Loire River
Friday evening

 Our ferry crossing , Dover to Calais via P&O on Wednesday, was so easy.  And so cheap!  We'd paid over GBP60 a little over a week earlier as foot passengers, so we were pleased that this time, with a vehicle, it was forty-something GBP.  But then we were given two 10 quid vouchers to spend on the boat (very handy) which brought it back to twenty-something quid!  Can't afford not to cross! [And we even still had some of that duty-free gin from the previous trip].

We drove to a little campground near Abbeville, called Val de Trie.  Although we initially registered for one night, we ended up staying for two.  It had a pool, the most charming receptionist, a bar and they take your bread order [baguettes, croissants etc] for the following morning!  That first night we were low on groceries, so enjoyed local cidre, and beef bourguinonne outdoors at the little bar/cafe/restaurant.

 Thursday was spent in the warm sun, exploring Abbeville on its market day, and Pont-Remy, beyond Amiens, which we almost reached in our canal boat in 2010.  Here's a little of the Somme River at Pont-Remy.

As we travel, we marvel at the differences between the French and English, typified by their caravan parks.  We've already shown you a sample of the "Caution: Steep Bank" and "Caution: Hot water"  signs that are everywhere in English parks [even when there was absolutely NO hot water].  Well the French are much more relaxed about such things.  In England we were carefully instructed as to which corner of our vehicle had to be aligned with the small site number post, but they wouldn't even try that here!  In England they have a warning sign informing you of the gender of the person who cleaned your bathroom, but here you are quite likely to have a person of the opposite type in the next cubicle as you shower (or try to shower while pressing the button to keep the water running).  And one we really like... In England there are bells and/or hand operated sirens to sound an alarm if there's a fire in a caravan park, but in our present park, the instructions, written in English, start off with "If you see a fire, keep quiet."  How laid-back is that?!

If you want to follow us and find this remarkable place, you'll need a very good map [or Google Maps etc].  It's called Parc du Val de Loire and is near Mesland [a little east of Tours].

Weather today, beautiful!  33C when we went through one small town with a big thermometer on its digital sign.

Not sure how far we'll go tomorrow.  We'll see.

Hi to all from Judy and Rob.