year - and whilst we were in Les Landes we realised that we maybe needed to think about where we would head to after the Dordogne as it would still be school holiday time, so we booked ahead our next two stays, a week in the Poitou-Charente region and a week in the Loire Valley.
You would think by now that we would know what we want from a campsite but we are still learning. We were nervous about being on a large commercial site during the school holidays but on the other hand we do like a site to have a bit of life to it.
Despite websites and online reviews you never really know for sure what you are going to find when you turn up at a campsite but the site we've just left in the Poitou-Charente (La Renardiere) ticked most of the boxes.
The camping field is large and spacious with about eight caravans in a semi-circle on one side and a swimming pool on the other. The site was remote in the sense that it's not near any of the major tourist resorts or attractions but was fairly full and had a good buzz to it. On our first night there we were invited to join our neighbours for paella and the owners organised a barbecue on our final evening (not just for us - they do one every week!) which was great fun and everyone on the site attended.
Something else that we've really begun to value is wi-fi access. I find it hard to believe that at home I would be very upset if our internet service was unavailable for a couple of hours but we spent six weeks on a site with no internet access at all. A lot of sites provide wi-fi access, quite often just in a central area and some charge for it and some don't. The best ones are those who provide it free across the whole site which is exactly what we had at La Renardiere.
About the only thing missing was a morning bread delivery but apart from that we'd say it was pretty close to a perfect Camping a la Ferme. We'll be back!
For July and August we were more cautious. Before we left home last August we had already pre-booked a site in the Dordogne region for July and the first two weeks of August this year - and whilst we were in Les Landes we realised that we maybe needed to think about where we would head to after the Dordogne as it would still be school holiday time, so we booked ahead our next two stays, a week in the Poitou-Charente region and a week in the Loire Valley.
You would think by now that we would know what we want from a campsite but we are still learning. We were nervous about being on a large commercial site during the school holidays but on the other hand we do like a site to have a bit of life to it.
Despite websites and online reviews you never really know for sure what you are going to find when you turn up at a campsite but the site we've just left in the Poitou-Charente (La Renardiere) ticked most of the boxes.
The camping field is large and spacious with about eight caravans in a semi-circle on one side and a swimming pool on the other. The site was remote in the sense that it's not near any of the major tourist resorts or attractions but was fairly full and had a good buzz to it. On our first night there we were invited to join our neighbours for paella and the owners organised a barbecue on our final evening (not just for us - they do one every week!) which was great fun and everyone on the site attended.
Something else that we've really begun to value is wi-fi access. I find it hard to believe that at home I would be very upset if our internet service was unavailable for a couple of hours but we spent six weeks on a site with no internet access at all. A lot of sites provide wi-fi access, quite often just in a central area and some charge for it and some don't. The best ones are those who provide it free across the whole site which is exactly what we had at La Renardiere.
About the only thing missing was a morning bread delivery but apart from that we'd say it was pretty close to a perfect Camping a la Ferme. We'll be back!
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Dave & Katie
Although I flew home in April to see my mum and also met up with our two sons, Julie has not seen either of the boys since November last year. As we've mentioned a few times already in previous blogs we've really enjoyed (and still are enjoying) the travelling but we're both getting quite homesick and missing family and friends.
So you can imagine the excitement we felt when we knew that Dave and his girlfriend Katie were coming to see us. Unfortunately the site we had booked for July and the first two weeks of August was probably the least attractive for them to stay at. It was a very quiet, adults only site in the middle of nowhere. It was the only site we had pre-booked before we left the UK last summer as we wanted somewhere a bit out of the way for the main French season. But fortunately, about 20 minutes walk away from our site, was a family campsite which mainly catered for mobile homes but also had some camping pitches. Unlike our site it also had a bar, pool, snack bar etc. so we booked them in there for all but their first and last nights which they spent in a pop-up tent in our awning.
They had an early morning Eurotunnel crossing and drove all the way down to us in one go, just stopping for refreshment breaks. They arrived early evening looking absolutely shattered. It was great to see them and we had plenty of food and drink ready for them as we spent the evening catching up. We were all surprised at the completely over the top welcome they got from Benji who is not usually the most demonstrative of dogs, but it was lovely to see and has made us feel quite excited about his reaction to getting back home.
Because we'd been in the area for over four weeks before their arrival, we had a whole host of recommended activities that they could do if they wished. In the end, with only six days to spend with us they chose a mixture of chilling out, eating out, eating in and canoeing, with just a little sightseeing thrown in too!
We were usually so busy chatting that we didn't take many photographs but here are some from two of the activities during their visit.
Canoeing on the Dordogne, (which Julie and I managed far more successfully this time round, but Benji still wasn't impressed!)
So you can imagine the excitement we felt when we knew that Dave and his girlfriend Katie were coming to see us. Unfortunately the site we had booked for July and the first two weeks of August was probably the least attractive for them to stay at. It was a very quiet, adults only site in the middle of nowhere. It was the only site we had pre-booked before we left the UK last summer as we wanted somewhere a bit out of the way for the main French season. But fortunately, about 20 minutes walk away from our site, was a family campsite which mainly catered for mobile homes but also had some camping pitches. Unlike our site it also had a bar, pool, snack bar etc. so we booked them in there for all but their first and last nights which they spent in a pop-up tent in our awning.
They had an early morning Eurotunnel crossing and drove all the way down to us in one go, just stopping for refreshment breaks. They arrived early evening looking absolutely shattered. It was great to see them and we had plenty of food and drink ready for them as we spent the evening catching up. We were all surprised at the completely over the top welcome they got from Benji who is not usually the most demonstrative of dogs, but it was lovely to see and has made us feel quite excited about his reaction to getting back home.
Because we'd been in the area for over four weeks before their arrival, we had a whole host of recommended activities that they could do if they wished. In the end, with only six days to spend with us they chose a mixture of chilling out, eating out, eating in and canoeing, with just a little sightseeing thrown in too!
We were usually so busy chatting that we didn't take many photographs but here are some from two of the activities during their visit.
Canoeing on the Dordogne, (which Julie and I managed far more successfully this time round, but Benji still wasn't impressed!)
On their final evening with us we went into Montignac to experience their Marché Nocturne which Julie and I had been to on a previous occassion, (the guinguette). The tables and benches were laid out in the centre surrounded on all sides by stalls selling a wide range of local produce. We decided to take it in turns to buy a plate of food then share it between us. During the course of the evening we managed to sample grilled duck breast, Creole-style sausages, Foie Gras, freshly-baked bread, a cepe omellette, coq au vin, hot cabécou cheese, crêpes and a variety of local wines and beers. The entertainment was provided by a lady singer who belted out some French favourites. All in all a great experience and a great way to spend their last evening with us. (That's Katie on the left and Dave on the right, nearest the camera)
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