France April 2024, Germany, Luxembourgh and UK
22nd April
We awoke to another cold morning and it took a while to warm the van up with our 1 Kw fan heater, (Diesel heater still not working)
We were going to head towards the Luxembourg/German border today and visit the Hackenberg Maginot line fortress which was only 30 minutes away!
This fortress was number 19 in a line of fortresses called the Maginot line and was built to stop the Nazis attacking France on the border from Switzerland to Belgium. More info here.
We arrived at the bunker and parked and went to get the tickets and queue to get in. We were segregated into groups and we were in the English speaking group and had an English speaking French guide who was on her first day as a guide!
The guide spoke English but not very well and it was difficult to understand some of what she was saying but, the tour was amazing and we were taken deep into the bunker where the Allies stock piled amunition and we saw the massive guns which were in place to protect the bunker from attack.
After an extensive tour of the bunker we were now back in the fresh air and we were soon on the road and crossing the border into Germany. We drove along the German side of the Moselle River which is the border between Germany and Luxembourg.
We stopped at Lidl to fill the cupboards up then off to an Aire at the sports centre in Perl, ///dregs.deter.cluttered downloading a new app on Andys phone so that we could pay the €5 for 24 hours parking and then we put €2 in the machine for 16 hours of electricity! Heating was soon on and we settled down for the evening of planning where to explore tomorrow.
23rd April
Wow, we laid in until 09:30, what a lovely, peaceful night! We left the heating on all night as it was on the electricity which we had already paid for.
Today we are going to explore Schengen in Luxembourg and pop into the museum just across the Moselle river.
///bowhead.awaited.expand
Andy got the bikes ready to go and we set off towards the border. On the altemoselbrucke (Old Moselle bridge) which crosses the Moselle we stood at the border line and shot the usual touristy videos of us standing on the border and then carried on across the bridge into Schengen and walked around the displays of the flags and pillars and the hands statue before popping into the museum and the café for a beer and cheesecake.
There were two pieces of the original Berlin wall on the riverbank. Andy walked along the riverbank to the border of Luxembourg and France and videoed the Buoy in the river which depicts the corner where the three countries, France, Luxembourg and Germany meet.
We had a walk through the vineyards following the map that the young lady in the tourist office had given us, but the vineyard shops were shut for refurbishments! DOH! Oh well, back to the bikes and the van to relax for the evening and watch the sunset.
Sue’s bike was playing up on the way back to the van so Andy stripped out the electrics and found water inside the casing where the loom connected to the controller, so he dried it all out, disconnected all of the connectors one by one and dried them out, spraying them with WD40 electrical cleaner and plugging the cable entry points with Sikaflex before re-assembling and testing. It worked; fingers crossed it keeps working. We must try to keep the bikes dry from now on!
24th April
The only noise overnight here is the aircon or heating for the swimming pool nearby. Apart from that it was a quiet place to sleep.
Andy got up and as the electricity had run out yesterday evening, he boiled the kettle using the Inverter to power the induction hob and monitored the battery which never got to below 12.7 volts on the Sargent display (Which isn't a true reading, The Victron controller showed the battery at 13.2 volts!)
Once Sue was up we got the van ready to go and emptied the waste etc and headed for the Aviation museum of Mondorf les Bains where there was a statue/bust of Uri Gagarin.
Unfortunately we could get near it to park as there were multiple road closures in the town and after half an hour of frustration we gave up and drove back through Schengen and the over the border to France and headed north.
We stopped at a super Marché for a lunchbreak and then carried on to our park up for tonight at Damvillers, another free Aire set in amongst four fishing lakes with no facilities but beautiful scenery. ///closest.adopted.adventurous
We stuck the ramps under the front wheels to level the van up and got the chairs out to sit in the sun and have a cuppa. The sun soon disappeared behind the clouds and the wind got cold, so we went for a walk around the lakes and discovered picnic and bar b q areas.
25th April
Bikes out this morning and we cycled into town to check out the monument that we spotted as we drove into town yesterday.
We discovered a large site dedicated to a famous artist from this area, Jules Bastien-Lepage (Follow the link to read about Jules) so we parked the bikes and walked around the monument marvelling at the artwork.
Back to the van we got a cuppa each and relaxed for a while. A chap turned up later and asked if we could move the van as he wanted to tidy the area and needed to move some piles of wood cuttings. We moved the van a few metres away so that he could get on with his job.
26th April
This morning, we were heading towards Montmedy and the Citadelwhich was only 25 miles north of us. We had one more week before our ferry left Calais for Dover and our trip would be all but over.
We left the free Aire at Damvillers and drove through the countryside and villages to Montmedy and past the campsite (which was closed until May) and the service point, (where the water was turned off) and continued up the hill towards the magnificent looking Citadel walls and pulled into the car park, which was the Aire where we would stay for tonight. ///enables.soothe.reshoot
We parked next to the building alongside the car park and walked over the draw bridge and through the gates of the Citadel. It was fantastic to walk through the gates, which had a traffic light system working to control the cars entering and exiting the Citadel that had so much history attached to it. We didn't expect to see cars here!
We walked around the main square and realised that it was inhabited. There were cars and motorbikes parked outside the dwellings. We didn’t expect to see people living here either!
There were also three cafes and restaurants which were not going to open until lunchtime, so we carried on with our walk and saw that some of the buildings were in need of major repairs and some others were for sale! What a unique place to live! There was an office near to the main gates and we bought two tickets for the museum and ramparts, €5 each.
The museum had old photos of the Citadel and drawings of the surrounding areas and a room dedicated to the artist whose monument we had visited at Damvillers, Jules Bastien-Lepage. Also there was a really good collection of old armoury including a 22Kg 2 metre rifle which used to fire a 25mm ball shot. There was a breast plate which had a large hole in it, probably caused by a ball shot from a gun like this one.
Then we headed up a spiral staircase and out onto the ramparts where the views where fantastic and we walked all around the Citadel which gave us views over the town of Damvillers.
The views also included the fields where Louis XIV led a siege against the Citadel during his attack in 1657 and the prison at the top of the hill and our Mac shack parked at the Gite car park.
We came back down to earth and walked through the square to the bar/restaurant where we had Ham and chips and a beer to wash it down.
It was time to get back to check the van and then head off for a walk to explore the town. The hills were steep, and the old legs were soon crying out in pain, but it was a nice walk and good exercise. Coming back up the hill was a struggle too and by the time we arrived back at the van we felt like we had been in the gym for a couple of hours.
During the evening a couple of vans turned up and one had the dreaded noisy sliding door but once they had settled for the evening it was quiet.
27th April
Our first job today was to drive down the hill and empty our black and grey waste at the service point and then we could continue to our next stop.
Today we are going to cross the border into Belgium and the Wallonia area and stay at a Camping Car Aire at Herbeumont. ///revisit.pulsates.hearing.
We would have EHU, clean water and all services included in the price of €12 per night.
As we crossed the border into Belgium we drove past the old customs building which looked like a public toilet, just a small brick building on a sharp bend in the road!
We continued into Herbeumont and found the Aire and pulled over the service point to fill with clean water. We chose a pitch opposite the service point and connected the EHU (which was reversed polarity but we decided to put up with it and Andy didn’t rewire the cable this time!
We got on the bikes and hoped that they would be working properly as we had had some problems with them over the last week or so. We explored the cycle tracks which went into the woods and then over the viaduct de conques. From there we could see a camp site along the banks of the river Semois where there were lots of old caravans which, apparently you could rent.
We followed the track which lead us back down the hill to a bridge where we had a view of the viaduct that we had just crossed. In the town we found a local shop where we stocked up on beer and wine and then set off again but that is when Andys bike electrics shut down and he had to use his legs, which he found hard work as he was very out of practice. This meant that we had to cut short our exploration and we returned to the van to drown our sorrows 😊.
We decided that Andy had done everything that he possibly could to fix the bikes previously and he didn’t feel like taking his apart again so he just put it back on the towbar and put the cover on it and decided to forget it for now.
We put TV on and watched the women’s six nations rugby match between France and England, (which England won) and later enjoyed the luxury of a shower in a warm van heated by electric!
28th April
That was a quiet night! However, because we were parked opposite the service point we got some noise in the morning when vans were emptying and filling and getting ready to get back on the road but Andy managed to ignore the noise by putting his headphones on and listening to some radio four until Sue got up and made coffee!
Later we went for a walk up the hill to the ruins of the Chateaux de Herbeumont which was built in 1258. It was a very windy day and at the top of the Chateaux you had to hold on to your hat, but the views were great and we could see the river Semois and the other campsite on its banks. Back down the hill and we read about the history of the town on the information boards and learned about the how the homes where burned to the ground and the villagers made homeless during the first world war.
As we passed the church the bells rang for 12:30, Andy video’d part of the chimes as they were quite unique and we had not heard a chime like this before.
One more turn around the town and then back to the van for a cuppa out on the ‘patio’. As Spurs were playing Arsenal this afternoon Andy booked the TV for a couple of hours before Sue got into Youtube, and he got the beer out and settled down with his fingers crossed for a rare win against the lifelong rivals! Unfortunately, the match wasn’t available on any of the channels that we had access to so he listened to it on the radio. We lost, but what a game!
29th April
Up and at ‘em today. We wanted to get off site before our ticket ran out at 11:57 or we would be charged more euros so no breakfast today.
We drove over the service area and emptied our waste and then set off for our next stop. We had researched an Aire in Solre le Chateaux ///freights.grids.haunting which was about 128 Km away and the route took us into France and across the France/Belgium borders four times and through some villages with lots of different styles of architecture.
We pulled in and parked in a level gravel pitch which was the widest pitch that we had ever been on, possibly meant for two vans? The Aire was completely free to stay and if we needed water it was on tokens (Jetons) which we already had from a previous Aire so at 6pm we used one €2 Jeton and had four hours of electricity so that we could cook and keep warm without using our quickly dwindling gas supply.
We went for a walk into town to see the wonky spire on the church of Saint Pierre and Saint Paul just off the town square and walked back along the stream to the Aire to sit in the last hour of sunshine before retiring to the van for dinner and Netflix.
30th April
The last day of the month and last night was really quiet.
We laid -in ‘till gone 9am and spent the whole day relaxing in the fresh air and sunshine. Nothing to report.
1st May
What a lovely sunny morning. We got the chairs out for an hour and then we decided to see what was going on in town as lots of cars had arrived and were parking in the car park opposite!
Walking into town from the Aire we were amazed at the difference since yesterday when the streets were deserted.
Today there were stalls out all along the road into the main square and when we got to the church with the wonky spire the square was packed with food stalls, a roundabout for kids, a guy playing French music on his squeeze box and a multitude of boot sale stalls.
We sat outside a bar and had a couple of beers and watched the world go by for an hour before moving on to a stall which sold sausage rolls and burgers where we chose the sausage option.
From there we found a micro-brewery and had a couple of beers there and came away with two souvenir plastic glasses for the van!
Finally we got back to the van and the chairs came out of storage again as we had decided to stay for another night. The two reasons for this were…
1/ The traffic in and around town due to the May Day celebrations would make it difficult to get to our next destination as there would be road closures all over the area.
2/ We were over the legal driving limit!
So, out came more beers and the sun cream and Andy put his Spotify playlist on and we chilled through the sunny afternoon.
2nd May
Time to move on today to get closer to Calais ready for our ferry tomorrow so we drove over the service area and emptied our tanks and took on some clean water for the journey and set off for a car park in Esquerdes, between Helfaut and Lumbres.
///bouquet.pond.flan
It was one of our longest journeys in one day so we stopped at a lorry rest area for lunch and then continued to the car park at E. Lerclerc car park in Lumbres where we had stayed for our first night in France.
We bought some food etc. in the supermarche, E.Leclerc, for the ferry crossing and some booze for tonight and jumped back in the van.
We were soon pulling into the car park at Esquerdes. It was very spacious, and we were the only van here.
We settled down for the evening and after a couple of hours of Youtube we sloped off to bed.
A couple of vans turned up in the early hours and parked next to us which woke us up, with all the space here you would have thought that they would park a bit further away from us but safety in numbers we supposed?
3rd May
It was our last day in France today and we haven’t planned to do anything exciting, just straight to the ferry terminal and back to Blighty but we thought that we would have a walk around the trail in the woods to get our appetite up for breakfast before we set off.
After breakfast we set off towards Calais and the ferry terminal.
We pulled into the terminal and through passport control and joined the queue to board the ferry to Dover.
We sat in the lounge and contemplated our journey over the last two months and both agreed that France is easier to travel and park in a motorhome than the UK and so we will plan our next Europe trip as soon as we get back to base!
Watch this space!
But for now, Au revoir from Sue & Andy The Travelling Mcwillies.
