Stopped for fuel and instead of it being a lot cheaper than at home, as in previous years, it was about the same price, only the petrol was the same price as diesel at home and the diesel the same as petrol.  Must have been a shock to those with petrol engines to find they are paying more than at home.

As we entered France the road number changed to the A16 and it started to rain, it was still raining when we exited onto the A28 and approached our first destination.  It was still early in the day so we made the decision to carry on south to the campsite we had pencilled in for stop three, near Bayeux, so we continued on the A28 onto the A29.  In the end though, by the time we got to the river Seine, I was very tired and we headed to the closest campsite on our list, the one planed for stop four, near Le Brévedent.  We turned of the A29 on to the A13 and then the D579 with the final part of the route on a back road.  So the 150 mile journey was in fact 250 miles, with the last six miles on single track road. 

The weather was improving but we were set to move on anyway.

Went for a stroll after we got set up, left by the site rear entrance and walked around the village, the campsite is on the outskirts of two villages, Saint-Léger and Martragny, nice walk but not much there, no shop, no bar, well not hat we could see anyway.

Several of WW2 army vehicles arrived on site over the two days we were there, ready for the D Day celebrations around the landing beaches and in Bayeux.

Got the scooter ready and set of for Bayeux for the day, we took a back road route, so that we were not in the heavy traffic of the main road.  Took the GPS in my pocket just in case we got lost, we did, the road signs are not that good but we eventually got there but not on the road we intended .  First thing we did (after filling up with petrol, see 2006 for what happen when we don't) was visit the municipal campsite for future reference, it looks good, with an easy walk to the centre (half a mile). if we ever come this way again, it's a possible.

There was no water on site (we were told the water main had burst somewhere in the village), so we couldn't fill the water tank.  After a couple of warm days the ground was much firmer than when we arrived and we got off the pitch with no problem.

Had to head off in the wrong direction back towards Bayeux to get fuel first and stock up on provision in the supermarket while we were there.  The drive to Houlgate was a quick 35 mile trip on the N13, round Caen ring road the N413 onto the A13, then the D400 through Dives-sur-Mer and the D513 into Houlgate.

It was about eight before the others arrived, they could not check in until two but we knew that so they came over to our van, the girls were wide awake as they had slept most of the way but the others were very tired.  Reception would not let them bring the car in site, I have no idea why, we had plenty of room on our pitch anyway they had to leave it in the car park.

By dinnertime the weather was improving and the tired ones were starting to cheer up that was until the went to check in.  Even though we knew the chalet they were going in, the lady on reception could not find a booking for them, when she eventually did and after Nicole had paid, she demanded a €360 deposit for breakages.  This was not mentioned in any communication we had had with them and after a lot of heated discussion Nicole left a credit card number with them but no cash.

It vas a relatively cold overcast day, so we all had a walk into town but by the time we managed to get six adults, two four year olds and a picnic ready, it was getting on for lunch time before we set off.  On the way down we had to cross over a stream and of course that meant playing Pooh sticks so by the time we reached the park and playground it was time to eat. 

Next we made our way to beach and on the beach and for the first time in three visits to Houlgate the tide was in, it is usually quite a long hike to the sea.  It wasn't a warm day but not unexpectedly the girls still wanted to play in the sea, dig in the sand and collect sea shells.  Even though it was cold, everyone still wanted an ice-cream (its what Brits do by the seaside) and the choice of flavours was impressive, it took as long to choose as it did to eat them. 

Back at the campsite the girls insisted on going to the pool while I prepared the evening meal.  The pool it is heated so if you stay it the water it's ok but very cold when you are out.

At last the sun came out, so we spent a nice welcome hot day in and around the pool.  The new slides weren't open so I asked the guy at the takeaway why, the answer was simple, if they turn the water on to them in the morning, it cools the pool, on the afternoon when the sun is on the slides it warms the pool.  On the afternoon the slides opened as promised and we spent hours on them (the grownups taking shifts on the slides).

As we had had a tiring day and nobody could be bothered to cook, we all went over to the bar for tea, as long as you do not drink too much, the price is quite reasonable.

Another hot day so we made a very quick trip to the supermarket to stock up for the rest of the week and get meat for a BBQ tonight.

Instead of walking to the beach, Tim did a double run in the car to get us all down there, Dot and I went first and set up camp while we waited for the others to arrive.  The tide was out and it took the girls an age to walk to the sea, see the photos for just how far it was.

I didn't bother and sat in the sun reading a book, I did get a bit worried when the tide started to come in rather fast and the others didn't seem to be making their way back.  All was well, they made their way back with the tide and that's when I made my way to the edge for a plodge.  We had a picnic lunch again and then it was back in the sea.  The seafront in Houlgate and other Normandy town is sprinkled with striped beach huts, now I am sure that I saw recently, that the beach hut is a typically British thing a symbol of Britishness, well it isn't.

Later went the others went for ice-cream Dot and I set off to walk back to the site to save Tim doing two trips again, we stopped at a shop on the way and Dot had a Magnum and I got a can of 1664 beer, very refreshing on the walk.  We beat the other back.

Nicole, Tim, Jim and Jean went off in the car to Bayeux to see the tapestry, so we had the twins for the day.  We had plenty of things to do and we had lots of their toys with us plus some new ones as well, like water pistils.

 We spent some time in the pool but the girls complained of being cold, so we went back to the van and played pétanque (French bowls) and the girls took turns taking photos of the game.

Our last day in Houlgate and the sun is still shining, we all had a walk in to town to get ingredients for a final barbecue.  We played pooh sticks again, went to the park and had ice lollies (Emily had two she dropped the first one and it was like the end of the world).  Emily also had a nasty fall from her scooter on the way back and I had to give her a piggyback the rest of the way to the site.

Dot and I had a walk to the Municipal campsite to check it out, just it case we are back this way again, it was basic but acceptable and a lot less money than Camping De La Vallee. 

When over to reception to pay, the miserable woman wasn't there so our check out went smoothly, unlike Nicole's the next day, when the afore mentioned "miserable woman", accused her of leaving the bar the night before without paying for their meal or drinks.  They had not even eaten in the bar but got no apology for the mistaken accusation, Nicole and her family have been there twice before but along with us, will probably never be back again.

It didn't look far to the village (less than a mile), so we set off to walk, the path isn't very good but it didn't take us long to get there anyway.  We walked by the river, had a sit and a look in some of the shops, we thought about having a drink there but just walked back to the site.

Got the scooter off the back of the van and set off for Deauville, where we parked up in one of the large car parks along the sea front.  Although it was midday on a warm Saturday, the sea front was practically deserted, in the UK, the seaside would be crowded on a day like that.

We walked along the sea front towards a marina and the mouth of the river Touques, with Trouville-sur-Mer on the other side.  These was a small boat ferrying people between Deauville and Trouville and we decided we would walk the long way round over the road bridge to Trouville and get the ferry back.  On the way to the bridge we walked through the marina we came across the free Aire de Service, and had a chat with an English couple staying there for a few nights.  Nothing again t this couple but all they seemed to do was, park up, get their chairs out and sit drinking beer all day (not that bad an idea really).  Using Aires may be the only way we can afford to go to France next year, so we have been checking a few out.

Over the bridge in Trouville, we got chicken baguettes and can of cola then sat on the quayside, overlooking the river Touques to eat, attracting the attention of many seagulls

We had a walk around the shops, then onto the beach and along the pier (as we usually do), we sat in the sun there for a while.  Looking forward to going over the river on the small ferry we set off back towards the landing point, only the ferry wasn't there.  Instead there was a temporary bridge, that is lowered from the quayside at low tide, so you can walk back over, it is half the cost of the ferry though.

Back at the site we had an hour in the pool to cool off before tea, the pool is very good but the slides are slightly better on the previous site.

Back on the scooter to Deauville again but we parked up more centrally in the Aire de Service we found yesterday.

It was market day in Deauville and we had a good look around the stalls and then the rest of the town centre before crossing over the river into Trouville again.  It was also market day along the quayside in Trouville, so we continued with our window shopping (if you can do that on a market).  There were lots of stalls selling Levi jeans relatively cheaply, so I was rather suspicious that they were not genuine, anyway there was none my size in the colour I wanted. 

Did the same for lunch as we did yesterday (chicken baguettes and can of cola), then got the ferry back over to Deauville and walked through the marina to the bike.

Back at the site we were going to go in the pool again but had a walk round the lake and the campsite instead.

We only had a short journey today to meet up with Mick and Brenda and as they would not be arriving until late, we had most of the day for shopping and sightseeing.  All started well again, took a wrong turn on the way to the supermarket and ended up at the back of a factory.

Phoned Mick & Bren to see what beer they wanted and then stocked up for the next two days, epically with meat for barbequing.  The Hyper U we used, unbelievably had an electric pylon outside the main entrance and I don't mean the car park, I mean the frond door.

Next took another wrong turn and had to do a U turn to get back on the right road for a visit to Honfleur, on our way to Fécamp.  Took the D62 to the coast and the D513 to Honfleur where we stopped on the outskirts for a look round and view of the Pont de Normandie.  We then drove into Honfleur on the D34 and D580, to check out the Aire, another one in a good position but very crowed.

Next we headed to the viewing point at the bridge itself, to take some photos and have lunch, we used the D580 onto the A29 and over the bridge to the viewing stop, in-between the two big bridges.  From the viewing point to the bridge is quite a long walk, so I used the zoom for the shots of the bridges.

The next campsite we were to visit did bus trips to Paris but these must be booked in advance, I had attempted to do this from home but way asked to phone back on this day to book.  So I rang them only to be informed that it would be ok just to pop into reception when we got there and there was no need to phone a booking.

Then phoned Mick to see how far away he was and he reckoned they were still about an hour away, so we would wait for them to arrive before starting the BBQ for tea. 

A German motorhome parked next to us and asked if we were getting reception on our satellite, I said that I wasn't but before I could qualify my statement by telling him I hadn't tried yet, they moved on to another pitch even higher up the cliff.  He was in a hurry to get set up to watch the football, I moved my dish slightly and we also had reception.  He was lucky happy German, Germany beat Austria 1 - 0.

About an hour after the call to Mick, I walked down to reception and phoned Mick again to see if he was close, his new estimate for arrival was two hours???.  He has been heading away from the coast, he made a mistake programming his GPS.  Now this new ETA is very close to the time the site gaits close for the night, anyway to cut the long story short, they arrived in time but very late and Mick was shattered from diving all day and most of yesterday.

The reason for our stay in Fécamp was so we could visit the white cliffs at Étretat, so Dot made a picnic and we all set of in Mick's car.  The GPS as usual, took us the long way but we arrived without a problem and even though it was very busy, we got parked by the sea front in the centre of town.  The cliffs are spectacular but the tide was in so we couldn't walk round the famous arch.

Had a walk along the beach as far as we could and even went part way up the cliff to take photos and then walked back to the sea front in town for our picnic.  While we were eating we noticed two inflatable's with dogs pulling them, apparently there are some sort of sea rescue team (they have been on TV in the UK since we got back).

After lunch, as we had seen the cliffs and none of us were bothered about looking round the town, we went back to the car and moved on to small town of Yport, on the way back to Fécamp.

Yport was a lovely little town, like a smaller Étretat, only it look like any rock formation they may have had have collapsed.  We did  have a walk along the pebbly beach, it is a nice place for a walk but there wasn't much there, so we moved on to Fécamp.

Back home in Fécamp, we parked up at the campsite and walked down the cliff, the path was not too steep and it brings you out at south end of the promenade.  The prom was very colourful and busy so we had a nice slow walk along in the sun towards the pier.  At the far end of the promenade, at the mouth of the river Valmont and close to the pier was the Aire, it was good for visiting the town but looked very unorganized. 

Nice walk in a nice town but it did get a bit cold in the wind on the sea front, and the opportunity for good photos dropped when the sun went in and a bit of fret rolled in from the sea.  So we moved inland, along the river away from the front and eventually we retired to a bar, to warm up, with beer (SAS Pils) and red wine. 

By the time we had a couple of drinks, the sun was shining again so we got some fresh bread for tonight's BBQ and made our way back up the cliff. The clime up to the campsite, wasn't too bad but we did take our time though, we had, had a busy day.  

Up early and set off the the next site inland away from the coast, to the campsite where we where trying to book a bus trip to Paris from.  The toilets close to us were open this morning and they were worse than the others but at least we didn't have the difficult trek to get to them.

Mick needed fuel so first stop was to be a petrol station so I set one into the sat nav, fist I took a wrong turn and had to do a detour down a very narrow street to gat back on track.  Next the swing bridge across the river was open and we had to wait ages for that to close and then when we did come to a petrol station, it wasn't the one we were aiming for.  We did not need fuel so we parked to wait for Mick to fill up but then decided as we were here why not fill up, after all it is better to be full when the scooter is on the back.  So I pulled in next to Mick, filled up and paid, then things started to go wrong as I pulled away the was a bump.  On investigation one of the small bollards on the exit was catching under the van, this was because of the angle I had to turn to get out and the back end had swung round.  Eventually after much edging back and forth I managed to get out but on swinging round to get from the petrol station exit to the main road there was a loud bang and the bathroom window was ripped clean off the van by an advertising hoarding.  Dot managed to get most of the broken bits off the road before they were run over and Mick and I managed to fix it back in place, using lots of sticky tape.

So instead of Paris (and we were all up early anyway) we set of to see what there was locally.  We walked from the site along the road to Vic-sur-Aisne and then down to the river Aisne.  Mick was on the lookout for a butchers that sold horse meat, he really wants to try some but he didn't see one.  We took photos of bridges, the river, locks, barges, a Château, and had a very nice relaxing walk in the hot sun. 

We then moved away from the river and had a look around the village before inevitably ending up at a bar for a rest and refreshments.  Mick and Bren had red wine, Dot had white wine and I had a beer (Jupiler), we sat outside the bar, with a fantastic view of the, Donjon et Château (Keep and Castle) de Vic-sur-Aisne.  As usual we didn't just have the one we had two.

Big storm clouds appeared in the sky so we headed back to the site but the way back we thought we would pop into the supermarket but it was closed and not open for another hour (I will never understand this closing for a couple of hours on the afternoon). 

Today we checked out where there was a local market and set off towards Pierrefonds, about eleven miles away.  We used my GPS and it took us all over the place to get there, it didn't help that me and Mick would stop to take photos along the way.  When we did eventually arrive it was a small village and there was no sign of a market anywhere, in fact the whole place looked deserted.  We drove round looking and eventually decided we would drive on to find somewhere else and then, round the corner as we were leaving the village we came across this

and headed back into the village to have a look.  We parked up next to the castle and at its base we found the village centre and a very small market, he market wasn't worth visiting but the castle (Château de Pierrefonds) certainly was.  We took two minutes to look round the market stalls and then had a walk around the rest of the village, a very pretty place, we took loads of photos.

Couldn't decide what to have for dinner, do we get something from the shop to eat in the square or do we try a cafe or restaurant. While we were thinking about it we passed a place with an outdoor seating area in a garden with a BBQ going, it smelt great, so we went in.  We had a very nice lunch in the sun with great views and a couple of beers (Kronenbourg (Mick the driver, had cola)). 

After lunch we though we would have a walk up to the castle and if if didn't cost too much to get in, have a look round.   The main entrance was closed and we were directed up a steep hill to the side entrance we almost didn't bother but the girls wanted to go see.  When we got there there was no price list but we asked some people coming out and it was free entry, so we went in.

There were signs dotted about, all mentioning Merlin, then there was a notice to say filming was in progress for the TV series Merlin, we assumed it was French, so it wasn't until we returned home and looked it up on IMDB, that we found out it was for the BBC.

We spent ages wandering around the castle, most of the big rooms are open to the public and there were a couple of art displays to see but eventually we got tired and headed back to the car.  Not a bad trip out, considering we had no idea this castle even existed, what a great find, we would recommend it to everyone. 

It is a big shame that next year, this place will be overrun with new tourists from the UK, all wanting to see Merlin, it looks like it is popular in the summer anyway.  I am glad that we got to see this beautiful, peaceful village and magnificent castle before that happens, it will not be the same again.

Three weeks into the holiday and loving it, are we homesick, no we are not, I struggle to understand the people who go on holiday and are then glad to be going home.  

The plan was to move on to Belgium today but as the weather was good and the area interesting, we would stay on there until Mick and Bren had to leave for home in two days time. 

So today we checked out where there was a proper market, in a big town and set off to Soissons, we took the back road from the campsite rather than going back out onto the N31.  This was a much quieter drive with plenty of nice photo opportunities along the way.

Once there we found a parking place and set off towards what looked like a cathedral, hoping the town centre and market would be close by.  For once we were not disappointed and found the market straightaway, we did pop into the cathedral on the way passed, to listen to some fantastic organ music that was streaming from the huge front doors.  Outside the cathedral a stage being set up for some sort of concert and we made a note to find out what was going on.  

We headed downhill, usually this works when looking for the river and it did this time, we also found a nice friendly bar (with toilet).  Stages were also being set up here by the river and there were barriers for closing the roads.  After a couple of Hoegaardens we set off to find the tourist information office, to see what was going on.  It was in the square where the market had been and the stages were for a music festival that night, with all types of music from classical to rock.  It would have been a good I idea to come back and join in but we could not find out about busses and a taxi was very expensive.  So we just went back to the site for a night by the van (it was the next morning when we realised we could have taken the van back to Soissons and slept in it there). 

Last day for Mick and Bren and we set of to visit another Château, but this time to one we knew was there.  On the way also a nice quiet country road, we stopped to take photos of a bridge over a canal and also some long shots of the Château. 

The castle was bigger than I thought I was going to be, we drove up the hill and in through the castle gates and followed the signs to the car park.  There was a village inside the castle with bars and shops etc, we decided we would try and walk around the castle walls, then make our way back to the village main square for a drink.

It was very hot and it took about an hour to walk around the castle walls, quite a big castle, a lot of it has been restored recently and it looks good.  We made a friend on the way round, a young goat followed us for about half the walk, if we hadn't come to a gate, I am sure the goat would still be with us.

At the end of the walk we were very, very hot, it was just after 12:00, the bar in the square was open, so we had to have a beer (Pelforth blond) to cool down.  After the beer we had another quick look around the village, found an Aire but I am not sure we could get the van through the entrance into the village.  Then it was a rush back to the site the watch the French F1GP from Magny-Cours in the van.

Mick and Bren are off for the ferry home and we are heading to Ghent in Belgium, unfortunately only for one night and not the three we had originally planned.