Trip to France

[barryd]

I tent camped all around the Lot, Tarn et Garonne and Lot et Garonne with my parents.

This was when I was sweet (yeah, right - honest guv, I was once! ) seventeen on a six week long holiday touring around France. I think we covered around 3,000 miles all told at the time.

It's a really lovely part of France. The roads mostly follow the rivers along the gorges (not Georges!) if memory serves me right? Could be wrong though, but then if there were any "high up" bits on the road they wouldn't have bothered me as I've never suffered from a fear of heights/vertigo etc.

It's a long, long time ago, so Barry is probably the one to advise you best on any scary "hilly bits"!

​

Did a similar trip with my parents when I was 15 across France, The Black Forest, Switzerland, Italian lakes and then back through France. I absolutely loved it. I think it was that which made me fall in love with Europe and the mountains and lakes. I vowed to go back and do it again which of course we did, in spades.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Sounds like you know France much better than moi Tony.

We dont bother researching our stopping places as we rarely have a plan, we do a bit of looking on our travels and log them for later, and we do look at the apps mid to late afternoon we wont pay for one at any price, which cuts a lot of so called free ones out that do come up and ones which might be good mean a turn round or going past where we want to stay.

If we had to plan it'd be mind numbingly boring, we often just go left or right on a whim or which part of the sky is brightest, it's not how many do it but it usually works for us and despite tonight's stops location, it is quiet, no through roads here, and hardly anyone here, we may get the odd idiot later but no one has really bothered us much.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Did a similar trip with my parents when I was 15 across France, The Black Forest, Switzerland, Italian lakes and then back through France. I absolutely loved it. I think it was that which made me fall in love with Europe and the mountains and lakes. I vowed to go back and do it again which of course we did, in spades.

Wtf were you doing going on holiday with mummy and daddy at 15?

 

[Tonybvi]

Our routine is that I give my wife the road atlas in the evening after a glass or two and ask her which direction she wants to go tomorrow. We then set off the next day around 10 in that direction. Stop for coffee if somewhere convenient and stop somewhere for lunch. Then around 3pm after no more than 50 or 60 miles leisurely driving we’ll park up for a cup of tea and get the iPad out. With the aid of a couple of sites both with a 4 in them and another couple relating to camper park ups we’ll list the coordinates of several of them that we like the look of (after reading reviews and looking at photos) and plug them into the satnav. If we don’t like the first we’ll move on. If we see a decent park up en route we’ll park up.
It does help that not only did we live and work in France for a few years many years back but we also have been here just about every year since we got our first motorhome in 2005, so we know the areas we like. We also try to have a theme such as following canals or visiting the various Plus Beau Villages.

 

[mark61]

Sounds like you know France much better than moi Tony.

We dont bother researching our stopping places as we rarely have a plan, we do a bit of looking on our travels and log them for later, and we do look at the apps mid to late afternoon we wont pay for one at any price, which cuts a lot of so called free ones out that do come up and ones which might be good mean a turn round or going past where we want to stay.

If we had to plan it'd be mind numbingly boring, we often just go left or right on a whim or which part of the sky is brightest, it's not how many do it but it usually works for us and despite tonight's stops location, it is quiet, no through roads here, and hardly anyone here, we may get the odd idiot later but no one has really bothered us much.

Same here, outside of a very rough direction I do very little planning, just make it up along the way.
Only time I will check up on a route is if its dirt/farm tracks. On tarmac, I couldn't care less.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Our routine is that I give my wife the road atlas in the evening after a glass or two and ask her which direction she wants to go tomorrow. We then set off the next day around 10 in that direction. Stop for coffee if somewhere convenient and stop somewhere for lunch. Then around 3pm after no more than 50 or 60 miles leisurely driving we’ll park up for a cup of tea and get the iPad out. With the aid of a couple of sites both with a 4 in them and another couple relating to camper park ups we’ll list the coordinates of several of them that we like the look of (after reading reviews and looking at photos) and plug them into the satnav. If we don’t like the first we’ll move on. If we see a decent park up en route we’ll park up.
It does help that not only did we live and work in France for a few years many years back but we also have been here just about every year since we got our first motorhome in 2005, so we know the areas we like. We also try to have a theme such as following canals or visiting the various Plus Beau Villages.

Nope, not in the least envious Tony

 

[mariesnowgoose]

Wtf were you doing going on holiday with mummy and daddy at 15?

Why wouldn’t you, especially if it’s away to places abroad you’ve never been to before? It all part of edumacation - if you’re lucky enough to be able to do it that is.

I was 17 when I went with my parents and it was a fantastic experience - plus I got let off school a week early at the end of term (I was doing French at school for A level GCEs).

Anyway, I was a “girly” so not bothered by exploding testosterone and sudden dropping testicles like you poor old suffering teenage boyos were

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Why wouldn’t you, especially if it’s away to places abroad you’ve never been to before? It all part of edumacation - if you’re lucky enough to be able to do it that is.

I was 17 when I went with my parents and it was a fantastic experience - plus I got let off school a week early at the end of term (I was doing French at school for A level GCEs).

Anyway, I was a “girly” so not bothered by exploding testosterone and sudden dropping testicles like you poor old suffering teenage boyos were

They're supposed to drop???

 

[barryd]

Wtf were you doing going on holiday with mummy and daddy at 15?

Would you turn down a chance to tour Europe for the summer holidays being surrounded by hot teenage French girls in bikinis, going up Alps and swimming in lakes with said bikini clad girls? I made my own fun. Hardly saw them half the time.

 

[Canalsman]

Slightly off thread, but as we are going to France in a couple of weeks, is it still easy to get Gaslow bottles filled with LPG at the pump in French supermarkets and petrol stations ?

No problem whatsoever...

 

[Pudsey Bear]

We had a really peaceful night despite the location, only heard one vehicle all night which may have been security.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

All washed up vacuumed up, shower next then off the Narbonne, slowing down this weekend as Liz want to go to some market down here so she can wander round and complain about prices and buy nowt, she is so TIGHT I just see stuff, if I like it I'll buy it, I don't suffer from buyers remorse often.

 

[guerdeval]

They're supposed to drop???

A lot farther than you would wish ,mine are just poking out of the leg of my shorts

 

[Pudsey Bear]

A lot farther than you would wish ,mine are just poking out of the leg of my shorts

At least you don't stand on yours.

 

[marchie]

Why wouldn’t you, especially if it’s away to places abroad you’ve never been to before? It all part of edumacation - if you’re lucky enough to be able to do it that is.

I was 17 when I went with my parents and it was a fantastic experience - plus I got let off school a week early at the end of term (I was doing French at school for A level GCEs).

Anyway, I was a “girly” so not bothered by exploding testosterone and sudden dropping testicles like you poor old suffering teenage boyos were

Not long after joining the Bank pre-PC language, in 1970, a colleague was relating too many] details of his weekend success with a young lady, and went on and on and on about the encounter, instead of getting on with the work. Eventually my operational boss turned to my colleague and said, 'For gawd's sake will just go to the bog and get it out of your system!'

Steve

 

[mariesnowgoose]

That

Thing is, a lot of blokes never manage to get past the teenage stage

 

[mark61]

If the young lads story was any good, it would have been the boss going to the bog.

 

[mariesnowgoose]

If the young lads story was any good, it would have been the boss going to the bog.

... and that!

 

[Robmac]

At least you don't stand on yours.

That's probably yer farmer's Kev!

 

[marchie]

That

Thing is, a lot of blokes never manage to get past the teenage stage

'Women have no sense of humour; this enables them to marry men, instead of just laughing at them ...'
'To woman, marriage is just a word, but to man, it is a sentence ...'
'Man is incomplete until he is married; then he is truly finished'
'God gave Man a willy and a brain, but only enough blood to operate one at a time'

And, in summary of the case for the defence, some of us [older] men yearn for the chance to return to the teenage stage, but with the benefit of the fatter wallet that older age brings, the experience of a lifetime of a life well lived, and the understanding of a spouse who knows that it is all a fantasy, so the early laughter is transformed into a wry smile and a bewildered shake of the head at her man's optimism ...

Steve