Where's Bertie? He's in an Aire at Le Tréport, less than 800m as the crow flies from where he was last night. It should cost €10 per night to stay here, including electricity and water. (Exact location: 50.05928, 1.39035)
Weather: To our surprise, glorious sunshine all day and a little warmer than the rest of the week.
Until 12.30 today we were all a-dither as to whether to stay another night in Mers-les-Bains, or to move on. Having gone back and forth on the options and the pros and cons, the final decision was deferred until we had been for a walk up 'Constitution Hill' (as I'm dubbing the hill at the NE end of the promenade). I'd downloaded a circular route, which we followed until it turned inland, whereupon we decided that the rest of it looked like it was going to take us for a tour around some nondescript farmland, and that an about-turn would be the more interesting option.
From the top of the initial pull up out of town, looking over the rooftops
A good sea view, ruined.
We passed by and over a few WWII gun emplacements and bunkers. This one was more decorative than most.
Back at Bertie, over elevenses, there was more consideration of our options. Save for one unknown, we would have stayed put for at least one more night. That unknown was related to the entry/exit barrier system. On arrival, you pay for your selected length of stay and the machine spits out various bits of paper, one of which gives an access code. You enter that into a keypad, and in you go - or at the end of your stay, out you come. What we didn't know was whether the system can cope with an extension being made simply by paying for another day. Is it clever enough to require you to enter the Aire before you can exit it (i.e. if we bought another ticket, but didn't use the entry code, could we then use that code to exit)? If you can exit without entering (bearing in mind that entering is not just a matter of keying in a number and getting the barrier to open, due to pressure sensors embedded in the ground) then their system is flawed, as one could stay for a week on a one-day ticket, then buy another one-day ticket to leave. If you can't exit without entering, then the system is also flawed, because it's not unusual for people to want to extend their stay. Having witnessed someone fail to get the barrier to open for their exit yesterday didn't help our uncertainty.
In the end we decided to err on the side of caution: we would drive out, turn around, pay for another day and drive back in again. The resolution lasted until we'd packed everything away ready for the exit/re-entry manoeuvre, whereupon I decided that as everything was now ready for travel, we may just as well go to the Aire at Le Tréport for a night or two, which is where we were coming next anyway.
That's currently looking like a good move. The Aire is much more pleasing to look at and it appears to be more popular (there are currently a dozen vans here, compared with three at the last place), and on arrival we found the entrance barrier open (possibly explaining the popularity!). There was a little dithering as to whether we should pay anyway (what if the barrier get fixed whilst we're here?!), but a nearby resident indicated we should just drive in so we did - as has every French van that has arrived since.
Whilst the Aire is much nicer to look at, it is in the industrial area of town, with factories adjacent.
The only notable afternoon activities have been the casting on of my next knitting endeavour, and a walk back over to Mers-les-Bains to take a look at the Christmas market, which opened at 3.30 this afternoon and runs all weekend (it's a traditional Christmas market, with lots of 'garden sheds' set up, which seems an awful lot of effort for a 3-day event). It was a little underwhelming half an hour after it opened, but I imagine that come evening it will be a lively place.
However, we don't want to be wandering around in the dark, not least because the shortest way from here to there involves a road slightly lacking in pavementage, and an underpass designed for small children:
Weather: To our surprise, glorious sunshine all day and a little warmer than the rest of the week.
Until 12.30 today we were all a-dither as to whether to stay another night in Mers-les-Bains, or to move on. Having gone back and forth on the options and the pros and cons, the final decision was deferred until we had been for a walk up 'Constitution Hill' (as I'm dubbing the hill at the NE end of the promenade). I'd downloaded a circular route, which we followed until it turned inland, whereupon we decided that the rest of it looked like it was going to take us for a tour around some nondescript farmland, and that an about-turn would be the more interesting option.
From the top of the initial pull up out of town, looking over the rooftops
A good sea view, ruined.
We passed by and over a few WWII gun emplacements and bunkers. This one was more decorative than most.
Back at Bertie, over elevenses, there was more consideration of our options. Save for one unknown, we would have stayed put for at least one more night. That unknown was related to the entry/exit barrier system. On arrival, you pay for your selected length of stay and the machine spits out various bits of paper, one of which gives an access code. You enter that into a keypad, and in you go - or at the end of your stay, out you come. What we didn't know was whether the system can cope with an extension being made simply by paying for another day. Is it clever enough to require you to enter the Aire before you can exit it (i.e. if we bought another ticket, but didn't use the entry code, could we then use that code to exit)? If you can exit without entering (bearing in mind that entering is not just a matter of keying in a number and getting the barrier to open, due to pressure sensors embedded in the ground) then their system is flawed, as one could stay for a week on a one-day ticket, then buy another one-day ticket to leave. If you can't exit without entering, then the system is also flawed, because it's not unusual for people to want to extend their stay. Having witnessed someone fail to get the barrier to open for their exit yesterday didn't help our uncertainty.
In the end we decided to err on the side of caution: we would drive out, turn around, pay for another day and drive back in again. The resolution lasted until we'd packed everything away ready for the exit/re-entry manoeuvre, whereupon I decided that as everything was now ready for travel, we may just as well go to the Aire at Le Tréport for a night or two, which is where we were coming next anyway.
That's currently looking like a good move. The Aire is much more pleasing to look at and it appears to be more popular (there are currently a dozen vans here, compared with three at the last place), and on arrival we found the entrance barrier open (possibly explaining the popularity!). There was a little dithering as to whether we should pay anyway (what if the barrier get fixed whilst we're here?!), but a nearby resident indicated we should just drive in so we did - as has every French van that has arrived since.
Whilst the Aire is much nicer to look at, it is in the industrial area of town, with factories adjacent.
The only notable afternoon activities have been the casting on of my next knitting endeavour, and a walk back over to Mers-les-Bains to take a look at the Christmas market, which opened at 3.30 this afternoon and runs all weekend (it's a traditional Christmas market, with lots of 'garden sheds' set up, which seems an awful lot of effort for a 3-day event). It was a little underwhelming half an hour after it opened, but I imagine that come evening it will be a lively place.
However, we don't want to be wandering around in the dark, not least because the shortest way from here to there involves a road slightly lacking in pavementage, and an underpass designed for small children:
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