OUISTREHAM

June 2018

Ouistreham is a seaside resort and ferry port a few miles north of the big city of Caen.

It is very popular and convenient for a one night stop before or after the crossing the English Channel from Portsmouth and is sometimes used for a longer stay as it is also close to Bayeux where the famous Tapestry is displayed and to the beaches where the Allied forces landed during World War II.

Northern Normandy Coast

The site was easy to find but as I turned off the D515 onto the short approach road I noticed a large crowd of African Immigrants on a stretch of green land between the two.         In the following days too they were invariably there just sitting around, talking to one another, smoking and so on.        But it was also noticeable there was usually a Police car nearby and perhaps for this reason I never experienced or saw any signs of trouble.

Having already visited Bayeux and the WW II landing beaches in years gone by I didn't feel a compulsion to do so again and had a rather dull time for ten days before my ferry was due.        I would have preferred to stay longer at Tuffe in the absence of flooding but even so should perhaps have gone to another site in the interior rather than spending so much time at Ouistreham.

Mostly I prepared food in the caravan but on my last night I treated myself to dinner at La Glycine Restaurant in Benouville just a few miles down the road towards Caen.

This was expensive but very, very good.     All the dishes were perfectly cooked, had intensive flavours and were elegantly presented.    Here is the menu -

Mise-en-Bouche - small concoction of raw salmon and apple 

Entree - Foie Gras de Canard and Pomme Confites with toast 

Plat - Turbot with exquisite vegetables and prawn sauce

Dessert - Strawberry Capuccino - liquified and strained strawberries with Creme Fraiche and Mint

Wines - Touraine and Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc

So, I was feeling very satisfied and relaxed as I returned to the site and picked up the  van at 21:30 to catch the late night ferry.

That feeling didn't last long as explained in this email I sent to family after returning home :

A CALENDAR BLIND SPOT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

When I reached the ferry terminal an hour before the boat sailed last night the girl at the check-in booth said - "You were booked to travel yesterday! "

'Never mind she said, 'We're not full so you'll be able to go anyway".    Then after looking up details on her computer she also said "But we don't have any cabins left so the best we can do is revise your booking to a reclining seat and later send you a refund for the difference".

I had no alternative but to accept, and immediately 'phoned Alan to explain and re-arrange our meeting place for transfer of the van's contents to a service station on the M4 thus fore-going the benefit of a good night's sleep at a site near Marlborough I'd already paid for and a less rushed transfer on Saturday morning.

So, I had a very uncomfortable night with little sleep but the next interesting thing to happen was when I went through UK Customs and Immigration at Portsmouth.      "Did you look inside your van before coming off the ferry"? asked the officer at Passport Control, to which I replied "No".       Whereupon he said, 'We'd better have a look then", which we did and found everything in order.         He then said "They smuggle themselves inside lorries to get aboard the ferry and then get out and break-in to caravans and the like when every-one has left the car decks - we've had one every day this week."       This exchange related to the illegal immigrants from Africa who base themselves in Ouistreham, some of whom I had seen every day at the entrance to the campsite. 

The transfer of contents to Alan's trailer took place as planned the previous evening and I delivered the van to the Caravan Dealer near Swindon for its first annual service.

I also managed to get home without dozing off at the wheel and having an accident and am now relaxing with a "nice cup of tea".        

Thus ended my summer land-cruise in France this year and I'm now enjoying the greater ease and comforts of living in a larger space for a short time before setting off to share another summer holiday with Alan and his family in Cornwall. 

PAYS DE LA LOIRE

TUFFÉ

JUNE 2018

I stayed at Le Po Doré site near Allonnes for a week but then moved on to Camping du Lac at the old town of Tuffé, a few miles north east of Le Mans and about half way between Saumur and Caen.

This small and quiet rural village grew up around an Abbey unusually founded and occupied by Nuns in the 7^th Century. Benedictine Monks were admitted 400 years later and the House was demoted to become a Priory subordinate to the Abbey of St Vincent in Le Mans.

The old buildings were extensively replaced and extended in the 17^th and 18^th centuries and, as with so many religious and aristocratic buildings in France, gutted during the Revolution and turned to other purposes thereafter.        In this case they were used as a pottery workshop and garage for farm equipment.

Modern volunteers care for the remains, particularly the principal two-storey building and a separate cloister and gardens with a large Pigeonnier nearby. The pigeons for the Prior's table had the luxury of an extensive array of pottery lined nesting boxes on the interior walls of the tower-like Pigeonnier. Volunteers are currently engaged at a leisurely pace in archeological and restoration projects.

These historical remains are rather dwarfed by recent housing developments though it has to be said those nearest the Abbey have been done tastefully and are limited in height.

One of the sources of the villages current prosperity and interest is a “Base de Loisirs” (Recreation Centre) created around a large lake in the valley just north-west of the village.

The lake is roughly rectangular in shape with long sides of about 1 km and short ones of ¼ km each. It is surrounded by a mostly flat and gravel-surfaced track popular with anglers, walkers and cyclists.  I very much enjoyed using it frequently, sometimes for just one circuit and sometimes for two. These rides were shorter than others earlier on the trip but more regular.

There is also a sailing club with boards for windsurfers, small dinghies and catamarans very popular with locals at weekends, and at one end of the lake an artificial beach has been created with imported sand that's also popular for sunbathing, swimming or just relaxing.   

Near the campsite and sailing club there's a restaurant and bar with a "Menu Touristique" - not exactly a gourmet's first choice but a distinct cut above a typical English, or even French café/bar.       Pedaloes and canoes can also be rented here.

So, taken altogether this was a very relaxed and calming place to stay - at least for the first ten days. 

I chose a pitch at the lowest level of the site as it had a good view of the lake – seen through the window of the caravan in this picture.

View of lake and glimpse of its peripheral track

That was fine for most of the time but led to a dramatic curtailment of my stay at the end after a few days of thunderstorms and heavy rain.     

I was awoken one night at 02:00 by a loud thumping on the side of the van and a voice saying “Fireman”.    It wasn't a fire alarm though but instead a flood alarm announced by “Les Pompiers” who provide civil emergency services of all sorts.    

The lake is fed by a small river that flows down the valley and the heavy rains increased the inward flow to an extent that the outflow couldn't match so the water level was rising rapidly.   The Pompiers had issued notice to evacuate the site with occupants taking cars to a park at a higher level but leaving vans where they were.

Here is a copy of the email I sent to family describing what happened.

I used always to have a Grab Bag containing vital essentials on the boat but never thought I'd need one in a caravan!

The worst thing last night after being woken by Le Pompier was remembering the most important things to take, finding them, and thinking the bike, table and chairs that were all outside might float away or be badly damaged if I just left them where they were.

I'd put the bike in the car so often that was soon accomplished but in my haste I broke one of the table leg's locking struts - so I don't know if that will still stand up any more.

It was 03:00 by the time I'd retreated to the car park and I went for a short drive to try and discover how high the water had reached - but the easiest access point in the village had been taped-off, so perhaps low-altitude citizens had been evacuated as well.

But I did find an entrance to the path around which I had cycled several times and the water had risen nearly to that level- perhaps 18 - 24 inches below the level of the van's lowest feet and 24-30 inches below the lowest floorboards. 

But of course the slope was fairly gentle so I realised the volume needed to really trouble the van would be huge because of the large area of the lake.

Nevertheless it was on my mind when I returned to the car park at about 04:00 and again at 05:15 when I woke from an uncomfortable doze as daylight began to creep over the landscape.

So, I was back at the campsite entrance at 06:00 to find the access key I'd been given didn't work and the reception office was in darkness. I thought I'd have to wait for some-one to show up. But, luckily a staff member who had been dozing in the office was alerted by the car's headlights and came out to investigate.

He said - "You can't stay in your van". "That's OK" I replied, thinking it could easily be a couple of days before enough water drained away for residence to be resumed, or even longer if there was more rain. "I just want to collect my van and leave the site. I can do that in 30 minutes maximum". "OK", he said.

So that's what I did and was on the road by 06:30, though tidying up and packing away the pots and pans, unwashed dinner dishes, etc, wasn't up to my usual standards. He also advised using Routes National only since he'd heard many of the Départemental roads and villages along them were impassable.

My objective was to reach the site at Ouistreham at which I had already booked a pitch for Friday and I was glad I took the site staff member's advice, even though I had to go back some distance to Le Mans to do so.  It continued to rain most of the way to Caen and several minor roads leaving the A28 and A88 had notices at the Junction - "Barré, Inondée".

It took a lot longer than usual to set up the van when I reached the Bella Riva campsite at Ouistreham but eventually the rain stopped and I finished doing so.

Its now windy but sunny and all is over except for the broken table leg and that I'm very tired.

Altogether an interesting experience but not so traumatic as arriving at Richards Bay in a Violent Storm (See Grandpa's Voyages blog).