Essex - Pyrennes.........in a motorhome!

So, continuing my Motorhome Adventures thread, I thought this fairly epic trip was worthy of a thread of its own. I have, however, linked it to the "main" thread for some form of tidiness.

We set off in "Harry the Hymer" on Friday 17th June for our main summer holiday to France. We're lucky enough to have family living in the South of France, with whom we've stayed before and done this trip last year in the 1-series. But this was a little different. The plan was to wend our way down south over 4-5 days; using Harry as our transport and accomodation to see various nice bits of France on the way down - primarily the beach for my 3.5yr old daughter before spending a week with my Uncle & Aunt at their place between Tarbes & Pau in the foothills of the Pyrennes.

Well, that was the plan anyway!! As anyone who has had and who travels with young children will know, plans should remain flexible and fungible! But in any event, the trip was a good one and we have learnt an awful lot about ourselves, our daughter, Harry and travelling in future.

The great thing about having moved house and now having Harry at the bottom of the garden is that he's almost ready to go at any given moment. But given the length and mileage involved in this trip, we did need a bit more preparatory work. He was washed & polished the week prior, fuelled, oil topped up (not actually needed since he'd only been serviced in April), screenwash and then stuck on a weighbridge to ensure we had a certificate in case we were pulled over.

After filling with clothing, sufficient food for 2-3 days, gin, beer and apple juice (the latter for my daughter!), we set off around 2pm on the Friday afternoon; bound for Canterbury. Here he is - ready to go......



Starting mileage - 38,265

Canterbury is one of the first UK cities to have a specific motorhome "Aire" - effectively a stopover spot for the night specifically for motorhomes, where one can park up, sleep in the van and service it (dump grey water, chemical toilet and top up with fresh water). Given our Ferry was booked for 8am Saturday morning and our house is 2hrs from Dover, we figured this would be a good stopover. What we didn't bank on was just how quickly we would get to Canterbury! After parking up shortly before 4pm, we set the satnav for Dover for the next morning and when we realised just how close we were, we called P&O and changed our booking for 6pm sailing and got straight back on the A2 for the 20mins to the Port.



We arrived in Calais around 8:30pm local time and headed for a lovely Little village we know - Montreuil. First time staying there in the motorhome (and probably last too), since this Aire de Camping Car was basically just a car park with a Service Point in the corner. It suited us given it was nearly 10pm by the time we got there so no need for little'un to run around etc. but a fairly uninspiring first overnight of the holiday and particularly poor when being woken up the following morning at 6am by a low loader unloading a JCB next to us!!!



So, being awake at 6am at least meant getting the kettle on early, Cafetiere made, breakfast eaten and on the road for 8:30am. Long drive ahead to Tours but we were fairly pleased that we had at least done the first hour into France the previous night, so we actually had plenty of time in hand for the trip. Tours is the classic "half-way" point when travelling through France to Spain or the Pyrennes and we had stopped there last year when travelling in the car. What we weren't prepared for this time, however, was just how slow it felt travelling in the van. It took ages to "dial into" doing "just" 60mph (technically we were limited to 90kmh (56mph) on the basis of our 4.6t GVW but I added a few mph just to make it a round 1mile per minute. But it I think that first leg was where it started to dawn that we had made the wrong decision bringing this particular vehicle. A theme which would stay with us for the rest of the holiday.

On top of that, our daughter had already started to become a little unsettled and homesick, in spite of being a good traveller and happy to be in Harry, which sounds a bit odd, but she was very happy being in her "second home" but just wanted to be closer to a place of familiarity. We kept bribing her with the fact we'd be at the beach the following day - our plan had always been to get to Tours, overnight and then head towards Bordeaux and the coast for a few days. This helped persuade her the travelling wasn't for nothing, but she remained unsettled throughout the journey.

We eventually pulled into an Aire around 5pm, having covered a good 300miles during the day. The Aire was great - it mimicked a campsite. It was basically a plot of land about 10mins from the A28 motorway where a chap had a barn in which he was welding and woodworking and had set up some basic motorhome Services and charged EUR 4 for the privilege of staying there on his land (which had about 2 Acres of Meadow where you pitched up. If you wanted electricity, dump waste & fill with water, it was EUR 5 on top. And the Bonus of the place was that if you put in an order with him in the evening, he would come in the next morning with fresh Baguettes or Croissants from the local Boulongerie in the morning! We spent EUR 14 for the night - about 11quid, including breakfast. To put it in perspective - a campsite in the UK with all those facilites and without breakfast is about 23quid per night (with a Club Card Discount).



The little'un having had a chance to run around and stretch her legs was just what we all needed. So we set off after breakfast for the beach. Still a good 250miles away, but at least we knew we had something to bribe her with. After a couple of hours on the road, we stopped for lunch just south of Bordeaux. This is where it all "went wrong". Stupidly, this was where we had stopped last year and was our last stop before getting to my Uncle's. I happened to mention this to the wife over lunch and for some stupid reason, we decided to put it to our daughter - the beach, or her Godparents house? Unbelievably, after all the talk of the beach and burying Daddy and making sandcastles - she chose her Godparents house! This meant that instead of a 90min drive to the beach, we (I) had a 3.5hr drive!

So there it was - decided. No touring for us.

I think secretly, deep down, the wife & I realised that it had been too much for our daughter too and that some familiarity of surroundings would be good for her. This was all very well, but anyone who has driven the A65 from Bordeaux to Pau will know - this is THE most boring road in the world. After 10miles, we had not seen another car (on either side!) and it took another 15miles before we saw one. And the road is featureless. Nothing around it - NOTHING!

But this is perhaps a good time to talk about Harry, since I haven't mentioned it before. Harry is the consumate companion on such a road trip. Yes, I was limited to 90kph. In fact, by the time I was on the 2nd-3rd day I decided to up our cruising speed to an indicated 110kph (what 3.5t are permitted to do). This was a true 65mph which seemed far more comfortable for everyone. You can see why so many courier firms use Sprinters - cruising huge distances can be done in comfort and there is just this sense that mechnical elements are working in harmony and that they "love" doing what they're doing. Just under 3k rpm indicated is still reasonably quiet in the cabin - cruise control on and Harry was peerless. Taking on hills with ease - the beautifully smooth surfaces of the Peage meaning the ride was cossetting and quiet. In some ways, having a van packed quite full also helps to keep the rattling to a minimum too, so it was actually a very comfortable experience. Only grating when seeing cars whizz past at 130-150kph and remembering back to doing the same myself the previous year and the mental maths working out how much time & distance I was loosing compared to being in the van.

Anyway, after an incredibly long drive of 356miles, we eventually pulled up at my Uncle's place. All of us happy to be there - a familiar setting, cold beer on ice, 36degs C and nothing to do and nowhere to drive. Little'un was happy to have her "own" bed and bedroom there and some toys we left from our last visit - aswell as a pool to swim in. We stayed there from the Sunday until Thursday before heading off for a night away in the mountains.




As it turns out - our trip to the mountains would take place on a momentus day and one never to be forgotten. It not only changed our lives (my job now looks increasingly under threat) but changed our holiday for the worse too. On Referendum Day, we headed to Col du Tourmalet. I'm big into my cycling and have watched the Tour de France riders climb the summit more times than I care to remember and it's such a lovely place having been there last year. After that visit we both had the dream to spend the night up there and given the French laws about being able to sleep pretty much anywhere, we headed for the top and found ourselves THE PERFECT spot.

Getting there was not easy. 40degs outside air temperature meant that the aircon (which is only really effective in the front anyway) was worse than useless. Windows were opened and a fairly heavy van to be negotiated up the mountain was challenging - for both me and Harry!! Although there was no shortage of power & torque to get us going and keep us going - the relatively low speed, high revs and high temperature meant that we saw the water temperature needle rise to just shy of the redline! I managed to nurse him to the top and gave him a well deserved rest, whilst we went for a well deserved, beer, wine, icecream at the cafe at the summit before going for a walk, bite to eat for dinner and bed.








Bedtime was a treat - watching the cloud envelope the valley and eventually the motorhome, with the only sounds being that of the cattle grazing in the distance with the cow bells jingling. What should have been a wonderful night sleep disturbed by a quick look at the iPhone at 4am and the sickening realisation that the world I have known all my life was about to change.........markedly.

That really rather spoilt the following day, so we headed back after breakfast to my Uncle's for a Marathon viewing of BBC & Sky News and plenty of conference calls with work.

Only thing to do in the meantime was to dump our toilet & grey waste (shower & sink water) and fill with fresh water. This is ridiculously easy in France. The whole country is set up for motorhomes and it doesn't take much time at all to find an "Aire" to "Camping Car Service" - almost all of which are free, aside from fresh water which generally costs around EUR 2 for 100litres. This one below is typical of those you find at Petrol stations or Hypermarkets. Only Thing I found out was to make sure you have a good grip on your hose ;) since the water pressure is pretty high - as I found when the hose popped out of the aperture and span around like a snake; soaking me in the process!






By Monday it was time to leave my Uncle's place and head North. As luck would have it, one of our former next-door neighbours, with whom we have kept in touch, moved to France about 5yrs ago and she invited us to spend the night with her. So we headed the 3hrs North of my Uncle's up towards Villneuve. Her place is up in the hills overlooking the River Lot and was absolutely stunning. So a night spent there before heading towards Le Mans was a welcome change of scene and only being reachable via Route Nationale rather than Peage meant that we actually saw some of "real France" rather than just motorways and service stations.



By this point, our daughter was desperate for home. We were booked to be on the Ferry late Saturday afternoon but it was obvious this was too far away for her, so we made the executive decision to try and get home asap. Realistically this meant Thursday at the earliest, but maybe Friday since we had 850miles to cover between our friend's house and ours.

However, Wednesday we made good progress and managed to get to just south of Le Mans for 4pm and found a lovely Aire in the village of Vaas, just off the AutoRoute. The Aire was in the grounds of the local School - was very pretty and just 5mins walk from the village centre, so once parked up - we walked in to town for a quick beer and to relax after a long day "in the saddle". Given the Aire was also free, I wanted to ensure that we put a bit of money into the local economy since that's the reason why a lot of villages invest in these facilities and it's only fair that if you use them that you give something back IMO.




Having made it this far and having had a really good night sleep, we decided to "go for it" on Thursday and try and get home. Telling our daughter that she could be home by the evening helped keep her focussed and surprisingly, after leaving around 9am, having a stop for lunch just north of Rouen (which incidently is a nightmare to navigate in a motorhome with dense traffic!), we managed to get to Calais for 3pm!!!!!! Some 300miles!

A rather choppy return ferry entertained the little'un who thankfully thought it hilarious that she couldn't stand upright, rather than finding it queasy! And by the time we got off the Ferry, we hit our first traffic jam in 1800miles!

Once the traffic did clear, however, Harry bizarrely seemed to have as much of a desire to get back as we did since I now found myself cruising at a true 70mph (gps) and he was well and truly in his comfort Zone. We motored back up the A2, M25, M11, A11 to home and were back sitting on our own couch by 8pm with a very happy young lady pleased to be back with her soft toy animals and bed.

Harry had ticked over 40,202miles, which translated into 1,937miles over 13 days.

Not bad for a van which did less than 3k miles last year in my ownership!

In terms of breakdown of costs:

Ferry Tickets - 180quid return (inc. Club Lounge Access both ways)
Fuel (432litres, equating to 20mpg) - c. 400quid (fluctuated depending on exchange rate)
Paege Tolls - c. 250quid
Aires (4 nights - 11EUR) - 9quid

Total - c. GBP 839

Happy with that. Ok, so we had "free" accomodation with my Uncle and friend but if we had stayed in the van every night of the whole holiday , the costs would still not have exceeded 50quid for accomodation.

**********

So, what did we learn?

Well, very early on, we realised we had taken the wrong vehicle. That's not to say that he didn't prove to be supremely good at what he did. But we could've easily travelled quicker and cheaper in the X3 (saved on fuel & Paege since we were charged at light HGV rates) and spent the same amount of money overall on a couple of nights in an IBIS or similar.

What the motorhome is great for is picking a location and then touring it locally. I think our next trip to France in the motorhome will be Normandy - a short drive from Calais and then stay in that area - just going from place to place for 3-5nights. Really experiencing villages and towns.

What we learnt is that France is a kind of mecca for motorhomes after being in the UK where everyone thinks you're a gypsy and worried you're going to camp for months at a time somewhere. The facilities are superb and it is an acknowledged quid pro quo that you will likely spend money if you use the facilities. We loved how easy it was.

I alluded to it easlier, but the Referendum result made things different - markedly so. We were challenged in a street market in Pau - told to "F**k Off and Go Home" by several people who overheard us speaking English which then made us feel quite unsafe when we stopped overnight in Vaas and were the only one English motorhome surrounded by French, Dutch and Belgian motorhomes. But that said, it also meant that we tried our best too. Whilst fluent in German, my knowledge of French is basic to say the least, but I always then tried to engage with my fellow motorhomers and order in French in Restaurants but it made us feel quite vulnerable for the last week of the holiday.

That said, I do not want to get into a political debate.

All in all, in spite of the wrong choice of vehicle, in spite of the costs and stupid mileage undertaken, we had an amazing time. Although Harry was probably the wrong vehicle for this trip again, we love him and what we can do in him. We feel more settled than we have done previously and have no thoughts whatsoever about getting rid of him - just using him more cleverly!

Hope you enjoyed reading. Any questions, just ask!

P.S. - there are more photos coming but they're taking a while to upload to Photobucket.

 

Epic read, nice one! Can't believe I'm going to say this but we've been looking at small, retro caravans so that we can just take off in if we feel like it. Something like an Eriba or a T@b. Not cheap though - eek!

Sad to hear about the nonsense in the market though, not nice.

 

Thanks lads. Didn't know if I was going overboard on the write-up but glad you found it a good read. For me it's also quite cathartic - like I said, we learnt quite a lot about ourselves, our daughter, the van and France and it was useful mulling it over to get it down on "paper" and process it all. Mind you, 2k miles of driving gives you a lot of time to think too!

Still aiming to convert a few of you too! ;)

@The CO - we saw a surprising amount of Eriba Puck's and similar whilst we were away. Majority of which towed by Dutch cars but there were a few Brits with them too. Seem a popular choice and good quality given they're made by Hymer Group. I had a nose around one in a showroom near Tarbes when we went to pick up a few bits for the motorhome. Very cute little caravans; surprisingly spacious given their diminutive size, good build quality and perfect for a couple, I'd say. They are quite expensive to buy, but they hold their value well so if you ever wanted to get out of it, you'd hold on to a lot of your investment. I'd give it a go if I were you.

But motorhomes are better!

@K777 - you're right, the tolls do grate a bit but then again, we did have the option of going Route Nationale, which some reckon, in a motorhome at least, is not that much different timingwise, given the relatively low speed limits for big vans. Ours is actually 4.6t and whilst we got away with driving at 110kmh (and hardly saw any Police at all whilst we were travelling), in theory I was limited to 90kmh. In terms of the cost though, providing I don't dwell on it, I consider it just a cost of the holiday and, to be fair, at less than 1k for 3 people for two weeks, I can't really argue with the overall figure.

@isleaiw - I kind of get the Panel Van Conversion thing and I don't at the same time. I know there was a massive trend towards people swapping over to the PVC a few years ago given the concern over license C category (particularly for those knocking on 70+) and also the speed limit thing but I don't really buy into it and it seems the world is changing again now and People are swapping back to the lower profile coachbuilts to get more space back. Advancement in technology has meant that it's possible to build and furnish the coachbuilts to a lot lower weights which means they can be back again on 3.5t chassis. If I were on a 3.5t I'd have saved about 100quid in tolls and about 120quid in derv. Also, I was still tanking along at similar speeds to the 3.5t vans anyway, so to me, that's not really worth the loss of space IMO. Although I will concede that we are different in that we have a young child and therefore space is quite important. For the foreseeable we will be sticking with Harry. Our only reason to Change will be once my daughter gets a bit older and perhaps wants some more privacy, then we may look to something with a different layout where you can perhaps close off a bedroom area or have a larger shower room for changing etc. But that will certainly mean another A-class or coachbuilt and perhaps even longer. We're a long way from downsizing!

@Johnny Grabble - there's some amazing places and it's only when you do a trip like this that you get a real appreciation for how vast the country is. We've got so much to go back and see that I can foresee we'll be spending a lot of time there in the future. Don't rule out doing some of the travel in a motorhome. Companies like "Just Go" do rentals which you can take to France. My former Boss did it last year with his other half for a bit of a laugh, never having used a motorhome and previously having no desire. They came back having loved it and have rented another van again this year to take on another bit of France. It's just so easy over there.

@The Livster - thanks mate. I lost my job in June 2012. Hadn't quite anticipated being back to a similar situation quite so soon. Good news is that if they shut us down here in London then it's been indicated I'll have a job in Frankfurt, but that will mean a bit of a longer commute. I can see Harry being deployed to Frankfurt as my working week accomodation if that happens.