A New Adventure in France

Well we’re finally off. A very early start for the drive to Eurotunnel and through customs checks and passport control with the minimum of fuss. We were asked for our destination in France as we handed over signed declaration forms attesting to our health, but otherwise no challenges or checks. The Eurotunnel site was very quiet as you would expect and we felt very much like pioneers leaving the country.

Our first stop is a campsite ‘Le Moulin Fort’ next to the River Cher, a tributary of the Loire, running roughly parallel to the south of the Loire. More of that later..

Perhaps we should first of all give a little detail about our ‘outfit’ which will be our main home for the next few months. Our camper van is a 2006 VW T5 Caravelle with a ‘pop top’, i.e the roof lifts up on gas struts so that we can stand up inside. It’s a very comfortable van to drive with a large engine, automatic transmission and air conditioning – Joe’s prerequisites when we were choosing a van. We have a bike rack on the back of the van to carry our two bicycles for local exploring and we are towing Joe’s BMW S1000 XR motorbike for longer distance exploring. The trailer is a compact and demountable ex-AA motorbike rescue trailer and runs along very easily behind the van. On the roof we have a very recently acquired roof box to carry bulky items. Joe is also looking on EBay with a view to buying oars so it can double up as a coracle!

Inside the van we have a two ring gas hob for cooking, a fridge and a ‘rock and roll’ double bed. The van has no washing/ sanitiary facilities so we are dependent on campsite facilities, although unsure of COVID facilities we have also equipped ourselves with a Portaloo and basic shower facilities. Let’s hope we don’t have to use them!

To extend our living and sleeping space we bought a drive-away awning, i.e an awning you attach to the van but can detach and leave standing as an independent tent if you need to go off from or the day. We also have a small storage tent to offload everything from the interior of the van and this will double up as our ‘facilities’ tent should the need arise.

So there is quite a lot of setting up to be done on arrival at a site. The first task is to choose your pitch (if you’re given a choice) and, with only about 10 other occupants at the campsite, there was plenty of choice of riverside pitches. The owner told us that in previous years he would have expected about 60 bookings at this time of year.

We had intended to have a practice run at Easter at a campsite in the UK to try out all the new kit and to not look like total novices when we arrived in France. At campsites your neighbours are always interested to see new arrivals and to see how they fare setting up. In the absence of a trial run we had prepared as well as we could for putting up the awning by watching YouTube videos (what else?) and managed pretty well with no disharmony by the time we were fully settled in with a glass of wine and whisky.

Our pitch overlooks the Cher and is very quiet save for the occasional train passing by on the opposite bank and the very vociferous frogs. As the name of the campsite suggests, the location is a former mill next to a lock on the river so there is plenty of boating activity to watch. Our first evening was also enlivened by the passing overhead of a hot air balloon – many take off in this area to enjoy the views of the Loire châteaux and in particular Chenonceau.