Explore europe in a campervan

We made it! Many thought we wouldn’t…including us several times over the last few days. But the house is empty and relatively clean, and our worldly belongings are spread between two lofts, a garage and two sheds (thanks everyone for the spaces and the help!). Oh, and of course our van is full – it seems mostly of clothes and many different chargers and cables for electrical things.

We crossed from Portsmouth to Le Havre with LD Lines as it seemed to give a better journey time both to the port and to the Alpine region on the other side. We paid £245 for a return ticket (date can be changed so we’re still flexible!) and treated ourselves to sleeper seats, but not a cabin. The seats were actually very comfortable and the area was quiet although judging by the queue to board there must have been many more passengers than we saw – guess they were all tucked away in cabins. Anyway we were a bit excited so not really ready to sleep. Had our last slap-up meal and settled down in the pub with a wi-fi card to plan our onward journey. Internet connection was useless and it turned out we were exhausted so we gave up and got a few hours sleep.

The ferry arrived in Le Havre at around 8am French time and we unloaded pretty quickly. It’s always a bit of a panic when you arrive at a port in any vehicle and you’re not sure where you’re going – I was a bit worried when we were flagged down by a policeman. He asked to see our passports, then to look in the van. He was satisfied when I opened the rear doors so he could see all our ‘stuff’! And commented that France has a lot of snow right now, which was good to hear.

Within minutes we relying on the sat nav (finally opted for a Tom Tom One Europe XL). We asked it to take us to a petrol station and chose one at a supermarket from a list. What we didn’t explain to it was that we’re quite a large vehicle and would really prefer not to go down any very narrow streets – but we got by with just a few squeals from me. On arriving at the shop’s car park, we were faced with quite a steep ramp. I’m normally over-cautious about driving the van but decided it was doable, took it slow, then stamped on the brake when the rear end scraped on the road! Fortunately it wasn’t stuck and no damage seems to have been done – maybe just a scrape on the jet-wash tank! Diesel was nice and cheap at €1.17 per litre. Then we had a good look around the shop – mainly to calm my nerves you’ll understand, not looking for chocolate.

Getting out of Le Havre was fairly uneventful….. apart from getting in the wrong lane – we all do it now and then – which was height restricted for a tunnel and we were too high! Again, no damage done because of a clever system where they hang plastic stripping over the road so if you’re too tall it bashes you on the roof to remind you to budge over to the tall-vehicles lane before you hit the side of the tunnel.

French motorways are so easy to drive on. Mainly because they’re so quiet (apart from the roads around Paris). There are many more service stops than on motorways in Britain. Some are full on with shops and restaurants, while others are more like picnic sites, but still have toilets.

We took it easy and had a rest on the way as we hadn’t slept much in the previous 48 hours. At our last stop we had a big dinner-our first proper meal in the van which cost an extravagant £2, and parked for the night. I know….it’s not advised. But look at it this way. We could have checked into the Formule 1 hotel and left the van parked in the car park. This way, if someone did attempt to break in, we would be there to protect our home! We did set the alarm too.

A good night’s sleep was had and now, as I write, we’re on our way to Chamonix on the A40 and just had our first glimpse of snow.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 11:10 am and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.