Where's Bertie? Tonight Bertie has found himself quite a considerable distance from where he expected to be! He's in an Aire in the town of Grenay. It's free to stay here with (theoretically) free electricity, water and wifi (exact location: 50.44834, 2.73848).
Weather: Showers, some heavy, but with some decent dry spells this afternoon. Gusty wind.
Today's plan was to visit the town of Montreuil, as recommended by Martin earlier in the summer. Accordingly, we set off from Le Tréport (past the dismantling of the latest fuel tax protest in the town) and headed generally northwards, with the SatNav showing a total journey distance of 63km.
All went well until St Valery sur Somme, where a road closure necessitated a significant deviation inland - so significant that after half an hour of driving we now found ourselves with 65km still to go. And, if we were having to go so far inland (to Abbeville, which we could have reached far more directly from Le Treport, if we'd known about the closure), it didn't really make sense to head back out towards the coast. A replan was needed, and you'd not believe how far we had to drive before we found somewhere we could pull in to do that.
Having examined the options (the favourite of which ceased to hold that position when I discovered it had closed permanently just two weeks ago), we were lured to Grenay. A free Aire, with free services, including electricity and wifi, and with overwhelmingly positive reviews? Sounded good, although I was half expecting it to be full (there being only 3 spaces) of vans who had taken root.
There was one space available when arrived (and I suspect that at least one of the other two vans here is in residence, abusing the town's generosity in providing those free services), but we soon found that the only remaining electric point was out of order and that the wifi is only available for half an hour per registration.
A well-presented Aire, with parkland adjacent, which has been well tended by a whole team of high-viz clad workers this afternoon, including a thorough scrubbing of the service point.
What there also doesn't seem to be in the immediate vicinity is anything of interest. Admittedly, we didn't wander very far (not the best weather for it today), but we failed to find anything* other than residentail streets, industrial areas and a huge set of disused railway sidings - all with a general air of shabbiness. I think we have been sold a dud-un and will be moving on again tomorrow.
Today was, incidentally, by far our longest day of driving since the beginning of the trip, at around 150km. Being all on little roads, it felt much longer than that!
(*I suppose we did find a rather fine boulangerie/patisserie, where against all reasonableness on such a day of inactivity, we procured two cakes to (hopefully!) make up for the disappointing ones we had yesterday.)
Weather: Showers, some heavy, but with some decent dry spells this afternoon. Gusty wind.
Today's plan was to visit the town of Montreuil, as recommended by Martin earlier in the summer. Accordingly, we set off from Le Tréport (past the dismantling of the latest fuel tax protest in the town) and headed generally northwards, with the SatNav showing a total journey distance of 63km.
All went well until St Valery sur Somme, where a road closure necessitated a significant deviation inland - so significant that after half an hour of driving we now found ourselves with 65km still to go. And, if we were having to go so far inland (to Abbeville, which we could have reached far more directly from Le Treport, if we'd known about the closure), it didn't really make sense to head back out towards the coast. A replan was needed, and you'd not believe how far we had to drive before we found somewhere we could pull in to do that.
Having examined the options (the favourite of which ceased to hold that position when I discovered it had closed permanently just two weeks ago), we were lured to Grenay. A free Aire, with free services, including electricity and wifi, and with overwhelmingly positive reviews? Sounded good, although I was half expecting it to be full (there being only 3 spaces) of vans who had taken root.
There was one space available when arrived (and I suspect that at least one of the other two vans here is in residence, abusing the town's generosity in providing those free services), but we soon found that the only remaining electric point was out of order and that the wifi is only available for half an hour per registration.
A well-presented Aire, with parkland adjacent, which has been well tended by a whole team of high-viz clad workers this afternoon, including a thorough scrubbing of the service point.
What there also doesn't seem to be in the immediate vicinity is anything of interest. Admittedly, we didn't wander very far (not the best weather for it today), but we failed to find anything* other than residentail streets, industrial areas and a huge set of disused railway sidings - all with a general air of shabbiness. I think we have been sold a dud-un and will be moving on again tomorrow.
Today was, incidentally, by far our longest day of driving since the beginning of the trip, at around 150km. Being all on little roads, it felt much longer than that!
(*I suppose we did find a rather fine boulangerie/patisserie, where against all reasonableness on such a day of inactivity, we procured two cakes to (hopefully!) make up for the disappointing ones we had yesterday.)
We want more patisserie pix! Loving Bertie's journey xxxx
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