Sunday, 22nd July 2007
We had a pleasant night, made infinitely better for Annie with the memory foam mattress topper, which everyone (quite rightly) raves about. We were woken before six by rainy pounding on the roof. Yet another deluge, to add to the rest that the UK had received recently. I peeked through the curtains, out to sea, and was pleased to see that the sky was bright over France. Was this a good omen?
We were terribly early for the ferry, as we always are, which allowed us to be first on. We parked right behind the doors, ready to be first off at the other side. We had a sort of perfunctory search of the back of the van by customs and then we were off.
The ferry crossing was uneventful, which is to say, pleasant. We ran into our Marine Parade ‘friends’ again, and we chatted for a bit, talking about families and holidays.
We weren’t actually first off the ferry, but I didn’t mind that, because it gave us someone to follow in the notoriously sign-deficient Calais ferry area. We hit the Franch roads at around 11am UK time.
We stopped at an Aire de Service for lunch, we stopped at an Aire de Service for a cup of tea and a half-hour’s kip, and we stopped at an Aire de Service to fill up with diesel. Although we had planned to stop in Reims, Annie suggested that we carry on, so we did. She’d found a Camping Municipale in Metz, and we headed for that (14.50).
We’d encountered a few road works en route, which were no real problem, and there were no hold-ups. About 8km from Metz, we came across some more, but missed the sign which said “If you’re heading for Metz, keep to this nearside lane, because when you get to the next junction, where your satnav is going nuts telling you to get off the motorway, you’re going to be on the other side of the road in a contraflow, and won’t be able to get there.” Which is a pretty big sign.
No problem – Hilda (who is our satnav voice, because we haven’t changed her to a French voice yet) told us to get off at the next junction, just a couple of km away, and she routed us back onto the motorway, coming in the opposite direction for another go.
Got the junction, followed the roads, came off at the right point, and saw the Camping Municipale as we crossed the river, looking for signs. To cut the account of a frustrating 30 minute journey short, we got to the campsite, after being rerouted all around it. We suffered the French system of having signs that showed you the way you should have gone, just after you’ve taken the road you shouldn’t. Hilda was going nuts, ‘cos she had no idea what was going on, so we put her out of her misery.
We got to the campsite at around 7.30pm, and we got the last pitch with a hookup . A quick bit of shuffling, and a rather nice bit of ramp positioning (if I might say so myself), and we were in.
The GPS location of the site is: E 6˚10’19” N 49˚7’34”, and we paid €18 for a 1 night stay with hookup.
The campsite is superb. Lovely position, next to the river, very quiet even though it was busy, and the little bar / café does wine and beer, and some cooked food. The speciality was steak and chips and salad, which was excellent (€12.50), minus the steak for vegetarian Annie. We had two lovely meals, with half a bottle of wine and several beers, all for €27.50.
