Hmmm, it is June already and I haven’t published a blog yet. So it is time to do that!
I started the season with a week of camping in Utrecht (the Netherlands). I worked as a volunteer in the SPRING performing (and very innovative) arts festival, as I did previous years. I saw some really good shows, such as Eros, by Schweigman & Dox, or Sunny Sunday, by two Lebanese artists: Rabih Mroué and Lina Majdalanie, or There Will Be Light by Julian Hetzel.
On the Thursday of that week I went to the book launch of my dear friend Merel’s first book ‘Witkind’, it was such a joy to see this happen.
I also went for bike rides around Utrecht, along rivers and lakes, a truly beautiful area.
The first days of camping in the new season are also good to detect any problems with the van before going on long trips. And I did detect a problem, causing the water to flow out of the water tank without me wanting that. The garage where I usually bring the van was fully booked until the end of August so I had to leave on my longer trip with a temporary solution. On day two of my longer trip, to France and Spain, from 20 May to 31 July, the power outlet on the dashboard, where I charge my phone, needed to have Google maps showing me where to go, stopped working. For that I went to buy an external battery in a nearby city. On the same day the lock of the closet where I put my clothes broke down. For that the only solution was duck tape, and keeping the clothes in a bag. And some days ago I pulled too hard to disconnect my electricity cable, and now the socket does not fit any more in the holder, more duck tape required. So I hope I had my share and no more of this type of misery will come my way, inchallah!!
France it is then!! Maybe some of you have read the short Facebook posts mentioning where I went. I will repeat some of that here, but I am also adding other stuff. I left Tilburg on 20 May to go to Equihen Plage, on the North West Coast of France. What I mostly do is go and look for a place to buy food, and make bike rides to explore the area. The camp site was very nice, and very near the sea. The village was a bit dull, but there was nice nature around for bike rides. From there I had to revert to a plan B since it was Ascension Day week meaning that lots of people had reserved spots on almost any camp site on the coast. So I went away from the coast to Pont de l’Arche, for the whole week. That was a good decision. On my way there I had to stop once, to check if I had not accidentally asked Google for bicycle roads, since I drove through beautiful fields but on very, very narrow roads. In Pont de l’Arche I found a very quiet and very green site, where I was surrounded by daisies! A pleasant village with shops and a café to go and have a beer after the long cycling tours. On one of my days there I took the train to Rouen, a very beautiful old city where Joan of Arc was burned to death in 1431, by the English, after all her heroic deeds for the French royal family. Such a sad story. After that week I moved back to the coast, to Yport, where I parked the van on a camp site where I had a good view at the sea. A great camp site, and a lovely village. I was very happy there. I made a few bike rides along the coast to check the famous cliffs. Also, on this coast you will find many old German observation posts from World War II. I went uphill in Fécamp to go and see one of those places. The Germans tried to have an Atlantic wall, as they called it, to try and stop the Allied forces from invading France. The next day I went to Etretat, and enjoyed the bike ride very much. After Yport I drove past Le Havre to go to another great, green, camp site, in Martragny, not on the cost this time, but very near the small city of Bayeux. I had asked Google not to send me via toll roads, and, fully trusting Google, had not checked the itinerary. This will not happen to me again though, I was already feeling weird on the roads I was driving on, and all of a sudden I was in a waiting line for a big ferry boat to God knows where. I suppose it was a ferry across the bay, but I did not know and tried to think quickly what to do. I then went out of the lane, there was a not very high threshold between the lanes, and I managed to get out. While doing that though, I heard a noise, the bottom of the van is actually quite low, so that maneuver, even if I did it very slowly and carefully, caused this noise as if the van was going to split in two, what a stressful moment that was. And towards the end of that day’s trip Google thought it necessary to send me on a very rural road, for agricultural vehicles only I think, which was one big pothole, also very stressful. But at some point I arrived at the camp site of Madame Yvette, a Manoir, something between a castle and a farm. During all my cycling in that area I saw many fields full of little blue flowers, planted, like a crop, but I had no idea what it was. I loved them, as they were waving to me in the wind. During the days I was there many ceremonies took place commemorating the landings by the Allied forces on the beaches in Normandy, in June 1944. All villages were celebrating, but the bigger events were near the beaches where it all happened. Old material from WWII was exhibited, people dressed in uniforms from those times, and drove around in old Jeeps and stuff. Although I totally respect the ceremonies it also looked a bit silly to me, like adult men and women ‘playing’ invasion time, part of it at least. I also visited Bayeux, a lovely city, and the famous Tapestry of Bayeux, my reason for going there, was sooooo impressive, I could not believe my eyes.
After Martragny came Maupertus-sur-Mer, another beautiful camp site where I was given a quiet spot from where I could see the sea, again!!! I felt so lucky. It was between Cherbourg and Barfleur. I wanted to visit Barfleur because it is a ‘typical,’ small fishermen’s port from the old days. I decided to go to Cherbourg as well, not too sure what I wanted to see there. So I just cycled around the port and followed the signs for ‘City Centre’. I did not have a plan but I did see a nice café with a terrace and decided to go and have a beer and then cycle back. I was given a very tasty ‘bière lègére’, a ‘La Cadette’, with a picture of a yoga pose, the Sarvangasana, as their trade mark……..
And now I am in Ceaux, in the Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel, still in Normandy, but also in Brittany (a border case…..), on a small but lovely and green campsite, from where I visited Le Mont-Saint-Michel, an old abbey built on a rock in the sea, where you only can go when the tide is low. A very impressive building and a very, very special place.
The idea is to travel down the Atlantic coast in France, then visit Bilbao in Spain, and then go to Agen in the south of France to visit friends. So I am still busy for a while. Tomorrow I leave another place in Brittany, and I will keep you posted !!