2006, Day One Houlgate

Day one 1st July

This year will only be a short visit (eleven nights), as we have been to Poole for a week with Nicole and family on the way. We had tickets from Dover to Dunkerque with Nolfolkline for £38 return, even though this did mean travelling through the night, something we said we would never do again but it suited us this time, as we got more time with the family at the holiday park in Poole. If we had not got a crossing for at this low a price, I don’t think we would have bothered going to France for such a short break.

Arrived at the port very early didn’t mean to but as you may know, if you miss the last service area on the M20, there is very little choice of places to park before the port. When we arrived the place was in chaos and the queues where horrendous, (I think it may have had something to do with England playing in the quarter final of the world cup in Germany and people just wanting to be there, I could be wrong, it may be like that every Friday night at the end of June,) even with all this we where still very early at check in.

The man on the check in said we where too early, as where many others, he could send us back round but we would just be stuck in the traffic again, or we could go and join the standby line. “If we do not get on the next one, we will get the one we booked” I asked, “probably” was the answer. As we where here for some time, I set up the laptop for the TV to watch the football. Now, as we sat in the stand by line, I began to think about this conversation, “we will get the one we booked,” “probably”, this worried me, are we now just stuck in the standby line and will get on when there is a space? I decided to phone the office for clarification, found the number and was reassured that we would at least get on the ferry we booked, just then we where moved forward and then on to the earlier boat.

Even though we where on the older ferry it was still much more comfortable than the Seafrance one last year, we got sat in the lounge with reclining seats, even managed a bit of a nap.

Bit of a problem getting away from the terminal in Dunkerque, did not follow the GPS but followed the other traffic, who where in turn, following a lorry into the lorry park. This caused a bit of a traffic jam but we just turned round and followed the GPS, as we should have in the first place. Although there are new road layouts leading away from the port, and it was very foggy, we where on A16 motorway in no time at all and despite the fog, soon on to the A28 heading south to Houlgate. We where heading to Houlgate because we knew the site and with so little time in France we thought it best to start with somewhere we could rely on.

After about two and a half hours driving, Dot was falling asleep and I was very tired so I pulled into an Aire and had a couple of hours rest, we had been up for about 24 hours by then (this is exactly what we had to do last year). Suitably refreshed and after some coffee we set off on the last 150K of the journey to Houlgate on the A28 over the big scary bridge over the Seine at Le Havre and then via the A13. AutoRoute suggestion for the last part of the journey to the site was via the D45, D163 & D513 but the D24, D24A looked like a more direct route, it is but very narrow.

HOULGATE Camping De La Vallee 88, Rue De La Vallee - 14510 Houlgate Web Site

We had booked but check in was not as smooth as it should have been, all was well and we where being directed to our pitch, when I mentioned we had a camping-car. This seemed to upset them and they started searching their computer for another pitch, "you did not mention you had a camping-car when you booked" was their reason for the upset. Now I booked using an online form and had filled in all of the boxes and paid the deposit and had an acceptance letter from them but they didn't know I had a camping-car. I asked what the difference was but I did not understand their answer, anyway after quite a long time searching, we where assigned a different pitch.

It turned out to be a rather small corner pitch but we could fit on and assumed we had done something wrong and this was the only site available.

We decided that, before we do anything else, we would head off to the supermarket for provisions and diesel, I knew where to go as we had been before in 2004. The Super U was heaving and the lines at the checkouts where huge, it was a Saturday and we don't usually go near the shops on weekends at home for this very reason. After queuing for a while I said to Dot that I would fill up with diesel and meet her outside, so after walking back to the van driving to the petrol station, queuing, filling up, driving back to the car park and walking back to the shop Dot was still queuing.

Back on site I setup the Satellite for the England game, not the best reception as we where down in a valley and typically, there was a tree in the way. Had a walk up to the bar to se if the football would be on up there but there was no sign that it would be so decided to watch in the van. The match was on in the bar and when it got to penalties, as they where watching on terrestrial TV and I was watching on satellite I could here whether a penalty had gone in before it had been taken. Then when it was all over and we had lost, the people in the tent opposite us, went mad, we had the only Portuguese on the site next to us.

Later it was the turn of the French to go mad as they went through to the semi finals, the outcome being, fire works and car horns going well in to the night.