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Monday 30th Sept 2019 – Day 29

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in the grounds of the town hall in Saint Amand at no cost. We have had a varied day today, weather has been warm and sunny all day and it was a pleasure to tootle along on country roads, well until I triggered a speed camera in the middle of nowhere doing I believe about 3km an hour over the speed limit. Well as one person I read on a motorhome blog said ” I just build it into the cost of the holiday, it’s inevitable” and thankfully there are no points deducted, C’est la Vie.

We took a meandering route because I wanted to visit a large lake I’d seen on the map that had motorhome stopovers, it is Lac du Der- Chantecoq, try saying that after a glass or two of red. We stopped at one parking area and a retired English couple who were in a motorhome came up to talk to us, like us they hadn’t spoken to another English couple for a few weeks. They were there because the lake is well known for its bird life and for cranes that use it on their migration.

At two sites we have been at, the water supply points needed an attachment I didn’t have, even though I’ve 6 different ones, so we were on the look out for a B&Q style outlet as we drove along , we also needed a supermarket to buy fresh bread, milk and vegetables. I spotted a Super U supermarket and pulled into its car park, immediately we espied it’s laundry facility, common here in France and so whilst our washing was being done we shopped and had lunch, with the bonus of finding in the supermarket the adaptor I needed to fit to my hose.

From there we drove to tonight’s stopover which is in a very typical French town but where the architecture is very reminiscence of out Tudor / Elizabethan houses. The water connection here required the attachment aid bought 30 minutes before so that was a pleasing outcome. Soon after we arrived a different English couple in their 80’s pulled up for the night, they too hadn’t spoken to anyone English for a while and they were making their way home after some weeks in northern Italy.

Sunday 29th September 2019 – Day 28

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in an aire between the River Marne and a navigable canal. Again wifi is almost non existent and I’m struggling to download or upload information.

We had a good drive today, 75 miles on straight roads that were on the whole empty of traffic and we passed through a mainly rural landscape. We drove along in pleasant sunshine but since we arrived it has become overcast and we have had several showers which we have tried to dodge as we walked Layla.

Sat 26th Sept 2019 – Day 27

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in the town of Gray on the River Saone, WiFi connection is almost zero so I will have to add photos tomorrow. We only travelled 30 miles today on good roads and the site we are on is purpose built for motorhomes and is obviously popular as it is full and people have been arriving and been disappointed, it’s a bargain at 5 euros for the night with full services.

The town of Gray has obviously seen better days, there are many shops empty and strangely for a Saturday afternoon many were closed, along side the river it is quite attractive and boats are moored there both privately owned and boats that have been hired.

Friday 27th Sept 2019 – Day 26

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in the ancient town of Dole, apart from 2 tramps everyone looks gainfully employed. We knew nothing about the town when we decided to head here so it was interesting to find it has a long history, an attractive old quarter and was the birthplace of Louis Pasteur the scientist/ chemist.

Looking at the map last night made us realise we needed to do a longer journey today to get back on track heading NW, unfortunately the only way to do so and cover some miles was to use the motorway most of which was “peage” I hate driving on the motorway when we are on trips like this, I find it boring, I like normal roads where I can take in the scenery, villages, towns etc, but needs must. We drove through the Jura mountains and stopped at the services in the area which is home to Poulet en Bresse, chickens to us.

It was therefore with some relief that I found Dole to be a very pleasant town to walk around, they are preparing for a food and drink festival this weekend and we may walk back into town later and see what’s happening.

I’m pleased to say that the church bells did cease last night and didn’t restart until 9am, however the day didn’t get off to a good start when we discovered that overnight some cretin had stolen the aluminium steps that we use to help Layla get in and out of Homer, and we find them useful too. They didn’t cost a great deal so it’s not the financial loss that I grieve, just the inconvenience, I hope when, whoever did it goes to confession they are given a load of ” Hail Marys ” to complete, personally I’d like to wrap them round their neck.

Thursday 26th September 2019 – Day 25

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in Annecy an alpine town in south east France, known for its “old town” with cobbled streets, winding canals and pastel coloured houses.

We are actually staying next to the ” Basilique de la Visitation high on a hill outside Annecy, the Basilique was built in the 1920’s and is dedicated to St Frances de Sales and St Joan of Chantal, a community of nuns live next door to this bell tower so we are on best behaviour.

Its a beautiful building but the clock chimes every 15 minutes, I’m hoping it doesn’t go on all night. From where we are parked we can see down into Annecy and the lake below.

Last night it rained gently on and off all night, so were pleased it had stopped when we set off and the weather brightened up and was in the low 20s this afternoon. Not many miles after leaving last nights stop we crossed a manned border post ( we were waved through) and lo and behold back in France after some weeks. It didn’t take us long to notice the difference between the German, Austrian and Swiss roads compared to the French, we drove 75 miles today and by the time we arrived half the contents of Homer, not locked in cupboards were strewn around, we had become complacent after such pleasant driving surfaces.

Wed 25th September 2019. – Day 24

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels at Villeneuve a town on the extreme eastern end of Lake Geneva or Lac Leman as it is known to the French. The lake is shared between the French and Swiss (we are still in Switzerland) and is overlooked by theAlps, Mont Blanc isn’t too far away and can be seen from some points on the lake. The lake is 73km long making it one of the largest in Western Europe.

We has quite a good journey here today, less mountainous and less tortuous to drive and only two tunnels! We arrived at 1 pm only to find the Reception on the campsite closed from 12.30 to 4pm for “lunch”, there was a barrier across the entrance to prevent access. We decided whilst waiting to go and visit a few of the local supermarkets and use up the last of our Swiss Francs stocking up on bits and pieces, unfortunately it began to rain at this point and we had showers for the next hour or so. We quickly realised that we had now moved into the French speaking area of Switzerland and we could understand the assistants in the supermarket, read the labels and even answer when asked a question.

We enjoyed a good walk along the edge of Lake Geneva and Layla had her usual swim, even though it said dogs not allowed ( no one was looking) and we returned to Homer via the local town of Villeneuve.

It’s interesting and sometimes confusing how each site operates, yesterdays site in contrast to today’s also closed for “lunch” but told you to find a pitch and report to Reception later and you would be told if it was free, We selected one we fancied but typically when we went to Reception we were told it was reserved, so we had one 10 metres away instead. You were given a laminated card with your name on it to put in a slot on a post on the pitch so if you went off somewhere no one would take your spot, we also had to borrow with a 40 Swiss France deposit an adaptor to connect to the electrics as the Swiss system is different to others, I have several adaptors and thought I’d be OK for this trip but hadn’t taken into account the Swiss system.

Tuesday 24th September 2019 – Day 23

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels on a large campsite on the outskirts of Interlaken on the shore of Lake Thun.

The journey to Interlaken was a little more varied than yesterday’s driving with the main roads being quieter, the scenery more interesting and at times the route quite mountainous, again we went through 12 tunnels. As we left Lucerne we stopped at Aldi for a little shopping and they were selling large beer glasses and other items due to the Octoberfest starting in Munich this coming weekend.

Parking Homer in Interlaken was for once quite easy and the town wasn’t too busy, near where we parked was a park area where the hang gliders came down in tandem carrying tourists. In the background were the snow covered mountains of Eiger and Jungfrau.

As we walked around Interlaken we realised we had been in this area about 10 years ago, my sister and brother in law lived near Basel and we came over for New Year with daughter Steph and son Matt. We took a car ride from their house to this area and decided to go up to the revolving restaurant Piz Gloria, of James Bond fame, which is situated on top of the Schilthorn at 2,970m. It was a fascinating journey up using three modes of transport and when we arrived with promises of fantastic views of the highest mountains, there was a “white out” vision was down to a few metres and they evacuated the restaurant down to the next level. Ah such adventures.

Tonight’s stay on the campsite is to allow us time to use the full services, washing machines etc and prepare for the next stage of our journey. We have seen in the news that there has been extremely heavy rain and floods in England today, we haven’t got away ” scot free” it’s been drizzling this evening.😊☔️

Monday 23 rd September – Day22

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in Lucerne, a few feet from the edge of Lake Lucerne. Luzern or Lucerne is a compact city in Switzerland known for its preserved medieval architecture, its sited on Lake Lucerne and surrounded by mountains.

As I’m writing this I’m watching the sun sink down behind the mountains, which couldn’t be a sharper contrast to the start of the day. At 5.30 am it began to rain heavily and didn’t let up at all until we were approx 10 miles away from here, not the best start to our motoring across Switzerland, the only relief I had from driving in the rain was when we went through a tunnel, 12 in all today. We shouldn’t grumble as that’s the first time it’s rained during the day since we left Belgium.

However shortly after we arrived the sun came out and we spent a pleasant and very warm afternoon walking around Lucerne, we even managed to have a drink as we sat outside a bar. Again today Layla was regularly the centre of attraction with people stopping to fuss her and an Australian couple insisted on taking her photo.

Sunday 22nd Sept 2019 – Day 21

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in Vaduz the capital city of Liechtenstein which is a small country of 160 sq km with a population of around 37,000, it is 24.6 km long and 12.4km wide.

The castle that hangs over the town is a private home of The Reigning Prince Hans-Adam 2nd of Liechtenstein, the city centre of Valdez is very modern with some wonderful architecture using stainless steel and glass, through the main pedestrianised street there are modern sculpture and fountains, unfortunately being a Sunday not all the shops were open but if you like watches then you would feel as though you were in heaven here, most don’t have prices displayed, I believe they work on the principal “if you need to know the price you can’t afford it!”

We are staying in an official motorhome stop over which is in the car park of the local football stadium, the car park has a capacity of approx 300, when we arrived around lunchtime it was empty but there was a match at 4pm so by kick off it was pretty full, 20 mins after the game it went back to being empty.

Approx 20m from Homer is the River Rhine, alongside which is a cycle path, in July my 77 year old cousin and his son rode their bikes the full length of the Rhine approx 900 miles in 10 days. It seems very strange that here we are in September in exactly the same spot that they rode along.

The border between Liechtenstein and Switzerland runs down the centre of the river. About 800m from us is an ancient wooden bridge crossing the river which we took on our afternoon walk and found ourselves in Switzerland.

Sat 21st Sept 2019 – Day 20

Today has been a day without driving and what a perfect day, the skies have been blue all day and the temperature rose to 24 degrees, which seemed much hotter in this alpine air.

We started the day with a walk to the cable car station and after paying 28 euros for a return trip we were whisked up the mountain to a height of over 3,000 feet, some people walked up the trail and hardy folk cycled up, I didn’t envy them. At the top station was a restaurant cafe and we had to indulge in a coke and an apfel strudel to counter the stress of seeing all these hot and bothered people.

We did actually hike a part of the trail whilst we were up there but only for a kilometre or so. When we returned to the bottom we walked into the nearby town of Bludenz, it was quite lively with lots of street cafes, a market selling craft goods and an orchestra entertaining everyone, we bought some strawberries for tea and were given a bunch of grapes for free. We were quite weary when we got back to Homer and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the sunshine, altogether today we walked almost 7 miles.