We have booked a site in Houlgate on the Normandy coast for three nights and set off as soon as everyone is packed up. First we need fuel, there should be a petrol station on the way out of Gravelines but there isn't its closed (it is still on AutoRoute in 2006 but it is gone altogether by then). Fuel isn't that desperate so we carry on with the journey and will stop when we see a petrol station. We head south on the A16, back past Calais until we get to the tunnel terminal, where there should be a petrol station. So we turn off and head for the supermarket but there is no petrol station there as shown on AutoRoute but there are two shown but before we go looking for the second one, we all decide to go shopping first. We have to park in the coach/lorry park, there are height restrictions on all the other car parks, it just means you have to walk further. It is quite a good place to shop and we think this is where we will come on the way home to stock up on booze. We did get a plastic parasol base, the type you fill with water to give it weight.
So where is the second petrol station, well we can see it but we can't get to it so we drive round and round until we find a way to it through a lorry park. Coming out of the petrol station, we have to be very careful not to end up in the tunnel, heading for home.
The rest of the uneventful journey to Houlgate is punctuated with stops for the twins to eat and to move about for a while. We use the A16 to the A28 to the A29 across the scarily high bridge over the Seine to the A13 and then on local roads to Houlgate. AutoRoute takes us through the town to get to the site but there is no need to, the problem was the accuracy of the directions to the site and it is actually further from the sea than we thought.
Even though we had prebooked it still took quite a long time to book in and then when we got to the plot we had been given, a Dutch caravan was already on the pitch. Brenda and I walked back over to reception and after some messing with the computer we were given a pitch higher up on the site, this had better views but was further from the pool and bar.
Houlgate
Camping De La Vallee
88, Rue De La Vallee - 14510 Houlgate
As we will be here for three days I decide to put up the porch awning, this will give us a bit more room, it is only the second time we have had it up. Problem is we have two tents to put up beside the awning and we only have one rubber mallet (mine) and one hammer (mine) and I come last, I have to wait until the others are all done with them, before I can get the awning up.
By the time we have every thing set up, it is getting dark and we want our tea, we have prepacked salad, garlic bread (it's the future) and three large lasagnes that we bought on the way. Only the oven is acting up, it gets hot and then cools down again and it takes about an hour and a half to get them ready and not all at the same time. It all goes down fast enough though.
Me and Dot, Mick and Brenda pop over to the bar for a couple and watch the Sweden v Bulgaria match. Mick goes up to the bar (we have not bought beer in a bar yet this year) and asks for four large beers, the look on his face is a picture when he finds out how much it is. I worked out once that, in the UK it is about four times more to buy the same beer in a pub as it is in a supermarket, in France it can be up to ten time more. That morning Mick had bought a box of 24 bottles of beer, for the equivalent of £2.50, the beers in the bar were about £3.00 each.
Day three or Day five
By the time we have every thing set up, it is getting dark and we want our tea, we have prepacked salad, garlic bread (it's the future) and three large lasagnes that we bought on the way. Only the oven is acting up, it gets hot and then cools down again and it takes about an hour and a half to get them ready and not all at the same time. It all goes down fast enough though.
Me and Dot, Mick and Brenda pop over to the bar for a couple and watch the Sweden v Bulgaria match. Mick goes up to the bar (we have not bought beer in a bar yet this year) and asks for four large beers, the look on his face is a picture when he finds out how much it is. I worked out once that, in the UK it is about four times more to buy the same beer in a pub as it is in a supermarket, in France it can be up to ten time more. That morning Mick had bought a box of 24 bottles of beer, for the equivalent of £2.50, the beers in the bar were about £3.00 each.
Day three or Day five
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