Where's Bertie? He's at the Aire in Montreuil-sur-Mer. He made a quick visit here on 21 March last year, but we didn't stay the night on that occasion. Exact location: 50.45903, 1.76003.
Weather: Rain before dawn, then gradually clearing this morning until we got sunshine late this afternoon. The change in weather may have been more to do with our movement than that of the weather front.
The church at Villedômer, snapped last night when it was so quiet that we walked down the middle of the streets.
This morning, for the first time since 26 January, we heard the patter of rain on Bertie's roof. Unfortunately it started at twenty past five and, unaccustomed to the sound, it woke us up. We did manage to doze (Mick) and listen to an audiobook (me) for an hour before getting up to put the kettle on.
By half past seven we were rolling out of the Aire*. Aside from having breakfasted, I'd filled our travel mugs (as I usually do for long journeys) and also a flask, determined to save time during the day, such that we would arrive at our destination at an earlier hour than the last couple of days.
It worked out well. Our elevenses stop was less than twenty minutes, giving enough time for me to brew coffee, have a quick snack, wash our travel mugs and decant that coffee into them. My mug has held lemon and ginger tea for the last two days and even after washing it the taint still remained. Accordingly, it was a novel flavour of coffee I had today.
The short elevenses break meant that with a judicious use of a small section of toll road at the end of the day, we arrived here before 1330, and thus didn't need to stop for lunch en-route**. That was a far better length of driving day; we had a whole afternoon at our disposal to fritter away, which is the way I like it.
So, after lunch we took a walk around the ramparts that form a 1.4-mile circuit around the town. That served as a successful recce for a run an hour later, when I did another three circuits.
No safety rails here to protect careless people from that drop!
It was notable, when we walked around, that everyone we passed gave us an abnormally wide berth, all of them stepping off the path even though we had formed into single file and there was room on the path. Some people positively flinched as they passed and looked very much like they were holding their breath. I assume this was general coronavirus-caution, rather than anything specifically related to our appearance. I'm working on the basis (having read up somewhat on the subject) that the chances of transmission are negligible in such a fresh-air, in-passing context, which is why I was happy to go out for a walk and a run even though we will be keeping ourselves to ourselves for the next couple of weeks, as a precaution due to having been in Spain (which is why we didn't stop at a boulangerie or supermarket today, even though we've negligently run out of cake and bread).
I'll finish with a few words on the situation in Spain: if we hadn't decided to leave on Saturday morning it is now clear that we would have decided to do so just a few hours later. Reports are that many motorhome Aires have been closed, including access to the service points, and even where campsites are not ejecting their residents, they're not letting new ones in. Thus, it would have been difficult to find anywhere to park that would have been acceptable to both us and the authorities, and accessing toilet emptying and water points may have become a serious issue. Moreover, the restrictions on movement are so strict (enforceable by some harsh penalties) that staying put would have meant being confined to Bertie's interior for at least the next two weeks. We would have been allowed out to visit the supermarket and that would have been it (although if we could have obtained a dog at short notice, walking it would also have given us just cause to be outside). The UK may well find itself in the same position soon (and bear in mind the situation in most of Spain went from normal to emergency in the space of 3 days), but at least at home we have more space, more to entertain ourselves, services on tap and (provided there are any groceries available to be bought once we get home!) more storage space for fresh and frozen food.
As for France, the roads didn't seem appreciably any less busy than normal, but we did drive through some towns today and with almost all businesses shut, the pavements were pretty well deserted.
A sad sight, the equivalent of which is seen all over France and Spain at the moment. As necessary as it is, you have to feel for these small businesses.
(*Apparently we woke our neighbours with our early start. We know that because they arrived here in Montreuil a couple of hours after us this afternoon and told us so. They'd also been in Capbreton the night before. Our itinerary of Aires this weekend must be the obvious stopping points if driving southern Spain to Calais in the space of 3 days!
**Talking of stopping for lunch en-route, with the closure of all bars and restaurants in France and Spain I spared a thought today for the long distance drivers who were already in transit on the weekend when the relevant restrictions came into operation. Suddenly they could no longer buy meals at the roadside, and artic drivers are hardly in a good position to pull into a town to visit a supermarket. We passed one boulangerie alongside a main road that had more than half a dozen lorries parked outside).
Weather: Rain before dawn, then gradually clearing this morning until we got sunshine late this afternoon. The change in weather may have been more to do with our movement than that of the weather front.
This morning, for the first time since 26 January, we heard the patter of rain on Bertie's roof. Unfortunately it started at twenty past five and, unaccustomed to the sound, it woke us up. We did manage to doze (Mick) and listen to an audiobook (me) for an hour before getting up to put the kettle on.
By half past seven we were rolling out of the Aire*. Aside from having breakfasted, I'd filled our travel mugs (as I usually do for long journeys) and also a flask, determined to save time during the day, such that we would arrive at our destination at an earlier hour than the last couple of days.
It worked out well. Our elevenses stop was less than twenty minutes, giving enough time for me to brew coffee, have a quick snack, wash our travel mugs and decant that coffee into them. My mug has held lemon and ginger tea for the last two days and even after washing it the taint still remained. Accordingly, it was a novel flavour of coffee I had today.
The short elevenses break meant that with a judicious use of a small section of toll road at the end of the day, we arrived here before 1330, and thus didn't need to stop for lunch en-route**. That was a far better length of driving day; we had a whole afternoon at our disposal to fritter away, which is the way I like it.
So, after lunch we took a walk around the ramparts that form a 1.4-mile circuit around the town. That served as a successful recce for a run an hour later, when I did another three circuits.
It was notable, when we walked around, that everyone we passed gave us an abnormally wide berth, all of them stepping off the path even though we had formed into single file and there was room on the path. Some people positively flinched as they passed and looked very much like they were holding their breath. I assume this was general coronavirus-caution, rather than anything specifically related to our appearance. I'm working on the basis (having read up somewhat on the subject) that the chances of transmission are negligible in such a fresh-air, in-passing context, which is why I was happy to go out for a walk and a run even though we will be keeping ourselves to ourselves for the next couple of weeks, as a precaution due to having been in Spain (which is why we didn't stop at a boulangerie or supermarket today, even though we've negligently run out of cake and bread).
I'll finish with a few words on the situation in Spain: if we hadn't decided to leave on Saturday morning it is now clear that we would have decided to do so just a few hours later. Reports are that many motorhome Aires have been closed, including access to the service points, and even where campsites are not ejecting their residents, they're not letting new ones in. Thus, it would have been difficult to find anywhere to park that would have been acceptable to both us and the authorities, and accessing toilet emptying and water points may have become a serious issue. Moreover, the restrictions on movement are so strict (enforceable by some harsh penalties) that staying put would have meant being confined to Bertie's interior for at least the next two weeks. We would have been allowed out to visit the supermarket and that would have been it (although if we could have obtained a dog at short notice, walking it would also have given us just cause to be outside). The UK may well find itself in the same position soon (and bear in mind the situation in most of Spain went from normal to emergency in the space of 3 days), but at least at home we have more space, more to entertain ourselves, services on tap and (provided there are any groceries available to be bought once we get home!) more storage space for fresh and frozen food.
As for France, the roads didn't seem appreciably any less busy than normal, but we did drive through some towns today and with almost all businesses shut, the pavements were pretty well deserted.
(*Apparently we woke our neighbours with our early start. We know that because they arrived here in Montreuil a couple of hours after us this afternoon and told us so. They'd also been in Capbreton the night before. Our itinerary of Aires this weekend must be the obvious stopping points if driving southern Spain to Calais in the space of 3 days!
**Talking of stopping for lunch en-route, with the closure of all bars and restaurants in France and Spain I spared a thought today for the long distance drivers who were already in transit on the weekend when the relevant restrictions came into operation. Suddenly they could no longer buy meals at the roadside, and artic drivers are hardly in a good position to pull into a town to visit a supermarket. We passed one boulangerie alongside a main road that had more than half a dozen lorries parked outside).
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