29th August. Le Soleil Fruite.

Short two hours drive to this site south of Lyon. Nice remote site with great facilities. Located 3 miles off main motorway to the Mediterranean. Empty when we arrived at 11.30am but by 1pm they were turning people away. Apart from one English couple from Blackburn the majority were Dutch travelling south.

Cluny two nights.

We returned to the medieval town of Cluny. Beautiful old Abbey originally built in 11th century when it was the largest church in christiandom? Restored in 18th century. Some great old buildings throughout the town. Fabulous selection of restaurants and bars. A great ambience throughout the town as there is always something going on. At present there are loads of magnificent horses parading around the streets as it seems they are in the middle of an international show jumping event. There is also a major Jazz festival on and some sort of religious festival with people dressed in costumes. So enjoyable to sit at a bar and just watch this all enfold.

Montbard

Sat Nav: 8 years old... so outdated, goes round the houses adding to the journey like a London cabbie . Barb wants to keep it cos it cost £400, I want to sling it . Todays trip to Cluny will take 3 hours 35 minutes with this one. The newer sat nav that cost £30 sits neglected but raring to go, promising the same trip in 2 hours 20 minutes. Wife 67 years old, obtained 40 years ago, goes round the houses a bit... STOP II THERE! Back to the day in Montbard.. Really nice town with some old sections. CampsiTe good but too early for ACSI, cost 23e bit overpriced for a municipal but we made good use of the free water park where we made prats of ourselves trying to operate the digital lockers "stupid old English". Incidentally we were charged 11e for our excellent stay at Sezanne municipal site.

Sezanne 25th August

After doing nearly 400 miles yesterday the 90 odd miles to Sezanne were a doddle. Arrived 10.30am, topped up with fuel and got the rations in. Dorado fish for tea. Love this site 13e a night and free use of olympic sized pool. Great swim... did about half a mile. Then chilled out in the afternoon sun at side of the bus. Keep staring at the beer we got with the rations. Will have to drink it when it starts staring back.

24th August 2021. France.

 Easiest drive to chunnel. Left 7am arrived 12 noon, took it easy and no jams. Earlier train at 1.20. Got to Saint quentin around 5pm. Great aire but ticket machine broke so parked for free outside

4th 5th and 6th August Lady Margarets at Chirk

 Well the idea was to progress from our two night stay at Wirral, complete a 3 day trip to Chirk and then go for a 4-5 day trip to Coniston. What is it they say in the middle east "Man plans, God laughs". When we arrived at Chirk the weather was lovely. I spent a few hours putting the awning up, the tent up and the windbreaker up. Then off to Chirk Castle for a lovely walk through the NT grounds.  But then....that night....little Jack wouldn't settle and stayed awake until nearly midnight , Sophie was tired and the next day we were faced with constant rain as we walked through Llangollen. We did have a break from it as we sheltered in a nice pub but the decision was inevitable...Sophie and Barbara decided that Jack was a little too young so they all deserted me and set off for home. However 2 nights peace, relaxation and quiet with just me and Jonesy. Still I had to take down and pack away all of the equipment after drying it out. 

Another decision was shortly to be made...to leave Jack another year and cancel the trip to Coniston. We also decided to plan for an earlier departure to France and hopefully Spain.

Aiden in the grounds of Chirk Castle

Gatekeeper

A rain sodden walk along the Dee at Llangollen. Poor Jack never gets a look in.

31 July and 1st August. Two nights Wirral with Kids.

 We decided to give Jack and Aiden a trial for a place on our camping team. Of course Sophie came as well and all in all it was a successful two nights in a great location.

Ok we had a few tantrums at the pub but we were prepared to learn from our mistakes and move on. We checked out the beach. We did a round trip of 9 miles walking into West Kirky and most importantly Aiden successfully 'cracked' his cycling skills. No longer will he cycle using half rotations of the pedals. He now zooms along at full pace using full rotations whilst either ringing his bell or pulling on the brake. 

We had a really good evening meal and were joined by Michael who turned up at the site after completing most of the Wirral Way during the afternoon.  A couple of drinks together and a good catch up.

Thurstaston Beach.

Motorhome surfing.

You'll never catch him Jonesy

Quality time with Jack

A nice grass pitch on Wirral Country Park

Lovely evening beer with Michael