Montluçon, France

So we have arrived in France – the country that makes owning a Motorhome make sense! For our first night, we stopped in an Aires (Stellplatz) just off Cherbourg Port. Actually, we didn’t stay in the official Aires because that was full, but we drove around to the next carpark area and stopped there. And no-one bothered us! In fact, a French Motorhome ended up parking next to us overnight.

For those of you who don’t know, Nick owns an Ural Outfit (motorbike and sidecar) which is a Russian motorbike that hasn’t changed a lot in appearance from the original 1938 BMW. He has owned it since June 2011 but in about 2009, he started to follow the blog of Hubert Kriegel (www.timelessride.com). Hubert also has an Ural outfit and has ridden it through Siberia, Mongolia, Africa, India and he is currently in New Zealand. When Hubert is at home (did I mention that Hubert is French?), he lives in a fishing village called Barfleur, which is on the Cherbourg Peninsula and, last year, was voted the 3^rd most picturesque French village!

Even though Hubert is in NZ, Nick wanted to visit Barfleur and meet Hubert’s wife, Lorraine and their dog, Millou. It was a cold and windy day when we arrived in Barfleur, but it is certainly deserving of it’s title, because it is a really pretty village. The sight of the boats in the harbour, aground during low tide and afloat during high tide, the buildings and houses around the Harbour. It was all so lovely! We met Lorraine & Millou, had numerous coffees in the PMU (kind of like a bar) and discovered so many similarities between Nick & Hubert, and between Lorraine & MJ! It was a great visit and we hope to meet Hubert when he gets to Australia.

Whilst we were in Barfleur, we decided that, as we were so close, we would visit Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, but is is only about 20kms away from St-Malo. Fortunately, we could get on-line at the PMU to book our return ferry crossing to Jersey, but ouch! did the the hip-pocket hurt! As I said to Nick, seeing how close we are, if we don’t go now, we will always regret it!

The cheapest ferry crossing was during the week, so we dawdled our way down to St-Malo, overnighting at Saint-Lô and St-Malo before boarding the ferry on the Tuesday morning. We enjoyed another overnight Aires stop in Saint-Lô, walked around the old town walls, which was about all that was left of Saint-Lô after the allied bombardments in 1944, and enjoyed the French afternoon sunshine, even if it was cold overnight.

Jersey – what can I say about Jersey? The lanes are too narrow, they haven’t discovered footpaths, Jersey Royal potatoes are yummy and whilst the sunshine was lovely, it was bloody windy! We also learnt that, if you are bringing a motorhome onto Jersey, then you have to have a campsite booked and have a permit which has to be displayed on your vehicle when you get off the ferry in Jersey. Oops! We didn’t learn that until we were trying to find a campground that was open – of which there were only two! Most people that we spoke to were shocked that we hadn’t been stopped by the Ferry people for not have a permit! But we managed to get a spot in a lovely campground near St Martin, which is in the north-eastish quarter of the Island. The people at Beuvalande were really helpful and we had a great couple of days, using the local bus service, exploring the Island.

We spent half a day at the Jersey War Tunnels which tells the story of the occupation of Jersey by the Germans (1940-45). Whilst there is a bit of information about the war-side of things, it mainly covers the life that was forced upon the Islanders. On the recommendation of my sister, I have since read a book that covers the same period but is based in Guernsey – “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”. Both experiences (reading the book and visiting the War Tunnels) have made me realise how very lucky we are in Australia and how thankful I am that I live in the time and place that I do! I can thoroughly recommend both activities to anyone who would be interested in a different viewpoint of WW2.

Anyway, back to our exploits on Jersey – in my youth, I read a book by Gerald Durrell called “My Family and Other Animals”. In Jersey, I discovered that the Durrell Conservation Centre was set up there by Gerald Durrell as a way to help save either species that are under threat or are facing extinction. What a day we had there – all sorts of animals are there and not always the normal animals that you see in zoos! They had a lot of small animals, birds and reptiles from Madagascar, there were different types of lemurs, tamarins, as well as meerkats, Galapagos turtles, Orangutans, Gibbons, Lowland Gorillas, Asian Otters (smaller that the ones in the States), herons, ducks, flamingos, … my mind is a blank and I can’t remember what else we saw.

The otters were so cute, and very active. We watched two otters building a nest and then a third otter stealing the bedding from their nest to build it’s own nest. We watched two sets of Orangutan Mother & baby which was so cute. It was funny to watch the small ones getting adventurous and then mother rushing in to hold and cuddle them. We have also seen where the dance “The Funky Gibbon” came from – yes, these animals really do move like that!

But, for MJ, the highlight was the Gorillas. When we got to Durrell, we asked about any special shows of activities but were told that there was nothing available because you have to book it all at least 6 weeks in advance – “But we hadn’t even left home 6 weeks ago”, we wailed. They kindly suggested that I talk to the Gorilla Keeper to see if he had anything happening that day, so we hot-footed it down to the Gorilla enclosure and the Keeper said to come back at 4pm when the Gorillas would be given their late-afternoon snack.

We turned up right on the dot of 4pm, and the Keeper invited us into the back room where he can access the Gorillas. There are 5 Gorillas at Durrell – one Silverback male, 3 females (including a female born at Melbourne Zoo) and a 3-year old male that was born at Durrell. When we walked into the back room, the Silverback was getting treats from the Keeper (Walnuts). The Keeper warned MJ not to stand too close as he might try to reach through to bars because she was strange. And then the young Gorilla (Indigo) came into the same area and showed a lot of interest in the yellow backpack that MJ was wearing. She turning away, so that Indigo couldn’t reach the backpack and try to grab it. But then he poked his fingers through the bars, and when MJ put her hand up to the bar, Indigo grabbed her fingers. This happened twice – as you can imagine, MJ was very happy to have played “Handsies” with a young gorilla.

After what can only be describe as the highpoint of the visit for MJ, our last day on Jersey was spent driving around the Island, walking along the beach esplanade at St Ouens, looking at the wetlands which lots of geese & goslings, before boarding the ferry back to St-Malo.

Back to France – something that the Channel Islanders say will never happen. Quick historical side-note here:- The Channel Islands were part of Normandy under the control of Duke William and joined to England when he became King William in 1066. Subsequent events in the early days led to the Islanders choosing to remain part of the UK and despite Hitler trying to force them back into Europe, they remain firmly part of the UK, but with extra benefits like no British Income Tax and their own government.

So where were we? Oh yes, that’s right – we are now back in France and ready to do some exploring in Brittany (Bretagne). Our first day in Brittany was the day of picturesque villages – firstly, we found a very nice French village called Saint-Suliac, which was very pretty, albeit quiet. Definitely the sort of place to visit on Market day! And then, after driving around, we found an Aires in a village called Penzé, where we stayed for the night. On our arrival, they were setting up for a Friday-night Bio-Market so Nick had a massage, and we bought some local goat’s cheese. The combination of water, boats, green pasture and French houses made a really pretty combination.

During WW2, the Brest peninsula saw a lot of activity with the Germans setting up Submarine bases in Brest and St Nazaire. We went to Brest, visited the local Museum which is in an old Fortress-Castle and got to read about the history of Brest, which a section about the shipbuilding and some examples of the figureheads and decorations that were carved for the timber tall-ships. We then faced the streets of Brest to find the campground where we were staying. And, yet again, the ***** took us through the windy narrow steep streets when there was a perfectly good main-ish road that we could have taken! However, we survived the narrow roads and safely reached the campground.

For our fourth night in Brittany, we were planning on staying in St Nazaire and using an Aires to free-camp. It turns out that the best place to free camp was directly across the road from the German Submarine Pens in St Nazaire harbour. We spent a morning walking through a exhibit there called “Escale d’Atlantic” and it is all about trade and emigration by people who travelled across the Atlantic in ships that had been built in St Nazaire. The museum was laid as though on an ocean liner like the ‘Normandie’. Even the end of the tour was fun – you walked out onto the back deck, boarded a lifeboat, were lowered down to the water level and exited into the Shop.

The exhibit that we visited was built inside the Submarine pens, and so Nick got his WW2-fix by walking around the Pens.

From St Nazaire, it was time to track across France, and head for the Swizz border. It took us three days of driving, avoiding the French toll-roads (Peage) and we managed to keep accommodation costs down by staying in Aires – one night in the heart of the Muscadel-growing Region and one night by a lake. Once again, rural France was superb.