Tuesday 12th – Wednesday 13th December 2023
This is a major trip for us and long in the planning. We are meeting up with our motorhoming friends, Jeeves, Michelle and their cockapoo, Layla, in France, then traveling on to southern Spain for Christmas and the New Year. Our return ferry is booked for the 13th January.
The Boat Inn, Thrupp, near Kidlington
With a grotty cold and our ferry booked from Portsmouth on Wednesday afternoon, we decided to break the journey south with an overnight at The Boat Inn, Thrupp, (a Motorhome Pub Stopover), staying on their car park and enjoying an evening meal in the pub. We also took part in the quiz-night and managed to come last (to be fair, we were well outnumbered with some teams having six members). For our efforts, we won the booby prize, a miniature bottle of vodka.
The pub is sited alongside the Oxford Canal and before the pub opened, we managed a short walk in the evening rain to another pub, “The Jolly Boatman”, then to the marina in the opposite direction, before leaving the following morning.
There had been a huge amount of rainfall and much of the surrounding land was flooded, including this car park.
Portsmouth and the Ferry
The journey to the Brittany Ferry port at Portsmouth was uneventful and after stopping off at Tesco to buy more cough and cold medicines, Fufu was loaded aboard the “Mont St Michel” for the six hour 15:00hrs sailing to Caen/Ouistreham.
On our way out of Portsmouth harbour, which is a major Royal Navy port, we passed many naval vessels, some clearly in need of some TLC:
…and others which are pristine and obviously the pride of the fleet. It always surprises me that such vessels need a constant police escort alongside. Surely they could look after themselves if needed!
When we arrived in Ouistreham, unusually the Mont Saint Michel was pushed into place alongside the dock by a tug boat. I wonder if there was some malfunction on the ferry which made this necessary. I have never known this to be needed before.
Falaise, Calvados
Falaise is famous for its huge castle, built by Guillaume le Conquérant (“William the Conqueror”, also known as “William the Bastard”). Parts of the Chateau are over 1,000 years old. We had planned to park up for the night under the ramparts, which is a recognised motorhome overnight park.
We arrived at Falaise around 11:30pm (French time) and passed a peaceful night watched over by the ghost of Guillaume.
Before leaving the following morning, there were coach parties of school children arriving to be taken to see the castle. Clearly William the Conqueror is as relevant to the history of France as it is to English history.
"See-u-Later" 