{"id":43229,"date":"2022-08-12T18:42:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T17:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=43229"},"modified":"2022-08-12T18:42:13","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T17:42:13","slug":"sweltering-in-the-dunes-sainte-cecile-plage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/sweltering-in-the-dunes-sainte-cecile-plage\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweltering in the Dunes, Sainte-C\u00e9cile-Plage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I’m guessing you’ve all noticed, the heatwave is back folks! Although it’s (thankfully) not yet knocking on 40\u00b0<\/strong>C here south of Boulogne-sur-Mer, it’s pretty warm. Ju and I have some history of attempting to travel through a heatwave, once resulting in exploding tempers and an in-a-huff-aborted drive from Hungary to the Austrian Alps! As well as some top tips for how to survive a heatwave in your motorhome<\/a>. Taking our own advice, and wanting to avoid fireworks again, we’ve more recently taken a leaf from this dog’s book when it gets roasty-toasty:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dog<\/a>
Our neighbour’s beagle ‘Storm’ decided to hide under our motorhome while his pooch parents assembled their pitch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We left the campsite at Carsington Water<\/a> at the end of June, and had a few weeks back home. When I started to write this, I wondered what we did in those weeks and I’m not entirely sure. We both managed to catch Covid, one after the other, which kept us isolating and feeling poorly for over two weeks. I went to the local Nottingham Splendour festival (Ju still had the ‘rona) with friends for their 50th birthday and we helped my niece move house – along with some serious gardening. My Dad bought himself and electric bike, so when he and I took the trails in Derbyshire one day, he thoroughly beat me up every incline. For the final parts of my 50th birthday presents from Ju we had a go at pottery throwing at Denby pottery<\/a>, and went to watch the athletics at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, which was just an amazing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"pottery<\/a>
Pot throwing at Denby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"commonwealth<\/a>
Ready for a fantastic evening of athletic at the Alexander Stadium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We’ve now been floated over the Channel and installed ourselves at Camping des Dunes for three nights, near Sainte-C\u00e9cile-Plage (N50.56419, E1.582491<\/a>). Hopefully that’s long enough for the heatwave to pass and normal weather to resume. We’re not sure if it’s one of France’s cheap-and-cheerful ‘municipal’ sites here, but it has that kinda feel. The shower block gets slated in online reviews (looks OK to us, not that we’ll use it), half the water taps dotted around are dryz-a-bone and the power points are so far distributed there’s a sort of informal National Grid of cables lying across the dust-and-sand roadways. But it has a laid-back feel, has direct beach access and the pitches are all spread around on different levels, separated by mature foliage in the dunes so we’ve plenty privacy. Oh, and it’s all of \u20ac17 a night (two people, 6m motorhome, no elec) in the middle of August, that’ll do nicely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ourtour<\/a>
Sunset over the English Channel at Camping des Dunes, about 45 minute’s drive south of Calais<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We’re ‘out’ for about 5 weeks. That’s how long we’ve got between things we need to be at home for in the UK. We’ve not been in the van for a few weeks, and it needed a bit of fettling, so before we set off we have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n