Campsite Kings of Laon, France

We used almost every minute of the 48 hours we were allowed to stay in the aire at Montrueil-sur-Mer, not that anyone was checking. We had a lovely restful Sunday with a jog around the ramparts, a bit of ‘maps on the table’ planning (very unlike us) and a slap up meal at Le Pot du Clape.

The tiny restaurant specialises in soup, quiche and salads, as in ‘do you want soup, soup and quiche or soup and salad?’ It clearly does them well as it was packed. After being asked to come back in five minutes, possibly to free up enough space for others to get to to the door to leave, we settled into one of its snug rooms. We both opted for soup and quiche and were once again in awe at the ability of French folk to make something so simple, so tasty.

On Monday morning it was time to move on. After switching off the gas, I went to turn the fridge over to battery. Hang on, it’s already on battery. Yes folks, we’ve done this motorhoming thing for over a decade, written books about how to motorhome and yet we still make silly mistakes. Neither of us had turned the fridge from battery to gas when we arrived, so it had been switched off for the past two days (no wonder modern fridges do it automatically these days!).

Fortunately we’d turned it up so high at our previous stop, everything in the fridge was a tad frozen and the stuff in the freezer was packed so tightly you couldn’t get any warm air around it if you tried. If we’re honest, most of the food shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Since Brexit the rules around taking food into the EU state that you can’t bring in any meat or food of animal or plant origin. That means no meat, dairy, veggies etc. I’d totally forgot about that when I emptied our house fridge into our van fridge. Fortunately we didn’t get pulled over at customs in Dover. If we were I would have handed it all over to be destroyed, which would have been gutting because I know it would never leave the van, but them’s the rules.

We’ve decided to head west, away from the coast, to explore a bit more of inland France. Mainly because the weather was looking rubbish on the coast, and partly because there’s a bit of a gap on our map of places we’ve been along the French/Belgian boarder.

We set off for St Quentin as we’d heard great reviews about the motorhome aire there. However, it seems so had everyone else. When we arrived a French motorhome at the barrier was struggling to get in, but there were also three spaces, so not a problem. A chap from the local council arrived and scratched his head, followed by another chap dressed in high vis from head to toe. Soon everyone from the aire was out watching what was going on.

At some point an argument started between a woman who had declared she’d reserved one of the spaces for a friend, and two chaps who were waving at the list of rules saying she wasn’t allowed to do that. It all got quite heated and I didn’t have a clue what was going on. It sounded like they were calling her ‘peche’? To me that means fish in French, but if you know any better, please enlighten me.

Eventually the Gendarmerie arrived to have words with them all, while the council guy typed in Google Translate that the aire was full. There were spaces because this particular aire allows you to leave and return on the same ticket. What a welcome to St Quentin. We’d already decided we didn’t fancy staying in that atmosphere – which was a shame as it looked like a great aire. To sooth our nerves we threw money at the problem. Plan B was put into action – a short trip down the péage (toll) motorway to Laon and an ACSI campsite.

We’d never heard of Laon, but the lure of Camping La Chenaie which is part of the ACSI discount card scheme at only €20.22 a night (two people, a van and electrical hook-up) drew us in. The lady at reception was lovely and when we booked in for two nights, she explained that it’s a national holiday on 1st May so most places will be closed. We thought about it for a millisecond and added an extra night. With that extra night, we’ve already saved the €18 our ACSI discount card cost us. If you are traveling in a motorhome off-peak season it’s a great thing to have.

After doing the maths, the campsite is cheaper than the aire at St Quentin, if you include the cost of water and electricity. And although it’s only a two star site (which to me means no loo seats or loo roll) we have access to hot showers, washing machines, washing up sinks and an indoor pool. Yes, less than a week into our trip, and we’re having a holiday. To be fair, we both needed a bit of time to decompress as we’d quite a stressful few days before we set off.

This short break has enabled us to take stock, and to also discover that the two places we were heading for in this direction (Reims and Strasbourg) both have low emissions zones that we can’t go in with our level 4 Crit’Air sticker. Yes, we seriously need to read our own book about motorhoming in France! We could avoid the one in Reims with some careful driving, but not the one in Strasbourg which covers a wide area. I remember when we first set off on our motorhome adventures, there were no low emission zones and we could take what we wanted with us, stay as long as we wanted. Somehow, things don’t feel as good as the good old days of ten years ago.

The city of Laon is perched on a sticky up bit of rock surrounded by a large flat plateau. You can see the city and its Gothic Cathedral surrounded by ramparts from miles away. The campsite is situated at the bottom of this rock, with steep paths up through forest to take you to the city. There are a couple of free motorhome parking places up in the town too, if you don’t fancy paying for a campsite and the walk up.

We’ve had a great few days here relaxing on the campsite. We’ve eaten like kings to get rid of the semi-defrosted contents of our freezer (seriously with the amount of meat we’ve eaten you’d think we were on the Atkins diet) and hiking up into the city to explore its cobbled streets. A lot of places are traditionally closed on a Monday, and this week they were also closed on Wednesday for the May Day holiday. Maybe that’s why the city streets were so quiet, but we’ve loved having the place almost to ourselves.

Jay noticed a German military cemetery close to the campsite dating from the Great War. We wandered over for a look around. There were over 2500 men buried there, with each cross bearing up to four names – is that what happens when you are on the side that lost, you don’t get your own grave marker? Somehow that doesn’t feel right. Dotted among the crosses were a few gravestones for Jewish Germans who fought and gave their lives for their country. Little did they know what fate their government would have in store for Jewish war veterans and their sons and daughters just a few years later.

Like all of France, it looks like this area is steeped in war history, so Jay has picked out a couple of places to see (ones that don’t have low emission zones). Other than that we still don’t have any real plans. The weather is a bit of a mixed bag with rain most days. However today I’m typing this in my shorts, albeit with a warning for thunderstorms later. Tomorrow we’ll roll out of our piece of campsite heaven and see what we find. I guess that’s the beauty of not having much of a plan, when things don’t work out as expected, you just roll with it as often it turns out for the best – I know this little unexpected stop did.

Ju x