Category: Strasbourg 2025

A quick ten days in the Van (because Helen can’t get any more time off work!) Chilled out trip to Strasbourg and back.

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Next Stop – Nancy

Tuesday dawned and I heard the local church bell 🔔 clock chime at 7am, I think I may have dropped off again and then heard it again at 8am…
 
 
So we had our usual cup of tea in bed whilst we planned the day then got on the road early again & this time the destination was the Aire De Services Camping Car in the centre of Nancy.
 
Just pay at the barrier (€19-something) and park up opposite a pretty littler river port – and which was only a 13 minute meander to Place Stanislas…
 

 

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Monday – A “Nothing” Day 😐

So Monday ended up being a bit of a nothing day…

We got up, had a cup of tea ☕️ but no brekky (still stuffed from everything we’d hoovered up the night before) said bye 👋 to Chas & Dave & set off early (just after 9:30am which is early for US !!!)
Dave wanted an Orange French 🇫🇷 sim for the mobile WiFi and he also (as we knew we were going to encounter some rain ☔️) wanted a waterproof of some kind…
So we stopped at a couple of retail parks on the way & he managed to get both 🥳 (see pic of Dave below in new blue waterproof)
The Orange shop was actually inside a hypermarket so we had a wander & picked up a few supplies including PINK toilet rolls !!! (I just couldn’t resist 😂)
I’d earmarked a campsite ⛺️ that had great reviews but forgot to ring to check availability & sadly when we just turned up, there was no room at the inn 😞 – again !!! (You’d think I’d have learned by now… 😐)
Anyway I rang another site about 15 minutes away (Camping Au Bord De L’Aisne) & she said they had room so we turned up there -but – including electricity (which we don’t actually need but we tend to opt for anyway) – the lady on reception charged me €34-something which ended up as £30.79 on my Tesco card… !!!
The Dirty, Robbing, etc. 😂
And we were only there from 5pm Monday until 9:30am Tuesday 😐
There WAS an indoor swimming pool 🏊 & a restaurant 🥘 but we couldn’t be bothered that evening …
And it was FULL of English people…
It had been a really grey, dull, flat-landscape’d journey travelling through ghost-town after ghost-town and we hadn’t eaten anything apart from a fruit salad on one of our shopping-stops.
So we had dinner and THEN (the best part of the day) I watched the LAST two episodes of Handmaid’s Tale…
But I was a bit gutted that Nick had been blown up, Luke, June’s hubby, went off to lead The Resistance somewhere (with a vague we’ll-see-each-other-on-the-other-side) and June STILL wasn’t reunited with her daughter, Hannah…
However, TUESDAY was FABULOUS so please read on… 🙏
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… and the rest of Sunday…

Well, HAD we wanted to make the most of the day, we could have (weather-wise) as there were only a couple of drips of rain all day in the end ☔️

But we were both knackered and I had a lovely relaxing day…

Dave woke just as I’d completed the last blog entry & we had a cup of tea & the BEST chocolate chip cookie we’d picked up from the bakery section earlier 😋

Then – as the weather was good – Dave barbecue’d the lovely French pork sausages with a beer whilst he watched the match ⚽️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 V 🇪🇸

(We still need to buy a French SIM so we’re on phones rather than iPads & MacBooks ATM – see if you can spot the phone in the pic below where Dave is tucking into his tea !!!)

And I made a potato salad-a-La-Helene with sweetcorn & onion (in a washing-up bowl – needs must😂) which –  accompanied by the BBQ sausages & fresh French bread 🥖 & butter – hit the spot.

Dave continued to watch the footy whilst I bobbed off to have a shower, hair wash & do all the bits that I normally don’t have time for or have to rush…

By the time I got back, Dave was deep in conversation with Chas (Ian) & Dave who had turned up on motorbikes 🏍️ & single-man tents ⛺️ & pitched in the spot next to us on the other side of the hedge.

Chas said he had a motorhome & a wife 😂 plus it’s usually Dave & my brother-in-law, Paul who go camping with their motorbikes – so they had a lot to talk about 😂

Meanwhile the footy had gone to PENALTIES ⚽️ (that’s when I actually started watching properly…)

But that poor first girl who scored but slipped – and they discounted it !!!  No wonder she missed the next attempt 😞

Anyway it was very exciting and all’s well that ends well 🏆🥳 !!!

So after cheese & crackers with yet more wine (well I didn’t actually stop drinking all day TBH but I AM on my holibobs 😎) I then watched episodes 7 & 8 of the VERY LAST season of The Handmaid’s Tale – which was very stressful but very enjoyable…

(Only 2 episodes to go and then I’ll get stuck into my Val McDermid book…)

… and turned the light off at midnight 😴
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Last Night & Today (so far…)

So after we’d hoovered up the bread, cheese, crisps, etc. we came in (I made a hot drink because I am a Northerner so tea flows through my veins) & although it was only 8:30pm, we got into bed with the laptop…

Dave was exhausted and thus kindly said “Put what you want on” and went to sleep 😴

I drank my drink & 2 choccy digestives then caved at 9:15pm (partly because the mobile WiFi was playing up & partly because I was also running on fumes 🥱)

And we both slept until gone 8am this morning 🌅 !!!
So we clearly needed it ✅ 
The weather wasn’t looking good so we bibbed off on the scooter (whilst it was still dry) for supplies…
And there’s always something with us…
After perusing the hypermarché & selecting various items that would fit in the top box & under the seat, we ended up at the self-service checkouts where I chose the “No Receipt” option but the machine still spat out a bit of paper so I moaned, “I just bleedin’ SAID no receipt – crap system” and Dave chucked it in the bottom of one of the bags…
THEN we tried to get out & there were 2 x Perspex gates blocking our exit.
I piped up, “Oh, THAT’S what that bit of paper was for !” but it took us (what seemed like) AGES to empty everything out & finally find the tiny bit of paper…
And you could see the locals thinking “Bleedin’ foreigners” and I just got the giggles 🤭 & found it all hilarious 😂
Anyway, we got out, got back, had a bit of something-to-eat then Dave did a bit of man-stuff and I settled down with a wine to catch up with The Blog…
I’m on my 3rd wine, Dave’s now having a nap 😴 and it’s FINALLY started raining (3:50pm)…
I’ve got the music and I’m fine 😊 (hic) – more later… 👋
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A Cocktail 🍹, A Late Lunch 🥗 & A Relax In The Sun 😎

La Grande Place, the big square in centre of Lille was our next intended destination.

However, Google Maps let us down – badly 😞

It kept telling us to turn right down side-roads that all had dirty, great, big No Entry ⛔️ signs…
I would have quite happily gone back to the campsite 🏕️ (as long as it was non-motorway) but (bless him) Dave wouldn’t give up – and including another short stint on a motorway 😳 – we did eventually get there…
The square was filled with shops, bars, restaurants & grand-looking buildings so we had a quick reccy but Dave was taken with Brasserie Le Metropole offering his favourite cocktail 🍹 – a Pina Colada.
I ordered my favourite (a Pornstar Martini) along with a chicken Caesar Salad whilst Dave opted for the House Burger 🍔
Dave said it was the best burger he’d ever had but my salad was a let-down.  When the description said “oeuf” 🥚 – I assumed that it would be topped with a lovely runny poached egg (as is the norm in France 🇫🇷) but sadly was presented with a couple of slices of hard-boiled egg, a few chunks of processed chicken, a couple of slices of tomato, a tiny amount of dressing, a fair amount of Parmesan slices and a LOT of lettuce (including brown bits) 😞
MY cocktail was also super-sweet, contained ICE (WTF), was probably dispensed from a machine thus resulting in being the worst Pornstar Martini I’ve EVER tasted (Sol & Wes – where WERE you ???)
So suffice to say – not the best.
I also worried – the whole time that we sat there eating, drinking & people-watching – that as the non-motorway route home was only 2 minutes longer than the way there (and still seemed to use “M” roads) that it would be the same awful experience…
Thus I wanted all my faculties so although Dave ordered another 2 small Leffe’s, I abstained (which REALLY isn’t like me !!!)
However I was pleasantly surprised & it WAS a single-track road all the way back (including a quick stop at a Carrefour City to pick up snacks for the evening but we had to bend the baguette 🥖 in half so it would fit in the top box 😂)
And once safely back, I promptly poured myself a wine & sat in (what was left of) the sunshine 😎
 
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Death Ride 😳 & Zoo de Lille

Goggle Maps it was 26 minutes to Lille Zoo de Lille off we popped…

BUT…
Less than 10 minutes later we were on a MOTORWAY 🛣️ !!!
Anyone who knows me knows that – since COVID and 🎵”Living On An Island 🏝️”🎵 – I am a complete MELT with most a lot of driving-oriented operations these days…
It was warm (sweaty-warm 🥵) and really motorway-windy but there was nothing I could do – I just held on to the hand-grips (on the back of the scooter) for dear life and went quiet 🤐
We have helmet intercoms so normally there’s a running commentary from yours truly…
All I could think was “If I make it to Lille, I’m getting an Uber back…” 🚕
Anyway we DID get there safely (clearly !!!) and in the middle of Lille was Citadelle Park complete with a young children’s funfair and a small zoo.
Although I had been informed (wrongly) online that it was free, it was actually €6 but O M G the guy in ticket booth was so SLOW 🥱 !!!
We eventually got in & saw lots of exotic birdies, a red panda 🐼 (which I didn’t even know existed !!!), a meerkat & a couple of massive hippopotamuses having a nap 😴

 

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Goats 🐐, Chickens 🐓 & A Pitch To Call Home 🏡

So we had a wander around the site and found a little windmill that was home to some goats 🐐!!!
 
 
And there were also some chickens 🐓 too !!!
 
Eventually we spotted a guy driving a golf buggy 🛺 & I ran after him & he gave us a lift back to the office where we successfully checked in for 2 nights 😅
 
So we quickly parked up, had a bit of brekky then got ready to pop to Lille on the scooter 🛵 
 
 

 

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House of The Unleven Bread 😂

Luckily there was another campsite 🏕️ just up the road – “Camping Les Alouettes & Les Images” so we trundled there.

Although the office door had a sign saying “Open every day between 10am & midday then 2pm to 7pm” – and it was 10:20am – you guessed it – it was locked & not a soul around…

I rang the mobile number that it said to ring but it went to voicemail & my rusty French wasn’t good enough to understand the rather short but quickly spoken message so I grabbed Dave’s phone & pulled up the “Google Translate” app, re-rang & held the phones close together to translate (thinking I was a genius 🌟)

However below is what it came up with 😂

(And if my sister is reading this – it was like “House of The Unleven Bread” !!! – her experience of Google Translate of a Latin Mass on Christmas Day during Lockdown)


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No Room At The Inn…

What a hero – Dave managed to drive ALL the way to the selected campsite just outside Lille and we fell into bed about 1:45am 😴 

During my phone call  to the campsite the previous evening, the guy said he would open the gates at 7am so we set the alarm for 6:55am (!!!) but as there was no sight of him (& we were shattered) we dropped off to sleep again until 10am.

The gates still weren’t open and rather worryingly Dave spotted a “Fermé” sign (CLOSED for those of you who daydreamed during French at school !!!)

So I rang the campsite again – to find out that the guy HAD opened the campsite at 7am – but he was in Dunkirk 😐

Don’t ASK me how or why but the number that I rang from the website in Lille connected me to a website in Dunkirk 🤷‍♀️

ANYWAY, suddenly the gates opened & a French guy emerged – who spoke English –  and he informed me that it was an “exceptional” year in that the site was only open to Frenchies this year…

And he informed us that it WAS a naturist site so we probably dodged a bullet there anyway !!! 😳😅

 

 

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On-Board ⛴️

So we crawled through Border Control & check-in then parked up in Lane 85 long enough to make & drink a coffee (to go with our meal deals 🥪 that I’d bought on the way home from work followed by a custard doughnut 🍩 😋 ) and then make the bed.

They offered us the 9:30pm to Calais which only takes 1.5 hours so we dock at midnight French 🇫🇷 time (the Dunkirk ferry didn’t leave until 10pm, takes 2 hours & doesn’t therefore dock until 1am)…
We’re heading towards Lille but – as Dave is doing all the driving – we’ll see how far we get…
I rang a campsite ⛺️ en-route & used a little of my (rusty) A’Level French but luckily he spoke English !! 
The website says it’s a naturist site (!!!) but in the the photos the peeps all had clothes on 😂
Anyway it’s about an 1.25 hours from Dunkirk but if Dave gets tired we’ll just stop at an aire…
TTFN xx 
P.S. That’s Dave’s impression of driving the ferry 😳
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