Saturday, 27 June 2015

Dieppe

Ever nearer our crossing back to Blighty at Calais we discover a really nice aire at Mesnieres-en-Bray 
Just pulling it out of the book really with no research we enjoy a great plat du jour in the small village and decide to go biking the next day as Dieppe is not too far away



We are really lucky to have found a section of the Avenue Verte that runs past the village from Paris to Dieppe and connects with London ultimately
The Brucey Bonus is its perfect tarmac again and its a beautiful day, so why not?



Really nice area this with quaint villages resembling Devon


'Its a Chateau old boy!'



Pendo's grabbing a crafty rest so time for...


a Sarsaparilla, well its close anyway



Dieppe harbour along from the very nice marina


Just in front of the town's impressive sea front promenade



Le RNLI perhaps..


This is actually quite a nice place considering its essentially a port town


Lunch is procured at one of the many marina-side restaurants
Salad Nicoise pour moi


Very tasty jambon et fromage stuffed Galette pour mon épouse
Its not black tea BTW, its regional cider that really hit the spot!
This is much needed as on our return to the van we check the distance cycled in the day, a cool 72km, our best yet!


On arrival at the port of Calais we see the new camps set up by the increasing numbers of migrants


All too soon we are back in blighty and take a night halt at Canterbury
A chance to sample some real beer after a long absence


 Next day we do the Dartford Tunnel crossing amid the usual traffic chaos
Welcome to Britain….


A couple of nights are spent firstly visiting Emilja & Richard in Ipswich and then near Leyland in readiness to collect 'Little Willy' from Barlow Trailers


Now is the time guys to officially call us 'Travellers'
My money is on several sheep disembarking from that trailer when we get it home...








Thursday, 18 June 2015

Monet's Garden

A new week starts and we move ever northwards towards Blighty taking in a lovely Aire at St Denis Du Ponts and a sunny 50km ride, on the level for a change


Nina's been on about this for a while, a trip to Claude Monet's Garden so we head off in search of all things pretty


Guys look away as there now follows lots of girlie shots of this beautiful location...




We seemed to be swamped with visitors but to be honest the slow walk round the gardens due to congestion only made us appreciate the natural beauty more















My personal flower...






The Guy's work is on display in a very atmospheric gallery room




View of his 'back garden'















Before his death he suffered with severe cataracts and could barely distinguish between colours so painted many of his later works from colour memory relying on what was printed on the tubes of paint




The Lily ponds are home to this little fella and the frogs



This was a really nice day topped off by being able to park up quietly overnight with other vans close to the gardens