May 2020 – Page 9 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

October 5, 2018 Donostia-San Sebastian SP

While François did not move today, we did. Today we did the trip to San Sebastian-Donostia that we had planned for yesterday. After a late start to the day we walked down to the train station in Orio and took the 30 minute ride into downtown San Sebastian. San Sebastian is the Spanish name and Donostia is the Basque name for the town. In the city Donostia is used much more prevalently than San Sebastian.

Donostia is not an old city, everything but a couple of churches dates from no earlier than the mid-1850’s. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first is the British pretty much burned the city to the ground in 1813 after they captured it from the French. The second reason is that the Spanish seem so far, to be a little less enamored with old buildings, and have less of a problem knocking down old buildings and replacing them with new buildings. Our sample size is small on this, but that is our observation so far.

A statue of Jesus overlooking the town from the top of the old fort.

The city has a very prosperous air to it with lots of upscale shops, and very nice pedestrian promenades thru town. It is an easy town to move around on foot. Eventually we made it to the old town, which was the original footprint of the town dating back to the 1200’s and corresponds to the area within the old fort. We climbed the hill above the old town to the remnants of the fort, where we had a very nice view over the town. The climb was probably a couple of hundred feet in elevation gain, but was worth it when we got to the top. From the top of the old fort you have a great panorama of the two harbors that make up San Sebastian-Donostia.

The Urumea River entering the Bay of Biscayne, the beach past the river is the surfing beach.

At one time San Sebastian was a major port and ship building site. Today its main industry is tourism, and it excels at that. We climbed back down to the old town to look for a tapas lunch. We wandered into a tavern where lunch is laid out on the bar, and consists of different miniature sandwiches and tapas. You grab a plate and wander up and down the bar picking the food you want, when you have your plate full you grab a beer from the bartender, and head to a table. At the end you tell the bartender how many pieces you took (they pay attention), and how many beer you had, we had 8 pieces, and 3 beers. Ron was a little dehydrated from the climb.

The food is laid out across the bar, and you wander up there and help yourself.

Close up of a couple of the options at the bar.

After lunch we strolled around town for a while people watching, and having another stop at a local coffee shop. On the way back we stopped at the Cathedral, though we are getting a little jaded with Cathedrals. It was another fun day.

The surf beach up close. It is the same beach as the one above.

When we got back to Orio these guys were practicing, Orio is famous for it’s boat racing.

October 4, 2018 Orio SP

Plans change, sometimes by accident. We had planned to go to the nearby city of San Sebastian to do some sight seeing. Before we left we thought we could knock out a load of clothes. Well that did not work out the way we thought it would. The washer we used was the slowest washer we have run into in 3 continents, with nothing going wrong it took over an hour and half to complete it’s cycle. Then we put the clothes in the only dryer, and inserted our coin expecting it to tell us it would take 40 or 50 minutes to dry the clothes, it said 120 minutes, we thought how nice of them as no dryer could take 2 hours to dry a medium sized load of clothes, we were very wrong. It ran the full 2 hours, and then we hung the clothes out to finish drying. By the time the clothes washing was done it was too late to go to San Sebastian so we just relaxed for the rest of the day. It was a little frustrating, but at the end of the day we probably needed the rest, as we have been on the move constantly for 18 days.

In the early evening we walked into town to get some groceries (i.e. wine). It was a nice evening and we noticed that most of the town was out moving around, groups of children, adults, old men, and old women in groups conversing and enjoying themselves. It was the same last night, and is a nice cultural difference that we envied a little.

This guy was out the last two nights with these two bulls pulling a sled, not sure what the significance of the red mask is.

We came back to a nice conversation with our English neighbors. Ton made dinner and we drank some of our groceries before settling in to watch some Netflix Ron downloaded today in between washing and drying.

Yesterday was the fishing fleet of Orio, today it is the pleasure fleet.

October 3, 2018 Orio SP

After 16 days in France we finally reached Spain. We could have spent the entire trip in France, and enjoyed ourselves, but this trip was supposed to be about Spain. So we finally decided to head south.

Tree lined road found frequently in France, the leaves are starting to turn.

Except for one pit stop to put in just enough fuel to make it safely to Spain, we powered thru about 280km’s of driving. We only put in enough fuel to make it to Spain because France is now the holder of the record for the most expensive fuel in the EU. We have been paying €1.45 per liter, that is around $6.80 per gallon give or take. The first fuel station we saw in Spain had diesel at €1.15 per liter so we had a little celebration.

We had planned a photo op at the border between France and Spain, but it did not happen. The border was invisible, we did not know we had crossed into Spain until Ron noticed the road signs were suddenly in Spanish, and Basque. There was not even a sign welcoming us to Spain.

Ron sitting down at the kitchen table/drivers seat.

We had a nice drive down the coast to a small fishing village called Orio. We are parked a couple hundred yards from a very nice beach, surrounded by very tall hills on both sides. In fact guys parajump from the hills above the beach and circle around for 10 or 15 minutes before landing next to the RV park.

Parachutist coming in for a landing next to the beach.

In the evening we walked into the town proper, and kept looking for the old town, all we saw were modern condo’s and wide new streets. This area has been having a second home boom in the last decade or so, and the construction is very modern, quite different than France. After wandering down to the old fishing port we finally caught a glimpse of the old town, but it is tiny compared to the modern town.

October 2, 2018 Bordeaux FR

Everyone we talked to over the last few days told us we had to go to Bordeaux. Ron was a little intimidated with the idea of driving into a big city, and there are no official aires or campgrounds in the city. After some research our Dutch Parking App listed a parking lot next to a soccer stadium and municipal pool that had good access to the city by bus.

One of the new trams in Bordeaux, there is a lot of work going on to expand the tram lines.

To everyone who told us not to miss Bordeaux thank you we both enjoyed it very much. It is a medium sized city with a very well developed transit system that was easy to use. The waterfront promenade goes on for a couple of kilometers and is wide and pleasant to walk. The promenade has cafes on one side, and river cruise ships, and one very expensive yacht on the other.

These Buildings fronted the river. Bordeaux is one of the larger ports in France.

We visited the World of Wine Museum which is a little pricey, but a very modern multi-media museum, and the entrance did come with a taste of one wine from their world selection. The different multimedia displays included something to taste touch, and many different ways of visually presenting information about wine. It was interesting to see how curators are trying to integrate all of the audio visual stuff that is available now. We also got a small taste of French humor in some of the presentations which was fun.

Most museum stores have books and t-shirts for sale, this one has wine. My kind of museum store.

After cutting ourselves off after over three hours in the museum we headed down town to look at some of the buildings in town. The city center is quite nice, and looks like it was not terribly damaged during WWII despite being a major base for German U-Boats. With a city as tuned into wine as Bordeaux is the cafe scene is quite extensive, and a lot of people were enjoying an afternoon drink, so we decided to join them for a beer. We had a couple of French microbrews and they were quite satisfactory.

October 1, 2018 St. Laurent Medoc FR

We spent the day exploring the wine region on the west side of the Gironde River. This area has some of the most expensive wines in the world. To get there we had two choices, a 100km drive around the Gironde and thru Bordeaux, for the time and gas, or a 20 minute Ferry Ride that would put us right in the middle of the wine area we were aiming towards, for cash money. We opted for the ferry ride because Ron is a sucker for ferries, and does not like driving thru big cities.

François posing in front of a windmill and grape vines.

We really wanted to see the town called Margaux which is the center of the Premier Cru wines. As we were driving there, harvest was in full swing everywhere. This limited our opportunity to visit wineries as the smaller wineries that we tend to visit were closed due to the harvest. When we got to Margaux the town itself did not make much of an impression, besides having a couple of larger than normal homes it could have been any small French village.

Surprisingly to us they harvest a great deal of the grapes in Bordeaux with machines.

We decided to get out to take a quick walk thru town, and were about to head back to François when we saw a winery that was open, in France we have learned that an open sign does not always mean they are open. We were poking around the outside trying to decide when a lady stuck her head out of the door and informed us they were open. We went in with her and found ourselves in the poshest place we have been to in quite a while. She offered us a tour of the winery for €50 each. We decided to splurge for a glass of wine and some desert instead. While we were savoring our small moment of poshness, another American couple came in and joined us. We had a nice conversation with them before heading out. The wine was really good.

Ron enjoying a good wine, and trying to look like he belongs in such a nice place.

On our way out of town we saw the signs for Chateau Margaux whose wines retail for over $1200 per bottle and decided to do a drive by. On arrival we saw that their parking lot was pretty full so we turned into the winery, but were stopped by a security guard and told to turn around. We clearly are not Chateau Margaux customers!

Chateau Margaux where we were not welcome.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around looking at the Chateaus, and the harvest process before parking up for the night in a little village in the center of the wine country. The village of St. Laurent Medoc is not nearly as posh as Margaux so we fit in.

September 30, 2018 Blaye FR

We had an early start to the day. The weather continues to be great, highs in the low 70’s and lows in the low 50’s. We headed into Bordeaux which is the home of Cabernet Sauvignon, the area we wanted to visit produces some of the most expensive wines in France.

Our Dutch App that we use to locate places to stay recommended we stay at a winery called the Marquis de Vauban. It was free so we punched it in as we left Rochefort, after a nice relaxing Sunday drive of about 110Km’s we arrived. Our expectation was a spot in a parking lot. We were very pleasantly surprised to find we are parked right in the vineyard of the winery with electricity, and water provided. We went into the tasting room and signed up for the 4pm English tour.

We had a few hours to kill so we walked into the town of Blaye to see the fortifications there which is a UNESCO world heritage site. This is another fort designed by the French designer Vauban, (the same guy our winery is named after). It was designed in 1660 on the site of a medieval fort on the River Gironde. The Gironde is the largest River estuary in Europe and it is about 3 miles wide here. The purpose of the fort was to protect Bordeaux from ships coming up the Gironde. It is an immense fort and was put to the test in 1814 when the British besieged it. The fort withstood the siege and kept the British from getting down the Gironde. It was decommissioned after WWII and turned over to the town.

Looking across the Gironde River towards the town of Paulliac. Goats have taken over one of the outer parts of the fort.

An inland entrance to the fort with a bridge over the dry moat facing the town.

We took our winery tour and tasting with a couple from Wales. After the tour we took a nice horse carriage ride into town to top off the night. While we were relaxing there was a knock on the door of the RV and it was the guide from the horse carriage wanting to know if we wanted an aperitif for the night, of course we did. The aperitif was poured from a used Evian water bottle. After everyone from the campground got their glass he asked what it was, we had no idea, but felt better when none of the other guests knew either. It turned out it was blackberry currant mixed with red wine. It was delicious. After that we returned to the RV to have our dinner, and call home.

This black swan was out looking for dinner outside the RV.

September 29, 2018 Rochefort FR

Today we reluctantly left Brittany and decided to take a big bite out of our trip to Spain. We covered over 350km today to the city of Rochefort. The roads were generally good and for almost half of the way were limited access free ways with no tolls.

Rochefort is an interesting town. It was founded in 1666 to support a naval yard that was placed here by one of the kings. Unlike any French city we have ever visited it is actually laid out in a grid. The town itself had a kind of Mediterranean/California vibe. Ton thought it was kind of boring, but Ron was comfortable in a town he could navigate in without getting lost!

Even thought the roads were straight there was still a nice old gate in Rochefort.

We made another attempt at getting a French phone. The guy at the Orange store (the biggest French mobile phone company), was really nice, but basically told us that there were no good solutions to our problem. We could either get a standard French mobile plan and pay the monthly cost, or get a sim card that only works in France and nowhere else in Europe. We are going to keep trying, there must be a way to make this work.

We went down to the old naval yard. It was a major producer of vessels for the French Navy from 1660 to the 1920’s. In addition to building French Ships of the Line (really big sailing battle ships) and Frigates like the USS Constitution, it also built France’s first submarine (named the Plunger). Unfortunately the location was not good for larger modern ships and it was abandoned.

The French Frigate Hermione reconstructed.

Today they have a replica of the French Frigate Hermione. This ship is famous here for being the ship that took Lafayette to the US during the revolution. It is really well done.

After that we took a look around the ropery which was a large factory used to make all of the ropes used in the French Navy. By the end of the walk we headed to an aire for the night and relaxed.

The ropery building at the French Maritime Museum.

September 28, 2018 Dinan FR

Today we enjoyed Brittany. We had to make a decision, who said there is no stress on these trips. We are really enjoying Brittany and the weather is great. But to really explore Brittany is going to take another 3 or 4 days, and we will still be 3 or 4 days from Spain. We are now on the 11th day of the trip, and we are no closer to Spain than when we arrived. France is addictive. So we had to decide whether we spend time here in Brittany, or head south towards Spain. After much talk and discussion we decided today was going to be the only day in Brittany and we were going to head to Spain.

The next trick was getting diesel. Suddenly our credit cards have stopped working at gas stations. We have had no problems with our cards until now. A quick call to one of our credit cards confirmed we were good, and they did not even see the attempt to charge that was rejected. After a couple of attempts today we found a fuel station that would take one of our cards, we were under a quarter tank so it was expensive to fill up.

Leaving our campground we saw a nice windmill near the road so we swung in.

While we were there the French Army decided to stage a paradrop for us, Ron was thrilled. These guys landed right next to Mont St. Michel.

Having made the decision, Brittany is making it hard to leave. We started the day at St. Malo which is a port town. St. Malo was pretty much leveled during WWII as the German garrison would not surrender. After a substantial siege the Allies finally took it. So except for the city walls the city has pretty much been rebuilt since WWII. But they did a great job of rebuilding the old city within the walls of the fort.

We spent most of our time in St. Malo walking the battlements of the fort. St. Malo was a fortified port for 500 years. Some of the forts were built by the man who is considered by many to be the greatest fort builder in the western world, Vauban. They are indeed impressive, and were even able to pretty much withstand 20th century weapons during WWII. In addition the natural setting on the Bay of St. Malo is really beautiful. We really enjoyed St. Malo.

One of the forts designed by Vaubin. The bird in the foreground seemed very happy to have his photo taken.

Brittany was originally settled by Celts, and St. Malo has a strong connection to Wales. Ron believes his family name is originally Breton so it is a special place for him. They are famous for a cake called Kouign Amann. That is a good celtic word and we could not master how to pronounce it, but it tasted good. It tasted a little like an apple fritter.

We had the smallest Kouign Amann. A prize for anyone who can pronounce this.

Our last stop for the day was Dinan which unlike St. Malo was bypassed during WWII and has a lot of its original buildings. It is also a fortified town, but here we focused on the town and enjoyed walking down the narrow streets within the fort and enjoying the timbered buildings.

Some of these wooden houses date from the 1500’s.

September 27, 2018 Mont St. Michel FR

There are two iconic images of France for tourism. One is the Eiffel Tower and the other is Mont. St. Michel. Since we were close by and it is off season we decided to head there and cross it off the bucket list.

Before we left the campground in Bayeux Ron had a touching conversation with an English lady. She came up to Ron and said that she recognized him from yesterday at the American Cemetery. She told him how moved she was by the sites there and the sacrifice of the young men who came to another continent to help. I told her that they were honored to do it, and explained to her that the families had the choice of burying them here or having the body transported home for burial. She teared up and said that she was honored that so many chose to be buried here. I am bad with tears and did not know what to say, but thanked her for her kind thoughts.

The Garmin had been choosing pretty easy routes on nice wide roads, but decided to test us today by sending us off on small D Roads for the first 30 km, including one that turned out to be closed for construction. After some wandering around on back roads we came out to a pretty major road and the next thing we knew we were on a nice freeway for the last 60km.

Mont St. Michel is a spectacular site and that is why it is an icon. We had a pretty good walk to the free shuttle to the island. The bus was packed, and the initial impression was of a big crowded tourist site, but it won us over. The site on the outcropping surrounded by mud flats is right out of any movie. The abby is both beautiful and a marvel of construction. Expecting something sterile and packaged we came away impressed.

A shot across the Knights Hall which was the dinner place for the Knights.

On the way back we had a nice snack of mussels with some Normandy Cider. We guessed that it was about a Kilo of mussels. The coffee style cups are for the cider.

We wanted to cap the night off with some pictures of the Mont at night. We walked down to the river to the bridge as we thought it would be a nice shot. Tonight is warm and there is not a breath of wind, and we are basically in a big swamp so the mosquitos were swarming. We fought them for about 30 minutes waiting for the lights to come on, but the mosquitos won and we headed back to François for the night with no pictures.

Not the shot with the Mont lit up like we wanted, but the mosquitos drove us home.

September 26, 2018 Coleville FR

We are still on the Normandy peninsula basically moving from the area of Utah Beach to Omaha Beach. We got a late start as we decided to take care of some housekeeping chores in the morning. After Ton paid some bills and we knocked out a load of laundry we headed out for Omaha Beach.

When we arrived at the center of Omaha Beach it was quite crowded with several bus loads of Americans taking their lunch break al fresco around the memorial. We poked around for a while and mourned with a fellow Oregonian about the football teams loss on Saturday to Stanford.

Standing on Omaha Beach in front of the Sculpture to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the battle.

Done with Omaha we headed over to the American Cemetery in Coleville. This cemetery is maintained by the US Battlefield Memorial Commission and is the final resting place for over 9000 soldiers and sailors from the battles around Normandy. After the war the families of the fallen were given a choice to have the bodies shipped home or buried in place, so this does not represent all of the Americans killed in the battle.

The view towards the memorial and reflecting pool.

The visitor center and the grounds are inspiring and a true honor to the young men who are there. The visitor center has an excellent display about WWII and D-Day. After you walk thru the visitor center you enter the grave sites, and the location overlooks Omaha Beach and the Atlantic. The site is immaculate and clearly lovingly taken care of by the French staff.

When we completed the tour at the cemetery we headed into Bayeux which is about the only major city that was not leveled during the invasion. It is also famous for the Bayeux Tapestry which is a famous medieval artwork. As we entered the city we made a quick stop at a Carrefour Market to re-stuff the refrigerator. We headed into the city but just missed our opportunity to see the tapestry as the museum was closing. We took a quick walk to look at the Norman style Cathedral, and then headed back to François for the night.

A gargoyle on the Cathedral at Bayeux. They are not only an interesting feature but actually serve as the drains for the gutters when it rains.

September 25, 2018 St. Mere-Egliese

Today we covered the most distance we have covered in one day on the trip, about 200 miles. We got up a little early, and the trip was pretty easy as the roads were frequently 4 lanes wide, and we did not have very many small villages to pass thru.

Our target for the day was Utah Beach from the Normandy invasion in 1944. Our first stop of our D-Day tour was at the Airborne Museum at St. Mere-Eglise. St. Mere-Eglise was the initial focus of the 82nd Airborne Division during the invasion. It is said to be the first town in France to be liberated by Americans during WWII. The museum itself is well done, focusing on the issues of the airborne forces during the invasion. It mostly covers the 82nd Airborne, but does also give information about the 101st Airborne. It is an interesting collection of equipment, weapons, and stories. One of the most interesting exhibits attempts to give you the feel of doing a night drop from a C-47 transport plane. It is quite interesting and gets your attention.

A US Sherman tank on Utah beach, this one is painted in the colors of the French LeClerc Division which landed here, and passed thru St. Mere-Eglise.

We also visited the church in town which is famous for the story of one paratrooper John Steel who had the misfortune of getting hung up on the steeple of the church where he was shot in the foot by a German, and played dead for several hours hanging in the air above the center of town. If you have seen “The Longest Day” movie about D-Day you will probably remember this story as it is featured in the movie.

The church at St. Mere-Eglise, note the replica of the parachutist hanging from the church.

We ended the day at Utah Beach to see the monuments there, and to walk on the beach. The monuments and displays we saw today were really touching, and shows the deep respect and thanks the French have for the Americans who landed here.

Ron standing on Utah Beach, evaluating the suitability of the beach for an amphibious landing.

Nothing to do with D-day, we saw this horse and rider driving thru the surf. We have no idea why.

September 24, 2018 Chartres FR

Our plan when we arrived was to head towards Spain, so of course we drove north today to Chartres. Along the way we decided to visit Normandy and Brittany on our way to Spain, so we had to divert north to get to Normandy.

We decided to visit Chartres primarily to see its Gothic Cathedral. We visited Sens Cathedral the other day which is billed as the first Gothic Cathedral, and Chartres is supposed to be the best example of a Gothic Cathedral. Chartres still has its’ original stained glass as during both wars they removed it and stored it safely. During WWII the cathedral was in danger as the allies moved towards Paris, but an American Colonel successfully negotiated with a German General to declare Chartres open, so there was no battle fought in the city.

The exterior of the Chartres Cathedral. Note the contrast between the recently cleaned upper part, and the uncleaned lower part. The maintenance of these buildings is daunting.

On our way out of Chinon we decided we wanted to visit a winery, we drove thru the countryside only to find it was closed. Disappointed again, we wrote off getting a taste of any Chinon wine, but on our way out of town Ton spotted the new tasting room for the winery we had driven out into the country to see. Pierre and Bertrand Couly had opened a new tasting room on the highway to Chartres, Chinon Red wines are what we call Cabernet Franc in the US. We spoke to the wife of the owner and she did a great job explaining the wines of the area. She was aware of Oregon wines as her husband had spent some time at Sokol Blosser winery in Oregon in the 1980’s.

The very fine winery Pierre & Bertrand Couly. As the owner said you do not have to have an old facility to make traditional wines.

The three hour drive to Chartres was uneventful as the “N” road that we used most of the way was quite good. We parked in a free overnight spot, and walked about a mile into town to see the cathedral. The cathedral was indeed impressive, and the interior stain glass windows were among the best we have seen in France. The cathedral was constructed in the early 1200’s after the previous Romanesque Cathedral had burned. The cathedral is deservedly a UNESCO world heritage site. Besides admiring the beauty of the building we also again discussed the maintenance of these immense buildings. Just keeping the exterior clean is a full time job.

One of the stain glass “Roses” at Chartres, this one dates from around 1210 and is the original glass.

After touring the cathedral we decided not to wait for the light show, so we walked back to François. Frankly we were a little peeved with one of the attendants who would not let us take the last crypt tour, and did it in a way that seemed unnecessarily officious to us while simultaneously refusing to speak English, even though we had just heard him giving an explanation of the tour in perfect English to another person. I hope he was just having a bad day. We had a light dinner and a relatively early night as we have a long drive to Normandy tomorrow.

Some of the art work inside the Cathedral.

September 23, 2018 Chinon FR

We woke up to another blustery day. The weather forecast called for rain most of the day and they were right. We are trying to get back into the rythym of France, and we forgot that Sundays are really a day of rest.

Our plans were to drive to two towns to visit wineries and walk around the towns. Most of the drive today was on a road which is on top of a levee for the Loire River, it was quite pretty, and would have been even better if it was not raining most of the way.

This was about the only blue sky we saw today.

The first town we stopped at was Bourgueil. It seemed like a nice enough town and there were a bunch of wineries that looked interesting but everything was closed up. We took a quick stroll thru town and then it started to rain so we headed back to François.

The Abby in Bourgueil. Built around 1150.

We had decided to treat ourselves to a proper campground with showers and indoor plumbing so we are parked in the municipal campground looking at the Fort of Chinon. When we arrived it was raining quite hard so Ton made a nice lunch, and prepared dinner while Ron lounged around in bed until the rain stopped.

The Fort of Chinon, with the town below it behind the trees.

The castle at Chinon is another medieval fort that is partly in ruins but dominates the area. It is quite a climb to the top so we decided to take a look at it from the bottom of the hill, and head to a winery that google said was open. We had a walk thru the town which also has some examples of half timbered homes which are common in the area. It was a nice walk and it did not rain which was a good thing because the winery was not open. Finally learning that Sunday is indeed a day of rest (despite what google might think) we headed back to François had dinner, a long hot shower, and listened to the rain on the roof.

The French often refer to the retail part of a winery as the Cave, it is the French equivalent of cellar. In this case it really is a cave.

September 22, 2018 Chateau de Chambord FR

Well, plans change. We had originally planned to go to Orleans for the day, but last night we discussed spending a few days in the Loire Valley. When we woke up it was spitting rain and a little windy, The Weather Channel said it was going to improve as the day went on so we decided to skip Orleans, and head to Chateau de Chambord.

Ron plugged a GPS coordinate into the Garmin which was supposed to be for the motorhome parking at the Chateau and we took off. The Garmin said it was only a 68km drive, and the roads were good. Right at the end we started to think something was amiss as we suddenly started to get on smaller and smaller roads and this is maybe the largest tourist attraction in the Loire Valley. At the end the GPS proudly announced we had arrived, but we were looking at a field next to a little village. Either Ron inputed the coordinates wrong or the coordinates were wrong in the app we use to find places to stay. Anyway after a little more research we were on our way to the Chateau.

Thirty minutes later we arrived and what a first impression. The chateau is magnificent in scale. As we walked up to the entrance Ton said that this must cost a fortune to maintain. This would become a theme of the day.

The first view of the Chateau, it really is immense.

The Chateau was originally constructed from 1519 to 1547 by King François I. It is built in the Renaissance style and has 11 towers on the roof that are supposed to look like Istanbul.

The rear of the chateau from the immense gardens.

While it is really something to look at it is indeed difficult to maintain. When you watch the movie of the history of the Chateau it goes something like this, François builds it, and then loses interest in it and it deteriorates, another king gives it to someone who spends a fortune on it and then loses interest and it deteriorates, it passes to another owner who spends a fortune etc. In fact it may be the greatest white elephant in France.

The ceiling on the third floor, the salamander was the symbol of François I.

It is now maintained by the French National Park Service and they are clearly spending a fortune to restore and maintain it. Hopefully they will succeed as it is worth keeping.

These gardens were just restored last year.

September 21, 2018 Orleans FR

It was time to get moving. Last night with some encouragement from Robyn we decided to head to Normandy. Orleans seemed like a good first leg for the trip. The first few days of the trip the weather had been perfect, but when we woke this morning it was just starting to rain. It pretty much rained the whole way to Orleans though the roads were good and pretty stress free.

Our first stop was the aire which is about 5km from the city center. When we got there the weather was still pretty unsettled so we decided that Orleans could wait for tomorrow and settled in. The one thing interesting was the aire shared its space with the local pétanque club which is the French version of Bocci. Unlike other pétanque games we had watched this group was really good.

In the evening we decided to take a stroll on the footpath along the River Loire. Not expecting much we were surprised when around a bend in the river about 200 yards from the campground there was a really nice church. Exploring a little further we came into a little village with a park on the grounds of an old Chateau. It was an unexpected find for us.

September 20, 2018 Sens FR

Today the jet lag won, so we slept in very late. After we were finally going we had a nice lunch. As we were getting ready to head into town to see the sights in Sens, we met our neighbors who were a nice Australian couple Peter and Robyn who had rented a RV from French Motor Home Hire. After some introductions we realized that they were on the last day of their motorhome trip, and were trying to get rid of some stuff before they turned their RV in. As a result we received some things to stock our vehicle with. Their agenda for the day matched ours so we decided to walk into town together.

We visited the cathedral in Sens which adds to our list of magnificent cathedrals in France. The size and the intricacy of the construction is really awe inspiring. The special thing about the cathedral in Sens is the stained glass windows. They have examples from the 12th century thru to the 18th century. Sens cathedral is also where Thomas Beckett from England spent his years in exile, before returning to England to be executed by King Henry II.

After spending some time in the cathedral we decided to try to find a store to get a French mobile phone. After some issues we decided that it would be good to get a local phone. There was supposed to be an Orange store in downtown Sens, but when we got there it was out of business. We also decided to make a final stock run to Auchan and Lidl for more food. Now our refrigerator is really stuffed.

We had separated from Peter and Robyn to take care of the phone, but when we returned we ended up joining them for a beer and to exchange stories and information about places to go. One beer led to a couple, and we ended up at a Pizza place across from the aire. It was a great night and we hope we run into them again in the future in our travels.

September 19, 2018 Sens FR

Today we picked up François the motorhome at France Motorhome Hire. Sally and Simon did a great job walking us thru the paperwork and showing us around the motorhome. It was a pretty easy to learn how to operate as we bought the same motorhome that we had rented in the spring.

When we bought the motorhome we did add three things; one is an inverter so we can have access to the power points when we are not plugged in, we also added a solar panel and a second battery to give us the power to stay off the grid for a few days if necessary. In addition we added a safe for obvious reasons. The last thing we added was a propane system that allows us to fill the tanks at LPG gas pumps in gas stations. This should allow us to avoid the issue of incompatible bottles and regulators from country to country in Europe.

Our first stop after unpacking was to head over to fill the LP system. Ron was a little worried as Propane dispensing in the US is not something that is done self-service, but when all was said and done it went pretty smoothly. Since the gas filling station was next to a grocery we made our first stop for groceries. After that we headed to the Aire (For those of you who did not follow us on our rental adventure in France an Aire is an overnight spot for RV parking that is not a campground, usually a parking lot designated for overnight stays, very common in France.) The Aire here is quite nice as it used to be the municipal campground. It is conveniently located next to a Lidl grocery, and is walking distance to downtown.

Our new to us RV François in the Aire at Sens.

September 17-18, 2018 Sens FR

Another easy travel day with everything working as it should courtesy of United Airlines. Both of our flights actually departed a little early, and with an early departure we arrived in Paris an hour early.

As we had 4 bags this time between our clothes and stuff to equip François the motorhome, we decided to hire a car for the drive to Sens. This was a little pricey but we have no regrets given the logistics, and we certainly saved more in bringing the two bags worth of stuff over from the US than we spent hiring the car.

We arrived at the Ibis hotel in Sens before 1pm on Tuesday with no problems or adventures, we took a nap. After the nap we headed over to the Auchan Grocery near our hotel to do a little shopping. That done we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

August 22-23, 2018 Long Drive NV/OR

There is not much to write about these two days. We did our best imitation of long distance truckers covering about 970 miles in two days. We did our normal route from Vegas to Reno and saw a few of the vehicles heading towards Burning Man in northern Nevada.

The next day we covered the ground home mostly on the east side of the Sierra Nevada/Cascade mountains. The smoke from the multiple wildfires was very dense in places and reminded of our drive last year going to Alaska. At one point we passed within about a mile of a 38,000 acre wildfire in Northern California and could actually see some flames on the hillside as well as a couple of fire trucks attacking the fire.

This is the end of the trip that we dubbed “Urban Camping”. This time we used scout primarily as a substitute for a hotel room (except in Las Vegas). While we did not see our normal sites we did get to visit with our Son’s and some best friends, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

August 21, 2018 Las Vegas NV

Alex had to teach so we had a day to kill in Las Vegas. We are not gamblers so we decided to have an easy day taking in a movie and doing a little shopping in Costco and another Mexican Supermarket.

Later we met Alex for dinner at one of his favorite place in Las Vegas Nacho Daddies. As you can guess from the name they are famous for their Nachos. They have been featured on one of the restaurant shows on the Travel Channel. Alex and Ron had big plates of Nachos while Ton ordered soup and ceviche.

Afterwards we did our favorite thing in Las Vegas which is watch people. It is a great place for people watching, and our favorite place is the outside arcade in the old town. We enjoyed a nice walk and the people did not let us down providing great free entertainment.