26th June 2016
We left Arillas around lunchtime and headed off to Ipsos for a late lunch at Sallys. We headed to the port to catch the 6.30 pm ferry to Igoumenitsa.
27th June 2016
It was almost 3 am by the time we got to bed in our pet friendly cabin. We had a good night’s sleep. Disembarked around 3 pm and then headed off through Italy All OK except that I scratched the van caught a bollard coming from a chicane on roadworks. Will sort it out when we get home.
28th June 2016
Lago Trasimeno Italy for the night
This very colourful van was parked up just near us. Wonder if something like this will cover the dents!
29th June 2016
We drove quite a long way across Italy today and found this beautiful site – Camping Arc-en-Ciel in Provence it was just so pretty and welcoming. It is a really nice site.
Paul Cezanne’s The Bridge of Trois-sautets (le Pont Des Trois-sautets) was painted here, and the bridge can be seen as you walk by the river running through the campsite.
30th June 2016
We drove around the area today and visited the Gorge of Verdon, it is so beautifully clean, as they do not allow any motor boats or outboard motors.
1st July 2016
We saw lavender galore today, the smell was wonderful as we drove along with our windows wide open. Fields and fields of it.
We drove around the area quite a bit then decided to call it a night at a very quiet ‘aire’ in Florac before we travel 600 km to see my cousin in St. Sulpice – Lauriere.
2nd July 2016
We came across this bridge today on our journey, It was built in 1840 to 1844. and when we looked it up, we found it was designed by the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the Eiffel tower.
We arrived to a wonderful warm welcome from our relations. Much vino was consumed. We had a gorgeous meal of Pate de pomme de terre. Then lots of chatting and laughter until the early hours. Wonderful to see them all again.
3rd July to 5th July 2016
Lots of fun and laughter and generally chilling. Lots more wine and delicious food. Here are some photos of their beautiful garden.
6th July 2016
Sad to be leaving our cousins today. We have had a fantastic few days with them. Lots of fun, love and laughter, not to mention helping to deplete their wine cellar. We are moving on to La Rochelle area then up the west coast to Roscoff to catch the ferry for UK on the 12th. Stayed at a site in Charron, Poitou, Charentes.
7th July 2016
Just stopped for the night at St. Joachim near Fedrun St. Nazire. This is what is just over the road. Lots of the houses in the village have thatched roofs even the public toilets. It was a free stopover too. We are the only Motorhome here. A hot day and still 25 deg at 7.30 pm. This was just over the road.
8th July 2016
Our spot for the night. The beach is only 50 metres away unfortunately dogs are not allowed.
9th July 2016
Today we found a Vet, so Poppy could have her check up and then headed to Camping la Falaise, Plage de Locmariaquer
We had a fabulous meal in the restaurant on site. The Creme Brulle was the best I have ever tasted.
10th July 2016
Aux quatro Saisons tonight, walked to the nearby beach so Poppy could have a swim.
11th July 2016
We drove to Roscoff today. You don’t expect to see this at a roundabout in France just outside Saint Pol de Leon. stocked up with some gifts and wine.
Found a lovely site this is the view for our last night in France. We are at Pol de Leon. St. Annes beach.
There is a restaurant just over the road, but it is closed on Monday.
12th July 2016
We made our way to the ferry terminal after a late breakfast. We are very impressed with Brittany ferries Roscoff to Plymouth, everything about it was so well organised.
We arrived in the UK about 8 pm and were first off the ship. I had to remind myself to drive on the left and go the other way round the roundabouts. After 3 months in Europe and Greece it just becomes natural.
Drove up the A 38 and stayed at a Truck and motorhome overnight stop.
13th July 2016
When I went into the garage to pay this morning, they said they would not charge us. so that was a bonus.
We drove to Newton Abbot to meet up with our friends Lyn and Dave, we have not seen them for 4 years so we had a good catch up over lunch.
Such a shame I could only have one small glass of wine as we had to drive on towards Ilfracombe.
We stayed at a pub for the night and had a lovely meal and several glasses of wine. This was my dessert, Raspberry meringue tower with clotted cream mmmmmmmmmm!
14th to 17th July 2016
We moved up to Barnarbour near Ilfracombe today as we had booked to go to a meet with 30 of our Motorhome friends for the weekend.
We had a great weekend, on the Saturday afternoon we had a Devon cream tea, complete with Pimms.
Then on Saturday night we had a BBQ. I bought some raffle tickets and my numbers came out 10 times, I took 3 prizes, but put 7 back to be drawn again – lucky tickets!
It was great to meet up with our friends, who we had not seen since Halloween.
17th July 2016
We left the site at 10 am, had a good drive up to the M5, then had a 70 minute delay as a car had caught fire and there were miles of tailbacks. We arrived in Bewdley around tea time, to our friends Ann and John. They have the apartment next to ours in Arillas. We had a quiet evening in, eating, drinking and playing a general knowledge quiz with questions from 1947 to 1950. It was good fun.
18th July 2016
Our 35th Wedding anniversary today, and they said it would never last lol. Phil is not too well, his breathing is quite troublesome and the heat and lack of air is not helping him. He did not feel like going out, so Ann and I went shopping, like you do. Then we had a drink in a pub alongside the river Seven. We had a walk round the local museum too.
We had a lovely day and ended it with a delicious Indian take away, as Phil was still not up to going out.
19th July 2016
We had to say goodbye to Ann and John this morning, after a lovely breakfast of bacon butties. Thanks for having us guys and will see you in Arillas in September.
We drove up to Liverpool to see our friends, Dave and Sue. There is a huge big car park on the waterfront at Kings dock, they allow Motorhomes to stay overnight – £15 for 24 hours. It was 30 deg this afternoon. Dave, Sue, Shelly and Shaun came to see us when Dave left work.
First thing he noticed was that we had a flat tyre. We said we would call the breakdown people out as Phil would really struggle in this heat, but Dave and Shaun would not hear of it and promptly started changing the wheel. Bless them both.
Sue brought a lovely buffet for us all, we sat around eating, talking and laughing. Having a very good catch up. They left around 11pm and we settled down for the night. It was very quiet considering it is such a busy area.
20th July 2016
Dave called round to pick the tyre up to take it to be repaired. When he brought it back, we all drove up to their house for the day. We had a nice surprise as our friends Kes and Kath had just arrived for a visit to see us. Lots more drinking, eating and laughing. It was a great day spent with special friends. We got a taxi back to the dock and had another peaceful night.
21st July
Going home day! We drove up to Dave and Sue’s where Sue had spoilt us by cooking a full English before our journey home. Irene arrived to say hello and have brunch with us, she is not too well with her breathing either. We spent a lovely couple of days with good friends
We had a good trip over the M62, dropped the van off at our storage place and Gary picked us up to bring us home. It was so good to see him and Anja again, then Larissa and Archie came too.
I had a lovely cuddle – this is a video of him loving bubbles.
https://www.facebook.com/anja.johnson/videos/10208836489564513/
Well that is all for Arillas or Bust 2016, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have.We have met up with lots of friends and hopefully we can do it all again next year.