2003, Day Two, Nancy

Day two 3^rd June

Over to reception on my bike first thing (about 10.00) to find out about the busses, reception is now manned by a French girl, she has times for the morning but not the afternoon.  I think it might be better to leave our trip into town until tomorrow, so I ask where the nearest supermarket is, its about two kilometres to the left in the next village.

We get the van packed up ready to move again and set off for provisions but first we need more diesel.  According to the AutoRoute, there two filling stations close by, so we set off for the closest.  We never did find it, we do a U turn and head for the other one, which is exactly where it should be.  The supermarket is easier to find but by this time, it’s closed for the afternoon break, we head back to the campsite for lunch (good job we brought some food with us). Dot can have a drink with her lunch but I have to wait until after we have been back to the shop.

As we eat we notice that the grass is being cut and wonder how the driver will cope with the electric hook-up cables that crisscross in the long grass between the central electricity point and the numerous vans.  Then there is this strange noise, how can I best describe it?  It was like the noise a motor mower would make, if cut through, chopped up, then got coiled up and jammed with an electric cable. He has mangled the electric cable leading to a caravan opposite ours, luckily for the driver the owners are out for the day. The driver tried to pull the cable out from under the mower, he then turned the mower over and with his feet pushing on the under side he pulled and pulled but to no avail.  He then had a bright idea, and went over and unplugged the cable from the electricity supply and then started unwinding the cable from the blades.  Eventually he got it all unravelled, collected all of the chopped up bits and binned them, disconnected the remaining cable from the van, remade the chopped off end and reconnected everything as if nothing had happened.  He then gives up cutting for the day and heads off.  When the owners of the van return they will be none the wiser, at most they may think there has been a power cut, until the next time they are a long way from the electrical points, their cable must be at least half the length that it used to be.

For more entertainment, as we hang around waiting for the shop to reopen, we sit and watch the afternoon arrivals, mainly Dutch (most have probably just done the same trip as we did yesterday), anyway they are driving around looking for a plot that suits them.  Did I mention that there was a one-way system?  Well it doesn’t look like it was mentioned to the Dutch.  The pitch two on from ours, is the smallest plot on the site, this plot also has a rather large tree in the middle of it, so when the largest caravan arrives, imagine our surprise when it heads straight for it.  When the caravan is reversed in right up to the tree, it is still halfway across the road, it takes about thirty minutes before they realise it will never fit and move on to the next plot, which by the way, is about the biggest pitch on the site.

We leave the table and chairs out, disconnect the electricity and set off back to the shop, as we start to look around, we decide we are not in a shopping mood, which is very unusual for us, we shop, that’s what we do.  I think we must have been sat in the sun too long, anyway we get a pizza for tea and some quality beer, we also splash out €1.00 on a  bottle of wine. 

2003, Day One, Nancy

Day one 2nd June.

This trip has been brought forward by two weeks (P&O made a small charge for the change) as our Daughter Nicole is due to have twins in August and Dot doesn't want to be away too close to the time.

Arrive in Rotterdam and wait in the queue for passport control, lots of one-make two-seater sports cars around us (must be on way to or from a rally). After quite a long wait, watching people fumbling with passports and getting in and out of cars and vans (the majority have the steering wheel on the wrong side to reach the official easily) we eventually get to our turn, only to be waved strait through with out checking and with some urgency, as if it was our fault there are queues.

We headed immediately for a petrol station for cheap diesel, we find one just along from the port and pull onto the slip road. Big mistake.

There is some hold up at the lorry part of the filling station and they are blocking the slip road, this is to cost us about half an hour. We pass the time watching the two-seaters waving and honking at the others two-seaters stuck on the slip road with us. After a while the sports car drivers (as you would probably expect from them), begin to get very inpatient and eventually one of them starts to ask the lorry drivers if they can pullover on to the tiny strip of grass between the slip road and a drop, so that they can squeeze through. By this time, there is only one lorry and me still in their way. The lorry edges over and the sports cat driver approaches me, it is at this point I realise that if I pull over for them, I will have then to wait for all of them to fill up before I can get in. I point this out to the sports car driver who informs me that I should fill up with the lorries and not get in their way. I let two or three of them through and then pull over to get passed the lorry myself as by this time, it has edged forward slightly leaving just enough room for me to squeeze through. Triumphantly I pull up at the wrong pump (gas instead of gasoile) and have to wait for the motorcycle behind me to fill up and move on, so that I can reveres to the diesel pump.

Tank full of diesel and we are on our way, laptop on with our route to Nancy mapped out using AutoRoute, heading for Belgium on the A15/A16. As we enter Belgium this changes to the A1, on passed Antwerp to Brussels and onto the A4 to Luxemburg, on through Luxemburg on the A6/A3 and into France on the A31 for the rest of the days journey. This journey is punctuated by multiple stops to check the directions.

We had studied and planed the route in great detail but I am never totally sure that we are not going to get lost (it’s a fault with me), so at every intersection I need reassurance that we are still on the right road and not heading in the totally wrong direction (the truth is I often get quite panicky).

We drive straight to the site in Nancy without one wrong turn (if fact we do not take a serious wrong turn until the very last day, on our way back to the ferry we get on the wrong road in Antwerp, and I blame the Dutch motorway signs for that one).  

NANCY Campeole Le Brabois Avenue Paul Muller - 54600  Villiers les Nancy Web Site

 The site is on the outskirts of Nancy close to the horseracing track, about 4km from the centre. Reception is manned by a Brit, our conversation goes something like this: - 

“Hello my name is Mr Gant I booked three nights via the Internet”
“have you got your booking conformation”?
“no”
“you should have received one”
“you last email to me asked for my details, so that you could send me one, I replied with them but never I never received conformation, maybe you never got the email”
“I remember the emails, must be one of the girls fault”

We had only booked the first two sites, as we where not sure how busy it was going to be, I had also given up trying to prebook sites after the first two, for two reasons, we did not want to be to rigid with our plans and my experience booking the second site.

On the Internet, there are two contacts for the site in Dijon, a direct phone No and an email address for the tourist office. I choose the coward’s way and emailed, their reply advises me the ring the sire direct and includes the phone number, so I bite the bullet and phone.

"Hello, do you speak English”

“yes a little”
“I would like to book for three nights”
“yes”
“June the 7th, 8th and 9th, is that ok”
“June yes”
“for a motorhome and two adults with electricity”
“motorhome no”
“is there room for a motorhome and two adults with electricity”?
“yes”
“is that booked then”?
“sorry the office is closed”

At this stage the phone goes dead.

I email the tourist office again, explain that I have phoned but the recipient could not understand me and apologised for not being able to speak French, I also included all of my details and requirements. I receive a reply from the tourist office saying that they phoned the site and booked for me, it some times pays to grovel. Anyway this place has plenty of room, so we check in for three nights and set of round the one-way system, to pick a site.

When I return to reception to let them know what site we are on and to get a pass for the barrier, our second conversation goes something like this: -

“We are on site 38”
“thanks”
“is there a bar, café, or restaurant on site”? (I ask this as we are in the middle of nowhere),
“yes ---
--- but it doesn’t open for two weeks”
“where can we get a bus in to town tomorrow morning”?
“that’s easy, they go from the end of the drive, its 1.50€ each way, you get the tickets here ---
--- but the bus drivers are on strike tomorrow”.

He does however, go on to explain, that not all of the drivers will join the strike and after contacting the bus company in the morning, he will have a makeshift timetable.

We are tired after the long journey and decide to have a quiet night, something to eat and drink and then early night.

After eating I feel more awake and decide to set up the satellite, I use my compass and decide I might just be able to get a signal over the trees, It is at this point I discover I have forgotten the remote control for the decoder. I decide that I should still be able to get it to work, so set it up anyway, wrong, not the slightest signal, so I give up and watch a DVD on the laptop instead.

Day Two