Monty the Motorhome is feeling a bit tired. After two months of inactivity he has been driven over two hundred miles on consecutive days.
Tonight we are in Chartres, famous for it’s Cathedral.
This destination was pre-planned. We intend to stay two nights and devote tomorrow to the town. Thereafter our itinerary is fluid - probably toward the Loire Valley and Dordogne areas.
The drive down was fairly uneventful - we decided to avoid the toll roads and let Sat Nav do the work. Our only stipulation was to go via the Carrefour store in Abbeville.
That store had been chosen as it was open on a Sunday, when others of the same chain seem to shut, as does most of France. We wanted to stock up on food and it seemed wrong to bring our English fare to the land of gastronomes. Abbeville looked to be on route, so co-ordinates had been found from the internet and away we went.
Thank goodness for Sat Nav as I’m sure we would never have found the Carrefour store, while the site at Chartres was very poorly signed.
On arriving at the Chartres site the reception looked all locked up. Another English person was waiting by the door, saying someone had told him the warden would be back soon. We chatted for a while before he spotted someone sunning themselves just around the corner. This person told him the warden lived in the house behind the reception block and just go round. So we both sauntered around to this house, only to be met by a woman angrily shouting and gesticulating at us in French. We took this to mean she would be opening soon, so retreated quickly back to the reception door, expecting some more waiting. However the same woman shortly appeared inside reception and opened up, while at the same time pointing at a small notice (written in French) indicating a buzzer button to be rung. Her temper had not improved, in fact it seemed worse - despite profound apologies from us all. Needless to say the booking in procedure was short, sweet and conducted entirely in French by the warden lady even though it was obvious we could hardly string two French words together.
Anyway we were in and found a pitch quite quickly, even though it was almost full (capacity 97 pitches), which surprised us.
Evening meal was sausages from Carrefour deli counter - really tasty, with some new potatoes and carrots. Pud was cream cakes - naughty but nice.
To round the day off, as well as burn off a few calories, we walked into town to see the Cathedral and surrounding buildings lit up - a feature known as ‘Chartres en Lumieres’ that runs through the summer and autumn. The effect is dramatic and has to be seen in person - photos can never do it justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment