D Roads to Stella Plage, North to the Opal Coast
Zagan the motorhome’s up against familiar pale yellow dunes in the free aire at Stella Plage (N50.47341, E1.57723), just south of Le Touquet on the Côte d’Opale (the Opal Coast). When we arrived yesterday afternoon, 18 of the 20 spaces of the aire were taken, and another 6 or 7 vans were parked up on the seafront. This morning (which happens to be a Monday) pretty much everyone’s gone, so it seems there were a few weekend wanderers here, rather than the whole of France being packed out with camping cars.
Quick aside: France has a thing about posting signs indicating the full details of local laws, so rather than a great big blunt ‘NO MOTORHOMES’ sign on the sea front spaces, there’s a 4 page notice (in teeny weeny writing) giving precise dates when vans can park outside the aire, where they can park, the fact they need to be self-sufficient for cooking, washing, sleeping and toilet facilities and lots of other details we couldn’t easily translate. After September, the sea front is fair game, but we’re happy we opted for the aire as the dunes we’re sandwiched between are protecting us beautifully from the wind. Every time we come here there are land yachts or kite surfers hammering up and down the coast.
Now we’re pooch-less, so don’t need to allow 24 hours after a vet visit before heading to the UK, we could quite easily (with some strong coffee perhaps) motorhome our way home from Paris in a day. Get up early, pile up the A16 toll motorway, grab a train under the channel, free motorway it up to Nottingham. But no, we’re WAY, WAY too lazy for that. That and the fact a couple of hours driving serves to seize my upper back into a mass of painful muscle, in a way no number of press-ups, kilometres on the rowing machine or miles of running can touch.
So we’ve stuck to the old way: France’s departmental (D) roads have brought us here, the equivalent of ‘B’ roads back in Blighty. These smaller roads effectively join the dots between French villages and small towns, and since July 1st this year have a blanket 80kph (50mph) speed limit (previously 90kph). The aim of cutting the max speed is simple: to reduce the number of folks killed (roughly 10 a day) or injured (about 190 people a day) on French roads. Will it work? Time will tell, folks still pull off daft overtakes across solid white lines or in the face of fast oncoming traffic when we’re doing the new limit, so perhaps the lower limit will have the opposite effect? Ju’s updated our TomTom SatNav with the new limits, although it’s wrong in some places: sections of road with two lanes on one side and a single lane on the other, with no central divide, are sign-posted at 90kph for the dual-lane side, while the TomTom has them at 80kph.
We cruised out of the campsite in Paris on Saturday around noon, having had a cracking stay seeing friends, visiting Versailles, gawping at the art and architecture in La Defense, looking around the Pere Lachaise cemetery and doing some Parkrun tourism. From what we could see, but for a section of roadworks on the way into the city, the roads around Paris flowed easily. Except at rush hour that is, when they were jam-packed for a couple of hours each morning and evening: think six lanes of endless brake lights with occasional horns blaring, that kind of stuff. Sundays were devoid of cars mind you: if you’re concerned about the traffic, come to the city on a Sunday and you’ll have the roads to yourself.
After a long section of free motorway and dual carriageway, the road gradually dwindled down to D road as we headed for a wee free aire at a village called Conty (N49.74425, E2.1565), to the south-west of Amiens (which we visited in 2017). We’d been recommended a visit to Arras by a nice British couple at the campsite in Paris, but we both thought we’d already been. Checking our map we just found we haven’t (doh), so that’s one for the ‘next time’ list. Conty turned out to be a good spot for a kip, a small town with boucheries, boulangeries (Ju can’t resist the artwork cakes these places flog, opting to try one called a Gland – an acorn-looking treat), a poste, and a tabac (which had burned down). A kid quaintly greeted us with a passing ‘bonjour monsieur-dame’, and a lady opposite the permanently-shut church popped out her front door and asked whether I was cold (I think, my French is pretty rubbish). The aire was a grassy area away from the main road, a perfect spot for a good night’s sleep (we made sure we were at the far end from the cockerels spotted strutting in a neighbouring garden!).
Sunday morning we woke to the distant thud-thud of guns. Shop windows in France have us gawping at the array of shotguns, knives, throwing stars, explosive depth charges and the like you can buy and deploy of a Sunday in vengeful war against the local small mammal population. As we drove in among the fields, groups of blokes with dogs stalked through the low crops, guns at the ready, dogs trotting at their feet. They were pretty easy to spot, being dressed in bright orange jackets with a seemingly pointless camouflage pattern. Exactly what they were hunting, and how come their prey hadn’t been blasted out of existence through this relentless Sunday massacre, we dunno.
Crossing the Somme west of Amiens only took us past a handful of war cemeteries. This area of rolling countryside was the scene of human slaughter a hundred years back, and if we’d been further east the green signs pointing to the war graves would have stood at junction after junction. We didn’t stop to pay our respects though, not this time.
Up here at Stella Plage we’re on familiar ground, having stayed on the same spot two or three times before. I really like it here. The fact there’s only a single bar/cafe (open at the weekends) doesn’t bother me. I like the peace, the dunes, the huge beach. It has an easy living feel to me, a little like the Capbreton aire down towards Spain on the Atlantic coast which we first stayed in seven years ago on our first escape from the big bad World.
Our ferry home is at 6am tomorrow from Dunkirk (it was cheaper at that time, who needs sleep?), so we’ll head up to the aire at Oye Plage this afternoon, a shortish drive from the port. From there we’ll nip up the motorway and home to Nottingham, popping Zagan back in storage for a few days while we head off on holiday with friends. He won’t be alone for long, as we’re then grabbing him again for a jaunt up to Bonnie Scotland for a mate’s 65th and to check out the North Coast 500. After that, it’s a December back home and we’ve just about decided to use the van to head south in January for a longish tour through the winter months, Greece and Turkey maybe, not sure yet, watch this space :-).
Cheers, Jay
Oh you have a good tour coming up the 500 tour is really scenic have you been before? my son has lived in scotland for the last 4 years, if you want to know any local special places i will ask him, have a great journey.
Happy days. Seems like a nice little trip. I am one of those people that always seems to take different points to other people from things. The chat about depression stands out a mile to me, the seemingly inevitable missing of home, the being bored with paradise, the letter Jason wrote to himself incase he ever thinks about going back to work. I would have had to discover all these things for myself, but now I kinda know they are going to happen, I know it is just what happens. Doesn’t mean you still can’t do paradise, but sometimes paradise is where you left it. I don’t need to feel that I can’t just feel that way, if/when it does happens, even if it seems totally crazy, to want to go home to a cold wet UK town (or Irish at this stage), when you could be in Spain or France or Morrocco or Turkey/Greece.
I’m sure I am not the only one and this blog is so much better for the real emotional content.
Unfortunately I have done a Jason, I have a new job starting in 3 weeks that I don’t really need, but the money is blooming awesome. But I still don’t want it, I am being caught by the one more year syndrome. We will see what happens and if I jack it in early, I wont feel bad (not a great state of mind for a new job but I will snap to attention), life is all about change.
Thanks again…..Enjoy Scotland
Cheers Simon. Hey, who is to say your new job won’t be just what you need fella? I’ve finally, finally accepted to myself I’m retired. Being blunt, if I may, the sight of our beloved dog’s lifeless body at his final vet visit in the Alps was enough to shift me sideways. I’m no longer apologising to myself or anyone else that I’m done with doing work I simply don’t want to do any more. Soon enough I’ll be dead meat, but before then I’m getting on with whatever I feel like doing! Take it easy, keep pushing on! Cheers, Jay
Hi Guys,
We have been travelling around Europe, N.Africa and UK for almost 2 years. It was a big call leaving everything behind in Australia and your superb blog (amongst others) made things much easier. We are now back in Australia and have left Pinot our motorhome in UK for another trip next year.
Thanks for sharing so much information.
Happy travels
A and A
Thanks Allen – appreciate you leaving the comment, means a lot to us. Sounds like you’ve had an epic trip, with more to come, good for you guys. Enjoy being at home, and maybe one day we’ll bump into you on a beach here in sunny(ish) Europe? Cheers, Jay
I always enjoy reading your blogs. Just keep on traveling and keep up the blog!!
Richard
Thanks Richard, will do!
Your plans sound great! Can’t wait to read all about it!
Cheers Mark!
Have a great time doing the NC500. We did it last year and loved it, especially as we mainly free camped, which is so unusual in the UK.
Can’t wait to read all about your trip.
Thanks Anne, I suspect we’ll be free camping at least some of the time too, looking forward to it! Jay
Hello Both. I have been following your blog and others with great interest. We have ordered a new Chausson, which we collect on 1 May 2019 to start our journey in Europe. I have taken early retirement here in NZ and so we have great plans for an extended trip, my hope is the first of many. The comments and info on various towns and the associated aires is soooo useful. We have been fortunate to travel extensively in Europe over the years but this will be our first M/H adventure – high hopes of having a great time.
Many thanks & best regards
Frank
I’m pretty sure your hopes will be met Frank, it’s a wonderful way to explore a continent. Perhaps consider heading to Morocco too if you haven’t already: they’re a friendly bunch. Cheers, Jay
Well done on the Park run! Don’t know when I last commented on a post of yours… Have I thanked you yet? You, together with some other bloggers (yes, Charlie, the Bumbles and Aaron and Nicky) inspired us to make a trip to Scandinavia, our first longer trip (longer than a month that is). And boy, did we enjoy that!
Unfortunately we had to cut our trip short by 5 weeks to care for my elderly parents. But we are so happy and grateful we were able to tour around for 4 months and a week.
Looking forward to your upcoming trips! Stay safe!
Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed those 4 months, happy travels, Jay
Hope you decide on Turkey, Greece etc… we have followed you to Morocco, Croatia and Norway etc so are looking to use your research again! The only question is, won’t it be a bit chilly in January? We tend to follow the sun… We are currently in Crete in an apartment for 3 weeks and it is getting cooler here and everything is shutting down, shops, bars, restaurants etc…
Looking forward to your Scotland trip too… Enjoy!
Hi Carol, ah, yes, keeping warm is a challenge in Europe in winter! We’re still pondering where to go. As someone said, tomorrow’s a mystery, yesterday’s history and today’s a present. :-) Happy travels guys. Jay
We would love to do the NC500, look forward to reading your blog about it!