Travelhector

I wake up around seven with the moon shining low over the vineyards of St. Emilion.

Soon enough, the sun spreads first rays over town, bathing the surrounding in warm golden light. At this time, the alleys are all empty and peaceful, waiting for another thousands of tourists’ feet to make their way over the old stones.

Standing in the little park that separates the camper parking from the heart of St. Emilion, I find myself at half distance between the Hotel du Palais Cardinal and Hector. In the long run, Hector is much more tempting due to its flexibility, but for today I decide to invest the saved money (free overnight stay, yeah!)  in luxury breakfast. Minutes later I load my plate with mini-Pains-au-Chocolat, fruits, eggs and endless refills of coffee.

Right after breakfast, Hector speeds off straight west, next stop at Carcans Plage. It is a shock to find the campsite entirely full with no pitches left – high season is not over yet. Time to change plans once more: I leave Hector at the regular parking (no overnight stay allowed, though) and spend the afternoon at the beach.

< Finally! >, I think when I dip my feet in the warm sand and let my eyes wander from South to North, seeing nothing but blue water and bright sand.
As for the seasonal crowd on the coastal campsites, I spend the night on an irrelevant camping at Maubuisson. I take a look around and find that it has not much of an athmosphere. I congratulate myself for not spending weeks of holidays in this place. Yet, it unravels a myth that had kept me wondering since long: What do the stars stand for on a 4-stars-camping? Now I know and finally can tell the secret of the stars system:
1. * Existing campsite
2. * Offering places to tourists
3. * Bring your own toilet paper
4. * Extra charge on WiFi

I think of tomorrow’s destination, Camping Les Sablères at Vieux Boucau. Four months ago, it seemed a hillarious idea to reserve a pitch for the end of August, but today I am more than happy that in fact I did reserve a spot for 1 Hector, 2 camper girls and 5 surf lessons!

I have passed by St. Émilion already in 2016 and made it one of my favourite towns in France. Although not big, it has a wonderful athmosphere due to the fact that none of the houses and buildings – not one! – is younger than some hundred years.

My last visit was sort of trying it out just a bit, like sipping the first mouthful of a new wine. This time, I want to stay downtown overnight and see what it is like in the evening. I detect a camper parking (free of charge!! really: free of charge!) right at the edge of the city and instantly skip the original plans for an overnight stay at the Hotel du Palais Cardinal (not knowing yet that I will end up right there for breakfast).

Although most of the camper places are blocked by ignorant regular cars during daytime, I catch a perfect spot and let Hector come to a rest. It is quite comfortable to come back to a place you already know, hence I go straight to the Office de Tourisme and get a ticket for the Monolithe Church within a minute.

The guided tour in the catacombes, caves and the Monolith Church itself takes about an hour, but with the vivid tales of the guide time flies by. I learn about a guy called Emilion who came over from the Bretagne after his good heart got him into trouble. With some years of meditation in a natural cave, he became sort of famous and the founder of the city St. Emilion. Even though he was more into religion and meditation than into wine, this town (if any) proves that both topics can co-exist easily.

Despite groups of American tourists crossing this place off their lists, St. Émilion is a relaxed place. I enter one of the umpteen wineshops and am lucky to have chosen the wine caves of “Clos des Menuts”. The lady at the counter combines the right questions (taste preference? price range?) with precise advice for a mutual win-win-situation: Her, making good business, me, ending up with three wonderful bottles of wine – one for the upcoming beach, two for my basement at home, from now on called “The Wine Cave”.

After storing everything in Hector’s various compartments, it is time for the beneficial use of the evening. I make a start at The Wine Buff: Less formal than other places, yet with a natural cave in the rear part of the bar and a small outdoor terrace. Perhaps it needs an Irishman + his Spanish wife to come up with such a relaxed bar in this beautiful town.

Next stop is one of the restaurants, but this time my expectations of fantastic food, sophisticated sauces and luxury wine are not entirely met by reality. However, I get by pretty well, no severe complaints.

I conclude the evening at the Place de l’Église Monolithe with a glass of wine of Saint Christophe Grand Cru. Ten minutes later, I fall asleep happily in Hector’s bed, parked on the nowadays almost deserted camper parking.

Tomorrow I will head for the coast line, while tonight I might be dreaming of a Wine Christmas.

I read about Sarlat and it must be absolutely beautiful. With the campsite being far from crowded, I start relaxed into the day and get down to the city around noon. Last night I found out about a camping car-parking close to the centre of the town and I want to stay there for the upcoming night. With my bed parked in walking distance, all possiblities are up for sundown promenades, candle light dinner and good-night-drinks in fancy bars.

First thing in the morning after freshing up Hector and his current inhabitant (that would be me), we go downtown and head directly for the camper parking. Queuing up, traffic jam, full parkings and not a free slot in visible sight… Ok then, time for plan B.

Without any idea in mind, I choose the street towards Les Eyzies. There are castles along the way, but none of it has a restaurant or offers anything more than old stones. Thus, I continue my way until I stumble over a sign “Restaurant – ouvert” and there we are. At half distance between Sarlat and Les Eyzies I stumble in “Les Combarelles”, in this case the restaurant rather than the caves, and the upcoming weeks will prove this lunch to be the best meal of the voyage. I receive caresses of the huge restaurant’s dog, dare to drink a glass of wine in the middle of the day and give my orders. The place is relaxed, the food is fantastic and only 90 minutes later I am in perfect mood for new detections.

Les Eyzies happens to be sort of Europe’s cradle of the homo sapiens: not only in the caves of Lascaux nearby, but all over the Périgord they have found traces of prehistoric humans. The friendly doormen at the entrance of the Musée Préhistorique convince me to step in and I learn a bit about long-gone eras, human development and those who have lived and chased here thousands of years ago.

In the late afternoon I make my way back to Sarlat and sneak in the last and only free parking slot at the camper parking. 7 € (parking overnight fee) and 5 minutes of a walk later I arrive at the medieval centre of Sarlat.

There is a former church now used as market hall with an elevator that goes right on top. The whole city lays down at my feet with small alleys, a huge church with roman, gothic and whatever further styles; old monestaries, the “lanterne des morts” from 9th century, an old viaduct still in use (now by the railway to Bordeaux) and all these old houses. It does have a certain beauty and attracts thousands of tourists.

I stroll around quite a while until I settle down for dinner. It is hard to make the best choice in a place that is so much taken over by tourists from all over the world, yet it is okay and the prices are fine as well.

After dinner, I stumble over some street acrobats that give hell of a show in the main place of the city centre.

Of course, they get some Euros for their efforts and even me I am rewarded: I get back to Hector just in time before heavy rain settles in and congratulate myself to the perfect pitch of the day.

 

After coffee and breakfast in the vineyard, day 3 finally brings some culture into the holidays. The castle of Saumur overlooks the city and the Loire, majestic and a bit braggy with a huge golden symbol right on top.

The architecture is a wild mixture of different eras. I like this mixed-up style and even though I forget most of what I learned about it almost instantly, there obviously has been a long history of sovereigns, fights and gravity. The west wing does not even exist in these days, but it is all but well-adjusted by the inner treasures of the castle.

A large hall in the inner castle is decoreated with a tapestry of the least talented artist I have ever seen. Or the most ironic one. Look at the guy a bit left from the centre: walking to the left, he turns his head a full 180° and looks at the lady behind his back. Plus, most of the women are gifted with naked breasts that seem to be drawn (more true: stitched) on top of their clothing. Standing right in front of the massive oeuvre, I am sort of overwhelmed.

I get back to reality with a coffee in the “Orangerie” and once more change my plans (stay around here for one more day? More castles? More clouds??) and directly head for Sarlat.

TomTom is in one of his best moods today, hence the navigation leads me on tiny roads through the Forêt d’Amboise and more or less straight south.

In the late afternoon I do find Sarlat, but not the campsite I had in mind. So what, a hot shower is all I need for this evening while tomorrow I will have plenty of time to go and see the medieval town of Sarlat. At least, this is the plan.

P.S.: Ah, finally I did learn what is about my fridge on gas cooling: It is just that it does not like to cooperate with the stove! When turning on the gas for morning coffee, the fridge reacts with blink-blink-out-of-order-blink-blink and the systems goes on error-mode. Even though it indicates that we have run out of gas, in fact it is no more than a coincidence. Solution: Switch off all gas functions. Turn down the gas pipe. Then re-open the gas pipe, leave the fridge out, turn on the gas for the stove and here you go: all fine, all working. After coffee, switch off the gas for the stove and on the gas for the fridge and everything works fine.

After Hector ignored the “France Passion” opportunity of our first night, it now is time to move further West and head for a vineyard.

I heard and read a bit about Saumur, e pretty town at the Loire, and even the idea of seeing some castles seems like a smart one. The arrival at the Domaine de la Cune in the late afternoon comes with the right picture: endless rows of vine up to the horizon, framed by green forests and spreckled with neat “chateaux”.

With my TomTom navi and its tendency for interesting roads, I am happy enough that Hector is such a slim van. Only once a sharp correction is required when the road underbridges a maximum height of 2,5m, but that is nothing that a turn to the right could not fix and apart from this, I am fine and enjoy the beauty of narrow wine-villages.
The day ends with fresh salad and a freshly opened bottle of wine. The bottle accidetially happened to become part of Hector’s groceries upon the encounter with the friendly vintner. Of course I know that I am not obliged to buy some of the owner’s products on my vineyard-overnight-stays, but even when thinking hard about it, I do not find any reason against.

The next morning will present dropped temperatures (< 20°C! Perhaps I should turn on the heating…) and a cloudy sky. The evening though is warm and the wine is gentle – good night, world.

Everyone knows that spontaneous holidays are best based on thorough plans and exact milestones. Hence, a “France Passion” address is driving my navigation system towards the Alsatia while the temperatures are driving towards 35°C.

It comes as no surprise when Hector decides to speed up and only stops at the shore of a lake: forget about fancy food “en Alsace”, welcome to the lake “Etang du Stock”! The campsite at the foot of the small church is simple, but just fine for our first holiday night. “Bien sûr”, with an immediate dive into the lake right away.

I conclude that 18€ for camping are well invested while Hector concludes that he likes lake-nights best. Unless there is sea and beaches available, that is.

The hot summer weather proves the very first Hector owners right who had ordered a full 100% of the available extra equipment: eletric step at the living room door, electric windows in front, electric rear mirrors, double airbags and (tadaa!) aircondition – makes 5 out of 5 possible features. The latter is most welcome these days and eases the hours of driving.

The first day has passed by easily and I am curious what the second day will bring. How about the fridge and the regular troubles with the gas cooling? How about vineyards in the region of Saumur? What about culture and castles along the Loire??

 

 

What I love about camping holidays? The spontaneity! Nothing needs to be booked, no long-lasting preparation is required and all you need is a bikini, a credit card and the keys for Hector.

As a matter of coincidence, the pleasant anticipation of the surf holidays made me blow the dust off my skateboard and run the local skatepark once a week. Apart from the fun, the practice may be of use when trying to ride the waves of the Atlantic Ocean later this summer.

Hector, always eager for sun and water, used a lazy Saturday morning for some water polo (says he won the trophy, being the first to hit the target). With the windscreen now being washed from all sides, I am finally able to see his sparkling silvery dress from all perspectives – even inside out.

At least Linda remains relaxed. Holidays at the sea = all routine, no preparation needed. My only concern is that she might outperform my fragile wave surfing if she continues her open water swimming: Kilometres and kilometres in rough sea, pumping her arm and shoulder muscles like superwoman. Great that she will be still vivid after each surf lesson! Thus, there’s someone (superwoman) who can take care of food and drinks while I will be totally “crevée” (exhausted), sleeping off on the couch.

Great Holiday Expectations ahead!