Leaving those grey skies over England, hoping for glorious French summer skies!!!
This ‘Taste of France’ adventure should last 5 weeks until mid August before returning briefly to the UK to exchange sets of grandparents before setting off again in early September for a month trying to cover the rest of France…. phew! it should be an epic summer in France…
Leaving the gloomy grey, rain laden skies of Dover, we embarked on the next leg of our adventures across Europe… With 26 countries covered in over 20,000 miles, we are ready to spend some time with family travelling across France. With a chance to spend some time in the Gironde first with Catherine’s parents… we’ve set sail earlier than them in the hope we can grab some French culture enroute…
Hopefully offering both girls the chance to fully immerse themselves in the language and culture… As a family we’ve loved visiting France for over a decade together and we love everything from the food to the glorious weather as you travel south!!! So today’s adventure saw us leave Black Horse Farm CC site (worth the overnight!) to Dover on an early ferry, allowing us the chance to get across France before nightfall..
Heading south past the Battle of the Somme at Vimy Ridge (one to return to in September after our thought provoking trip to other WW1 sites at Ypres), we headed across wonderfully French countryside on a mixture of peace motorway (toll roads) and small french D roads….
Heading south past the Battle of the Somme at Vimy Ridge (one to return to in September after our thought provoking trip to other WW1 sites at Ypres), we headed across wonderfully French countryside on a mixture of peace motorway (toll roads) and small french D roads….
Eventually finding ourselves in Amiens, a city some 120km north of Paris and famous for both its importance as the capital of the Somme and its Gothic Cathedral that reminded us of our travels to Metz earlier this year. Transferring to the quieter back roads, we headed west towards the wonderful port of Rouen.
Straddling the Seine it is very much the capital of Northern France and a crucially important city since Roman times. Famous for its wonderful cathedral and cobble roads it is perhaps better know for the burning of Joan of Arc. Both girls were in awe of this story and it again reminded us of the Nobel Peace Centre and the importance of ‘speaking out’ if you strongly believe in something (just like Malala did)
Every region should have Something special
Leaving Rouen behind us, we headed south to our chosen destination for tonight’s stay, the wonderful city of Chartres (Capital of Light after it’s famous illuminations)… not far from Paris but with a cathedral that matches its namesake (Cathedrale Notre-Dame). It rises majestically above the cityscape and is visible across the gently wafting barley fields… Finished in 1220, it has two stunning spires, flying buttresses and some quite remarkable blue tinted interior stained glass windows…. We hope to return to do it more justice later this year…
A busy day ended after we arrived at a wonderful little village near the Parc du Peche region that sits above the Loire Valley… the aire in La Madeleine Bouvet was perfectly located alongside a fishing lake beside the village church and marie (town hall)… full facilities and a chance to enjoy our first night back in France. Bliss!!!
chartres
so where did we park the bus for the night?
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