On the Road Again!

The last full day of the trip. A chance to do nothing but have a leisurely day. We had a bit of a lie in. Breakfast.  I decided rather than wash with soap and water I would use a Fresh Wipe instead - https://www.freshwipes.co.uk/ . It's amazing. They are big enough to do all over from head to toe inc unmentionable bits. The pack we have with us are coconut 🥥 smelling. Nice and refreshing. Unlike some YouTubers we get nothing for free.  We aren't sponsored.  We buy everything mentioned in blogs!!!!  Anyway, the plan was a leisurely walk to the beach. Then along to where they house the Calais Dragon. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Compagnie_du_Dragon Sadly. The Dragon was in its cave until Saturday 17th October undergoing maintenance.  Its little buddy that looks like a giant monitor lizard was also grounded.  We did have lunch at the Friterie des Nations. There...

DAY 19 Luckily today was a day when Tomtom, their website and the Camper Max decided to play nicely.  Rare I know. Yes. A route created in .gpx format was uploaded to plan.tomtom.com ! It's true!! Everything was going well. We were up bright and early in case someone came to get the €5 for the overnight fee. No one did. The chandler's shop remained closed.  The fee would be worth it for the view. Even more so if the borne in the service area worked without a jeton then €5 would be great. Even better €0 and take everything with you was great. I programmed in a lunch visit to Dinan. ( https://www.brittanytourism.com/destinations/the-10-destinations/cap-frehel-saint-malo-mont-saint-michel-bay/dinan/ )  And here we had a very embarrassing moment or ten minutes... Following the directions to the Camping-Car parking area we saw a sign "road closed 300m". ...

Woke up and saw that the river was empty. Just a load of mud. I took a stale baguette and lobbed pieces of it into the mud for the gulls.  When I came back from the rubbish bins it had all gone. I had programed a scenic drive ending up in Roscoff. All went well. Except for parking up at any of the waypoints! Once on the way into Roscoff TomTom had another fit. We were told to take the first exit from a roundabout, then turn left.  It then took us onto a narrow hedge lined road. I could just about make the turn. At the end there was a sign saying no trucks and a 2m width.  No wonder the mirrors were in the hedge... We then effed about before resetting and using Google Maps. Going down the second exit from the same roundabout we passed the road we had turned left out of some ten minutes before!!! The park up was at another disused railway station the same as the one in Concarneau. Deserted and covered in g...

Where to from Pont l'Abbe? The first stop was planned as Quimper. It's only around 20kms away. With the TomTom website ( plan.tomtom.com ) still playing up and not importing gpx files, it did allow me to set the car park alongside the river in the centre of the city. The parking at Locmaria 2 is on Search4Sites as motorhome friendly. The reality is there is no obvious bias against vans but spaces are just ordinary car size.  We did have a few problems getting there that were easily overcome by crossing the river on one bridge and back over the next one... Once parked though, it's a short walk into the city centre. There's a magnificent cathedral and when were inside they were practicing for a wedding. Their car had been decorated with a large dachshund on the roof. Our lunch was at a creperie. Massive portions. Mine was andouille and potato.  From there back to the van for the sho...

We had to be up and packed up ready for the inspection of the freecamp bathroom and kitchen.   It was easy to keep them clean despite them providing little in the way of equipment. Brushes yes but no cleaning products.  Luckily we carry all sorts in the van. The inspection was over by 10.30am and armed with our chit we headed for the bins and then reception and they cancelled the €100 deposit.  On the road everything seemed to be going okay. A few problems with the TomTom as we entered Concarneau.  Despite looking on Google Maps that the aire was off the main road into the city centre, we had another wild goose chase around the back streets.... at one point following a German registered motorhome.   We were about to give up when Tom actually took us back to the main road that we had turned off!!! And at the same roundabout.  The aire was only about 400m from there.  Looking...

Remembering our dad, who would have been 98 today.  Rest in peace Dad. Claude Charles Rosslyn Devall