Évreux

“That’s it, we’re over the drain, just open the tap.”

“It is open!”

“It can’t be – nothing’s coming out.”

And so began our next morning in France, trying to leave the aire at Le Crotoy. Poor Vince has a few ‘lack of use’ issues and this one seemed to be a blocked drain tank outlet. We had visions of carting a tankful of soapy water from dishes and showers all the way to Spain and back. Worse, if we didn’t find a way to sort it we wouldn’t be able to use the sink or the shower for the rest of the trip eek!

One good thing we’d noticed about the site where we stayed was that it had great water pressure. In some places we find the water needs helping out of the tap it’s so low. It can take for ever to fill Vince’s 120 litre tank. After a bit of chin-stroking and head-scratching I attached one end of a hose to the water tap and the other… there’s no delicate way to put this… administered a cold water enema right up his drainpipe! The shock to his system must have worked as everything’s now er, flowing freely again. Vince’s face was a picture!

A couple of hours of winding roads later we found our way to a tiny 6 spot aire in the large town of Évreux. We’ve set the satnav to avoid toll roads for the time being as we’re not in a great rush. We can enjoy the French countryside – France has lots of countryside – and we can usually spot a nice place to pull over to buy a fresh baguette and pause for lunch.

Évreux is a pleasant enough town, the aire was by the Iton river and surrounded by cherry trees in full blossom. Most of the surrounding buildings were relatively modern although we did spot the odd medieval remnant in the shape of ruined ramparts or half timbered houses. The main medieval attraction of course was the soaring cathedral. Soaring on the inside that is, with delicate columns going up and up to the vaulted ceilings. The outside took a bit of a pounding in WW2 and the restoration has left it looking a little dishevelled, sadly.

On our way to visit the cathedral our talent for attracting bad luck had us witness a scary incident. A pedestrian stepped on to a crossing without looking and was collected by a passing scooter. The rider, passenger and scooter slid off in different directions while the pedestrian leapt to his feet and ran back to the kerb. A passing driving instructor stopped his car and the traffic, while passers-by made sure everyone was ok. Fortunately they were. Always look both ways before crossing the road folks.

Friday night stopovers in big towns, Saturdays too, can get a bit wild. After a hard week at work you can’t blame people for indulging in a bit of carousing with friends and family. Unfortunately a bit of over-carousing usually results in late night mischief, sirens and car chases. So it was in Évreux. At no point did it feel unsafe, but being woken every hour or so by shouty youngsters does get a bit wearisome.

As a result we decided on a forest stop for the next evening. La Fresnaye sur Chédouet was a sleepy village with one bar and not much else. Except rather randomly, a history of the bicycle museum. Which was closed. However, just outside the village boundary was a perfect motorhome stopover. It offered water and emptying facilities and was right on the edge of the forest. What a lovely spot with no other visitors to share it with us. The only sounds to be heard were the wind in the trees, woodpeckers, cuckoos and our snores as we caught up on the previous night’s sleep.

Continuing with our 100 mile hops, we spent last night at a camp site in La Flèche. I have a feeling we may stop by here on our way home. We’d forgotten about the French habit of taking lunch from 11am until 3pm so as we arrived at twelve we just had to have lunch and wait for them to open reception again. The laundry was calling us, so not much exploration was done that day, a re-visit is a must I think.

La Flèche sits on the River Loir – not the Loire, weirdly. But the mighty Loire is on the agenda for our next stop, at Saumur where we intend to park up on an island, a new experience. We’ll let you know how it goes next time!

À bientôt!

xx