Category Archives: 2018 Euro Trip

2018, 2018 Euro Trip, General Posts, Travels & Camping

Troyes

19 May 2018 Proximity Leave a comment

Campsite: http://www.troyescamping.net/index_en.html

It took a couple of hours to get to the municipal campsite from the aire at Urvillers which saw us arriving midday. I got the impression prior to arriving at the campsite that it was a lot larger and less well maintained. However it seems pretty tidy, and there were plenty of trees to offer shade. Something we felt may come in handy as it was hot and set to get hotter. Originally we found a spot surrounded by large trees. We were just about to set the van up, but decided to scope the site for something that may offer a better combination of sun for the solar panels, and shade for us. This didn’t take long. The site seemed very relaxed about pitches, with no real designation, just electric points dotted around.

We parked the van and headed to reception on foot to let them know where we had settled for the next couple of days. They explained we didn’t need to let them know the pitch specifics, justice pass on our registration plate details and a contact in case of emergency. Payment would be made on leaving the site but they did keep one of or passports as security which is pretty common. They also offered discount via Camping Card (CC) which meant it would cost us a maximum of €19. This would include electric, but we are hoping to do the whole month using solar for the fridge and electronic devices just to prove our independence.

It didn’t take long to get the van set up. After a day and a half’s travelling, and the sun beating down I decided I needed a beer. We had been informed there was an Aldi just outside the entrance to the campsite.

I will leave the rest of that day to your imagination, but suffice to say I was extremely relaxed to the point of being horizontal. Mandy, tried to read her book, but always reminds me the following morning just how annoying I become after a beverage or two 🙂 .

Sunday started off a little blurry eyed for myself, but it didn’t take long for a spring to enter my step when I realized that this was our first full day of our Euro trip that didn’t involve any driving. I’m embarrassed to say that I hadn’t really researched Troyes as a place to visit. It was really just a convenient mid way point to break the journey up from Calais to Annecey. We always intended to have a days wander around the town, but I didn’t realize just how beautiful it was going to be.

It took approximately 20 minutes to walk the main road from our campsite to the town. The sun was strong even at mid morning, and the heat rose steadily until we decided that as nice as the town was, it was becoming hot to the point of uncomfortable. It was a really nice treat for us to find such a gem of a place so early on in our adventure, especially when neither Mandy or myself ad any real incline just how nice Troyes was.

[huge_it_gallery id=”27″]

The remainder of Sunday was spent with plenty of ice cold coke, and water (no beer for me 🙁 ) , flitting between the shade and the sun in manageable chunks.

We woke early on Monday morning, had a shower and packed the van. We planned to leave at 8am, but this slipped a little so we didn’t really get underway until nearly 9am. Or next destination was Lake Annecey which we had seen our friends visit previously. This was all the inspiration we needed as it looked stunning.

2018, 2018 Euro Trip, General Posts, Travels & Camping

2018 Euro Trip

18 May 2018 Proximity Leave a comment

A excursion abroad for Mandy and myself was always on the cards in the campervan. It was just a case of when. I had been working on increasing the reliability of the vehicle since i purchased it back in 2015 as it had clearly been neglected by the previous owners. This included the replacement lots of worn parts, various upgrades, and some pretty hefty bills to accompany an engine change last year. The engine replacement was the one thing I knew I needed to have before I even thought about tackling the major climbs of the Alps which was a destination we knew we would be heading for. That said, after the engine upgrade early last year, I was hit by gearbox issues which dashed our chance of getting abroad right at the last minute.

So fast forward to May 2018, and we were in a much better place. The gearbox had been reconditioned by a specialist, and the engine was feeling really strong. We were all set to go! Most of the planning in terms of locations had been organised for the 2017 trip. Our original intention back then was to go into Switzerland straight after our second stop in France at Lake Annecey. However, we this year we modified the route due to an event our friends made us aware of in Italy called the Bugaloo International VW show. This happened to fall on the first weekend of our travels, in which case we were ideally situated on the boarder of France half a days drive from the VW event. The last week of the four week excursion was unplanned which gave us some flexibility on our way back to the UK.

[huge_it_gallery id=”26″]

To the left, in chronological order these are the places we visited.

Please note: links below will become live as the pages are published. (subscribe to this blog to be made aware of future publications)

2018, 2018 Euro Trip, General Posts, Travels & Camping

Waving goodbye to Old Blighty

18 May 2018 Proximity Leave a comment

The night before we were due to leave our home town of Derby for the continent felt like a bit of a none event really considering the places we had on the agenda. We woke up Friday 18th on the morning of our departure and it was a similar situation. An element of anxiety was the underlying emotion, and we tried to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything import for our journey, or for the house which would be largely unattended for the duration of our travels.

We left late morning which was slightly later than we anticipated, and visited the local refuse site to get rid of a couple of bags of rubbish we didn’t want festering at home, which delayed us further. From there headed for the M1 via the A50, but found ourselves stuck in heavy traffic due to roadworks around the Junction 24. As a result no momentum was really gained until early afternoon when we broke free for a relatively trouble free drive down south .

Our intention was to visit Canterbury in the afternoon and stay at the park and ride overnight before leaving to get our 11am ferry on Saturday morning. The van was running perfectly so we pulled off at Thurrock services mid afternoon. This brought back memories as this was the very place we stayed after we broke down last year.

As we continued, it soon became apparent that we were not going to have any meaningful time at the city of Canterbury, so we chose to head straight for the ferry port and see if we could get an earlier crossing. The answer was yes, but we did have to pay for the £45 for the privilege. We had to wait over an hour to board and departure was just after 6pm, but at least we could make some progress once in France putting us well ahead of schedule.

The one and a half hour crossing saw us land at approx 8.30pm with the time difference and we travelled until 11pm. This put us at an aire near Laon approximately two hours drive away from the first camp site of our holiday in Troyes. We were a little aprihensive about stopping at an aire, as we had heard some scare stories relating to people being robbed. How common this is I’m unsure, but we found one that was well lit with CCTV cameras. I found myself listening for sounds that weren’t there during the night so didn’t sleep quite as well as I should have.

The following morning we woke early and I checked the paddle board, accessories and boot box which were were all present and intact. Phew. Maybe just an urban myth?. We decided to have a croissant and coffee for breakfast at the service station out of convenience. The day was going to be another fine one by the looks of it with blue sky all round. We filtered onto the motorway in high spirits knowing we were well ahead of schedule, with just over an hours worth of driving to be done before we arrived at our first campsite in Troyes.