2018 – Page 5 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

April 18, 2018 Rose SP

Well we thought we were going to head east towards Provence, but instead we found ourselves in Spain. We realised we were really close to Spain this morning, and decided why not. So tonight we are parked up on a ocean front spot in a campground with at least 400 other campers.

François and Ron enjoying the beach before the mosquitos drove him inside.

From our site you can see the town of Rose about 400 yards away. We decided we were going to have a nice Catalan dinner there. About 3pm we decided to walk down to town to scout for a dinner choice and discovered there is a river between us and the town that you cannot see from the campsite. Usually these rivers are pretty shallow where they meet the sea so Ron thought we could cross over, but then we watched a pretty tall fellow wade up to his chest crossing over. Well there must be a bridge, so off to the office we went to find out how far. From here it is two kilometers up the road, and then two kilometers back to the town, so the round trip to town would be five miles. We had a nice dinner sitting outside François, and will have a nice Catalan lunch tomorrow.

This was our first time crossing from one country to another in the EU so we were curious what it would be like. It is much like crossing a state line at home, except there were three police doing random checks of vehicles, we were not selected. Also the contrast between the two border towns could not have been more different. The French town had incredibly tight roads with everyone trying to squeeze by each other at 5km, probably the most stressful 1km of road Ron has driven, in Spain a wide two lane road thru town.

The unfordable river, that is only in place a few weeks a year, that kept us from our Catalan dinner.

Ton has come up with a name for our trip, France Backcountry avec François. So far on this trip about 90% of our travel has been on what the French call D roads, these are roughly a cross between state highways and county roads in the US. Some of the roads have been one lane tracks where when you come across another car someone looks for a place to pull over and let the other car pass. The French handle this really well. Ron is still playing with the preferences on the GPS to try to avoid these roads, but since the speed limits are the same on a D road whether it is a one lane track, or a good two lane road with shoulders, our GPS has sent us into some interesting places, and often insists on sending us thru the center of small villages when there is a perfectly good by-pass that is 200 or 300 yards longer. Ron is going to have another go at the settings tonight to see if we can still stay on D roads without some of the really small roads we have been down.

April 17, 2018 Carcassonne FR

We finally had to make a decision about what direction to go next. As we have been heading south we have been having an ongoing discussion about whether to head east or head west when we hit the Mediterranean, I think we have finally decided to head east towards Provence.

Today we visited Carcassonne Castle in the city of Carcassonne. The drive there was pretty quick and uneventful. The castle is a world heritage site that has been around since medieval times. It had fallen into disrepair and was rebuilt in the 1800’s. The rebuild is not historically accurate, but if you picture a Castle, Carcassonne is pretty much going to be what you are thinking of.

Even though it was early in the year it was pretty busy, the busiest place we have visited so far. We had a nice walk around the grounds, but decided to pass on the 9 euro admission fee to see the interior. The views are very impressive, and the size is quite large with the walls around the castle measuring almost 2 miles.

We are not sure whose idea the yellow paint was or if it is in anyway authentic.

We called it a day a little early and headed back for a nice Thai-French fusion meal Ton whipped up, using some ingredients she had brought from home, but substituting egg noodles for rice, and adding in some French vegetables. We finished up the night by sitting outside watching the sun set on the castle, and drinking some wine and eating some of our Cantal cheese. By the way we cannot differentiate between the cheese with the flowers in the grass, and the cheese without, they are both delicious.

An interior shot of a bridge from the outer to the inner walls. The roofs on the towers were added in the 1800’s.

April 16, 2018 Rivieres FR

Today turned into a maintenance day. We are at a campground in Rivieres and we did not move here. After we were done visiting Albi yesterday we moved to this campground for the night, but to tell the truth when I wrote the blog last night we had no idea what town we were in. When we woke up this morning we decided it would be a good day to take care of cleaning up and doing laundry. By the time we were finished with the laundry we decided to stay another night.

While we were doing the laundry Ton was reading about the local area and noted that this is one of the oldest wine producing areas in France. The area is called Gaillac and the original vineyards were planted during the Roman times, and for the Romans it was the major wine production area in Gaul (France more or less).

So when I extended us for another night I asked the owner of the campground to recommend a winery in the area. She recommended Domaine Escausses. So after a quick stop at Lidl (grocery store), and a stop to replace one of our propane bottles we headed up into the countryside to Domaine Escausses.

The mustard is taller and a little further along than what we saw in Burgundy.

The setting for the winery is right out of a movie. The views are spectacular, and the tasting room is small and quite nice. We were met by the 7th generation winemaker who in addition to pouring wine for us was taking care of her children. We had a great discussion about the unique varieties around Gaillac. Her white wines were superb. Her daughter is about 9 or 10 years old and is already in training to be the 8th generation winemaker. She was kind enough to give us some ideas about places to visit going forward. So even though it was a maintenance day we had time to enjoy another touch of France.

April 15, 2018 Albi FR

The day started out with a visit to the cheese shop under the supervision of Patrick the campsite owner. He also had a French couple in tow who turned out to be from the Yonne department of Burgundy which is our honorary French home, as that is where François the RV is based. We ended up with about 1/3 of a kilo each of three Cantal cheeses, one is called Cantal, one was called Salers, and the last was a blue cheese from the area which one food critic labeled the best he had ever tasted. The Salers cheese is a variant of Cantal that is only produced in two months when a certain flower is in bloom in the region, as the flowers mixed with the grass makes the cows milk that much better, you have got to love the French! We will give you a report later if the flowers make a big difference.

Patrick leading us down the road to the cheese store.

After two days of cold and damp weather we decided to head south in search of sun and heat. We had originally picked out a target of a town that was about 130km as the crow flies. But when Ron punched it into the GPS, the route said it was over 400km’s. Ron cursed and figured he had punched in the coordinates wrong. But after some further study of the map it turned out that this was really a case of the proverbial you can’t get there from here.

This cow is a Cantal whicn is a breed unique to the area around Salers.

Ton likes Cows and this calf is the cutest she has ever seen, it almost looks like a sheep.

Now it was Ton’s turns to study maps, she proposed the town of Albi as a destination. It was south, the roads looked reasonable, and best of all it was the hometown of Toulouse-Lautrec which is both of our favorite French Artist.

The bridge in the foreground was built around 1300 and is still used for traffic today.

The plan for the night was to stay in the Aire in Albi. The GPS led us close to the medieval old town down increasingly narrow roads, and only about 500 yards from the final destination we came to an arch that the road was going under, but the road under the arch was filled with construction equipment. After some studying of the map, and a little maneuvering in tight quarters we headed to our alternative route to the aire. About half way there we fell in behind a Dutch RV that appeared to be going to the same place. Again within about 500 meters of the aire we ran into some more construction and the Dutch pulled over and parked. Ron parked up behind them and knowing that almost all Dutch speak English he walked up and asked them about the aire. It turns out that the road to the aire is under construction and while you can barely make it there, it was full anyway. The husband said that they were thinking about parking for the night at a site we had passed on the way in, but the wife switched from English to Dutch and told him no way they were parking there. I don’t speak a word of Dutch but I didn’t need to to understand that conversation.

Ton and I decided to just leave François where he was and head into Albi to have a look around. Albi turned out to be a real Gem. This is why you do these trips without agendas, to find places like this. Our first stop was the Toulouse-Lautrec museum. The museum has an incredible collection of his art, because apparently the Louvre turned down the collection when his parents offered it to them. The museum is housed in the Palais de la Berbie which is the old palace of the archbishop of Albi. The building is as impressive as the art collection.

An example of the art in the Toulouse-Lautrec museum.

The exterior of the Toulouse-Lautrec museum which is in the old palace of the archbishop.

Next door is the Cathedral of Albi, which is the largest brick church in the world. We went into the Cathedral and it was as impressive as the outside. We got a break as one half which usually costs 5 euro to get in was open in preperation for a concert so we got a free look at it.

A view of the ceiling of the cathedral in Albi.

April 14, 2018 Salers FR

The plan today was to hit two villages in the Cantal region of France. Cantal is famous for it’s cheese and the ruggedness of it’s mountains. We experienced the ruggedness of the mountains and enjoyed the least populated part of France we have been in so far. At one point we went almost 15 kilometers between two towns which is a record for us in France.

Passed by this castle very early in the day. It is really striking, do not know anything at all about the history of the place though.

We stopped up in Cheylade to visit their church which is famous for its roof and nave. It was a nice spot and while we were in there we had a good conversation with a group of Belgians who showed up to take in the church.

A shot of the ceiling of the church in Cheylade. The ceiling tiles are from the 15th century after the church was rebuilt.

After getting confirmation from the Belgians that the pass was open we headed towards Salers. Salers is considered one of the most beautiful villages in France. It has retained almost all of it’s medieval structure. After years of obscurity that allowed it to stay virtually unchanged for centuries it has been discovered, and last year had over 400,000 visitors.

One of the many medieval buildings in Salers that are still in use today.

It is certainly a nice place in a nice location, but maybe it was the bad weather (cold and wet), but we were both a little let down by the town. It felt a little too touristy and more commercial than we expected. (I think our bad taste started by having to pay 3euro to park François when the parking lot was empty.)

The city walls of Salers. Salers is considered one of the five most beautiful villages in France.

When we first arrived we went over to the city campground for the night, but were totally perplexed about how it worked. There was what appeared to be a proper campground, but it did not appear to have any water on site, but it did have electricity. There was also an aire next door. The perplexing part was there was not a soul on site to take money or give directions. After wandering around for a while we decided to head into town and come back later and see if we could figure the place out. When we returned a couple of hours later the situation was the same, no one on site and no one using the facility. We decided we would grab a spot in the area that looked like an aire. While we were eating the Gendarme (national police) passed thru a couple of times without moving us on so we figured we must be legal and free. When Ron went out for his evening walk he ran into a gentleman who turned out to be the campground manager. Patrick is quite a character and we ended up talking to him for quite a while and he is going to take us into town for cheese tomorrow. But our free site turned into 13 euro when he collected the fee.

April 13, 2018 Orcines FR

Today we reluctantly left Burgundy. But before leaving we wanted to take a look at some more of the Beaujolais country. Somewhere around Julien we made a wrong turn and quickly found ourselves on some small mountain roads heading into the Haute Beaujolais. It turned out to be a nice mistake as it is beautiful country. The Haute Beaujolais looks like it is dairy country with lots of valleys full of pastures and a pure white breed of cow we do not have in the US. After a while of wandering around and completely unsure of exactly where we were (reminds me of a line from Band of Brothers when one soldier asks if they are lost, the officer replies we are not lost, we are in France), we decided to punch in our final destination for the day and let the GPS take us there.

This breed of white cow is pretty large and all over Burgundy. We have never seen anything like this breed in the US. The background is typical of the country we drove thru today.

After a couple of hours and our first accidental experience of a French A road (think interstate with tolls) we ended up at Le Puy de Dome. It is an inactive volcano cone, where you are supposed to be able to see 11 departments of France from. The weather was not ideal as it was cold and windy, with high clouds. But the views were there to see, just a little gray from the clouds. The wind made it a little uncomfortable but we completed the circuit around the dome.

The view from the top of the Puy de Dome. Not a great day for photography but we will not be back on this trip. We think it would be spectacular on a bright day.

At the top is the ruins of a roman temple to Mercury built around 124 AD. The Puy de Dome apparently has been a tourist attraction for quite sometime.

Some of the ruins of the Temple of Mercury on Puy de Dome. Puy means volcanic hill in French.

After a week with Francoise it was time to fill up for the first time. The cost was $129 for 19 gallons which is $6.78/gallon. The good news is the distances between things to do are a lot less, so our daily cost of fuel so far is less than at home. On this trip our biggest cost has been admission to sites. Interestingly we are spending less per night than at home for campgrounds and we have not really tried to find free spots which abound around here.

François is the RV in the middle. Taken from the top Puy de Dome.

April 12, 2018 Rommaneche-Thorins FR

We woke up to a pretty steady rain in our Aire in Cluny. Ton pointed out that I had been throwing the term Aire around in the blog when there is nothing like it in the US. An Aire is a very basic place for RV’s to park up for the night. There are thousands of them in France and they range from designated areas in parking lots with no services, to parking areas with electric, water, and dump stations. Most of them do not provide electric, but do provide a place to get rid of the waste water. A surprising amount of them are free, and the rest charge a nominal amount. The towns put them in figuring if you park up for the night you will end up dropping a few Euro somewhere in town.

Typical countryside in Beaujolais. It is as green as Oregon this time of year.

After a quick check of the weather and seeing that it was supposed to clear up shortly, we hit the road. The intent was to follow the route of one of the scenic drives in Ton’s DK Backroads France book. The drive was called the heart of France and was about 60km’s. We managed to keep on it for most of the trip though there were a couple of unexpected detours caused by missed turns.

Typical vineyard just as the bud is breaking on the vine.

Around lunch we came to Chateau de la Greffirere that advertised tasting and a museum. When we arrived we were met by a lady who asked if we spoke any French at all, when we said no, she looked a little flustered but began pouring us wine. A couple of minutes later we were greeted by another lady who completed the tasting and gave us a tour of the facilities. At the end she opened up the real prize for us and as it was lunch time handed us an English book and went off to lunch. The museum was fantastic as it was full of antique wine production equipment. We spent about an hour wandering around and really enjoyed ourselves.

Leaving we continued following the Heart of France drive, but went amiss somewhere and ended up in the town of Macon. It felt more urban than anything else we have encountered so we punched in the place we planned to stop for the night and let Garmin guide us from there.

For the night we are staying at a France Passion site on a winery called Domaine Mortet. We were greeted by Jean Pierre Mortet after we parked up for the night. He was just in from the fields, but took us down into his cellar for a personal tasting. It was fun and very interesting speaking to Jean as he is a literally a one man show. He is the owner, winemaker, vineyard manager, and sales manager. He took over the winery from his father, who dropped in while we were tasting. We want to thank Jean Pierre for his hospitality.

Jean Pierre and Ton in the cave of Domaine Mortet. Thanks so much Jean Pierre.

April 11, 2018 Cluny FR

Last night we decided to head south for the trip. It took us up to now to finalize our plans, though we are going to make daily plans so how far we move each day is up to debate. The problem is we keep finding things to do so we are not covering much distance. In fact after 6 days we are sill in Burgundy and are only 175 miles from our starting point.

Today we had two stops in mind, a cheese factory outside Dijon and the Cluny Abbey. The first stop was a factory that specializes in soft cheese manufacture. We did the self guided tour. This involved peering thru windows at workers who tried to look unimpressed and watching videos of the process. It was interesting if a little impersonal. The fun began at the end where we were given five cheeses to taste and of course some bread and wine to go with them. Ton really liked the cheeses as she likes softer cheeses. Ron is a cheddar fan which makes him pretty much a charlatan, at least in Burgundy.

Some of the workers in the plant performing one of the three cleanings each cheese gets.

Our long drive of about 60 miles began after that. On the way to Cluny we came to the town of Cormatin it was pretty well developed and we where trying to figure out why, when we saw an interesting Chateau on the river. We were already by it when we decided to go back and check it out. The signs said open, but the door to the ticket office was locked and the tourist office was also closed for lunch. So we had to settle for some photos over the fence in the parking lot before moving on to Cluny.

Looks like it would have been an interesting walk but we could not find anyone to take our 6 Euros.

Our destination for today was the Abby of Cluny. At one time the largest building in Christendom before the building of St. Peters in Rome. On arrival in town we were looking for the town aire. After much circling around including one trip into the heart of the town down narrow one way streets we found a parking lot kind of in the right part of town. It had four or five RV’s parked up so we decided why not join them.

The original church went from the point of this photo to the spire below. That spire is one of the three that were in place in the church.

We headed into town to take the Abby tour. The Abby is now mostly in ruins with only 10% of the original buildings still standing. What is there is really impressive and it does not take much imagination to see the beauty of the remainder. The rest was lost because the order that originally built it ran out of money to maintain it and they ended up selling it to the town. The town then dismantled the church and sold the stone locally and in Paris. If it was standing today in it’s finished state it would surely be one of the biggest attractions in Burgundy if not France.

A view of the town of Cluny from the tower of Fromagges next to the Abby.

When we returned to our parking lot there were only two other RV’s left so Ron came to the conclusion that this was not the aire. After some googling he got a map to the aire. When we arrived it was clearly an aire. The problem was that instead of being free as advertised it cost 10 Euro, and you had to call the town police to pay up, and failure to call in a timely manner increased the cost to 22 Euro. Eventually we found a nice lady who made the call for us. So tonight we are watching a parade of horses go by to the local stables in the town Hippodrome next door.

April 10, 2018 Dijon FR

Today we planned on spending the day exploring Dijon. The jet lag is finally wearing off and we woke up at a pretty normal time after sleeping thru the night.

Yesterday we had purchased a walking guide of Dijon from the Tourist Office. It is called The Owls Trail. On the main church in Dijon sometime in the 16th century someone (no one is sure who) added an owl on one of the side walls. The legend is that if you touch it with your left hand (the one closest to your heart) and make a wish it will come true.

The lucky owl on the side of the Church of Notre Dame. Notice how worn it is from all of the people looking for good luck.

They have embedded little owl plaques in the sidewalks thru out downtown and all you have to do is follow them in a loop to see most of the main sites in town. It really is a nice system and a fun way to make your way around town.

A sample of the cute owl embedded in the sidewalk.

Because today was market day we decided to start our Owls Tour at the market. The market building is a cast iron building built in 1875. The market was primarily meat and cheese, with the cheese places having the longest lines of locals. We did not end up buying anything but enjoyed window shopping.

Following the owl around town we were overwhelmed with churches, old mansions, old shops, and palaces. To see so much first rate medieval and renaissance architecture in such a small area was impressive to Ron as it is his first visit to continental Europe.

Having spent a couple of hours wandering around Dijon we decided it was time for a break and some lunch. We went to a restaurant the winery had recommended yesterday and each had the Plat du Jour. The main course was a stuffed chicken with sauce and noodles. The desert was small plates including a pudding, a creme brulee, and an espresso. It was a good deal at 14 euro’s.

We did some window shopping in some of the modern stores, and a department store before deciding to head back to François (Ton decided that the RV was too classy for a name like Frenchy). Ron missed the turn heading out of town despite having done the exact same roundtrip yesterday, and led Ton on a 1/2 hour wander thru Dijon before finally getting back on track.

At the end of the day including Ron’s wandering around lost we posted over 10 miles on the Fitbit. Not bad for a couple of old people.

April 9, 2018 Dijon FR

The jet lag is starting to wear off a bit and we were both up and moving around a little earlier. We were undecided about the day as it is supposed to rain this afternoon, and it was spitting a little this morning to give us a taste.

We did want to visit a winery and after much research Ton decided on Bernard Rion Sarl in the village of Vosnee Romanee. It was a great choice. We were met by the owners wife as we pulled up in front. She assigned us to Bastien who gave us a personal tour of the winery and poured about 8 or 9 wines for us to taste. During the pouring the wife came down and offered us some truffles and bread to go with the tasting from their kitchen. A little later the owner Bernard came in and said hello, and offered us some tips on where to find good beer in the area. We decided to buy only two bottles as we do not have a lot of room. Ron was very tempted by the Grand Cru but at 90 Euro a bottle it seemed a little extravagant for anything we could whip up in the RV. We instead settled for a couple of lessor wines that were still very good, and one we will save for a special night before we leave.

Ron pretending he is a tasting room worker in France.

As we are learning the system here we needed some more supplies so we popped in to another grocery store for some more stuff. After tasting some great wine, Ton was fascinated with the wine selection in the grocery and decided to buy a 1.99 Euro bottle to compare with what we had just tasted. We are drinking it as we write this and it is quite enjoyable, though not up to the standard of Bernard Rion Sarl.

Bird along the Canal De Bourgogne. Not a species we are familiar with.

When we arrived at Dijon the weather was not very threatening so we decided to head into town. It was about a mile and half walk mostly along the river to the old part of town. Tomorrow we are going to explore the town seriously, but today we visited the Musee Del Bel Artes in the old Duke of Bourgogne’s palace. It was a very impressive museum with great medieval art and armaments. The palace itself is massive and reflects the power the Duchy of Bourgogne had during the early Renaissance period. It was under construction so there will be more to see in the future.

The square outside the Duke of Bourgogne’s palace.

We decided to head back a little early as the sky was starting to threaten rain. We made it back just in time before a really large thunderstorm moved thru the area complete with lightning and a real gully washer of rain that would have competed with any thunderstorm in the mid-west.

April 8, 2018 Beaune FR

We are still fighting a bit of jet lag so we had another slow start to the day. We finally hit the road about 1030 for the 120 km trip to Beaune. We told the GPS to avoid tolls so we found ourselves driving thru some really beautiful country on roads that ranged from two good lanes with passing zones every few miles to 11/2 lane roads thru small villages. We probably only averaged about 40mph but it was worth it for the view.

This stretch of road is typical with fields and small villages. This stretch was not particularly narrow.

We arrived in Beaune around lunch time with the intent of checking out the free aire, but we missed the sign going thru town despite the really light traffic. We saw the sign for the municipal campground and decided to go ahead and pay up for the night.

After a nice lunch prepared by Ton we headed into Beaune. It is a well preserved medieval city. Our primary stop for the day was going to be the Hospices De Beaune. On the walk there, and as we were entering the downtown “tourist” core suddenly there were sirens converging on the area in mass. Unfortunately in these times we were worried that something really bad was happening. As it turned out Beaune is hosting a “Police Film Festival” this weekend, and what we heard were a bunch of guys whose hobby is to fix up cars and dress like foreign police. So when we got down town we were treated to the site of a bunch of American Police cars including two NYPD, one California Highway Patrol and one LAPD cruiser. There was also a 1950’s Cadillac painted as an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Car. While the theme was definitely American there were a couple of antique French Police Cars, and a group of guys dressed up like Italian Carabiniere (national police) complete with a Maserati.

One of several “American” Police cars we came across in Beaune.

The Hospice De Beaune was built in 1443 and was active as a Hospital until 1972. The thought that went into it is quite impressive for its time and allowed it to function for over 500 years. But this being France it was partially endowed by the production of wine on site, and the wine from the Hospice is still very sought after.

The roof of the Hospice de Beaune is done in a traditional Burgundian style with colored tiles.

April 7, 2018 Vincelles FR

The original plan for today was to visit Auxerre which is an interesting looking medieval town. We are both fighting jet lag so after some conversation at 130 am we both finally fell asleep until after 9am. So the day got off to a late start. The first stop was another grocery store to pick up the things we missed yesterday.

After that we headed into Auxerre to find a place to park. The first choice was going to be the Aire but it was closed. We then decided to bite the bullet and go to the municipal campground, when we arrived the office was staffed, but it turns out it was also closed. They recommended a place in Vincelles and after some wandering around admiring the countryside we ended up in a nice campground, the receptionist informed me that we were the first Americans he had ever checked in, at first he could not find the US in the database in his computer and asked if we minded being listed as British, but a few seconds later he proudly informed us that he had found the US and we would be listed properly in their database.

After a quick lunch we headed to the Bailley Lapierre Caves. The caves were originally an under ground stone quarry to supply building in Paris and operated from the middle ages till the 1920’s. It was converted to a wine production facility in 1972. The scale is impressive as we drove the RV (Ton is calling it Frenchy) into the cave for parking. The entire facility is underground in the caves leftover from the quarry. The tour was pretty interesting though we both regretted our lack of French. We tasted some brut at the end and while we are generally not big fans of sparkling wine we enjoyed this one.

In addition to the wine there is some nice art work along the way.

We finished the day with a nice walk along the canal and River Yonne. The mustard is in full flower and the yellow fields lined the river. It was quite nice.

Mustard field with old church whose bells we have been listening to all day.

April 6, 2018 St. Julien de Sault FR

Today was going to be one of the most stressful travel days for us as we had to make our way from Charles de Gaulle airport to Paris and then on by train to a town called Sens where we would be picked up to go to the depot to pick up our RV.

After much consulting of web sites Ron decided the best way to accomplish the first leg of the trip CDG (Airport code) to Gare de Lyon station was by metro. It looked pretty straight forward The B train from CDG to a stop in Paris and then transfer to the A train for one stop to Gare de Lyon. Everything was going swimmingly until it came to the transfer. The train was packed when it was time to get off and of course we had not just ourselves to get off but two very large bags. We were definitely two salmon swimming up stream and it did not look like we were going to make it off the train, when suddenly two very large, young French gentlemen decided to take our side. Whatever they shouted at the people around us and coming onto the train worked wonders and suddenly a clear lane to the door opened up and we popped out on to the platform. We did not have a chance to thank them as the rush to board the train restarted as soon as we were off, but they have some good karma coming.

The next stop was Gare de Lyon station where our first linguistic adventure began. We had to get from the metro to the main train station and purchase tickets for the train. We saw an information kiosk so I decided to ask how to get to the station and purchase a ticket to Sens. Quickly I was presented with two tickets and asked for 14 Euro. This didn’t seem right as I had read it would cost us 40 Euro to get to Sens but paid anyway. I asked how to get to the platform and was given a map of Paris with a stop circled. After some further discussion and the intervention of someone in line it became clear that the tickets were not what I needed, we needed to move on to another part of the station and our money was refunded. When we found ourselves in the right place Ron decided to not take a chance on any further linguistic issues and bought the tickets from a machine.

We arrived in Sens during lunch and decided on another kebab place. We know we are in France but we both really like kebab, and it is the cheapest food being offered. We were gathered up by Alice from the RV company along with a British group. We were smoothly processed by Alice and her husband Mario who are Portuguese and world travelers themselves.

Our first exposure to a small village in France.

After our first shopping in France at a very large and new Auchan (grocery chain)it was getting late so we headed over to the campground Ron had picked out. It was close and we thought we would indulge in electricity for the first night. When we got there though we were met by a closed gate and the owner who explained to us they were closed though we did not quite understand the why. So instead we ended up in the town aire which is free and looks pleasant.

Also, wanted to say Happy Birthday to Ton.

April 4-5, 2018 Paris FR

Our travel day to France was nicely unremarkable. The airline of choice was Alaska and American using points Ron accumulated from work. We made the decision to spend the first day near the airport in Paris to recover from the 16 hours of flying. The immigration and customs process was the easiest we have ever had entering a country, there was no paperwork to fill out on the plane. When we landed there was only two people ahead of us in immigration, and after we collected our bags we found ourselves in the main terminal without so much as an encounter with a customs agent.

After landing we made it over to the airport Quality Inn where our king bed was really two singles pushed together, we settled in for naps. Later we had a delicious kebab dinner in the little village near our hotel. This is one of my favorite travel stories as there is nothing to talk about.

February 14, Coos Bay OR

The final day of “Good Brew Hunting” had us dealing with some disappointment. The first two breweries we had planned to visit were not going to open until 4 pm which was too late if we were going to get home at a reasonable hour.

We did visit 7 Devils Brewing in Coos Bay. We enjoyed their IPA a great deal. This is another first class facility. The owner is an artist and has done a class job of decorating the place.

Ton liked the painting of Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy.

We had planned to make Yachats brewing the last stop for the day. The beautiful weather we had been having had finally broken and we had more typical Oregon Coast weather, a mixture of sun and rain. The drive from Florence to Yachats is really spectacular and we enjoyed the views. When we got to Yachats we found the brewery closed despite their website saying they were open, there was a note on the door reflecting limited winter hours that was not on their website.

At this point we punched home into the navigator. As we were driving thru Newport we came to a seafood place we had always talked about stopping at, so we did. We split a Captains Platter of fish, shrimp, scallops, and oysters. After our late lunch we headed to the house.

The “Good Brew Hunting” trip was now over with 11 breweries visited in three states. Ron’s favorite brewery was Arch Rock and his favorite beer was the lager from Arch Rock. Ton’s favorite brewery was Anderson Valley with Arch Rock a close second, and her favorite beer was also from Anderson Valley their Brother Davids Triple.

A rainbow as we were pulling into the neighborhood.

The “Good Brew Hunting” tour was a total of 3818 miles over 20 days and Scout averaged 13.26 mpg. One thing we have noticed that with the heavier tires we put on in Alaska we are averaging almost 1 mpg less, but I think it is worth it for the extra weight capacity.

February 13, 2018 Bandon OR

Our last day in California on this trip was magnificent from a weather point of view. The skies were blue and it was relatively warm at about 60 degrees. The views going up the coast were spectacular.

The coast line of Northern California and Oregon are wild and spectacular.

Todays drive though was not about views but about brews. Let me say that on these beer tasting days we are very careful to only have a small tasting of tray of 4 or 5 shot sized glasses. I do not want anyone to think we are overindulging. Todays first stop was at Arch Rock Brewing in Gold Beach. This was by far the smallest brewery we visited. The tasting room was an alcove inside the door of the warehouse. In addition to tasting the beer we were able to observe a business meeting between the owner/brewer and some suppliers. The beer was truly terrific, particularly their porter and lager.

We continued north to Bandon which is one of the cutest towns on the coast. A brewery had opened there in the last year. The facility is really nice and the beer was good. They were a little optimistic and had the garage door open to the outside seating. But with a light jacket it was fun to pretend like it was summer.

Ron was still fighting the effects of the flu so we decided to stay in Bandon for the night. Our campsite is at Bullards Beach State Park near the ocean in Bandon.

February 12, 2018 Blue Lake CA

Good Brew Hunting continued today with two stops as we continue our very slow pub crawl north. After a slow start in the morning we headed towards Boonville California to a brewery that we had targeted called Anderson Valley Brewery. To get there we covered about 25 miles of twisty mountain roads until we dropped into the valley. The beer was delicious, and we debated calling it a day there, but decided to push on north.

Anderson Valley Brewing, one of our favorites.

After another three hours we ended up at the Mad River brewery in Blue Lake. The beer was good but not quite up to the standard of Anderson Valley. However, they were having a sale on cans so we picked up a case of a nice lager for the next trip in Scout.

The coastal mountains of Northern California are really rugged.

Tonight we are urban camping in a casino parking lot near the brewery in Blue Lake.

February 11, 2018 Petaluma CA

Ton has dubbed the rest of our trip north good beer hunting. The plan is to move north roughly following US101 through Northern California and Oregon searching for breweries.

With Ron still a little under the weather the plan was to take it easy and only visit one brewery today. We chose Russian River brewery in Santa Rosa. It is famous for two IPA’s Pliney the Elder and Pliney the Younger. They have a national reputation and even though we have tried them both we thought we would go by the brewery to try one on site. When we got there, the line to get in to the brewery had about 300 people in it. It turns out it was the release day for this years Pliney the Younger and also the San Francisco beer festival. When someone from the brewery came by and informed us that the wait to get in would be five hours we decided to go somewhere else.

The Russian River Brewing home of a very sought after beer called Pliney the Elder.

The second place was about five miles away called Bear Republic Brewery. We had a taster tray of 9 beers ranging from a pilsner to a stout. There were several good beers though we thought the lighter beers were better than the darker beers.

Bear Republic Brewing, no four wait, and good beer.

Ron is still a little worn out from the flu, so we headed over to a nice campground in dairy country near Petaluma that came with over 180 channels on their cable. While Ron took a nap Ton was able to watch her favorite hockey team on the TV.

Some happy California cows just across the fence from the campground.

February 10, 2018 Baker CA

Ron is under the weather so today was about getting as far north as Ron could take and then to rest. We did make one stop at a landmark bakery in the town of Baker California. Eric Schaatz bakery is famous for it’s Sheepherder bread, which is supposed to be based on bread brought over in the 1800’s by German shepherds to the area. We split a sandwich and brought a couple of loaves of bread.

We passed over several 7000 and 8000 foot passes on the way to Reno with absolutely no snow. California is really having a bad drought this year.

Sierra Nevada Mountains with almost no snow in February.

February 9, 2018 Camp Pendleton CA

Today was a travel day. We got up early and tried to clean some of the sand from Scout. Parking directly on the beach is really great, but it comes with a ton of sand which managed to get everywhere. Ton did a great job chasing most of it out, but will probably take another shot at it this afternoon.

The downside of being on the beach is sand everywhere inside. Not much of a downside.

We were up early and had another visit from the local Marines. This time a company of Marines were using the beach in front of us for physical training. All of the women in the campground were fascinated to watch the women Marines in the unit doing the training alongside their male counterparts, and I think the mother in all of them came out a little bit. I know the women Marines would not want to be treated any other way.

Physical Training on the beach, just like their recruiter promised.

We reluctantly departed our ocean front property, and headed out into southern California traffic. Ron was a bit under the weather so we were focused on getting down the road.

One of the weird things about driving around in the Mojave is that fairly frequently you come across these large airports with hundreds of mothballed airplanes parked there. This one was near Adelanto.