@EdH. From earlier today:
As mentioned in an earlier post we have recently returned home from a nearly three week trip down to the South of France. In simple terms, we got fed up hiding from Covid for the last two years and decided that we needed to head south for some sunshine and beach time.
As I said before, when it came to Covid, the French seemed to take it a bit more seriously than a lot of people do here. We had our NHS ‘Covid Certificates’ on the phones and our double vaxxed status was checked by French border officers at the tunnel. I reckon that there was only about 25 - 30 cars on the train (a 1020 departure). Mask wearing was enforced everywhere when indoors unless eating or drinking and with the exception of two restaurant that we went to in the south, the QR codes were scanned either before sitting down or soon after when outside or before going indoors. Indeed, on the way home, we stayed a few nights in Montreuil Sur Mer and were eating in the covered pavement area outside a restaurant (Le Caveau – very good) when 4 dutch people turned up - three of them had their phones scanned with no problem but the fourth couldn’t find the QR code on his phone and the restaurant wouldn’t let him sit until he could show it (which he did after much screen swiping, swearing and searching!). As an aside, Montreuil is highly recommended as is the campsite situated just below the town walls (and a short stroll to the main town square).
We also noticed that people seemed to give you a bit more space when out and about and when we camped in La Grande Motte (The Camargue) for 6 days, there was a free Covid testing station on the beach. I’ve no way of knowing how well used it was (other than seeing a fair few mostly younger people queuing!) nor the vaccine status of those on the large and uncrowded beach (inc. at the weekend).
For our last two nights, we stayed at Chateau de Gandspatte which is a convenient 30 minutes from the tunnel. This was the only pre-booked site that we used and I booked it purely because it’s popular with Brits and the reception staff usually speak good English - I didn’t want my command of French to confuse things when it came to them booking us our return Covid Tests in the local pharmacy (in Watten). Julien (a really nice and helpful guy who spoke better English than me!) made a quick call for us when the pharmacy opened at 1000hrs and we were in and out with negative Lateral Flow Test about 40 minutes later. The pharmacist sent us a text before we left with a link to the 'official' negative test certificate pdf download and also gave us a hard copy.
With the exception of La Grand Motte, every Campsite that we stayed in was reasonably quiet and there were hardly any Brits anywhere (at least that we saw). Indeed, at the first site that we camped at (Camping au Bord de l'Aisne in Guignicourt), we got chatting to a nice old chap who was walking his dog along the river bank and who moved there from Northampton 25 years ago. His opening line when he heard us talk was ‘you’re brave’ and he went on to explain that we were the first Brit tourists that he had seen this year . As mentioned above, Gandspatte was the only site that we booked in advance and the rest we selected from the Camping Card book en route (thanks again to @Nigel W). That said, I think we just got lucky at La Grande Motte (the campsite was called La Petite Motte) as we got a pitch when we arrived but the next day they were turning people away.
As I said in my previous post, we had a great time despite a few nightmares:
The roof mounted solar panel flew off on the motorway near Lyon when we were doing a very French legal 70 MPH - I can only pray that it didn’t cause any havoc behind us but there were very few cars on the road. I have already contacted the firm that installed it by email and had a positive initial response which expressed their regrets and willingness to sort it out and I’ve no reason to doubt them at the moment – they’re a local firm with a very good reputation. That said, if I have any trouble with them I would have no problem with naming and shaming.
The wind deflector in front of the West Dubs pop top roof started debonding. The first we know of it was a thump on the roof and when I pulled over found that about 30 cm had come away and was flapping in the wind so I pulled the rest off. It’s already been fixed FOC by West Dubs who fitted it themselves 2 years ago. When I called them, they immediately offered to put one in the post but when I asked were also very happy to do the job themselves if I wanted to make the 70 odd mile round trip to their workshop which I did (luckily, I had filled up just as we got home to do the overall consumption calculations and before the fuel started to run out at my local garage!).
The end piece of the Reimo Multi Rail came loose (the part where the Kador enters). I fixed that myself while I was at West Dubs getting the wind deflector replaced – they let me borrow a tube of Sikaflex and strip of tape to hold it down while it the stuff went off.
I could bore you all about the various campsites / restaurants that we used and places visited but decided that I have already gone on for long enough. That said, if anybody does want more information either say so here or PM me and I’ll be happy to help.
