Trip to France

[mark61]

Had a coffee in Metz, now heading into Switzerland for a look around before coming back into France.

We're not really enjoying it, I've turned off tollroads but now it A roads which while very good,we're not seeing the smaller towns and villages and short of putting individual ones in we're not sure of the best way to go about it yet.

Any ideas?

ignore sat nav.

 

[jacquigem]

Had a coffee in Metz, now heading into Switzerland for a look around before coming back into France.

We're not really enjoying it, I've turned off tollroads but now it A roads which while very good,we're not seeing the smaller towns and villages and short of putting individual ones in we're not sure of the best way to go about it yet.

Any ideas?

We enjoyed Nancy which I think is just South of you. Nice aire near canal side

 

[barryd]

Had a coffee in Metz, now heading into Switzerland for a look around before coming back into France.

We're not really enjoying it, I've turned off tollroads but now it A roads which while very good,we're not seeing the smaller towns and villages and short of putting individual ones in we're not sure of the best way to go about it yet.

Any ideas?

Loads of ideas. I keep giving them to you but you are farting about in places like Belgium and Luxembourg which lets face it are a bit "Meh" . I've always said that if you want to start seeing the best bits you need to get a wiggle on at least 350 miles east or south or south west of Calais. More really. The direction you are going means the Alsace for starters then the Alps. Knowing your love for Scotland and scenery you are going to be blown away by the Alps. Annecy as suggested is a great place to aim for and see a bit of the Alsace, maybe Jura (I can give you a great wildy for there), possibly the Black Forest as suggested. Switzerland is fantastic but you need to get into it properly for the best bits. Plenty in the French Alps around and beyond Annecy to keep you going. One spectacular trip we did was Alsace, Jura, Geneva and then the start of the route des Grande alps around lake Leman on the French side through some Ski resorts and eventually ending up at Annecy. I might have a blog for that, will see if I can find it.

Alsace is good for chocolate box towns and villages as is some of the Black Forest but they soon get a bit samey.

Work out what you want to see and do and there will be loads of suggestions. Stop farting about with the crap bits though!

 

[barryd]

My blogs are a mess but ill copy and paste what I have. Mainly the rantings of a looney but you might find some useful stuff.

This is what I wrote about the Alsace.

"
18 June

Lorraine and Alsace. Summer arrives!

Its short hop to Gerardmer on the edge of the Vosges and we are suddenly in the mountains! We know what we like now and it isn’t anything that’s flat. Gerardmer reminds us a bit of Titisee in the Black Forest. A small lake surrounded by pine clad hills. It’s pretty much a Ski resort but the lake caters for summer visitors with the usual pedalos, Electric boats etc. The Aire in the town is a bit packed and close to the road so we head up into the hills to the Ski resort above the town at 860 Metres. Great views from here and clearly nobody comes up here in summer and we have it pretty much to ourselves.

The weather is rubbish the day we arrive but improves the next day and we manage to get out on the bike in shorts and T shirts rather than the Arctic foul weather gear we had to adorn ourselves with at Nancy.

I’m determined to continue my fitness campaign on this trip and start hiking up and down the hills. If you remember I lost three stone on the last adventure and need to shift at least two more. Confidence at this stage is high!

We spend three days here but end up moving on the last night further up the ski resort as we are under an outward bound centre where the kids are having a disco.

The Grand Ballon and Route des Cretes

We spend a day driving along the route des cretes along the summits of the Vosges of which the highest point is the Grand Ballon which I always thought meant big balls. Perhaps it does as you need them to get to the top!

The summit is 1425 meters or getting on for 5000ft in old money and (this is a first) we head off hiking over the top last bit to the summit. Its flipping windy up there but there are some fantastic views out towards the Black Forest in Germany and the Bernise Alps in Switzerland.

Eventually we turf up on the lower plains of Alsace on the other side of the Vosges in the little village of Equisheim. It’s a parking spot we got off the French website and it appears to be in the middle of a basket ball court. We ruin the kids game by parking Hank under their net. Bloody kids should be at school anyway.

Amazingly we are not the only ones to know about the basket ball court and by early evening it fills up with more vans. All French and one German who parks up, Puts all his blinds down and we never see him again for 24 hours.

The beers are cold the cheese is at that summer van temperature where the Brie de Meux starts to crawl off on its own and it feels like we are back home!

Getting lost in Colmar

Colmar is the largest and most touristy town of the Alsace so we take a trip in on the bike. It’s actually hot now and forecast to be 30 degrees. We of course complain. I wonder what the ideal weather is for us Brits as we always seem to find something to complain about. It’s all very twee and a bit like York really. The highlight of the trip is watching some nutty Chinese woman at a market going round every stall taking photos of all the food and watching the look on the French stall holders faces which ranges from bemused to angry.

I seem to have lost my sense of direction which is normally brilliant and get totally lost getting out of Colmar and back to Hank. We go down three bus lanes and run a red light and then promptly end up on the motorway going the wrong way.

Camping in the Vineyards

We find a fantastic spot for the night at St Hippolyte in the shadow of the most famous Alsace castle Koenigsbourg. Basically we are in a Vineyard. Only us, a Dutch and a French couple.

We have a ride out on the bike and I decide to have a quick scoot up to the castle. It doesn’t look far from here but I find out later it stands at 2500ft but the ride up is superb with lots of hairpin bends and Pig so far seems to be performing well.

Circuit Training in the Vineyard.

All winter I have been attending circuit training classes at the gym and I have memorised the exercises. So armed with two full bottles of water for weights, a tarpaulin and a chair I set up on the edge of the Vineyard and go through a half hour work out. A few French farmers pass by and all of them do a second take at the nutty English bloke slinging bottles of water about and doing something unexplainable on a chair. It’s flipping hot though. High twenties by mid morning.

We take in the tourist towns of Ribeauville, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg and whilst they are very nice in a similar vein to Colmar it quickly gets a bit samey. What does amuse us though is the Storks nests and storks that appear to be on to top of many church spires and other high buildings. We decide though that after today we will head back up into the mountains and then say goodbye to the Alsace and Hello to Germany!"

 

[barryd]

Jura. Probably not very useful. The wild spot at Eagles Peak is fab though. There are a few lakes there for swimming in and if you can get manage to hike up the 100m or so to the top above the wild spot you can see them all and Mont Blanc behind you.

"
Jura at last!
So our first place we have officially planned to be is Jura and we finally arrive at Messnay near Arbois exactly a week after leaving Calais. Its only 450 miles! Seems like we have been on the move forever.
Not much to say about Arbois or Mesnay but the scenery is improving and we enjoy a little excursion out on the bike but now we are in Jura I have a whole set of Aires and wild camping spots around mountains and lakes to explore and we are keen to press on and get started on the trip proper!
Water
Those of you that regularly follow Hanks blog will know Michelle’s obsession with collecting water. Last year she spent half the trip wandering around with a collection of empty bottles looking for taps to top up her stash of water. Just In case we run out. Running out of water in a motorhome in France is nigh on impossible as there are Aire de Services everywhere but we plan to spend a lot more time wilding and without moving on this year so every opportunity to fill up must be taken. Now some of you may call us tight but we (well Michelle) hates paying for water. It should be bloody well free!! Don’t get me wrong. We think nothing of spending fifty quid at a market or stocking up on nice wine and decent beer and cheese but there are two things that spoil a trip. Paying for water or paying to park the van!
This year we have two new devices in our arsenal to assist in our freeloading lifestyle. A 100 watt solar panel coupled to a very clever flux capacitor MPPT controller thingy and a collapsible 5 litre water carrier (we already have a bigger 25 litre carrier, on top of the 110 litres in the internal tanks!). It’s Wednesday when we leave Arbois and Messnay and we fill up everything that holds water at a free service point on our way up into the hills. As I write this on Sunday evening we are far from running out and could survive another night really at a push. Hector (the new water carrier) which was a quid from a pound shop is proving quite useful as we keep topping him up at every church etc that we see with a tap and then sling him in the top box on the bike. This little game for now is keeping Michelle happy but already the empty water and lemonade bottles are appearing full again squirreled around the van and in cupboards. I think this is getting out of hand. Maybe she has a problem. It started off with just one water carrier but now it’s out of control! I vow that the day I crack open a bottle of Leffe only to find it full of H2O will be the last day of Michelle’s water hoarding tomfoolery!
The solar panel is just superb. By 9:30am everything is fully charged. Thanks to our Motorhome royalty chum from Motorhomefacts.com the legend that is Don Madge we now also have an inverter which we now plug in to charge cameras and the like as and when we need to. Don also provided us with a whole set of maps for just about every country you can think of and a brand new French Atlas and two French maps which is a good thing as my crappy 2008 dog eared and frankly useless French road atlas is ready for the bin. Big thanks to Don!

Pic de L'Aigle, (Eagles Peak)
I have found this wild camping spot on the wonderful www.campingcar-infos.com website as part of my crammed in planning (all done in one evening remember) before we left.
It doesn’t disappoint. It’s up at over 3000ft so the evenings should be reasonably cool and there are lakes to see and peaks to climb. At last! It is to be our home for the next five nights it turns out.
Just 600 metres beyond the van and up to the Eagles peak there are superb views of the 4 lakes that are nearby. It’s been labelled (probably by some local tourism committee) “Little Scotland”. I can see the similarity actually apart from the weather where it frequently exceeds 30c.
Apart from one work out by the van in Champagne at the second Abbey I don’t feel like I have had any proper exercise so now is the chance. We get some short but strenuous walks in as well as some swimming and eventually the big Yellow dinghy gets an airing.
This turns out to be a bit of a military exercise though. We are wild camping on top of a mountain and the lake is two miles away at the bottom of the mountain. So it involves me taking Michelle down to the lake, returning to the van, strapping on the boat, oars and the rest of the clobber and hoping it doesn’t all fall off on one of the U bends coming down the hill, then blowing it all up before repeating the whole process in reverse afterwards. It sounds like a chore but I really like it.
The lake we go out on is called Lac D’llay and is the biggest of the four lakes around us but still only a couple of miles in length. There is an island in the middle of it so we head for there. On the island we find what must have been at some point a rather nice log cabin with its own sunbathing platform and jetty. The whole thing seems long abandoned though now sadly which seems bonkers as if it were on lake Windermere or Ullswater it would be worth millions. Still we bring it back to life for a couple of hours at least.
We are surprised at how quiet it is where we are around the four lakes. There are people about and it’s supposed to the busiest weekend traffic wise but it doesn’t feel over crowded here. However we decide to bike up to Lac Chalins about ten miles away. It’s a lovely ride but when we get there, there is a charge to enter the road to the lake and for parking. This is never a good sign. However despite it being two Euros for a “Moto” (bike) the chap waves us through the queue of cars and motorhomes for free! This often happens and I start to wonder if we just look skint! When we get to the lake and the beach we find out where all the crowds are. The place is heaving. Every child in France must be here. A quick swim and then back on the bike and away!
Cheese!!!
I forgot to mention that one of the main reasons for coming here is that Jura is home to Morbier Cheese which is one of my favourites as is now the Comte Extra mature which also comes from here. We have a trip down to the town of Morbier and stock up on the lovely stuff. There are plenty of Cheese places up in the hills as well and I am delighted to say the stuff is less than half the price it is at home and simply wonderful but bad news for my diet!

Swiss Family Robinson get blown away
It’s Saturday and the weather is lovely up on the Eagles Peak. We have however being observing the weather forecast and Sunday is forecast to be stormy with thunder and lightning. In the afternoon a young Swiss family arrive in a car with two very small children and pitch a tent on the side of the hill just a hundred yards away from us. I wonder if they have read the forecast. Surely they will have!
All is well until we wake up the next morning to black clouds and the rumbling of thunder in the distance. We are used to this now in the mountains and after the experience we had last year in Austria where we nearly lost the sun awning as the black clouds tumble towards us we quickly put everything away outside the van and shut all the windows and hatches. It is then that I remember the Swiss Family in the tent. Surely they will pack up when they see this lot approaching. Nope. They are going to ride it out.
When it hits its severe. The wind picks up to a frightening gale and the rain is like the clouds have just emptied all their water in one deluge. It doesn’t pass quickly and visibility is now just 50 metres. I can’t even see where the family are or if they are ok. I ponder going out to see if they are ok but Michelle thinks it’s a bad idea. Then Mrs Swiss family Robinson appears running quickly with a child under her arm. I have to say I’m impressed as she swiftly darts across the hillside gazelle like back to the safety of their car. She is eventually followed by Mr Robinson with the second child.
I’m guessing they abandoned the tent and I feel really bad for them and the fact that I did nothing to help but promise to myself to help them look for their tent later which is probably on its way to Geneva by now.
As quickly as it started the clouds part and within half an hour we are in brilliant sunshine. The Swiss family are fine. The kids are playing and laughing like nothing happened and Mrs Robinson has all their worldly goods including (somehow) the tent sprawled out on their car to dry. I go and see Mrs Robinson to see if all is ok and he’s just grinning and shrugging his shoulders like it’s an everyday thing. Hardcore campers the Swiss, obviously!

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Heading for Buix just over the Swiss border initially we'll be avoiding Mways, found we can opt out of those on G Maps ,I thought I'd set it up already but hadn't so it'll stay that way until we get into Svitzerlund.

Only seen two brit vans so far.

Here's our stop for tonight blue badges only.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

We enjoyed Nancy which I think is just South of you. Nice aire near canal side

Nice place we had a drive around it.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Loads of ideas. I keep giving them to you but you are farting about in places like Belgium and Luxembourg which lets face it are a bit "Meh" . I've always said that if you want to start seeing the best bits you need to get a wiggle on at least 350 miles east or south or south west of Calais. More really. The direction you are going means the Alsace for starters then the Alps. Knowing your love for Scotland and scenery you are going to be blown away by the Alps. Annecy as suggested is a great place to aim for and see a bit of the Alsace, maybe Jura (I can give you a great wildy for there), possibly the Black Forest as suggested. Switzerland is fantastic but you need to get into it properly for the best bits. Plenty in the French Alps around and beyond Annecy to keep you going. One spectacular trip we did was Alsace, Jura, Geneva and then the start of the route des Grande alps around lake Leman on the French side through some Ski resorts and eventually ending up at Annecy. I might have a blog for that, will see if I can find it.

Alsace is good for chocolate box towns and villages as is some of the Black Forest but they soon get a bit samey.

Work out what you want to see and do and there will be loads of suggestions. Stop farting about with the crap bits though!

Horses for courses mate I have to put up with Lizzes wants, I just wish I'd brought a bloody gag, she'll be quiet for hours then decide to discuss raspberry tarts etc if we get anywhere near what looks like a awkward junction.

I love the tart dearly but if she had a sex change I'd deck her.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Work out what you want to see and do and there will be loads of suggestions. Stop farting about with the crap bits though!

Working it out was Lizs job, we have had a couple of discussions on that since we got here, head for Nancy she said so after a few motorways hours I asked, what's in Nancy, dunno just a general direction, I need a reason to go there says I, what are all your research and notes about? So we get to Nancy yesterday and we have several places to visit which closed

Hard to work out what you've not seen yet and based on others ideas of what is good or not, not being very fit doesn't help, and I know if I get the scooter out she'll either walk miles in front then point at something and I have to belt after her, or she'll walk so sslloowwllyy that I have to keep stopping, an awkward personality would not surprise me.

This afto I got the laptop out and opened Autoroute so we plan a route so she starts farting about with a small scale fold up map and an atlas then complains she can't find the towns I'm talking about missing the point of Aroute totally even if it is 9 years out of date it has almost all the worlds towns on it and I can zoom to anywhere we want.

 

[barryd]

Working it out was Lizs job, we have had a couple of discussions on that since we got here, head for Nancy she said so after a few motorways hours I asked, what's in Nancy, dunno just a general direction, I need a reason to go there says I, what are all your research and notes about? So we get to Nancy yesterday and we have several places to visit which closed

Hard to work out what you've not seen yet and based on others ideas of what is good or not, not being very fit doesn't help, and I know if I get the scooter out she'll either walk miles in front then point at something and I have to belt after her, or she'll walk so sslloowwllyy that I have to keep stopping, an awkward personality would not surprise me.

This afto I got the laptop out and opened Autoroute so we plan a route so she starts farting about with a small scale fold up map and an atlas then complains she can't find the towns I'm talking about missing the point of Aroute totally even if it is 9 years out of date it has almost all the worlds towns on it and I can zoom to anywhere we want.

Its a tricky one. For us we are now very much in tune of what we like but out trips are entirely different to most with us having the bike. We both prefer the mountains, lakes, sea and scenery over towns but mainly great places to ride the scooter which is nearly always mountains, lakes and scenery. Towns and cities I really don't enjoy apart from the small villages etc. Michelle is probably more keen than me but not much. Just maybe get involved with the planning a bit more and think what you want to do and see. You are heading in the right direction I reckon. You are only about 100 miles north of Eagles Peak in Jura which was that wild spot I told you about. Then again its just a scruffy bit of land with no services but for us it was ideal as the views are great as are the surrounding roads and lakes. If liz wants a swim though. Plenty of opportunities here but you will need to use the van. Jura is fairly quiet though. Its a lovely place.

Pic de l’aigle

Details for Pic de l’aigle a Off site parking La Chaux-du-Dombief, Jura, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, 39150

tinyurl.com

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I used to get involved but it took hours to get anything sorted so now I just be the chauffeur to wherever she wants to go, it's still all my fault of course.

 

[TJBi]

Just got my ins quote from Asda.

£324 FC myself only.

How much extra to cover the motorhome?

 

[TJBi]

You may find that a few changes have been made since @barryd 's trip; for example, there's a new aire at Eguisheim - no parking on the basketball court any more (and costs about €20)! Worth checking places out using appropriate apps.
And I second @Val54 's suggestion re the Plus Beaux Villages de France.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

How much extra to cover the motorhome?

Dadu vest.

 

[Tonybvi]

You may find that a few changes have been made since @barryd 's trip; for example, there's a new aire at Eguisheim - no parking on the basketball court any more (and costs about €20)! Worth checking places out using appropriate apps.
And I second @Val54 's suggestion re the Plus Beaux Villages de France.

Good aire but far more expensive than the municipal campsite (Les Trois Chateaux) and with less facilities!

 

[barryd]

This was always a good site Kev. https://www.francethisway.com/

What we used to do was google a town name and then France this way. So you would google something like "Colmar france this way" and the entry for Colmar would come up. Generally you can read between the lines whether its worth seeing or not. If it gets its own extensive write up it is, if its brief and just lists a load of other place to see that are near it, its probably not.

 

[vindiboy]

Flipping Heck!! Just go to FRANCE!! Stop posting from the motorway!!

https://ibb.co/By1ycrV Yeah just wing it see what happens is our way

 

[Canalsman]

I tried Tunnelbear tochange country but it says there is a problem.

You will only be able to access it when you are actually in one of the supported countries. It's the GPS location of your phone that prevents access. Wait till you get to France...

 

[Pudsey Bear]

You will only be able to access it when you are actually in one of the supported countries. It's the GPS location of your phone that prevents access. Wait till you get to France...

We've been in France since Saturday.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Screenshots taken few minutes ago.

I assumed that as I got a welcome message for each country it knew our location.