Smelly cheese and Calvados

Today was a gastronomic day, with a visit to Pont L'eveque - a beautiful medieval market town. Whilst the tourist information calls out a medieval "quartier", the whole town is full of gorgeous beamed buildings. There is even a 'prison joyeuse' - although why it was a happy prison, we never found out. I assume it was from the regional fare of cheese and apple brandy.

France is covered with beautiful churchs and Pont L'eveque is no exception - a lovely few minutes wandering around admiring.

A guided tour of the Pere Magloire Calvados distillery was fabulous, with a full 15 minutes spent inhaling spirits of calvados - the Angel's portion - in the main barrel storage area. There are apparently 3 demarcations of Calvados - one which is single distilled, this area which is double distilled and both of which were declared in 1942 in an attempt to stop the Germans from requisitioning the brandy to make explosives from it, and a third which must contain at least 30% pears. As we were following on the tail of a tourbus  full of german retirees, it was fun to watch the face of the guide when he was asked to translate that little factoid!

The obligatory tasting afterwards was fabulous - with a new discovery for me. Calvados cream is a Bailey's style drink and is just nom nom nom....inevitably this led to purchase of two bottles, in the hope that one might make it as far as Janine's next tranche of the journey. Fingers crossed, Janine!

Rouen & Joan of Arc

Today is the six hundredth anniversary of the birth of Joan of Arc, and Rouen is celebrating their famous saviour. Although I am not convinced that "Joan of Arc would immediately recognise the centre of Rouen  as the town she liberated" as they claim, it certainly has some beautiful medieval buildings remaining in the town. We had a lovely sunny stroll around town with a quick visit into the Cathedral, where a commemation service had just completed. The Cathedral itself is under a lot of wraps as it is being renovated - there is substantial damage to the stone work, particularly the statues. But the inside was beautiful and serene.

 We spent a couple of hours chilling at a nice outdoor bar with 'pastis' all round, followed by one of the most awesome beers I've had in a long time . "Rebelle" was the name - keep a look out for it ! Of course, a celebration of Joan's life wouldnt be complete without live music, so we had our chilling accompanied by a local band (I think! the name wasnt very local) - El Gran Chufo.

 

This is apparently one of the oldest, if not the oldest Inn in France : dinner however was had at "la Maupassant" next door, accompanied by appropriate extracts of Guy de Maupassant's short stories. I still have strong memories of his description of 'la bourgeousie' with her sausage fingers and various other edible body parts - no wonder he declared that gastronomy was the only truely acceptable vice!

 An awesome clock in the centre of town, just before finding a taxi back to the campsite ....Did I mention, I took a bus?? That's twice in one year!

France bound

Little known facts about travelling to France in a 'van :

You will always get pulled over at the Channel Tunnel customs - outbound to check your gas is switched off securely, and inbound to make sure you dont have any secret stowaways on board

You are always the last vehicle to be loaded on to the train - even coaches get loaded before RVs .....

Calais, Boulogne, & Montreuil

First day in France :

Overnight camping in Calais harbour was short, and fairly sweet : the work started at 7 in the morning, so up and moving at an ungodly hour. Thankfully, its not far to get coffee! From there it was a quick run to Boulogne sur Mer to visit Nausicaa - the sealife centre.

It was extremely well laid out and had multi-lingual presentations, with a high focus on ecology and the environment. Most fascinating of course where the tanks full of fish, coral, the occasional reptile or insect and even mammals in the form of sealions. These took great joy in diving under and around the tank area, showing off their graceful lines and amazing flexibility underwater.

         

Boulogne is also a major centre for land yachting , and we watched a number of school groups head out fearlessly. Wanted to have a go but ran out of time!

From Boulogne on to Montreuil, near La Touquet, to find the first 'real' campsite. Time to catch up with all the chores, like emptying containers of various noxious fluids, and filling up water tanks again.  Once that, and sorting the inevitable debris of the day that had collected in corners around the van was complete, it was time for a pleasant stroll around the old town, to see the fortifications and architecture.

Let sleeping greyhounds lie.....

For those of you who wondered how we coped with the greyhounds in a confined space :

I contend Janine had the easier night. I had to sleep with a gas mask fitted as warm pork fired dog belly gas rises.......

The Yorkshire Dales

From Lancashire, Janine and I headed off towards the Yorkshire Dales, with a brief halt at Ingleton Falls. Thankfully the weather was somewhat cooler so we didnt die of heat stroke before we reached even the first waterfall.  What we did find was WAY cooler - a pair of money or wish trees : leave your penny in the tree and bring yourself some good luck. Ever a sucker for myths and legends I had to take part on this one :D
 

We started in the Broadwood car park and followed the trail along the banks of the River Twiss , through Swilla Glenn with its coin embedded tree and on to Pecca Falls, Pecca Twin Falls, Holly Bush Spout and almost up to  Thornton Force. At this point whilst the 'monkeys' were still willing, the greyhounds were knackered, so it was time to turn back and head for another cream tea, this time with proper clotted cream!

Onwards into the Dales we headed until we came to the Ribbleshead viaduct : yes, it is the train route to Hogwarts!!

 For engineers out there :  the Ribblehead viaduct is 440 yards (400 m) long, and 104 feet (32 m) above the valley floor at its highest point.^[1] It is made up of twenty-four arches of 45 feet (14 m) span, with foundations 15 feet (4.6 m) deep. The north end of the viaduct is 13 feet (4.0 m) higher in elevation than the south end.It was built by a thousand Navvies, who camped out there with their families.

On to Wensleydale and a quick trip into the creamery to buy proper Wensleydale cheese : here's Janine hiding round the side of the 'van with the cheese haul!

We overnighted in a campsite futher over in the Dale, and it was heavenly : a nice glass of wine, the view and home cooked dinner.......and all the fresh air led to us falling asleep before 10 pm. You will however be proud of me.....I survived a night with *NO* connectivity, neither wireless, nor mobile, and only minor twitches!

Forest of Bowland

Monday is Forest of Bowland day - an AONB near Lancaster spanning Lancashire and North Yorkshire.  Driving though it in late spring early summer really brings home the fact that England is a most awesome green and pleasant land -despite the 'drought'.

Beacon Fell lies within the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and was one of the first Country Parks to be designated in England (1969). Managed by Lancashire County Council, the Fell is an area of moorland and woodland covering 185 acres which is open to the public. It has wonderful views over the Ribble, the Fylde and Morecambe Bay, and has been the site of a warning Beacon since 1005. It warned of the coming of the Spanish Armada in 1558.

Target for the day was a gentle amble with the greyhounds, somewhere shady and cool and I think we achieved our aim. Was *interesting* to try and drive up some of the smaller and steeper little lanes  - I clearly need some practice with clutch work, judging from the clouds of smoke I managed to create.  Still a little practice before leaving the country is a good thing.
Lots of lovely wildflowers, with late bluebells mixed in with the buttercups, and a plethora of other flowers I couldnt name. Note to self : acquire app for phone which recognises and names plants.

There is the strangest sculpture in the middle of the Park - it's entitled Orme Sight and is carved by Thompson Dagnall.He's clearly a local artist of some reknown, but it's a god-awful sculpture in a beautiful location. 

From Beacon Fell, we headed back to the coast, reaching it just south of Blackpool, and stopping for a yummy coffee, scones, jam and cream. NOM!

 Windmills seem to be a bit of a Hallmark of the journey so far, so, for completeness - here is the Lytham  windmill, captured in during our final wandering along the sand dunes and estuary.

Dinner, courtesy of Kevin and Lisa was at the Mandarin, a local chinese in Lytham - awesome food, and the vegetarian banquet is highly recommended.