day 17 travel map France

the rise and fall bollard!

the rise and fall bollard!

Hymer of aire

Only us on this aire

a large aire but only us

Only us on the aire

filling up with water

Filling with water

pay machine

The pay station

 

Chartres to Etang de Brestle, Incheville


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Day 17

The weather is heavy and overcast when we wake, it could rain at any time, in fact it rains on and off all day, sometimes very heavily.

We breakfast and get on our way fairly early, no service facilities here. The lack of facilities does not inconvenience us. We have large holding tanks for both fresh water and grey (used) water, and our toilet cassette is good for 4 days of 'normal  use'. We have two large refillable gas tanks that mean we don't need to fill up with LPG for about a month of normal use. Only if the weather is cold and we have the heating on do we need to fill up the LPG. We like the independence of our Hymer motorhome, and the low costs associated with aires in France.

When leaving Chartres we attempt to fill up with diesel at InterMarché, BIG mistake. Yes it's close to the aire, but it has narrow roads in the car park, then a 2,8m height barrier just before the filling station area. What are these people thinking about? I have to reverse out via a dreadful narrow roadway. InterMarché gets a black mark and my advice NOT to call in Chartres. We fill up at E'Leclerc spending €99.50 just short of the €100 limit on the pay-at-the-pump. I don't know what happens when you reach that limit, but I expect to find out soon enough.

We have to drive north across the city which is narrow and tortuous, narrow roads and bridges better suited to small cars than campers. Getting back on the ring road might have been longer but a better option. We take the D7154 and D339 north onto the N154, another good dual carriageway road to Dreux. Northwest from Dreux through St Remy sur Avre and another good run to Évreux and Louviers south of Rouen, a total of about 110km. It is nearly lunchtime, so we decide to take a detour to Ile Lacroix in Rouen for our lunch.

Again, it is a tortuous journey over the river to the island because one of the roads is closed. It challenges our camper driving skills in busy traffic in the city! We park up by the river and get lunch out. We are amused to watch a family of rats that obviously live by the riverside and feed on the rubbish left by the bins. They are brown rats with long tails and look very healthy!

On our way again, out of Rouen and heading north towards Calais. The weather is still overcast and threatening rain, so we decide to get on the road and drive some miles. Takingthe A28, a high standard dual carriageway we drive northpast Neufchatel en Bray to the Vallée de la Brestle, a flat valley also full of small lakes (etang). Here we take the D1015, a much smaller and narrower road through Gamarches and Beauchamp, both old industrial areas. Along the narrow D58 to Incheville to a large rectangular Aire on Rue Mozart, next to Etang de Brestle. It is behind the sports fields and deserted. There is a rise and fall bollard entry system, we know from experience that bollard systems are always temperamental but you don't have a choice when they are in front of you . . .

You need to drive very close to the bollard for it to work, there are wires embedded in the road that detect the vehicle, only then can you lower the bollard, usually by entering a code at the pay station. Alan gets out to do this and has to direct me to drive forward until I am so close that I can no longer see the bollard when sitting in the driver seat. He enters the code and . . .  voila! The bollard goes down. I don’t worry about getting out . . . I will do that tomorrow morning.

There are 16 large spaces, we choose one and park up, then remember we need to fill with water, so drive over to the water column and fill with water, it is pouring with rain . . . again. Alan gets very wet. Back to our parking space and Gill cooks chicken in chilli sauce for tea, but first we enjoy a bottle of Wolfberger Pinot Gris and salmon rillettes with thinly sliced bread. Delicious!

We are the only camper here and apart from a few dog walkers, we see no one. Later, when the rain stops we walk around the lake, passing an old campsite (that has seen better days) and watch a weak sunset cast a fabulous light over the lake.

 

 

 

 

Summary of motorhome journey

Total
miles
mpg average
speed
mph
hours
driven
144.4 31.3 32 4:26

Totals for this journey

1669.6 30.2 31 52:26