Perched Above the Seine at Château Gaillard, Normandy
Zagan the motorhome’s ramps are made of stern, plasticky stuff. The two of ’em are currently shouldering the full force of our home-on-wheels’ not insignificant girth, as they attempt to level us out on the sloping car park behind the ruined medieval castle that is Château Gaillard (N49.24001, E1.40557). They’re failing, by the way, but we’re level enough and are settling in for a night’s kip under a grey, rain-laden sky. Just the other side of the grassy bank in front of us, there are magnificent views out across the castle, the Seine and countryside beyond.
Motorhome free parking on a wonk, Château Gaillard
Today’s been a get stuff done day. As much stuff as gets done around here anyway. Zagan’s auto-changeover valve flicked onto the red band a day or two back, showing us our larger 11Kg LPG bottle was now devoid of gas. That still leaves us with 6Kg, which in theory would last us at least a week. I dunno, it might stretch out to two or three weeks, depending on how much we have the heating on, but that red band always sets us into an immediate ‘quick! find some LPG!!!’ mode. We’ve the latest mylpg.eu points of interest on our TomTom, so pulled up the nearest supermarket-based fuel station (they tend to be cheaper here in France), and after a good night’s kip and breakfast looking out over the powerful Seine, we headed off to Super U.
Those of you who’ve read much of this blog will know the two of us are BIG Lidl fans. We’ve used ’em everywhere, as they tend to be relatively cheap, sell good quality food, and have a reasonably standard offering, so we can find what we want without hours of hunting. On the minus side, you have to have the reactions of Usain Bolt at the till, as they machine-gun the food at you, and they don’t sell all the delicacies which make each country unique. Today was an interesting experiment in bias though: is Lidl really cheaper than Super U, or have we been kidding ourselves for years?
After brimming the GPL tank off (at €0.89 a litre), and topping up on gazole (diesel, at €1.39 a litre), Ju did a Super U shop, returning to the van in a huff. The place had been fleeced for one of France’s eighteen bank holidays in May (I exaggerate, but not much). Everything seemed expensive. The checkout process has changed so they now ask to see inside your bags for life (not a big deal, but we can never understand what the checkout people are asking us and it’s a tad awkward when we squint back at them). And one of the harried staff had managed to barrel straight into Ju as she dashed around barking orders at her colleagues. As Ju lugged the heavy bags back to Zagan, I sensed great danger from her demeanour, and hid under a blanket as she unpacked.
Heading here, we spotted a Lidl just off the route, and feeling a little disloyal and curious, we nipped in. Buying the bits and bobs Ju couldn’t get at Super U, Ju noted down some of the prices for a quick comparison. Result: inconclusive. I was amazed. I’ve always assumed Lidl was cheaper for most things, but it just wasn’t true, it was a mixed bag, Super U cheaper for some items and Lidl cheaper for others. How can this be? My entire framework for life has been challenged! But on the plus side, you can still get beer for €1 a litre, just, although Lidl too had been fleeced and the locals had snaffled the lot. Closer inspection of our Super U receipt showed that for some reason we didn’t get our goodies at the offer prices shown on the shelf – a cucumber priced at 2 for €1 or 50c each (not really an offer) went through the till at €1.69. Maybe we needed their loyalty card, or maybe it was a mistake, but either way, as you may guess Ju is now even crosser at Super U than she was immediately post shop.
The other job on the list was laundry. A bit weird for us UK denizens, but some French supermarkets have industrial washers and dryers in the car park. I kid you not. You can chuck your smalls into the washer, do your shopping, and come back and retrieve it (or more likely, throw it in the dryer and sit about waiting). For us aire-dwellers, with no washing machine on board, these little cabins are a godsend. Today though, although we spotted one en-route, neither of us could be bothered with it. The laundry bag remains a-bulging.
No major incidents to report on the driving front. Nor minor ones. We just drove here, tip-toeing our way through France’s ever-more-desperate attempts to slow traffic in villages. Chicanes, speed bumps, sad faces in flashing lights, huge pot plants placed in the road, pits filled with spikes and crocodiles, everything screaming SLOW DOWN DAMMIT!!!!. In a few weeks (1 July) they’re even dropping the speed limit on every 90Kph road down to 80Kph. As far as I can tell, only about 3% of the population sticks to the 90Kph limit anyway, so the reduction should be something interesting to observe.
Here at the Château, we spent a wee while peering out at the wonderful landscape, from aside the castle ruins. Signs educated us, in a temporary sense as we forget the lengthy facts almost immediately, at least I do. A few facts have lodged themselves though: the fortification here was knocked up by Richard the Lionheart to defend Normandy from the pesky French who kept asking for it back, what with it being in France and all? After his death the French laid siege to the place. As essentials (roast beef? sorry, sorry) started to run out, the English defenders decided the local population who were hiding in there with them were scoffing too much, so chucked them out to try and survive a winter in no-man’s land between the two forces. A gruesome painting of cannibalism is one of the more unwelcome images lodged in my memory.
What else? Well, it being hilly around here (15% incline down to the town below), I’ve had a chance to leg it up some hills. ‘You lucky, lucky, swine’ I hear you say. Oh yes. It was delightful. If any of the Americans from the tour descending the hill as I slogged my way up are reading this though: thanks for the encouragement folks, it was needed!
Right, the rain’s well and truly set in now, which we don’t mind when free camping as youfs tend to stay in and overheat their Playstation when the weather’s rubbish, rather than impressing upon us their choice of banging tunes all night. Some pork’s defrosted in the fridge, and the weather forecast is good. Time to go, tomorrow we head south.
Cheers, Jay
Congratulations 🍾 You’ve done extremely well if you’ve got anything like level on that car park! It’s precipitous!!! We were there on Sunday but just stopped off during the day to look at the castle (I recall SOK teetering on the top of his blocks in a strong wind just so we could eat our lunch without everything sliding off the table).
Now at Calais (boo hoo) heading North. Next trip for us is the Isle of Man later this month for the TT then continuing on to Ireland…
Hi Jason
We were always loyal to Lidl but last year in Spain we went into a Mercadona and we found them to be on a par price wise, but with a much better variety.
Just returned from today’s shop with a litre carton of vino rosado 89 cents
Ian & Gill
There’s a surprise! we always thought Super U was far more expensive than Lidl, but, (like you say) have much more local choice and heaps to go at.
There’s not much by the way of good weather here, so ya missing nowt. The weekend looks better.
Best pork chops for Charlie eh? Don’t leave yourselves short guys ;-)
Safe travels…with you all the way…Angie is mending, but it’s slow and painful :-(
Au revoir les Bloggers.
:-) :-)
It wasn’t the most scientific of analyses, and thinking about it Ju has spotted this before in the UK. Lidl is definitely cheaper for some stuff, but the less well known brands are sometimes cheaper in the bigger supermarkets. Sending calcium and morphine to Angie, bonne courage, Jay
-As Lidl is a German discounter we don’t shop there in foreign Europe, because we prefer local food.Have you ever been to Lidl/Lagos/Portugal?Packed with Brits, offers in English , products like in GB.Of course.
– The washingmachines /dryers are only available at INTERMARCHE, where they also often offer a disposal for your chemical toilet .
-when you think, that GBP 0.88 for 2 cucumbers isn’t a real bargain,you should pack Zagan up to the roof with food/beverages before entering CH/ZERMATT:Otherwise you will get a heart attack at looking at the prices before even having started the running .
-my favourite is CARREFOUR, because their own products are tasty in general & very high standard.I don’t care for the price when I get very good quality.
bon voyage Heide /Herne/ Germany.
PS.Yesterday I picked up my long time English friends from Ilkeston at DÜS Airport. We discussed all night long, how the situation for travellers will be after Brexit.Good night, now 70 years old>2:30 am.
Ilson folk? Abroad? Whatever next? Just kidding, just kidding! It’s an interesting topic eh? Adopting the old stoic approach though, it’s utterly outside our control, so we can do nothing but wait to see what gets agreed. Then we can plan. Cheers, take it easy, Jay
We still get excited when we see an Aldi – haha how sad.. We’ve found they’re the cheapest of them all so far.
We’re still on our 11kg bottle (2 months in) The little magnetic guage changes its mind ever day, up and down like a pogo stick, so we’re a bit unsure how long it has left. All good fun though.
Weather has turned here in Portugal, so hope its heading your way soon. 👍
Ah, yes, those gauges! Ours often read nothing when the bottles are full. Then pop to half full, then read as zero for ages when they still have gas. That’s why we’ve ended up using the auto changeover valve to get an idea when the big bottle is empty, then top it up as soon as we can. Weather long great here, not too hot, sunshine, happy days! Cheers, Jay
I know what you mean about “traffic calming” in French towns and villages but I have to say I’m in favour of it.
British roads are now getting distinctly Third-World. The M27 around Brighton and the M20 out of Folkestone require the skills of an Olympic Slalom Skier to avoid the missing tarmac.
Humberto’s cutlery and crockery turn the English driving experience into something resembling the backing track to a Chinese Lion Dance.
I drove to the Dordogne in January and I thought I had a problem with my car… the “problem” was that I couldn’t hear anything on the super-smooth tarmac as I drove South from Le Havre. Mostly all I can hear is the sound of my suspension trying not to snap.
Keep Blogging…I’m soooo restless to get to France in June for a few weeks it’s unbearable. Bloody Work!!!!!!! (But I’m working on it).
Oh yes, the roads are pretty great, but we’re still bouncing about the place as we tight-git ourselves alongside the toll road network. Having seen most of Europe, at least a bit of many countries, plus Morocco and Tunisia, I think I’d describe the UK road network as ‘First World, Needing Investment’. ‘Third World’ would mean roads impassable in winter, bridges washed out when there is heavy rain, high risk of injury from drunk or untrained drivers, no lighting, poor or non existent signage, long unsealed sections, no national breakdown service etc etc. Everything about the UK is first world, IMHO, including the hysterical media :-). Totally agree with you about the traffic calming measures: very much needed, just a shame there is such a battle between machine and pedestrian. Cheers from Nanoncourt! Jay
I’ve told myself a million times not to exaggerate.
I’ve been to Turkey and should know better than to say we’re “3rd World”. It’s just frustrating that our roads are struggling to be classed as “1st World” when our Government bangs on about what a super-power we still are.
To think that the first experience, for some Germans, of England is on the route from Folkestone to the M25..it’s just embarrassing.
As a keen cyclist I’m finding some of the potholes positively life-threatening now.
Can’t wait to hit that smooth continental tarmac.
We stopped there for breakfast last Sunday morning after a stopover in Lyon la Floret, Stunning views!
Park4night bought us here last December on our return from Spain but as it was turning icy I didn’t fancy the decent on untreated roads, Bon Voyage!
We travel with our friends and they always are on the look out for a Lidl, we’ve never really done a price comparison though. We prefer other supermarkets as they sell different stuff.