Set off for the next stop after Guines near Calais on a dull, dry, morning. Minor excursion via Guines to find the new Aldi supermarket in the village. What we hadn't realised was it was market day.
Den stoically waved through manically parked French cars, to find the road closed, due to a market. Eventually we weaved our way amongst the "one way" and "no entry" signs and gave up on shopping! Aldi would have to wait. Just outside Guines and heading for the motorway, we encountered the dreaded "route barre" signs, no diversion signs to be seen. Without Madam SatNag's help, we eventually escaped to the right motorway and were on our way. Then the torrential rain started!!!
Happily, the weather gods were on our side. After finding our way through Rouen, navigating the bridge and traffic we were through. Thank goodness we did have the correct Crit Air ticket, then there was a new Madam SatNag, comment.
" Do you wish to enter the Crit Air Zone?" she asked.
"Oui" we said, not sure what would have happened if we had said "Non".
Our little yellow ticket performed as expected. I don't think anything would have happened if we didn't have one, but we were already stressed enough. There were cameras around, but not sure if they were turned on. Also little signs saying we were entering a Zone. C'est la vie, we survived!
Three hours of driving later and the sun had come out. We arrived at Camping St Nicolas in a place called Le Bec Hellouin. Home to a beautiful Benedictine Abbey, owned by the French Government, a peaceful pretty place.. Not a massively well known tourist destination, but well worth a visit. We were soon duly signed in and soon set up amongst the shady trees.
Really nice site, set in an old apple orchard. We had stayed here many years ago. Pleased to see the site has been updated. Restaurant ( small but perfectly formed ), bar, mini shop, swimming pool, tennis courts and loads of room. All for 30.10 E in the high season. Wine and local cider for sale.We booked a table for the evening meal and chilled!!
Dinner was lovely, Den got his mussels fix, I had fish. Lots of late arrivals mainly French but still many spaces. A relaxing 3 day stop. We walked down through the trees down a very steep path 500k to the village.
On a lovely day a beautiful walk, very uneven under foot and very steep in places. Coming home was fun but we'd had a beer by then so we were very sure footed!
The village was much as we remembered. Beautiful Abbey grounds and church.
We thought this was a clever touch. Framing a flower. These were scattered around the village.
All in all, a very nice chilling three day stay. Dinner again tonight in the restaurant and moving onwards tomorrow. Back to Tours. It's been beautifully warm here top 20's but thankfully not many biting insects. We will be back.
Restaurant, Bar and Shop. Swimming pool behind which is also used by locals but very quiet and almost empty during our stay.
Path to the village.
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