My partner, although well traveled elsewhere, had never been to France other than a few towns in the Nord Pas de Calais on daytrips. I love France. Time to introduce him then to some of the delights it has to offer! We only had a week and, as ever, we were over ambitious. However, it worked as any taster does: it whet the appetite and we are keen to return.
Not only did we want to cover as much of France as possible, by car, in just 8 days, but we also wanted to fit in a visit to a friend and dip into Spain for a quick look at Barcelona. It was a fantastic experience which could only have been improved with the addition of more time. We visited Montreuil sur Mer in the Nord Pas de Calais; Brécey, Dinard and Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy; Annecy in the Rhône-Alpes region; La Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps; Vézénobres in the Languedoc-Roussillon region; a brief hop into Spain to Barcelona; then to Toulouse in the Midi-Pyréneés region via Carcassonne back in Languedoc-Roussillon; finally arriving at our end point of La Rochelle in Poitou-Charentes.
It was August. We set off from Folkestone through the Tunnel sous la Manche; the crossing only delayed by an hour which we found perfectly acceptable for one of the busiest times of the year. On arrival in Calais, we headed for Montreuil-Sur-Mer, a charming walled town immortalised by Victor Hugo when he used it as the setting for Les Miserables. As our place mats on our lunch table described, Les Miserables is performed each year in the summer in an outdoor son et lumière. We had just missed it; I made the first note of something to return to. We knew this was a whistlestop tour so did not have much time to explore, but we could see that Montreuil was a place worth returning to, maybe for a weekend or even a daytrip at just under an hour’s drive from Calais.
Our next destination was Brécey, where our friend has a house in Normandy. We were the proud new owners of a Sat Nav, fondly named Kate. Sadly we hadn’t read the instructions thoroughly. The journey was supposed to take around four hours; it took us nine! On closer inspection, on arrival, we discovered that it had been set to avoid tolls and never ask again. I suppose it was a prettier route than the toll roads. We had opted to stay in the only auberge in the village as opposed to camping in the garden and using a hole dug in the ground, should we need to, in the night. Our friend was just starting to renovate her property and, charming though it was, it did not yet have many amenities. We had been warned that the auberge was basic and it was, but it was clean and, after a short time to thaw, the owners were friendly.
Base Camp 1
We arrived at our friend’s during late evening. There were about nine other people camping there and they were all sat around a fire pit near the entrance to the property. They had named this base camp 1. It was l’heure de l’apéro, so we chatted as we enjoyed our drinks before dinner and It soon became clear that they had been in France for some weeks already and were beginning to tire of each other’s company under conditions which weren’t easy due to the slow progress of renovation. I have never watched Big Brother, but they assured me that they were just as excited as the contestants were whenever there were new arrivals. We were treated like royalty and felt like a breath of fresh air wafting in from overseas!
After a while, we moved to base camp 2 which was an even larger fire pit, edged with stones, and a huge dining table, dressed with linen cloth, foliage and candelabra. It was beautiful! After sharing a delicious meal, the preparation of which everyone took part in, except us as honoured new arrivals, we moved to base camp 3: a huge fireplace in the lounge of the stone house. The wine flowed until we left at about 3am.
Base Camp 2
We returned the following morning for coffee at base camp 1. We then drove in convoy to Dinard. Had our friend not missed the turning off the motorway and thereby misled all the following cars, the two and a half hour journey would only have taken forty minutes! After some difficulty in parking, we shared a lovely lunch of moules and goat’s cheese pastry salad. After lunch we wandered around. I enjoyed walking through the tunnel to get to the beach and the distinctive blue and white striped changing tents.
Later, we decided to drive to Mont Saint-Michel. However, it was late in the day and the queue of traffic was horrendous. We decided to buy a guide book, take some photos from the distance, make a u turn and make a note to return on another visit. The abbey is supposed to be well worth closer inspection. We returned to Brécey for a simple yet delicious dinner and wine and music around the fire.
Base Camp 3
The following morning we set the sat nav to avoid Paris and headed in the direction of Annecy. We set the radio to France Bleu which moved seamlessly between the different regions throughout the rest of our trip and thus set the mood for France. We drove past the outskirts of both Saint-Étienne and Lyon, clearly not the best advertisement for either town, both outskirts being industrial and graffiti ridden and, as we had no time to go inwards and explore further, we made another note to return when we had more time.
We arrived in Annecy 11 hours after leaving Brécey. We found our hotel, drove to the lake (Lac d’Annecy) and enjoyed good food with a nice local wine from the menu. After dinner we strolled along the shore of the lake. It was truly beautiful with the mountains in the background. We would explore more the following morning.
To be continued…
By Megan Oliver
