The Aussie Nomads Motorhome Adventures: FRANTIC IN FRANCE 1

By the time you read this we will have been in France 4 weeks and then we go back to the UK. We are having a ball seeing great places and have been busy ticking things off of our wish lists, there are not enough hours in a day to do all I wanted and go to McDonalds as well for wifi.

FRANCE

We left Belgium and down into France singing Inky Pinky Parley Vous as we passed through

Armentieres

Later as we passed through a small village near St Quentin’s Canal we saw this plaque on the Town Hall. ‘We do not forget Australia’

And then signs for the Fourth Australian Division Memorial who fought in Belgium and

France

from 1916 to 1918.. We followed the signs through the fields to the top of a hill about 1 km out of town called Les Chaudries and added our flag to the others. It was here the Australians captured German positions in what was known as the Hindenburg Outpost Line.

We stopped in St Quentin to catch up with Thomas’s again and had a very enjoyable night at a chinese restaurant with their guests Deitmar and Margit from Germany and Lois and Bob. While walking around town looking for the laundromat we came across St Quentin Plage. The French have a lovely way for the summer of bringing the beach to the people and create a beach setting for the summer in the main square. Flowers and seating for the older generation and tons of beach sand, a swimming pool and water games for the young ones. It is quite a sight with sandcastles in front of the historical Town Hall.

We are still heading south to Paris. Where to next?

We are taking D roads off of the motorways through small towns. You know you are in France when you see the crosses along the Pilgrim Routes and the lovely street flowers.

One of the delights of

France

is the unexpected. Sometimes too unexpected. This town was holding a Brocante in the main street with the stalls right on the road. We had to wait while this lady completed her purchase before we could get past.

I wonder what our police would say if we held our swap meets in the street instead of a carpark.

As we were driving we saw these castle ruins in the distance.

We pass this sign and I was wondering how you would fit all of the Town’s name in the little boxes for an address that we are always being asked to fill in on forms.

Around the corner we saw this amazing town gate and wall. Kevin put the brakes on as he was not sure if Harry would fit through. OH O! how far will we have to go back. But we went through with a few centimetres to spare.

While walking to look at the Castle built in 1220 we saw there was a Mediaeval Festival and Performance with 250 actors in the castle grounds, it was based on the history of the castle and tonight was the last night of 5 weekends of performances.

We got tickets and were allowed to park Harry in the grounds where he was guarded by Lions while we were out for the evening.

What a fabulous night. We walked over at 7.30pm and in the grounds were stalls of a mediaeval flavour. Kevin was intrigued by the fellow showing his collection of a foot soldiers chain mail and armour from the 14^th century. Fortunately the fellow could speak english and happily dressed Kevin in all of his gear. The chainmail weighed about 13 kilo and the rest of it added up to carrying around 27 kilo. No wonder they had to stand and fight it would have been impossible to run away.

While Kevin was getting his gear on my mind was on other things with this gorgeous knight who was babbling away in French

The whole evening was in French and we only understand a few words but were directed to the only person who could speak some english who told us the story so all was not lost.

For the first part of the evening we sat in the grandstand watching the play in the huge field in front of the castle

then after a short interval the whole 3000 of us walked in the dark down a rocky path into the ruins of the castle which had been set up as a type of hell or inferno. There were flame throwers, huge fires where they were supposedly tempering swords. Blacksmiths were hammering away, amidst showers of sparks. Fellows were sword fighting all around as we walked through. Nowhere but France could this happen, people here are very orderly and there was no pushing or shoving. After enjoying ourselves here wandering around in the dark taking part in this inferno, 3000 playgoers did an about turn and went back to the stand for the remainder of the story. We were thoroughly entertained from 9.30 until 12.15 without understanding a word.

The next morning we met a delightful couple are in their 70’s who live in North Holland who were returning there after riding their bicycles down to Paris to visit their son. We had a chat then off they set for home about ??? kilometres away. And we think we are adventurous! They have ridden their bikes around Vietnam and Cambodia and around the Baltic countries. SO EVERYONE!!! Get off of your BUMS and GO OUT their and DO IT!!!

Before leaving here Kevin has been very busy making a toaster as we left ours on the boat. I had a toaster wire and we found a wire coat hanger so what more do you want. It works TOO!!

After leaving Coucy we travelled through lovely forests and farms towards Paris. We are driving on busier roads now but as it is Sunday we decided to detour down through a town. After about 5km we saw a large crowd walking down the road which had cars parked on both sides. Must be a good picnic spot or a chateau, said I. Then we saw people carrying furniture and children’s toys. OH NO! another brocante!! There was no turning back as cars lined the road for a kilometre behind us so on to the Brocante once again on the only street in town.

You can see more stalls in the background, they went for about 1km

The owner of this stall nearly had a fit when it looked like we would take her umbrella out.

Then we were on our way to Paris. We drove past the McDonalds sign with a Chateau in the background. A good contrast between old and new.

Our first view of the suburbs of Paris had the Eiffel Tower in the background. Then the suburbs with the high rise you don’t see when you are in Paris City.

We were going to a caravan park called Maisons Lafitte one of the outer suburbs which was a 20min train ride to Paris. We pulled up at reception alongside this citroen packed full of camping gear. The big and little of Camping Cars.

It is a very big park and we got a lovely spot right along the Seine. We could see the barges and pleasure boats heading down river to Conflans. It was the most we have paid for a motorhome spot 29E per night.

We visited Paris for the next 3 days and as we have already been to most of the tourist venues, we wandered around seeing the street sights of Paris by Day and Night. In the summer from mid July and August the motorway along the Seine is closed off for Paris Plages, ( the beach) when everyone comes out for the sun. There is even a 50M swimming pool.

This is an unusual sign or Paris. It means you can sit on the lawn, usually lawn is only for show and if you should make the mistake in Paris and sit or walk on their lawn someone with a whistle jumps out from a bush shaking their finger and blowing like crazy.