The Buchans 2016

Saturday, 9 July 2016

France – May/June 2016 Part 2

St. Jean de Monts (SJM) market. This took up a huge area of central SJM and just about anything could be bought there

The man with the patter. He was selling fancy vegetable slicers. I didn’t see him selling many, but he had plenty of veg ready for his tea.

North of SJM were two large forests. The forests had a couple of circuits of geocaches which we attempted. Here I am at one of the small ponds by which the geocaches were hidden.

Local wildlife in or near the ponds

We think this is an orchid which is in the forest.
Do you know?

Notre-Dame de Monts – fantastic beach and promenade, but where are the people? Maybe June is the low season.

St Gilles Croix de Vie – this is a large town with extensive harbour south of SJM. This is another place with miles of beach and lovely promenade.

I hope this is not our return ferry.

On a walk out in the countryside we passed this forge with some of the work out on display. I like the frog.

From the photos it might look like we had lots of good weather. This was not the case. Of the 28 days away we only had about 6 really good days.
Below is the set up for a weekend of beach rugby. Although the rain held off it was very windy and goal posts tended to bend (look at the right hand photo). The posts and surrounds were inflated.

Velo rail de Commequiers – on a dull afternoon out we came across ‘bicycles on rails’. It is an old railway track that is now used for these ‘pedal cars’. As there is only one line they have a timetable so the line can be used in both directions. We didn’t actually see anyone using it. Having looked on the internet there are about 50 of these ‘velo rails’ in the whole of France.

Another dull and windy day on SJM promenade.

A wild day on the beach at SJM

We left SJM after 19 days and moved to a campsite at Brissac Quince (BQ), just outside Angers.
On the ramparts at BQ One of the many cafés.

The florist’s The Marie (Town Hall)

Basket maker working at the market.

Donkeys near the campsite. I wondered why the donkeys wouldn’t come any closer and then I found out when I touched the electric fence. Not pleasant.

The River Loire – it’s a huge river

Château d’Angers - it looks more like a fortress than a chateau

The château was built in the 9th and 13th centuries

The gatehouse

We had parked by the château and began a walking tour which was in the local guide.

Cathedral St. Maurice d’Angers Decoration on the façade

Maison d’Adam - in medieval times this housed the main supplier of axes.

One of the many wooden carvings on the façade.

Since we were last here the main square has been pedestrianized. It looks much better.

Someone having a bit of fun with ‘stickers’.

Stuart by a face sculpture

An older part of Angers

The area around BQ was ideal for cycling. There were many tracks and you could go most places.
Below: a flooded field - we had quite a lot of rain.

An atmospheric photo showing an old bridge in the campsite grounds.

Brissac Quince chateau has 7 floors making it the tallest chateau in France.

View from BQ ramparts

Florist’s shop in BQ

After BQ we moved to Ouisterham (the ferry port for Caen). We stayed at a campsite very close to the port. At around midnight the rain, thunder and lightning started and went on for 2+ hours. We had to be off by 7am to catch the 8.30 ferry. It was still raining as we were hitching up so not a good finish to the holiday. The plus point was that the ferry left more or less on time.

Friday, 1 July 2016

France May/June 2016

Ten days before we were due to sail to Santander, Spain we had a phone call from the Caravan Club (we booked through them) to say that the Santander ferry had a problem with its propshaft and had to be towed into Brest for repairs. What did we want to do?
We opted for the same sailing dates, but went from Poole to Cherbourg and we would skip going to Spain. Fortunately we had not booked any campsites nor had we made any arrangements to meet anyone.
We left Poole in late May on a nice sunny morning.

Stern of the Barfleur with Poole in the distance

Sailing through Poole harbour

Sandbanks – the upmarket houses you can’t see from the road.

On arriving at Cherbourg we motored down to a campsite, at Pontorson, near Mont St. Michel where we stayed for 3 days.

Wikipedia description ‘Its unique position — on an island just 600 metres from land — made it accessible at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey, but defensible as an incoming tide stranded, drove off, or drowned would-be assailants. The Mont remained unconquered during the Hundred Years' War, a small garrison fended off a full attack by the English in 1433.The reverse benefits of its natural defence were not lost on Louis XI, who turned the Mont into a prison.’

Main street Mont St. Michel.

Sue at one of the very large taps

Door furniture built to last – definitely not from B&Q

View from the top of Mont St. Michel back towards the mainland. There have been many changes to the access to the Mont. There is now a P&R system about a mile away so no access for private vehicles.

On the ramparts

Abbey cloisters

Abbey refectory

Crypt of large pillars – These pillars are supporting the abbey.

The tread wheel crane used to bring supplies to the prisoners.
Some prisoners would walk inside the wheel to rotate it.

If you look at the previous photo of the abbey you will see that there is no archangel on the top. The archangel was replaced, after renovation, earlier this morning when I cycled there from the campsite. I knew nothing of this until a Frenchman asked when it was replaced (he spoke very good English). He was expecting the replacement to arrive at 11.00 by helicopter, but they had done it earlier. Helicopters were buzzing around for quite a while removing building materials and taking photos. The archangel is 4.5 metres high and weighs half a ton.

Stuart at Mont St. Michel (a selfie)

More exercise on the campsite

After 3 nights in Pontorson we moved onto La Yole campsite near St John de Mont on the west coast of France La Yole transalated is a ‘skiff’ used for moving about the local marshes. There are plenty of roads now.

St John de Monts beach – it goes on for miles

Stuart at an ‘art’ installation by a roundabout

BBQ in the awning (not recommended). It was raining hard

French postage stamps celebrating ‘Euro 2016’

The forests around the campsite had plenty of geocaches so we tackled quite a few of them.
The forests were lovely to walk in and there was hardly anyone around.

A rather large log pile

A day visit to Noirmoutier, an island 20 kilometres by 7 kilometres wide. It is joined to the mainland by a bridge which was built in 1971. Notice what Sue is wearing – it is June!