Northern France and a real challenge

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Dawn

How exciting to drive into France.  Would my two years of high school French kick in?  And how cool is it that I’m now in the same country as my dear friend and associate, Eli, that I have talked with almost every weekday for 9 months.

We drove by Calais and then to Condette where we happened upon a campsite http://www.camping-caravaning-du-chateau.com/modulosite2/fiche.php?fr=0&id=548&, paid our 12 euros, parked the RV and realized that we had a breathtaking view of the white cliffs of Dover. 

After walking around the little nearby town with thatched roofs and ivy covered houses we also stumbled upon a beautiful castle, Château d’Hardelot.  http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_d%27Hardelot   It wasnt open but it was still fun to have the place to ourselves and explore the outside of the castle.

After that we went to a wonderful campground in Port En Bessin, http://www.camping-portland.com/web/the_campsite.html near Normandy, with an indoor pool, bounce house and  children’s center with a great restaurant that had wonderful smells coming out of the kitchen every day.  I really didnt want to explain the history of Normandy to the children so we didnt do any of the memorials or museums.

There was a nearby town that we walked to on market day.  The road down to the town was on an 18 degree slopped road which was easy to go down but not easy to come up when carrying groceries.  One of the great things about travel is not knowing what is around the corner.  This was definately one of those wonderful times.  We’re walking along the road and then there is front of us was another breaktaking view, one of the town and harbour below us.   We walked past a beautiful church that was also the town lighthouse.  I dont think I’ve ever seen or heard of a lighthouse in a church before.

When we reached the bottom the street market was wonderful, tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, crepes and paella and lots of fresh seafood.  The fishing boats were literally inches from the market stalls.  We walked around and tasted samples of lots of different foods, checked out the fishing boats and the harbour and the children went shelling for big scallop shells on the beach.  We brought them home and they became an arts and crafts project.

While we were there we found that Connie (our RV) was having a pretty serious electrical problem.  If you touched her anywhere you got a 110 volt shock – she wasn’t grounded correctly due to her electical transformer.  I spent several days  (without electicity) trying to find someone in France who had an understanding of American RV’s and their electrical systems.  I finally decided to take her to Northampton England where I knew she would be fixed correctly.

On our way back to Calais to cross the channel we stopped at another campground L’ete Indien, http://www.eteindien-wimereux.com/intro.php?id=685, which had huge teepees and American Indian statues.  It was up on a large hill and got really windy the night we were there.  The children loved playing in the teepees but I was on a mission to get our Connie fixed.   We will come back to France another day.

So we’re off for the Eurotunnel and I impressed myself that I could fit Connie into that train car – I actually got several thumbs up from the workers.  I think they were surprised.  What a fast trip it was – we were in England in about 30 minutes.  Now if I can just remember to drive on the other side of the road. 

To see all of our pictures from this part of France click here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/blisstravelers/sets/72157622492048677/