A European Tour
Long before Rex, we had planned to go on a tour of France in Seabert, but as Seabert struggled through the winter, we decided that an upgrade would be sensible, and we got Rex ready to do our Tour as planned.
We started with a very ambitious plan, which I’ve since seen come up time and again on facebook groups. A big circle around France, maybe not even doing the most southerly part. It looks perfectly reasonable on a map. So we made a plan, even checked distances on the satnav to estimate travel times, and we wrote it all down. And then we forgot to bring the piece of paper with the plan on it… It turned out to be a blessing.
After another glamorous motorway stop just outside the tunnel, we arrived in France and decided to head north first to Ypres, Belgium to visit the Menin Gate. It was a wonderful start to our trip; a beautiful town with a great Aire, and the ceremony at the gate was impressive and poignant.
We headed back to France, and stopped in a number of places, trying to remember our plan. Luckily we couldn’t remember, so we ended up stopping in a few places in Northern and Eastern France, before heading into Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium again, with a final stop in France before having to get back on the train to go home.
We had about 17 days driving around, and we had the best time! We have seen beautiful places, scenery and views, walked along lakes, seen beautiful medieval French villages, saw lots of Storks, drank champagne, and camped between the vinyards, tried our Aires and French Passion sites. We are Sold! We love it! This is definitely the life for us!
The photo is of the River Sauer in Luxembourg, taken in Diekirch.
Our stops on the mainland:
- Ypres – Zilverbeke – great Aire, a must visit plac
- Verneuil – Champagne Jacques Copin – delicious champagne, very friendly, beautiful scenery
- Lac Der Chantecoq – lovely place to stop, free aire, beautiful large lake
- Eguisheim – stunning medieval village, stayed at ACSI site (les trois chateaux)
- Kaysersberg – a big, busy aire, lovely village, one of my favourites, nice walks
- Kehl, Germany – took a wrong turn to the Strassbourg Aire. great stop, stayed 2 nights in a Stellplatz to visit both Kehl and Strassbourg by bike.
- Baerenthal & Ville de Bitche – visited the Citadel, stayed at a campsite. It was Easter and France was shut.
- Bacharach – back to Germany, a lovely village on the Rhine. Amazing views from Rex on an aire that was part of the campsite. We stayed 2 nights as it was great!
- Diekirch – Luxembourg. It was mostly shut, but we had some walks and very cheap fuel
- Dinant – Belgium. We found this gem on a travel blog. Lovely village with lots of history. We didn’t stay the night here though, we headed back into France
- Girondelle – another French Passion stop in a very quiet village in the French ardennes
- St Valery sur Somme – Nice Aire by the Somme. Lovely place, watched seals in the estuary.
- Le Crotoy – a very busy Aire (the previous one was nicer), just across the bay of the Somme. Still a very nice place.
- Equihen Plage – last stop before the tunnel – a small Aire by a huge beach with lots of paragliding activity.