top of page
Jackie Pickles

Week #70 Heading Home to the Dales After our European Campervan Road Trip


woman on a cobbled French street

Before I start the blog, apologies for the tardiness of this weeks instalment, I was so good on our travels but we have had a really busy, fun filled weekend and I have fallen behind!


Last few days in France

We can’t believe that we have come to the end of the trip, the 5 weeks have simply flown by. We spent the last few days exploring further into Brittany and stayed in the bustling harbour town of Camaret sur Mer. We camped at a municipal Aire and spent a soggy afternoon exploring the area on our bikes. At the far end of the harbour, out on a spur, was the industrial docks with several decaying wrecks of ships moored together. What should really be quite an eyesore was actually simply stunning, and we took some amazing photos. There are some epic beaches along this part of the coast, sadly the weather was not great and we decided to move on.


Dinan - Possibly the prettiest village in the world

Following suggestions of a route in the book ‘Take the Slow Road – France’ by Martin Dorey, we ended up at the most picturesque town of Dinan on the north coast. Initially we were only going to visit for a few hours before heading further up the coast towards Caen, where we were getting the ferry home. However, after exploring the historic town we decided it was just so beautiful that we stayed the night. We found the most fabulous park up by the viaduct that opens up for the summer months for motorhomes. It was simply a huge field by the river with plenty of space so you don’t feel cramped and over crowded. Only 20 minutes south of St Malo, this would be a great stop over for the ferry.

VW campervan in a field with viaduct above

We strolled back up the cobbled streets at sunset and sat with a glass of red wine watching the world go by, it was probably my favourite evening of the entire trip. The light for photography after dark was just perfect.



Normandy Gold Beach War memorial

Our last day was spent visiting the war memorial at Gold beach. Seeing those hundreds of thousands of names engraved into the pillars of all the young soldiers who lost their lives was very humbling. It is a really calm reflective space, at odds with the atrocities that took place there. I can’t even begin to imagine what horrors those soldiers endured. Between the memorial and the beach was themes wonderful wild flower meadow.


Excited to get home to our little Yorkshire Dales cottage

Normally, at the end of a long trip in the Campervan, we are really sad to returning home and could just carry on travelling. This is the first trip home where we are retired so do not have to go back to work and that was just the best feeling. Even more exciting was coming home to the fully finished cottage in the Dales, it’s like we are still on holiday in a beautiful place. I hope we never get tired of that feeling.


Thankful for small things

It was so lovely visiting Richard’s mum in her home. We have been away for 5 weeks and didn’t really know what to expect. The home is so lovely and the staff are just amazing with Mum, who can be a bit of a handful at times when she forgets where she is and why she is there. When we arrived, she was laughing and chatting with other residents and they were all engrossed in a game of bingo. She is really settled, healthy and content which is a comfort to us.

A fab surprise awaiting us when we got home was a cheque each from the tax man. Having retired last July and still too young to access our teachers pension, it was a very welcomed letter.

Lastly, very kindly, our lovely new neighbour had been watering our pots on the front doorstep so we returned to a lovely colourful garden (if we ignore the weeds!)


Already missing European roads!

After 5 weeks of really quiet French and Spanish roads, including the motorways, we arrived back to Portsmouth. The first 20 minutes went so well! The journey to mums house in Cheshire was supposedly about four and a half hours, at one point we had travelled for over an hour and the journey time actually kept going up not down! We are not sure if we have become true country folk moaning about traffic, or if our roads are getting worse, but it seemed as though we were in a solid wall of traffic from Winchester to Stafford.


A gardening project awaits

It seems that the weather was very conducive to our garden thriving, it is just a shame that the only plants we have are weeds! We came home to quite the jungle. The garden is the last part of the cottage renovations and we have purposely left it for a year so we can see what grows and what the sun is like at different times of day. One of our original plans was to have a large structure at the bottom of the garden facing back to the house that would be a sun room, with a small shed on the side. We have realised that is not going to work as the front of the room would be in shade from late morning, so its back to the drawing board and we are struggling for ideas. For now, we need a few days tidying it up so we can enjoy it for the rest of the summer then start again in the spring.


We are ready for a summer in the Dales and are looking forward to lots of our friends and family coming to stay with us. We had a fab weekend catching up with people and drinking far too much Rose.


Have a great week


Jackie and Richard x


couple photo on a beach

146 views2 comments

2 Comments


schmidtannelizab
Jul 13, 2023

You have lots that aren't weeds but may not be what you want in your garden!!

Like
Richard Pickles
Jul 16, 2023
Replying to

Wow, 12 bags of weeds later and we can see what is in the borders again! There are some lovely roses and I know from the spring that there are a couple of azealias and flaming pieris. We will just keep tidying it up over the summer, ready to make plans for the spring, a nice problem to have as we never thought we would get much of a garden on our budget. Richards mind has moved on to wood sheds getting ready for another cold winter!

Like
Post: Blog2_Post
bottom of page