France 2004

This year we are going as a family, we will be accompanied by Nicole our daughter, Tim her husband and twin granddaughters Georgia and Emily. We will also be followed two days later by my brother Michael, his wife Brenda and their teenage children, Joshua and Jenifer. Then unbeknown to all of them, for the last three days of the holiday by my son Ralph, his partner Tracey and her daughters Saffron and Chelsea, will be joining the rest of us. Tim has been added to the van insurance to let me have a bit of a rest on the longer runs.

The twins will only be ten month old, so I have rigged the single bed to act as a double cot for them and Nicole and Tim will be in a tent on the same pitch. Mick and his lot will also be camping using borrowed camping equipment. Tim and I also have our bikes with us.

We have booked Dover Calais and as the twins are so young, they can only be in the car seats for two hours at a time, day one is all in England, with the first night on a site in Kent. This site was a bit remote but very handy for the motorway so excellent for an overnight stop and the site bar sold some very nice beers. This was also the first time Nicole and Tim had put up the tent in anger but all was ok.

Up early after a cold night and off to Dover with Tim driving, we need some diesel, I only want to get a small amount, as it will be cheaper on the other side but the others make me half fill the tank, they don't trust me. We arrive early at the port, but P&O just put us on the next boat out anyway, the twins love their first crossing.

On arrival in Calais we are in no hurry, as we are only booked on a site in Gravelines (close to Dunkerque) for the first three nights, to wait for Mick. So we head to one of the booze hypermarkets to stock up for the first few days and the football (Euro 2004), they even have English beers cheaper than at home. Nicole and Tim get Stellar and we get Leffe, we already have plenty of milk for the twins.

It is only a short drive north along the A16 to Gravelines, and we find the site no problem.

We get the tent up and then the girls and Tim go for a walk to find the beach while I get the satellite working (no problem this year)

Later we all go for a walk in to town, there is a pizza takeaway and we think we could probably get some to have during the football tomorrow. We walk along the peer then back along the sea front until the path ends and we head on to the road back to the site. Between the centre and the site there is a car park, that by now is being used by several motorhomes as an overnight stop (when we went back in 2006, part of this car park is now an official Aire), I personally would only use an Aire, if it was only for a few hours, or there was no site available nearby.

To shade the twins from the sun, I get out the large parasol we bought in Auxerre last year but realise that the base is at home, in the back garden. The large folding wooden table we have with us has a hole in the centre, so if I can put the parasol stem through this and in to another hole in the ground it should work but the hole in the table is not big enough. So Tim and I set about making the hole bigger, not easy without the proper tools but eventually (and I mean eventually, it took absolutely ages), we got it large enough and it worked.

Got a text message from Mick, they were at the gate, this was very early but he had turned up very early and P&O just put him on. Got on my bike and went over to meet him and check in and he was put on a site adjacent to us. It took them a wile to get the tent up but eventually after a couple of goes they got is right.

While this has been going on, an Italian guy has been walking up and down the road talking on his mobile and is still talking after Mick is done. By the end of his conversation he is getting a bit agitated, then he eventually loses it and smashes the mobile onto the road, sending pieces of phone in all directions. After a while he calms down, collects up all the bits he can find and buts them in the bin, later he comes bake and rummages in the bin but it is really smashed beyond redemption and he leaves it where it is.

That afternoon we all walked in to town and then down by the river or canal or inlet or whatever. It was a gorgeous day and we sat, just taking in the views for a wile. There are a few bars and shops round the town square and as Nicky, Tim and the twins are heading back, the rest of us make a stop at one of the bars for a drink or two.

We got menus from the pizzeria and after serious discussions about what everyone wants, Tim and Jenifer go to get supper on the bikes.

The evening was is going well, we were winning 0 - 1 until Beckhem missed a penalty at 71 mins, then at 90 mins (90 mins), a Heskey foul gives France the equaliser and then within seconds James gives away a penalty and France win 2 - 1.

We have booked a site in Houlgate on the Normandy coast for three nights and set off as soon as everyone is packed up. First we need fuel, there should be a petrol station on the way out of Gravelines but there isn't its closed (it is still on AutoRoute in 2006 but it is gone altogether by then). Fuel isn't that desperate so we carry on with the journey and will stop when we see a petrol station. We head south on the A16, back past Calais until we get to the tunnel terminal, where there should be a petrol station. So we turn off and head for the supermarket but there is no petrol station there as shown on AutoRoute but there are two shown but before we go looking we all decide to go shopping first. We have to park in the coach/lorry park are there are height restrictions on all the other car parks, it just means you have to walk further. It is quite a good place to shop and we think this is where we will come on the way home to stock up on booze. We did get a plastic parasol base, the type you fill with water to give it weight.

So where is the second petrol station, well we can see it but we can't get to it so we drive round and round until we find a way to it through a lorry park. Coming out of the petrol station, we have to be very careful not to end up in the tunnel, heading home.

The rest of the uneventful journey to Houlgate is punctuated with stops for the twins to eat and to move about for a while. We use the A16 to the A28 to the A29 across the scarily high bridge over the Seine to the A13 and then on local roads to Houlgate. AutoRoute takes us through the town to get to the site but there is no need to, the problem was the accuracy of the directions to the site and it is actually further from the sea than we thought.

Even though we had prebooked it still took quite a long time to book in and then when we got to the plot we had been given, a Dutch caravan was already on the pitch. Brenda and I walked back over to reception and after some messing with the computer we were given a pitch higher up on the site, this had better views but was further from the pool and bar.

As we will be here for three days I decide to put up the porch awning, this will give us a bit more room, it is only the second time we have had it up. Problem is we have two tents to put up beside the awning and we only have one rubber mallet (mine) and one hammer (mine) and I come last, I have to wait until the others are all done with them, before I can get the awning up.

By the time we have every thing set up, it is getting dark and we want our tea, we have prepacked salad, garlic bread (it's the future) and three large lasagnes that we got on the way. Only the oven is acting up, it gets hot and then cools down again and it takes about an hour and a half to get them ready and not all at the same time. It all goes down fast enough though.

Me and Dot, Mick and Brenda pop over to the bar for a couple and watch the Sweden v Bulgaria match. Mick goes up to the bar (we have not bought beer in a bar yet this year) and asks for four large beers, the look on his face is a picture when he finds out how much it is. I worked out once that, in the UK it is about four times more to buy the same beer in a pub as it is in a supermarket, in France it can be up to ten time more. That morning Mick had bought a box 24 bottles of beer for the equivalent of £2.50, the beers in the bar were about £3.00 each.

Mick and I set off to find a supermarket to get meat for a BBQ, we have found two supermarkets close together using AutoRoute. They are both in the next town, Dives-sur-Mer, about four kilometres away, but it seamed to be a lot further driving there. The supermarkets, a Super U and an Intermarché, are actually opposite each other, we choose the Super U as it is on the same side of the road as we are (if we had been going the other way it would have bee the Intermarché). Mick also toped up with petrol at the Super U.

Later we all walk down to sea front, the beach is long, wide and golden. The promenade is lined with beach huts like the ones at a lot of costal resorts back home. There is a casino on the front but we do not use it. The street behind the front running parallel is where the bars and restaurants are

It's a glorious day so its back to the site and off to the pool, the twins are not that keen on the water, it was a little bit cool.

After a cooling the pool I have a beer before going back for tea. We decide we will use the takeaway tonight, so me and Nick pop over to order but it doesn't appear to be open, we go back over later but it never dose open. Luckily we have plenty to eat. We then settle down to watch a DVD of Phoenix Nights, though tonight we just watch the outtakes, hilarious.

We don't have enough things to cook with in the microwave (there are too many of us), so I get Mick and Bren to look for some microwave containers when they are at the supermarket (we sill have them in the van and use them regularly).

Let me try to explain how to bath twins in a motorhome, find a site with baby washing facilities (family wash room), or if not, we have a baby bath with us that fits in the shower tray and use the van shower to wash them. This is fun for them but the person doing the washing them gets very very wet. This site has a family wash room this makes getting the twins ready for bed much easier, much less messy and cheaper (no gas used). The girls have also been sleeping fairly well, we have not been getting up too often in the night.

Had a day out down the town had something to eat, had a beer and looked through brochures from the local estate agents. All in all a quiet relaxing day, then back to the site to watch the football.

When we got back the van Georgia did not have her sun hat and no one could remember when she last had it. With some smart thinking I checked on the camera to see if we could tell when she last had it on and she had it on the last photos I took just outside the site. Tim got back on his bike to go look and was back in no time with the hat, whose a smart granddad.

We are the early match tonight, so we get settled in to watch, result, England 3 - Switzerland 0, so we are still in with a chance of progressing through to the next round.

Today we are heading for Genêts but as we have to pass fairly close to Bayeux, a visit to see the tapestry is too good an opportunity to miss, it is an enormous part of our national history after all. We leave via Dives-sur-Mer onto the D400 back to the A13, round Caen ring road onto the E46 to Bayeux a pretty simple journey. We park up just round he corner from where the museum should be and Mick and I walk off to see just how far it is while the others feed the twins. Mick has his England shirt on and some young French lads start laughing at him, I think Mick is upset but I think its funny. The museum is not far, it is literally, just round the corner from where we are.

Don't remember how much it was to get in but it was worth it, there are plenty of displays all to do with the tapestry and then there is the tapestry itself. You are supplied with one of them things bit like a large phone that you have to hold to your ear for a commentary on the tapestry. We could not take the pushchair in so we had to carry the twins and we were not allowed to take photos.

When we got out we were hungry but there is a very reasonable cafe just outside the museum so we had lunch there. This is when it was decided that we would also visit the war graves and that on the street map it was not that far but I pointed out we would have to walk back to the vehicles afterwards, thus making it a long way. The others are not bothered about this but we do have to get to the next site and this is all adding time on, so I decide I will go back for the van to drive round to the cemetery to meet the others there. At this Mick also decides that he will come with me and drive the car round.

We park up next the cemetery and before long the others show up, by doing this Mick and I have missed the cathedral. I do not have the words to explain what I felt walking round the graves but I was pleased that we did it. It's only a few days since the sixtieth anniversary of D Day celebrations and there is a joint wreath from the Queen and President Chirac.

On the way back to the vehicles I see the tanks outside a museum that Mick and I had also missed by driving round instead of walking.

The next part of our journey hits an immediate snag, there is a very low bridge on the D6 out of town to the A84 and it would mean driving back miles the way we came or using D roads rather than motorway. We eventually decide to use the D572 and run parallel to the A84 in the general direction we were heading as far as St-Lo and then across to the motorway via the D999. This is about the same distance as the route we were going to take but it took quite a lot longer (I believe the road around Bayeux has been greatly improved by a bypassed since 2004). From the motorway we go via the D973, onto the D911 to Genêts but can not find the site, this is probably because we are looking for a site on the coast with a view of Mont-Saint-Michel close to the village. Eventually I stop on our way out of this dead-end street we have been down and ask a young man coming out of a house for directions. Not only does he give directions but gets in his car and has us follow him to the site (I never did believed all that is said about the French but this degree of helpfulness did surprise me).

The man on reception gives us directions to the pitches, that we can not follow so we end up in a different place that we should have (the field we should have been in was better). After we set up Mick keeps finding dog poo on his pitch. not a good thing.

We set off to see if you can see Mont-Saint-Michel from the site but you can't. If you go out of the site front entrance, cross over the road, turn right, walk about a hundred yards, turn left in to a lane and follow it to the end then cross a field, you can see it miles in the distance.

Me and Mick set off to get provisions for a BBQ, we ask in the village if there is a supermarket near by. The answer was, that even if there was, it wouldn't be open as they can only open ten Sundays in any one year, I had never heard of this before. So we bought just about every thing the village shop had that you can put on a BBQ and quite a lot of their booze as well.

The Weather was turning cool so we decided to head inland away from the coast but also start to head north so that we do not have too far to drive on the last day. We head for Picardy I want to go to the municipal site in Albert but the others fancy a site in Peronne, it was on the Camping Qualite map we got in Houlgate, so they reckon it should be a good site, with pool etc.

The drive should have been simple, back on to the A84 round Caen on to the A13 back over the Seine via the A26 and on to the A29 a little bit on the A28 back on to the A29 round Amiens to Peronne. Now one map we had showed that the A29 went all the way to Peronne, another that the motorway was under construction and that we needed to be off the A28 on the E44 to Amiens. We thought we would chance the new road being open, it wasn't, so we stayed on the A28 to Abbeville and back down the A16 to Amiens. This meant that I was running out of diesel and there are no service areas on the A16 so we headed in to Amiens, armed with AutoRoute looking for diesel. The first one isn't open, the next one only takes French credit cards, I ask one nice kind French gent if I can use his card and give him cash, he agrees (another selfless act from a Frenchman) but he is unable to get his card to work, so eventually we have to head to the next station on the map. Luckily this one is open and takes cards or cash (it also sells coke we are very thirsty) but the fuel is a lot more expensive the French only station.

Once fuelled up, its back to the A29 and onto the N29 via a short hop on the A1 and then on to Peronne along the N17. The site is on the left just before the river Somme as you enter the town.

When we booked In Nicole & Tim enquired about the log cabins for hire and decided to get one rather than bother with the tent. Mick got there tent up on the next pitch to us, the ground was very hard, then it was important to get the satellite working for the football that night.

With the sat working, me Mick and Tim head off into town to find something for tea, in the main square there is one of them large chip vans that are popular around this part of France (it could just be me but I don't remember seeing them in other parts of France), we got various meals with chips to take back.

It got very cold as we sat out watching England beat Croatia 4 - 2 sending us through to the next round and another game on the 24th.

Me, Dot, Nicole, Tim and the twins walk to visit to the WW1 museum in Peronne (the girls didn't actually walk, they can't do that yet), it would have been a better idea without the twins but we got a reasonable look around before we had to give up and take the girls somewhere we could give them more attention.

After a short walk around outside the museum we head into town, outside the first bar we come to we find the others having a rest and a drink, so obviously we have to do the same. Luckily there is a very good selection of beers on offer. After a drink we wandered around the town centre looking in the shops and finished off with another couple of beers in yet another fine bar.

Back at the site it was now warm enough to have a dip in the pool, the pool is a quite good and well designed for a site this size.

It was over to the Nicole and Tim's log cabin to watch a film on the night (I think it was Shrek but I could be wrong), it was a bit a squeeze to fit us all in but we managed.

We had a walk to a Lidl that Mick had found in the car earlier, to get a few things we needed and also some beer and wine, on the way back we had a walk by the mariner. Later, Mick thought the wine was disgusting and I though the beer was not very nice at all, this put me off going into Lidl for quite a long tine but now I know that they do very good beers and wines and were just unlucky this particular time.

The weather was good until the late afternoon when the wind started to get up and it continued to get stronger through the evening until it was a full blown storm by the night. Mick & Bren eventually decided to take the tent down a bunk in with Nicole and Tim. Tim and I attempted to secure a tent that was blowing right over but as it had been erected incorrectly it was impossible to do anything. Our own awning in not for use in strong winds, according to the bumf that came with it but we put some heavy objects on the skirt and hoped for the best.

Ralph and his lot where supposed to be arriving that night (the other didn't know though, it was still a surprise) but he had been held up by the fact that there were no ferries running due to the bad weather. He eventually texted me from the site gate about 06:00, as the gates are locked on a night they had to wait until 08:00 to get in, I had a walk over to see them and brought the girls back to the van for a sleep.

There are no photos of the storm, I think we were to worried about losing tents and awnings, to think about taking pictures, Tim did video some of it though but they were in the log cabins. Anyway as soon as it all stopped the sun came out for a glorious day.

Mick got a log cabin for our last day there, he couldn't be bothered to put the tent back up and Ralph and his lot didn't bother either but shared themselves out among the cabins and van for one night.

So it was a day by the pool with the plan of ordering a Chinese takeaway for the evening meal, before going over to the bar for the England game.

Over at the bar I was drinking large Leffes before the match, and got a little boisterous during the match, it ended England 2 - 2 Portugal but we lost 5 - 6 on penalties (as usual), the end of another European Cup for us.

Today we move closer to Calais as we have a fairly early ferry the next day, this time we have picked a site from the Castel Sites map, Camping Bien Assise near the village of Guines.

We left the site straight onto the N17 though the town to the D938 and onto the A1 to the A26 to turn off N2 the N43 and eventually the D231 to Guines. We travelled in convoy with me in front and Mick to the rear we used our two-way radios to keep in contact and they came in handy when Jenifer was sick and we had to pull into a rest area.

After we all got the three tents set up (it was Ralph first time with a new tent but we managed quite easily), some of us set off in the two cars to the big supermarket (the one we used on day four), to stock up on booze to take home.

It was an absolutely beautiful day but some of us missed most of it driving and shopping, while the others sunbathed or went swimming in the very good pool.

We got food from the site takeaway at tea time, a selection of piazzas, burgers and chips but it wasn't very nice, we may have just been unlucky but I think it was just done in the microwave, not good for a posh site.

Packed up and said our goodbyes, Ralph, Tracey and the girls are there for another couple of days, then set off for the ferry. The short way from Guines, is via the D127 to the A16 and E15 into Calais but we knew the way to the A16 via our route to the supermarket and thought it would be quicker.

It would have been, if we hadn't taken the wrong turning off the A16 heading the opposite way to Calais and the first turning to get back was about 14 miles. It all started with a call from Mick on the radio, asking if we had tickets for the ferry, "yes, why haven't you" was our reply "no we can not find any", Nicole explains that they should be with the boarding bass they got on the way out. "I think we chucked them out" was they reply, we gave them the P&O phone No, to see what they should do (you don't even get tickets nowadays) it was about this time we got it wrong. So next thing is, we are on the phone to P&O to explain that we may not be there in time for boarding but are assured that all we be ok even if we are late.

When we do get to the first exit in 14 miles, we have to pay a toll at an unmanned barrier and it only takes credit cards, Mick only has a debit card, so I do it with mine, the barrier goes up and he drives through. Then when I insert the card for me, nothing happens and it keeps my card and I have to try and explain what is happening over a Tannoy system with some unseen person miles away, eventually I get my card back and the barrier is lifted. Strangely though, nothing was ever debited from my card.

Eventually half an hour later we arrive at the terminal and get the ferry we were booked on.