Neufchatel-en-Bray to Le Crotoy

Yesterday, Sunday 8th March, we spent our second day at Neufchatel by enjoying our last-fling meal out and a chilly walk in the afternoon.  Food was excellent.
My seafood risotto starter.

 John's salmon and goat cheese starter.

 Mains - mine cod, John's duck.

 Then came cheese in between.  Puds - mine is 4 hot chocolate spring rolls and caramel sauce to dip them in and John's is a kind of apple tart but with a biscuit base.

 Coffee/green tea came with a selection of tiny cakes and biscuits - the crispy nutty brittle was the best!  We got rather wet getting to and from the restaurant, but it stopped in time for us to walk off the excesses around an attractive park area beside the River Bethune.  The chapel was originally built around the 12C, but had been neglected and used as a barn for years.  But the town took over the land recently and have restored it beautifully.  Their historians discovered that the lavoir by the river (a few yards from the chapel) had been used for people to dip in the medicinal waters.  We decided our aches and pains might not be greatly improved in today's rushing torrent!

 A typical Normandie house up on the hill.

Today we have reached the north coast of France and staying on a camperstop at Le Crotoy - our last night!!!  It was a bit blustery on the bikes, but we had a good look around the town and across the water.  No photos of the sea, but it's tucked in the Bay of the Somme and the tide was out, so not particularly scenic.  Some of the buildings were, though.

 An unusual lighthouse.

 Nicely painted water tower.

So this trip comes to an end with our date with Eurotunnel tomorrow afternoon.  It has been a very memorable holiday, visiting lots of new places, meeting interesting people and although it's been cold and wet this last week through France, the warmth of the winter sun in Spain will see us through till next year.
Thank you for being such loyal blog-followers and for the occasional messages.  We need to decide where next ....

Neufchatel-en-Bray

Another day on the busy motorways of France!!

 If only the M25 was like that!!

We've come to the town of Neufchatel-en-Bray in Normandy -well on our way home now - a place we have stayed at several times before.  It has a lovely campsite but that isn't open this year yet.  However, in recent times they have opened an Aire de Camping Cars next door, which for 12€ a night has everything a camper could possibly need, including washing machines!
Many years ago we had a meal at the restaurant through the archway with our good friends, Janet and Graham.  We've booked Sunday lunch as our final fling, so hope it's just as good now.  Watch this space .....

 The main square and imposing Church.

 The old railway line here has been made into a cycle track all the way to Dieppe.  Today we just walked a bit of it - this notice refers to the models of the planets placed at intervals along the track.  The sun is in the photo.

The station building is now a cafe and an information board gives details of the history of the line, along with this little story:

 This interesting-looking box beside the track - not for the birds, but for geocachers!

 A beautiful sunset to round off a great day without any rain.

Camperstop Fresnay-sur-Sarthe

Leaving the Camperstop at St. Cyr this morning - more rain ....

Our neighbours' van! - too big to go on the pitch so they parked in front of 3. 

 

 And this morning, out of the back popped a little runaround.

As we journey north, the weather improved as we went, but we passed over many swollen rivers.

 A little bit of entertainment at our coffee stop - watching a pair of magpies building their nest.

 We think that must be Mum handing/beaking down the twigs.  Dad inside, building.

Eventually the sun came out, we parked up at another Camperstop at Fresnay-sur-Sarthe, north of Le Mans and had a good walk around the very attractive town.

 
 Another very wet river!

We are choosing camperstops with some form of hardstanding as camp sites tend to get rather boggy in such wet weather, but also because not many sites are open before April around here.  Probably on to another one tomorrow.

Camperstops - Meuzac and Lac St. Cyr

This is a tale of three lakes and lots of wind and rain!  With the weather that is now being thrown at us, we are not hanging about, and moving north each day. 

Yesterday, Wednesday 4th March, we left the soggy, but what promised to be rather a nice little campsite at Deyme, got onto the autoroute, but stopped at a favourite motorway service Aire in the Lot region.  We think it was 2003 - we had a week's cycling holiday with Headwater and only one other couple were doing it with us - Jim and Roly from Edmonton, Canada.  The village on the hill in the photo is Labastide-Murat.  We had a 'day off' from cycling one day and together we walked to this little lake and had our picnic beside it.  It's fenced off, of course, so you can't get at it from the motorway, but it's good to see it again.  Although we've never met again, we are still in touch with Jim and Roly and enjoy hearing about their lives with their two daughters born since that holiday.

 For our night's rest, we came to another small lake in the village of Meuzac somewhere north of Brive.  We managed to get out for a walk around the lake while the rain held off for a little while.

 Somewhere over the other side is our little van on the Camperstop area - all on our own.

Then today, through more and more of that horrid wet stuff, we came to Lac St. Cyr, north of Poitiers.
Again, there was a bit of a lull in the wind and rain, for a brisk walk ....

..... clad in rather more than beside the Spanish coast!  (The short trousers were put away on Monday and probably won't be out again for some time to come ....)

Camperstop Roses

Yesterday, Monday 2nd March, was rather dull and with a warm strong wind and we travelled the short distance from l'Estartit to Roses.  On the way, we had a bit of that wet stuff that the UK's been suffering from.
 But by the time we came out of Carrefour at Roses, it had gone away again.  We checked in to the Camperstop, had lunch, then walked down to the very blowy seafront.  It was interesting watching the changing weather over the hills around the Bay of Roses as we walked along.

 As usual, not many cafes and restaurants are open this time of the year, but we found one that served excellent coffee, chocolate and Gofre de Nutella.  Photo from the menu as our shared one was devoured rather quickly.  Our one had rather a lot more cream between the waffle and the ice cream!

 Dark sky gone now!

Looking south across the bay to where we were on Sunday - the cliffs at l'Estartit and the Illes Medes.

Today started off fine at Roses - even the strong wind of yesterday and part of the night had left us....

 .... and we had good views of the snow-capped Pyrenees as we approached the border.

 Rather grey as we went through the gap in the mountains.....

 ..... and left Spain behind us.  (Note change of road surface/markings.)

 The mountains from the French side.

 Stopped for our morning cuppas at the Aire du Village Catalan with its very up-market gift shop. 

 Then again at an Aire overlooking Carcassonne.  We've visited Carcassonne many times, but never in pouring rain!  We didn't even get out of the van, it was that horrible...

... but we carried on to a small campsite close to the Canal du Midi at Deyme, SE of Toulouse, our planned afternoon stroll by the canal abandoned as it still hasn't stopped raining.  We are just not used to this .....